Brother, Am I Cute? [EN]: Chapter 275

February arrived, bringing with it persistent cold weather.

These days, I often find myself watching the weather news, and Siha stares intently at the screen.

Could it be because he finds the announcer pretty?

I didn’t ask, but he started watching it religiously, like a favorite cartoon.

“Siha, what’s the weather like today?”

“Hyung, today a warm wind is coming.”

“Oh! So, should I dress warmly today?”

“No. It’s cold. It’s cold. Seven degrees. Seven degrees.”

“Where?”

“Seoul. Seoul.”

Isn’t 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) relatively mild?

I’m cooking in the kitchen, so I need to be able to see it. But could he be talking about minus seven degrees?

“Minus seven degrees?”

“Minus what?”

“Um… a number lower than 0 is called minus…”

“Minus?”

“Mmm.”

In fact, in mathematics, the discovery of zero is considered a groundbreaking achievement.

The concept expanded widely with the introduction of negative numbers.

The problem is that it’s hard to make Siha understand.

If there’s one apple, it’s 1. If there are none, it’s 0. But what is minus 1?

It’s really hard to explain this to a four-year-old.

“Ah! Water freezes at 0 degrees.”

“Really?”

Of course, that’s if it’s pure water.

“Yeah. People call the point where water freezes 0. But there’s a temperature below that? So, we say ‘below zero.’ Is the freezer here below zero? Or not?”

“Below zero!”

“That’s right. So, if you put it in here, it freezes solid.”

Siha ran over and looked inside the freezer.

“Below zero. Is it here?”

“Mmm. It is.”

He tapped inside with his hands.

“Cold. Hyung. The freezer weather is below zero. Below zero. It’s cold outside.”

“Yeah.”

“Outside is a freezer.”

The Earth instantly became a giant freezer in his mind.

I’m glad he understood roughly.

Explaining things to children seems really difficult.

But I don’t want to just gloss over it.

“But Siha, why do you watch the weather news? Do you like the announcer?”

“Announcer?”

“Um. I mean the person who comes out on the news.”

“Ah. The announcer is pretty.”

“Pfft. So, you watch because she’s pretty.”

“No.”

Siha suddenly started doing something with both hands.

“Like this, like this.”

I stared blankly.

What does that mean?

“Like this, like this?”

“Hyung. Weather comes out. Like this, like this. It’s fun.”

I pondered for a while and realized what Siha was saying.

“Are you talking about sign language?”

“Sign language?”

“Yeah. It’s a way of telling stories with hand gestures.”

“Isn’t it a code?”

“Um. I guess it’s a code. It’s called sign language, and it’s used to tell people who can’t hear what the weather is like.”

“Why can’t they hear?”

“Because their ears hurt a lot, so they can’t hear.”

Siha blinked.

“Go to the hospital and get a shot.”

I stroked Siha’s head.

There are some illnesses that can’t be cured even if you go to the hospital.

Doctors aren’t gods, so there are many things they can’t do.

“It doesn’t work with shots.”

“Shall Siha ‘hoo’ [blow gently to soothe] it for you?”

“Hahaha. You don’t have to do that. Everyone is living well and strong.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

Actually, I don’t really know what kind of life they lead.

It seems like there would be many difficulties in living in the world.

Not being able to hear is inconvenient, and sometimes they are rejected or ignored because they are different.

People tend to exclude rather than embrace differences.

Perhaps they hurt others due to ignorance.

They may know but not know how to be considerate.

“Let’s learn some simple sign language with Hyung later.”

“With Hyung?!”

“Pfft. Yeah. With Hyung.”

I finished preparing the meal and ate with Siha.

It’s time to go to daycare now.

***

Siha told the children about the weather news today.

He also chattered about the story Hyung told him.

“Sign language. It’s a code. They use it to send codes to people who can’t hear.”

“Wow. That’s amazing.”

Seungjun’s eyes widened.

He had never thought there was such a code.

The teacher was listening to the conversation and suddenly appeared.

“Yes, that’s right. There are people around us who have physical disabilities. So, shall we try to understand those people today?”

“?”

The children tilted their heads.

“It’s a kind of game. We’re going to put in these earplugs. Okay?”

Earplugs that go into the ear. Headphones that block noise.

They were available at the daycare.

“Okay. Put these in your ears.”

The teacher demonstrated first.

Siha also pressed the earplugs firmly into his ears.

“Teacher. It tickles. It gets bigger. It gets bigger.”

“Yeah. It’s supposed to get bigger inside your ear.”

Seungjun tapped Siha on the shoulder.

“Huh?”

“Puhaha!”

Seungjun, who had the earplug in his nose, blew hard, and it was launched.

The teacher smiled wryly at the sight.

Seungjun, you know you’re supposed to put that in your ear, right?

“Oppa [term for older brother used by females]. That’s dirty!”

“Funny, right?”

“Mmm. It’s funny, but…”

Hana somehow didn’t want to admit that Seungjun’s bizarre behavior was funny.

Yeonju was frowning as if it was really dirty.

Only our best friend Siha accepted Seungjun’s prank.

He took the one in his ear and put it on his head.

“Seungjun. Horns. Small horns.”

“Oh! Siha, you’re getting good at this? Then I have horns on my butt! Puhaha! If you laugh after crying, you get horns on your butt.”

“This is a fart. Fart. Poong poong [onomatopoeia for farting sound]. Go out.”

Siha expressed the earplug flying out of his butt with a ‘poong’ sound.

It hit Seungjun’s face.

“Eek! A fart attacked my face!”

Hana giggled, finding Siha’s actions funny.

Yeonju subtly suppressed a smile.

The teacher reorganized the situation again.

“Okay, okay. Stop playing around and do it properly.”

It’s good to give them enough time to play.

They’re still four years old.

Of course, it’s also good because time goes by very quickly doing this.

“Okay, now, if you put on these headphones, surprisingly, you won’t hear any sound.”

The children put on the headphones.

Surprisingly, they really couldn’t hear anything.

Siha called Seungjun.

“Seungjun!”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Seungjun!”

“Siha. I can’t hear you!”

Hana also looked at Yeonju.

“Yeonju! Yeonju!”

“Hana. What did you say?”

“Oppa. You’re stupid! Oh Seungjun, you’re stupid!”

“Oh Seungjun, you’re stupid!”

They understood perfectly by looking at the lip movements.

The children were trying hard to say something to each other.

That’s where they realized it.

To say something, you have to be in the other person’s sight.

You have to look at their lip movements. And you have to pronounce clearly.

The sound gets louder and louder to make them hear.

Noisy, noisy.

Even though nothing can be heard, this space is filled with loud noises.

“Ah, frustrating!”

Seungjun took off his headphones because he couldn’t hear.

The other children started taking them off too.

The teacher held up a sketchbook and said.

“Okay, okay. Put them back on, and guess what story I prepared today.”

“Yes!”

“If you guess correctly, there will be a prize.”

At the word ‘prize,’ the children put their headphones back on.

They looked at the teacher with sparkling eyes.

The teacher made her lip movements big.

“Let’s start!”

When the sketchbook was turned over, a picture appeared.

A person living below. A person living above.

The upstairs person is jumping and stomping and having fun. There were musical notes, so it seemed like they were listening to music and dancing.

The person below was just sleeping peacefully with a calm expression.

The teacher closed her eyes gently and showed a benevolent appearance.

“Lullaby, lullaby.”

“Um. Siha, that’s not it.”

Of course, the teacher’s voice didn’t reach them.

The sketchbook moved on to the next page.

The upstairs person and the downstairs person met.

The upstairs person is a foreigner with bright yellow hair and a high nose.

The downstairs person is a Korean with black hair.

It was a picture of them gesturing to each other.

“Han-ku-mal mo-tae-yo! [Korean language I can’t do!] An-ya. Han-guk-mal shwi-eo! [No. Korean language is easy!]”

“Siha, that’s not it.”

The next picture showed the two people in one house, each holding chicken with bright expressions.

“One, two, seoi [three in a cute way].”

Siha was counting the chicken. And what he said.

“Ma-ssi-neun six chicken! [Delicious six chicken!] Yuk…”

“Uh-huh. You can’t say that! It’s not a back advertisement [covert advertising].”

The teacher cleared her throat and closed the sketchbook.

She said it was over, but no one took off their headphones.

Inevitably, she took off Siha’s headphones.

Then the children started taking them off one by one.

“Okay. Okay. Everyone saw it well. Tell me what the story is.”

“Siha knows!”

“Yeah. Even if the teacher doesn’t hear, I know what Siha is thinking.”

“Huh?”

Siha looked at the teacher with a surprised expression.

His face was asking how she knew.

“A foreigner was singing a lullaby, but actually, he couldn’t speak Korean, so he had to become friends with chicken. Is that what you were trying to say?”

“How did you know?”

“Ahem. The teacher knows everything.”

Actually, Siha said it all with his mouth.

“Okay, who wants to try next?”

“Hana!”

Hana raised her hand.

“Okay, Hana.”

“I played music and danced excitedly, but later I met in the elevator and asked, ‘What’s that song?'”

“Ooh!”

It was more plausible than I thought.

“So, I told them what song it was, and they said this. ‘Gianna Jun BH… [likely a reference to a commercial or celebrity] ‘”

“Agh! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!”

“Hana, was I wrong?”

“No. It’s not like that. Ahem. Anyway, it seems like the teacher putting chicken in at the end stuck in my mind. Chicken is not important…”

Seungjun said from the side.

“Didn’t you tell a baseball story? Hitting a home run with a chicken drumstick!”

“Yeah. No.”

Jongsu next to him shook his head as if he was pathetic.

“Tsk tsk [sound of disapproval]. Is this a chicken song? Of course, it’s this song. ‘Dochipichipibojok! Dochipichipibojok! [nonsense sounds, likely from a commercial] 365 days, everyone gets a discount on delivery food. Yogi… [likely a reference to a food delivery app] ‘”

“Agh! Agh! Everyone, please get your minds off the food!”

The other children also gave enthusiastic answers.

Yeonju said she didn’t know after seeing the teacher’s reaction, and Jaehwi followed Yeonju.

Eunwoo said, ‘You rap a little?’ and became friends and ate chicken together.

Yundong said, ‘Can you dance a little?’ and danced hard together because they were hungry and ordered chicken.

Anyway, everyone had unique answers.

“Ahem. The teacher will tell you the answer. Everyone somehow fell into the food.”

The teacher pointed out each one again.

“A person who can’t hear is called a deaf person. The teacher drew the strengths of that deaf person.”

The first picture shows that there is no damage from noise between floors.

The second picture shows that two people from different countries know that they are deaf and communicate in sign language. It is an advantage of international sign language.

The third picture should focus on the bright expression. A deaf person’s expression is rich. They can show any emotion well on their face.”

“Actually, the teacher knows this because she heard it like this. You all know it well now, right?”

“Yes!”

“This deaf person and we just have ‘different senses.'”

Today, the children would have felt it.

If you can’t hear, you have to make eye contact and talk.

You mime with hand gestures to convey meaning.

You look at the lip movements.

Finally, if you know how to write, you would have exchanged notes.

The world of different senses shows such diverse behaviors.

The teacher just wanted the children to know.

“Siha. I decided to learn sign language with Hyung.”

“Why are you learning sign language?”

“It’s a code. A code. I’m going to send a code to Hyung.”

The teacher smiled gently.

Even if they don’t understand it well yet and just think of it as a game.

They will naturally realize the meaning later.

“The teacher knows a few. What code do you want to send?”

“I love you!”

At that, the teacher immediately showed it with her right hand.

She folded her middle and index fingers.

It resembled the commonly used hand gesture, peace.

“If you show this side of your palm, it means ‘I Love you!’ I love you.”

“Really!”

“Yeah.”

“I love you!”

Siha smiled and followed along.

The other children all reached out to the teacher together.

It was another daycare filled with love today.

Maybe everyone will say ‘I love you’ when they go home.