Helen Keller, who had lost her hearing and vision, did not succumb to fate, and with the strength of not accepting defeat, she learned to speak with the help of Sullivan's teacher. At that moment, how joyful her heart was...
Learn to speak
Excerpt from "If You Give Me Three Days of Light"
Author: Helen Keller
In the spring of 1890, I began to study speech. I had a strong urge to make a sound early on. I used to put one hand on my throat and one hand on my lips and make some noise. I have a keen interest in any sound. When I hear cats barking and dogs barking, I love to touch their mouths with my hands. When someone sings, I love to touch their throat with my hand; when someone plays the piano, I love to touch the keyboard with my hand.
Before I lost my hearing and vision, I learned to speak quickly, but since I got that disease and my ears couldn't hear, I couldn't speak. I sat on my mother's lap all day and put my hand on her face so that I could feel the opening and closing of her lips and find it fun. Although I had long forgotten what it was like to talk, I also learned to squirm my lips like everyone else. My family said I was crying and laughing very naturally.
Sometimes, I can still make a sound out of my mouth and spell out a word or two, but this is not talking to others, but involuntarily exercising my own pronunciation organs. There is only one word that I can still remember after I became ill, and that is "water", which I often pronounce as "Wa... The sound of wa" slowly faded into oblivion, until Miss Sullivan began to teach me, and after learning to spell the word with her fingers, she stopped pronouncing it.
I've known for a long time that people around me are communicating in different ways than I am. Even before I knew that deaf people could learn to speak, I was starting to feel dissatisfied with my methods of communication. A person who communicates with others entirely in sign language always has a feeling of being constrained and restricted. This feeling became more and more unbearable for me, and I desperately wanted to get rid of this bondage. I used to be as anxious as a bird flapping its wings, stirring my lips vigorously and trying to speak with my mouth. My family tried to stop me from speaking with my mouth, afraid that I would be discouraged if I didn't learn well. But I was not discouraged. Later, I overheard the story of Nabu Kada, which strengthened my confidence in learning to speak.
In 1890, Mrs. Ramson, who had taught Lola, had just returned from a visit to Norway and Sweden and came to visit me. She told me that there was a blind and deaf girl in Norway named Nabu Kada who had learned to speak. She hadn't finished speaking to me yet, and I was so anxious that I secretly made up my mind to learn to speak. I clamored for Miss Sullivan to take me to Boston to find Miss Sarah Fuller, the principal of Horace School, and asked her to help me and teach me. This amiable lady was willing to teach me herself. So we began to learn to talk to her from March 26, 1890.
Miss Fuller taught her the method of making her hand gently on her face as she pronounced it, so that I could feel how her tongue and lips were moving. I imitated her every movement very carefully, and in less than an hour I learned to say the 6 letters M, P, A, S, T, L with my mouth.
Miss Fuller gave me a total of 11 lessons. I'll never forget what a surprise I was when I first coherently uttered the phrase "it was warm"! Although they are only a few syllables of intermittent and periodic Aiai, this is human language after all. I realized that there was a new power that would free me from the shackles of the soul, mark with these intermittent languages, master complete knowledge and gain faith.
If the deaf child is eager to say words with his mouth that he has never heard, to get out of the dead world of silence, to get rid of the life without love and warmth, without insects and birds, without beautiful music, he will never forget, when he says the first word, the feeling of surprise that spreads throughout his body like an electric current. Only such a person knows how eagerly I am to speak to toys, stones, trees, birds, and non-talking animals; only such a person knows how joyful I am when my sister can understand my greetings and the puppies can obey my commands.
Now that I can speak in winged language, I no longer need someone else to translate for me, and the convenience I get from this cannot be described in words. Now I can think and talk at the same time, and I can't do that with my fingers before.
However, don't think that in this short period of time, I can really speak. I had only learned some of the basics of speaking, and only Miss Fuller and Mr. Sullivan could understand what I meant, and only a small part of it could be understood by anyone else. After I learned these basic sounds, I would not have been able to learn natural speech so quickly without The genius of Ms. Sullivan and her perseverance.
Initially, I practiced day and night so that my closest friends could understand what I meant. Subsequently, with the help of Miss Sullivan, I repeatedly practiced pronouncing every word and practicing the free combination of various sounds. Until now, she has continued to correct my incorrect pronunciation every day.
Only those who have taught deaf children to speak can understand what this means, and only they can appreciate what difficulties I have to overcome. I felt Miss Sullivan's lips entirely by my fingers: I used my sense of touch to grasp the flutter of her throat, the movement of her mouth, and the facial expressions, which were often inaccurate.
In this case, I forced myself to practice the words and sentences that did not sound well, sometimes for several hours, until I felt the pitch of the sound.
My task is to practice, to practice, to practice again. Failure and fatigue often trip me up, but I have courage at the thought of being able to get my voice right after a while and allowing my loved ones to see my progress. I was eager to see them smile for my success.
"My sister will be able to understand me." This became a strong belief that inspired me to overcome all difficulties. I often repeat with ecstasy, "I'm not dumb now." "The thought that I would be able to talk freely to my mother and understand her reaction with her lips gave me confidence. I was amazed when I found out that it was much easier to speak with my mouth than with my fingers. For this reason, I no longer talk to people in sign language letters.
But Miss Sullivan and some of my friends still talk to me in this way, because the sign language letters are more convenient and I understand them faster than lip reading.
Here, perhaps I should explain the sign language alphabet used by blind deaf people. Those who don't know us seem to be a little confused by the dialect. When people read to me or talk to me, they use the usual method used by deaf people to spell out words and sentences with one hand on my hand. I place my hand gently on the speaker's hand, not hindering the movement of his fingers on the one hand, and easily feeling the movement of his fingers on the other. I feel the same way people read books, feeling a word, not a single letter. The people I talk to are flexible because their fingers move frequently, and some people spell letters very quickly, like skilled typists typing on a typewriter. Of course, skillful spelling, like writing, has become an unconscious action for me.
After I was able to speak with my mouth, I couldn't wait to rush home. This important moment has finally arrived, and I am on my way home. Along the way, Miss Sullivan and I kept talking with our mouths, not for the sake of speaking, but to seize every opportunity to improve our speaking ability as much as possible. Unconsciously, the train had entered the station, and I saw that everyone in the family was standing on the platform to greet us. As soon as I got off the train, my mother took me in her arms, her whole body trembling, so excited that she could not say a word, silently listening to every word I made. Little sister Mizuli grabbed my hand, kissed and kissed again, and jumped with joy. The father stood by and said nothing, but his kind face showed a look of extreme pleasure. Until now, when I think of this scene, I can't help but burst into tears, as if Isaiah's prophecy has been fulfilled in me: "The mountains are singing in unison, and the trees are clapping and cheering!" ”
The image comes from the Internet
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