Once at the door of a crowded bus, I heard a male passenger politely ask a female passenger in front of him "Are you getting off the bus, ma am?" The female passenger paid no attention to him. "Are you getting off the bus?" he asked again. The female passenger still paid no attention to him. "Are you getting off, or not?" he said in a loud voice, unable to control himself. There was still no reaction from the female passenger. "Are you deaf or dumb?" the man said, exasperated. He gave the female passenger a slight push. Now the female passenger was exasperated, too, glared at the man and hit back.
Seeing this, I suddenly remembered that on the route of Bus No. 60 was a factory for the disabled, and thus it was very possible the female passenger was indeed a deaf-mute, unable to hear anything. I quickly explained the situation to the male passenger, and wrote down a few sentences on a piece of paper: "Sorry, he would like to get off the bus, and spoke to you several times. Maybe you didn t hear him?" The female passenger nodded, and stepped aside. From that time on, I paid careful attention to the plight of deaf-mutes, and I even learned some sign language from them. In this way, I am not only able to serve them better, relate to them, but I can also reduce misunderstandings and disputes between them and the other passengers.