One April day in 2023 Jong Un Gyong, a teacher at Wasan Kindergarten in Pyongyang’s Sosong District, made the acquaintance of a child named Ju Hong Gyong.

A woman called on Jong together with her five-year-old daughter who was struck deaf and dumb by an accident.

“Mrs Jong, we have tried everything to treat her, but in vain. I wish that my daughter would blend lively into others,” Hyon Un Sil said, tears in her eyes, holding Jong’s hands in her own.

At first Jong had thought that it would satisfy her request if she ensured that Hong Gyong fitted in with her peers in study and life.

But later she found herself mistaken and made up her mind to help bring up Hong Gyong like other children.

Not long after Ju Hong Gyong attended the kindergarten, a sports meeting was held to celebrate International Children’s Day.

Seeing Ju beating a drum and running with a ball in her arms as her peers did, both teachers and parents shouted “attagirl” in admiration.

Hyon Un Sil, mother of Ju, was shyly in tears to see the parents sympathizing with her daughter and her daughter wearing a big smile among others. At the sight of this, Jong Un Gyong felt a surge of uncertain impulse in the back of her mind.

“Though belatedly, can’t I teach her to speak?” she thought.

After days of pondering, she decided to make every possible effort to help the girl speak, although she had no experience with such a child with disabilities. Even on her way to and from work Un Gyong thought of a new suitable way of teaching spoken language to the mute girl, and often stayed up late studying relevant documents.

To ease the stiffness on Ju’s lips, she, as she spoke moving her lips, studied them in the mirror to find out the difference in their shapes according to pronunciation, and showed Ju the movements of her own lips and positions of the tongue as she spoke and let the girl copy her. She repeated such imitating practice countlessly.

When at last a sound of “ah” came out of Ju’s mouth, Un Gyong was beside herself with excitement, hardly holding back tears.

With confidence she began to teach Ju words by connecting them with things around her in ordinary life. She taught her how to pronounce “hu” by pursing her lips as she blew a pinwheel. Once she held the child’s hands to her mouth and blew on them to make her understand how to make the sound of “ho.”

In this way, Ju came to learn consonants and vowels and understand the Korean alphabet and words.

One day Un Gyong was on her way home after work, carrying Ju on her back. All of a sudden she heard a string of faint murmuring sounds from behind her ears. Ju evidently uttered “child,” “tree” and “car” pointing to the things she saw around her.

She abruptly laid Ju down and let her repeat her words. Ju spoke so distinctly that Un Gyong hugged Ju and patted her on the back, tears falling down her cheeks.

When she left the kindergarten, Ju gave a bouquet to her teacher and said “Thank you.”

All other teachers and parents were moved to see the child speak and blessed her rosy future saying that such a moving story could be created only in the benevolent socialist educational system.

Ko Chol Hwa