The Way We Talk is a 2024 Hong Kong film about three deaf young adults, all with different communication methods. One man (Alan) has a cochlear implant and communicates both via spoken language (Cantonese) and Hong Kong Sign Language; another man (Wolf) has no assistive devices and communicates solely via Hong Kong Sign Language; and a woman (Sophie) has a cochlear implant and only uses spoken language.
The film mostly centers around Sophie, who became deaf in childhood due to a fever. When she was ten-years-old, she went through surgery to get a cochlear implant, a device that is surgically implanted to the head. It’s a device much stronger than a hearing aid. After graduating from university, Sophie becomes a cochlear implant awareness ambassador alongside Alan.
Sophie, Alan, and Wolf are all in the same building where a campaign is being held. Sophie and Alan are being ambassadors for the campaign whereas Wolf is volunteering. During this campaign, Sophie makes a speech and in this speech, she says that having a cochlear implant helps you feel more normal and that she believes the end goal should be that all deaf people have a cochlear implant or something similar so that they can all thrive.
This sets Wolf off, who angrily signs that he is proud to be deaf, and then storms off.
This is the catalyst for the rest of the film.
Wolf’s understandable outburst gets Sophie thinking. At first, she doesn’t understand what she’s done wrong. Her reaction makes sense when oralism is all she knows. She’s never met another signing deaf person before. Her knowledge of the Deaf community is her mother making it her life’s mission to keep Sophie away from “those people” because she’s “better than them.” So it’s no surprise to me that she doesn’t understand why Wolf is reacting the way he is.
Wolf’s reaction is also understandable. He grew up with sign language. While he did grow up with oralism in schools alongside Alan, Wolf was always adamant on sign language being his language.
Alan himself grew up with both, but always seemed to lean more toward the world of oralism. He made a promise to Wolf when they were young that he would never stray away from sign language, but as they got older and as Alan was involved with the cochlear implant awareness campaign and organization, he seemed to become more distant with signing as he became more infatuated with Sophie, and Wolf had confronted him about it.
Eventually, Sophie starts to dip her toes into the Deaf community. She wants to learn why what she said caused such emotions from Wolf and the community, and she starts by making an apology video with basic signs she just learned.
This action changes Wolf’s opinion on her and a friendship ensues. Wolf spends time teaching Sophie sign language and more about the Deaf community. The more they spend time together, the more Sophie merges into her Deaf identity, to the point that when her cochlear implant malfunctions and she needs surgery again, she questions whether or not she really wants it.
This film (despite Wolf and Sophie both being played by hearing actors) resonated with me as I watched it.
As someone who grew up not knowing she had hearing loss until she was diagnosed at eleven-years-old, and then had to go on living as if nothing happened, I understood the struggle that Sophie was facing with being exhausted from trying to be “normal.” I understood Sophie walking into a Deaf identity and sign language late and struggling with both worlds, especially during moments of being pressured by hearing society and being picked on by the elite side of the Deaf community for the struggles involved in trying to immerse yourself into that culture and language.
I understood Alan who has both languages. I grew up oral, no access to American Sign Language until my early 20s. Then I got my first pair of hearing aids ever in 2021. I use both ASL and English everyday. I don’t think at this time in my life that I lean away from ASL and the Deaf community like Alan had tended to (whether intentional or not), but I know my speaking privileges get away or ahead of me sometimes.
I think The Way We Talk does a great job of showing the various types of deaf people in the world and our ways of communicating, how we grew up, the consequences or aftermath of audism and oralism. Deafness is not one size fits all and I think everyone, hearing and deaf, have something to learn from this film.
It’s a film that I would recommend watching, but know this: as good as the film is on paper, there is still a disservice being done when two of the Deaf characters are played by hearing actors. If the story already is good, imagine how much better it would’ve been if the entire Deaf cast was actually Deaf in real life and had first hand experience of those stories.
At the end of the day, authenticity is best.
