a language you can't hear

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"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence"

-- The Sound of Silence (1964), Simon & Garfunkel

It's amazing how normal people could take for granted their fully functional senses. In the movie "Dinig Sana Kita" (an entry in the Cinemalaya Film Festival; directed, written, and produced by Mike Sandejas), for instance, the female lead character was a rock musician who no longer wanted to live in her noisy and chaotic environment. She initially isolated herself through listening on her music player but eventually her hearing capacity gave out. In contrast, the male lead character was deaf (and is really deaf in real life). He, being a dancer, badly wanted to hear; he even placed wooden planks all over his room just so he could feel the sounds. He communicates with his teachers and with other hearing impaired dancers by sign language and with very expressive facial expressions.

It is this male character, portrayed by Romalito Mallari, that crossed my mind when I encountered a group of rowdy teenagers in a jeep on my way home. Typical kids their age could really liven up a boring jeepney ride with their continuous noisy chatter. However, this particularly group, despite the lively faces and hand gestures, was silent.

These kids were talking with their hands as rapidly as the famous lady translating Orly Mercado's words into gestures in "Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko". It was a language that people couldn't hear. A language I couldn't listen to.

Remaining in the dark of what was being discussed by these teenagers was like being amid a conversation held in a language you couldn't understand. Those who don't get it might feel slighted and excluded from the conversation... they might even feel that they were intruding in the discussion. They also could insist on the others to speak in the common tongue. For the hearing- and speech-impaired kids though, even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to share their stories verbally if the audience wasn't familiar with sign language.

The signs these kids use are more complex than what I've seen in the dictionary. Flailing hands and dancing fingers represent words rather than letters. Facial expressions completed the sentences.

These kids, and others like them, perceive the world differently from the rest of us. They live in the sound of silence.

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