07:00 - 09:00 AM

09:00 - 09:30 AM

09:30 - 09:45 AM

09:45 - 10:00 AM

10:00 - 10:30 AM

10:45 - 12:45 PM

I remember my mother telling me that a deaf person can hear music differently, at the time the statement was lost on me as I could not comprehend the possibility of a profound deaf person hearing anything at all, but I believed her nonetheless as her occupation was that of an otolaryngologist. Her main objective as a doctor was to treat diseases of the ear, nose, and throat.

So she did treat a lot of deaf people in the entirety of her career, I learnt everything there is to know about the deaf community from her. I even remember one weekend, when I stumbled upon a piece of research she did, albeit I found some of the medical jargons a bit confusing but it was still fascinating.

The thing about teaching children with hearing loss to dance, is that as a teacher I have to let them know that it's okay for them to express their feelings through their bodies. During the week, these very children spend a great deal of their time in school learning, and even struggling to communicate with words.

When Chul had asked me if I was interested in teaching the studio's only special class of this kind, I agreed with the mindset that even though I am not profoundly deaf, I'm still a part of the deaf community, and it's not really an easy feat identifying yourself as different. It was through this class that I was able to increase my knowledge in sign language as I had only known the basics, so I taught children how to recognize rhythms and patterns of movement through heavy drumbeat resonating through the very floorboards.

My vocabulary grew with every child I found myself interacting with, and now three years later, I can say with confidence that I am fluent in Korean Sign Language. But then that right there is a statement which contradicts itself ten times over, I have never felt confident in revealing to others that I'm a person who's moderately, but severely deaf.

I begin to feel a bit small when I have to open my mouth and explain the extent of my disability, if a sound is lower that seventy or ninety-four decibels then it would be rather difficult for me to hear, or even follow a simple conversation, hence the hearing aids. There are times when I find myself a bit envious of the children who pass through here, in my opinion they're the luckier ones, they've been deaf since birth and even though that's difficult in and of itself, at least they've been able to quickly condition themselves to their situation.

I wasn't born deaf, my life changed after one night, and ever since then I've been living in misery. 

"Bye! I'll see you next week." 

I sign skillfully to one of my students as I watch her walk away hand-in-hand with her grandmother. 

"Dr Cha?" 

I spin around quickly at the sound of my name, my eyes widen as I watch him smile back at me, I'm surprised to say the least as this is the last place that I would expect to see Dr Kim. I look down as I feel a small tug of my coat.

"Teacher! This is my uncle." 

The boy, Min Jae I believe is his name, smiles widely at me as he signs happily while introducing me to his uncle, who I already know. 

"I had no idea that you're Min Jae's dance instructor," the resident smiles back at me and I nod my head awkwardly. 

"Uh, yeah," I scratch the back of my neck, "it's just something I do for the kids." 

The smile never leaves his face and I find myself shifting my weight from one foot to the next as he stares at me. "Min Jae-ah and I were just about to grab some lunch, why don't you join us?" 

I have many reasons floating around in my head as to why I should say no to his invitation, but the most important thing that I really want to do seems to be far out of my reach as Min Jae smiles up at me. So my plans of eating ice cream while watching a weekend drama flew out the window as his cuteness won me over. 

"Sure." 

If I were to take away the presence of Min Jae from the scene, then I would probably fall off the chair due to the awkwardness, not all interns are lucky to be able to sit and eat with their resident on a day-off. Most importantly, not all interns are lucky enough to meet, or even teach a member of their resident's family.

Dr Kim took us to a popular chicken restaurant, apparently it's Min Jae's favourite place to eat, the interior's well decorated, well if you consider pictures of different types of chicken as decoration, then this restaurant pulled it off. Dr Kim keeps a smile on his face as he watches Min Jae and I interact with each other, and even though I find his gaze a bit weird, I brush it off since I've always liked being in the company of children. 

"You know, when I was given the list of interns that I would be with me this year, I was a bit shocked when I read your file." 

I look up at him, "why?" 

He looks down at Min Jae's as he busily draws his version of an alien on a piece of paper. "Being deaf isn't easy, so initial