Bài đọc 2
When my younger sister lost most of her hearing after a serious illness at the age of six, our family suddenly faced a problem we had never imagined: we could not talk to her. She was frightened and frustrated, and so were we. That was the beginning of my journey into sign language.
My parents enrolled in an evening course, and I insisted on joining them, even though I was only twelve. I expected sign language to be a simple code for spoken words, with one sign for each word. I quickly discovered that it is a complete language with its own grammar, which is quite different from that of spoken language. Facial expressions, for example, are not decoration; they are part of the grammar. Raising your eyebrows can turn a statement into a question.
At first, I found it exhausting. Signing requires you to watch the other person constantly, and I kept looking away as I would in a normal conversation, missing half of what was said. My hands also got tired, and I often confused signs that looked similar to me but meant completely different things.
My sister, meanwhile, learned far faster than any of us. Within a few months, she was correcting my signing with the same impatience she had once shown when correcting my pronunciation. She also began attending a school with other deaf children, and her confidence grew enormously. For the first time since her illness, she seemed like herself again.
Learning sign language changed how I see communication. I became much better at paying attention, because in signing you cannot pretend to listen while thinking about something else. I also learned that deafness is not only a medical condition. For many deaf people, it is also part of a community with its own culture, humour and history.
Today I am studying to become a sign language interpreter. My sister, now nineteen, is at university studying graphic design. She still teases me about my signing, especially when I make mistakes in front of her deaf friends. But she also tells me that our family's decision to learn her language, rather than expecting her to manage alone, is the reason she never felt shut out.