Town learns sign language to surprise hearing-impaired neighbor

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015
(samsungturkiye/YouTube)
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Muharrem is not used to being able to communicate with everyone around him because he's hearing-impaired, and not everyone around him knows sign language.

One morning he woke up and that had all changed. The moment was put together as part of an ad for Samsung Turkey.

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Many people who interacted with him, some of which Muharrem did not seem to know, had secretly taken sign language lessons to pull off the surprise.

Muharrem walked down the streets of Bagcilar, a district in Istanbul, with his sister, Ozlem. As they walked, people suddenly began greeting Muharrem in sign language. After the first few people interacted with him, he became confused.

"What's going on?" he asked his sister. The two continued walking.

When his taxi driver spoke to him, he looked overwhelmed. Finally the siblings arrived at a city square, where Muharrem was greeted by name by a virtual representative of Samsung. She explained that the surprise has been set up just for him.

Muharrem wiped away his tears, hugged his sister and thanked his neighbors for their help.

Samsung Turkey posted it on YouTube calling it "The Most Emotional Surprise of the Year." The ad has gone viral, with an unofficial version getting 3 million views.