What is it like to be a small child
In a school, in a room void of sound
With a teacher who talks and talks and talks;
And then when she does come around to you,
She expects you to know what she's said?
You have to be Deaf to understand.

Or the teacher who thinks to make you smart,
you must first learn how to talk with your voice:
So mumbo-jumbo with hands on your face,
For hours and hours without patience on end.
Until out comes a faint noise resembling sound?
You have to be Deaf to understand.

What is it like to be shouted at,
When one thinks that will help you to hear;
Or misunderstand the words of a friend,
Who is trying to make a joke clear,
You have to be Deaf to understand.

What is it like to depend,
Upon one who can hear to phone a friend;
Or place a call to a business firm,
And be forced to share what's said and
Then find that your message wasn't made clear?
You have to be Deaf to understand.

What is it like on the road of life,
To meet a stranger who opens his mouth...
And speaks out a line at a rapid pace;
and you can't understand the look on his face,
Because it is new and you're lost in the race?
You have to be Deaf to understand.

What is it like to comprehend,
Some nimble fingers that paint the scene,
And make you smile and feel the scerene,
With the "spoken" of the moving hand,
That makes you part of the world at large?
You have to be Deaf to understand.

What is it like to "hear" a hand?

Yes, you have to be Deaf to understand!

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