We all appreciate how much Moonlight Chicken is grounded in reality, so I wanted to add another bit that I haven’t seen yet: the school Heart wants to go to is very real, and it makes perfect sense for him to go there. In fact, it’s probably the best option in the world.
He’s looking at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in Rochester, New York (this is nowhere near NYC, for anyone unfamiliar with New York geography--it’s right on Lake Ontario and not too far from Niagara Falls). NTID is one of only two four-year college programs specifically for Deaf students in the US, the other being Gallaudet University, which is a liberal arts school and doesn’t offer an Engineering major. I am by no means an expert, but a fair bit of googling says that internationally there aren’t many options for Deaf students wanting to pursue higher education at an institution that specifically welcomes and is prepared to support them. At a lot of universities, they would be piecing together accommodations that many professors might be unfamiliar with, and that they might have to fight to get the school to provide. NTID is fully integrated and makes up a not insignificant portion of RIT’s student body: about 1 in 20 students are deaf or hard of hearing. There is history there, resources, experience, and a built-in community of support.
Anyway, not only is NTID unique in that regard, RIT also has a well-respected Engineering program. For a Deaf kid who wants to study engineering, it’s a fantastic choice.
We don’t know how good Heart’s English skills are, but he seems to have been a good student. And lucky for him, Thai Sign Language and American Sign Language are closely related, so that linguistic transition might even be easier than the written one.
I’m willing to bet Heart has known all about NTID for a while, but couldn’t bring it up with his parents. Him wanting to study in the US has nothing to do with Li Ming, that’s just a happy coincidence. That and the fact that Li Ming is forcing his parents to finally listen to him.
So as adorable as it is that these two lovebirds are going off on a grand international adventure together, I’m really glad that it’s grounded in reality, and that they both separately want to be there, for their own reasons. This story is not a fantasy, but reality can be even more beautiful.
