Chapter 7 — The Language of Hands

In the next week's class, Gia Bach introduced a new concept that amazed the whole class — symbolic space, or the way people use sign language to "place" characters and things in imaginary positions in the space in front of them, then use those positions to tell stories without having to constantly repeat the character's names.

"For example, if I want to tell a story about two friends talking to each other," he demonstrates, pointing left and then right, "I can put friend A here, friend B here. Then, when I want to show A's words, I just lean slightly, facing B — as if I'm playing A talking to B."

He performed a short illustration, his body flexibly rotating back and forth between two imaginary "characters", his facial expressions changing with each role, making the whole story come alive like a mini-play with just one actor.

Thao Nguyen looked at his performance and couldn't hide her admiration. "How did you learn that?" she asked when it was time for practice. "Looking at you, it's like you're watching a movie."

"Just practice a lot," Gia Bach smiled, somewhat shy at the compliment. "For CODA people like me, this is almost instinctive because I grew up watching my parents tell stories like that every day. But for later learners, just practice from simple stories first, don't be in a hurry."

The class is divided into groups of three, each group comes up with a short story to tell using the symbolic space technique. Thao Nguyen, Minh Thu and a male friend named Duc Anh in the same group struggled to think of a simple story about two friends arguing over whether to eat pho or bun cha for lunch.

When it was her turn to present, Thao Nguyen tried to apply the technique she had just learned, but her body kept rotating haphazardly, sometimes forgetting which side she had just "put" which character on, making the story confusing. The whole group laughed, but it was friendly laughter, without malice.

"It's okay, this is the most difficult technique in today's lesson," Gia Bach reassured when he saw her slightly discouraged expression. "Even long-time learners take time to master. The important thing is that you understand the principles, the rest will come slowly through practice."

The lesson ended later than usual because the practice part was long. When Thao Nguyen walked out of the school gate, it was late afternoon, orange sunlight spreading across the empty road. She was about to call a car to go home when she saw Gia Bach had just arrived, carrying a backpack heavy with documents.

"Which direction are you headed?" he asked, striding closer.

"Nguyen Trai Street," she replied.

"So it's convenient, let's go that direction too," Gia Bach said. "Can I walk a bit? Sitting all day is too tiring for my back."

Thao Nguyen nodded, the two walked side by side on the sidewalk, the afternoon air was cool after a hot sunny day. In the first few minutes, the two just talked aimlessly about the class and about the other members' funny mistakes, but gradually the conversation turned to more personal things.

"Did you learn that symbol space technique since childhood?" Thao Nguyen asked.

"Yeah, I don't remember exactly when I learned it, because for me it's not 'learning', it's just the way my parents still tell stories every night," Gia Bach replied, his voice a bit nostalgic. "When I was little, every night my dad would tell me fairy tales in symbols before going to sleep, like 'once upon a time there was a rabbit'. He told me so vividly, I still remember it clearly."

"That sounds so warm," Thao Nguyen said, feeling a bit sad when compared to her own childhood evenings, where her parents read stories to Binh An by writing or using simple symbols, never vivid enough like what Gia Bach just told.

"That's right," he nodded, "but there are times when I feel a bit... don't know how to describe it properly, a bit lost. Because I live between two worlds, I don't completely belong to either world. At home, I'm my parents' 'ears and mouth', I have to translate wherever I go. When I go out, my friends don't understand why I know such a 'strange' language. Sometimes they're too curious, making me feel like I'm being used as entertainment."

Thao Nguyen listened silently, realizing that this was the first time Gia Bach shared something profound about his personal life, completely different from the image of a calm and steady club leader that she still saw in class.

"I'm sorry if my question touched on anything uncomfortable," she said.

"It's okay," Gia Bach smiled lightly and waved his hand. "I don't mind sharing with you. In fact, I rarely meet anyone who is truly curious and wants to understand. Most people just ask for the sake of it, or ask questions like 'were your parents sad when you were born and your hearing is normal', which sounds both strange and a bit annoying."

"Oh my god, someone really asked that?" Thao Nguyen's eyes widened.

"A lot," he nodded, his voice both amused and a little tired. "People don't have bad intentions, they just never thought about having a Deaf family as normal as any other family, with laughter, arguments, love, just a different language."

That statement made Thao Nguyen think a lot. She suddenly realized that perhaps for many years, she herself had looked at her family through that lens - considering having a Deaf sibling as a "problem" that needed to be solved, a "shortcoming" that needed to be compensated for, instead of simply accepting it as a normal part of her family's life.

"Thank you for telling me," she said sincerely. "I think I need to hear these things, to better understand not only the language, but also the way of looking at things."

Gia Bach turned to look at her, his eyes gentle. "You're the first person in the club to ask me questions like that not out of curiosity, but out of genuine desire to understand," he said. "I feel happy about that."

The two continued walking side by side to the intersection where their return paths separated, chatting some more about other trivial things—recent movies, favorite foods, middle school memories. When saying goodbye, Gia Bach waved goodbye in a sign style, a gesture that had become a natural habit between the two, and Thao Nguyen waved back, her mind still lingering on the conversation just now as she took the last steps home.

That night, while sitting at dinner with his family, Binh An asked her, his voice full of excitement: "You promised to take me to the next meeting, when will it be?"

"I'll ask the club's schedule," Thao Nguyen replied, trying to signal as accurately as possible. "Probably about two weeks from now. Are you excited?"

Binh An nodded strongly, his eyes lit up. "I've never met so many Deaf people at once outside of my school," he signed. "At school, everyone knows how to sign, so it's normal, but meeting Deaf people in society, doing all kinds of different jobs, must be very interesting."

Her words made Thao Nguyen suddenly realize something she had never thought of - that Binh An's world, although complete in a specialized school, is still somewhat limited within the school, with few opportunities to see Deaf people grow up and succeed in many different fields in society. She silently promised herself that she would try to create more opportunities like that for you, not only out of responsibility, but because she really wanted to see that eager look on your face more.

Before going to sleep, Thao Nguyen still had time to text back and forth with Hai Yen, recounting the walk with Gia Bach this afternoon, although she deliberately omitted details that made her heart beat faster than usual.

"Walking home together? These two," Hai Yen immediately texted back, along with a series of sly smiley emojis. "Tell me the details, don't hide it."

"There's nothing to tell, it's just convenient," Thao Nguyen typed, even though her face was hot as she remembered Gia Bach's eyes when they said goodbye.

"By the way, can your face be red through text messages?" Hai Yen continued to tease. "Well, I won't force it, but remember I guessed right from the beginning, just take it slow and see."

Thao Nguyen laughed alone in front of the phone screen, typed a smiley face to pretend to be shy and then turned off the phone, not wanting to admit but also unable to deny that her best friend's teasing was partly correct.

That night, before going to sleep, she took out her notebook, did not write down new vocabulary as usual, but wrote down a thought: "Today I realized that learning signs is not just to talk to Binh An. It also helps me see her world in a different way — not a world of lack that needs to be pitied, but a world that is complete, just different." She read the words again, nodded with satisfaction, then looked out the window, where the night sky sparkled with a few rare stars amidst the city lights. She thought about Gia Bach's smile when saying goodbye, about Binh An's eager eyes when talking about the upcoming exchange, about the long road ahead that for the first time in her life, she no longer felt scared when thinking about it. She turned off the light and fell asleep with a light smile still on her lips.