DON’T TALK-WORDLESS FOR 30 DAYS

Good Evening, folks-Ladies and Gentlemen. This is 30 days, starring the latest episode with Michael Kim-a teenager from South Korea-who bravely decided to participate in possibly the most difficult, merciless mission ever designed by our crew. It’s to spend 30 days without talking-Michael has to pretend he is mute for the next full month; he can’t talk to his friends, teachers, and even his parents! Will he be able to overcome this notorious challenge? We’re starting from Day 1 in his school, KMLA!

Day 1

It’s day one in KMLA, and Michael wakes up from his bed in the dormitory. His friends call him out that it’s time for morning exercise, and with an annoyed groan, he gets dressed along with his friends. As he is hiking up the mountains with one of his roommates, he realizes that he cannot have trivial but light conversations that used to soothe the boredom of the endless hiking. His roommate is aware that Mike cannot speak to him, but nevertheless he too seems bored by the lack of communication. The awkward atmosphere continues along with the dreadful silence-it doesn’t seem easy for a garrulous and impulsive person like Michael to keep his mouth shut for hours. After a full day without verbal communication, Michael seems pretty depressed and enervated. He does interact with people through body language and signs when it is necessary-but only when it is extremely necessary.

Day 2

The second silence-day arises, and Michael gets out of bed, still in a disheartened mood that dominated him on the previous day. His class in the first period today was Physics, and guess what- it was his BIG-PRESENTATION day! He displays the material he had prepared so hard for this presentation on screen, and his show-time begins. However, the presentation doesn’t go as well as he expected. He started off fine with all of the specific descriptions written in the power-point and just indicating to such printed explanations with his finger. Unfortunately, as the presentation continued, the students started to lose their attention; they were talking, goofing around, and even sleeping-right in front of Michael’s eyes! Realizing he has no tool to silence the uncooperative pupils or to regain the control of the classroom, which previously had been his charismatic tone and voice, he finishes his lecture early-off, disappointed and discouraged.

Day 3

Today, Michael has to participate in one of the practice debates that is scheduled during the self-study period by the school English debate club. As a member, he is obligated to attend the practice although he can’t directly take part due to his inability to speak and watch his teammates do their jobs. Since debating-in any language-used to be Michael’s both favorite hobby and a meaningful activity, he seems even more down-casted by the fact that he has to be left out from all the fun; even from the judging because he cannot provide feedbacks. After the heated, passionate debate on the motion “THW double the price of Soju”, everybody in the club celebrates the end of the discussion, laughing and “talking” about what happened in the debate; everybody except Michael. Michael looks as if he is excluded from the rest of his friends and seniors, and the fact that he has lost his role in the club that he has paid the most devotion to seems to disturb him greatly. In frustration and anger, Michael stomps into his bed.

Day 6

Michael seems terribly unhappy these days: he walks alone, he eats by himself, he mostly studies in the 11th floor for any bit of free time he has, and he no longer even tries to “communicate” Well, he does, sort of: he seems to be comfortable of using sign language and sometimes even cards that have simple phrases written down on such as “Thank You” or “May I go to the Restroom?”. However, he tries to avoid communication as much as possible if it’s not inevitable; moreover, he tries to reduce his “human interaction”. The active, gullible Michael we all used to know before this project began was nowhere to be found-he was now more of like a social outcast who remains alone and away from the crowd, reading books and studying textbooks all the time. His friends no longer care about him much as the influence of his presence diminishes more and more. He is quiet in class, out of class, and in bed; basically, 24 hours seemed to be full of emptiness to Michael.

Day 7

On the middle of the day, suddenly, during his lunchtime up in the cafeteria, he forfeits the challenge. He shouts out curses like “FXXX XXX” or “SXXXXXX IM NOT DOING THIS ANYMORE” and approaches his friends. He admits that he cannot continue the challenge, and he announces that he will give up his task. Although the time limit did not even reach 1/4 of what we originally had planned for, we unanimously agreed that the persistence of the project could cause some severe psychological harm such as personality disorders that would be detrimental for Mike’s independent life and his social relationships.

Interview with Michael: I’m really sorry that I had to call this whole thing to a stop. Again, I didn’t want me to ruin up the whole thing or evacuating the plan. However, I realized that it would be virtually impossible for me to even live another day like this-not any longer! At first, I thought I could manage; even though I weren’t allowed to speak a word, I could still communicate using my body parts, and basically since mute people also lived their lives. However, the-…….gap- I felt throughout the week with other people, not being able to talk, express, and debate, made me depressed so much. I felt “excluded” from the rest of the school where everybody could talk and talk and talk and where I couldn’t be a part of it. So, I guess I was just kind of frustrated and… exhausted with all the solitude and…SILENCE. I guess I lost my temper for a split of a second, and I apologize. Even though it really sounds classical to say this, I must: I realized, for the first time in my life, how blessed I was to have my voice-the ability to talk, communicate, and interact. I really understand how hard it must be for mute people to live on without the single greatest capability bestowed onto mankind: SPEAKING OUT LOUD.

So now, we say good-bye, once again expressing our gratitude to our courageous young participant, Michael. 30 days will meet you again soon! Thank you!