Here’s another thing that surprised me until I experienced it first-hand: one-handed variant of sign language.

I rarely bump into deaf/mute people in Hong Kong. I once saw a guy holding his phone with one hand and doing sign language with the other because he was video chatting over the phone!

Of course, logically we don’t need the invention of mobile phone video chat to warrant the invention of one-handed sign language. You can just imagine some deaf/mute people holding groceries in one hand and still needing to talk. One shouldn’t have to expect them to drop the groceries on the floor in order to talk.

Nevertheless, it never occurred to me until I saw it.