Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and not be able to hear? For people who have gone deaf, instead of being born deaf, the process of adjusting to living in a silent world where everyone else depends on hearing in order to communicate is no doubt a challenge. Sometimes that change can happen over years, and sometimes it happens more suddenly in a matter of hours or days. Nevertheless, learning to read lips is often an important skill that deaf people can use to communicate with hearing people. Watching this video can give you a glimmer of just how difficult that skill is to master.
While many deaf people choose to learn how to read lips in order to interact more easily with the hearing world, some people choose to rely solely on sign language, which is itself a rich culture. Most countries around the world have their own unique sign language, and just like spoken languages have regional dialects, the same is true for sign languages. When you watch a conversation between people signing, it's easy to see how expressive of a language it is - everything is in gestures and facial expressions and seems like an interesting story! Have you ever tried learning sign language or reading lips?
