Video Of The Week - Why An Entire Turkish Neighborhood Secretly Learned Sign Language
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The day began like any other. Muharrem, a hearing-impaired young man and his sister, who reside in Istanbul's Bağcılar neighborhood, headed out to complete some chores. Along the way, Muharrem noticed a strange phenomenon. Everyone, from the pedestrian that accidently bumped into him, to the person who sold him bagels, to even the taxi driver, communicated with him using sign language.
It was only when Muharrem's sister led the bemused young man to the town center that he realized the enormity of everything he has just witnessed. Turns out that each and every member of the community had spent a month learning sign language just so that they could communicate with Muharrem.
The well-orchestrated event that took place on December 28th, 2014, was a marketing campaign for Samsung. Called "Hearing Hands," it was the brainchild of advertising agency Leo Burnett, to showcase the opening of a new Samsung Turkey call center for the hearing-impaired. While the advertisement will be a short-term memory for most, Muharrem and his neighbors will never forget the magical day!
Resources: buzzfeed.com,time.com
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257 Comments
pusheenicornover 1 yearWow! That is amazing! And I love sign language. Its so much fun! 😊
animereina2021about 2 yearsWow! That was soooo sweet! They did all of that just for the impaired young man and his sister. If someone is deaf or blind don't make fun... They are people just like us, and just because they have a disability doesn't mean they can't do anything. They can do anything if they try hard enough💕
grimreeper13about 3 yearsthis is so darn sweet , I almost cried. And i almost never cry. I support Muharrem and the people of his community . #def people are still awesome people- Amyover 3 yearsAwesome 👏
pakistanfanalmost 5 yearsWow. I thought no-one did that anymore
elisabethyover 5 yearsThis is touching.
ceciliakover 5 yearsI personally thought that this article would be more about how the community learned sign language to talk without the government knowing what they were saying.- grimreeper13about 3 yearsme too at one point then i started reading and it is really sweet and heart warming
christianriberaover 5 yearsyou must be so edgy
- ceciliakover 5 yearsWow
schoolloverover 5 yearsOmg!!!!!
ajg16over 5 yearsThat is so nice!