What is Sign Language?
Sabikun Sinin & Isabella Villanueva, 23’
Sign Language is a visual language used around the world. It's an easy way to communicate for those who are deaf or have hearing problems. “With signing, the brain processes linguistic information through the eyes.” There are different variations of Sign Language used in different countries. The type of sign language that we use in the US is American Sign Language, or in short ASL. ASL is mainly used by deaf people and people who are hard of hearing, so all the communicating is done through your hands and facial expressions. In ASL, there are different gestures to represent different kinds of words. For example, names are often finger-spelled and words often have a motion sign that signifies it. ASL is a useful language for many reasons and that’s why we teach it in our club at BHSEC!
ASL is a language with growing interest, as it is currently the 4th most studied language in colleges around the US. The ASL club in BHSEC is a way to spread awareness by getting more people to know the language. So far, we have taught the numbers 1-50, simple words like breakfast, lunch, dinner, and their 5 ”W” questions. We also have a Google Classroom where we post references so that anyone in the club can view on their own time. We have separately (just Sabikun and I, to prepare for future lessons) started learning sentences and more complex phrases. We are excited to get to those by the end of the year. Our club meets every Tuesday at 4pm. The club is a lot of fun, and Mr. Wiggins is the advisor, who also knows some ASL. As mentioned earlier, ASL is a visual language so the communicating is done with your hands and facial expressions. ASL is very practical inside and outside of school. Many people around the world who are deaf communicate through ASL and you will be able to interact with many more people than you would have been able to prior. ASL is also a way to communicate with your friends if there’s ever an instance where you need to be silent, and it is a valuable skill to have because you can say you know another language. Ultimately, learning ASL will allow you to connect with 1 million people around the world (this is not including other types of sign language that are similar to ASL) who you otherwise would have been unable to get to know. If you are interested in joining, send an email to Bhsecasl@gmail.com and we got you covered!