Juniors Introduce Language for the Unspoken

Millard North has offered a number of different language classes and clubs for students, from more common languages in America like Spanish to the Southeast African dialectal Swahili. However, two students decided to bring a new language club, one the school has never seen anything like before.

Juniors Olivia Obeng and Kori Christensen started an American Sign Language (ASL) Club. The idea came over the summer when they met a woman who signed, through a church function that went to the Iowa school for the deaf.

“She introduced us to sign language and it sparked an interest. It just seemed like a cool thing to learn.” Obeng said.

So far the club has done introductions to the language, teaching the alphabet and simple greetings of ASL.

“When I taught in schools the students had to sign formally, signing every word exactly with correct grammar. What we are teaching is more conversational” Said Special Education Teacher and club sponsor Tricia Rohde.

Though what is being taught is simpler than it could be, that does not mean sign language is easier than any other form of communication.

“Sign language acts a lot like most languages in the way dialects have been developed, so signs will differ in different areas.” Christensen said.

Though there are some differences, some are able to keep talking. Junior Skyler Miller has been able to keep the conversation going.

“I learned sign language when I lived back in Ohio.” Miller said. “I’ve noticed a few differences, for example some letters and words for things like food, but they are small and still pretty similar.”

For Miller learning sign language was more than just something fun to do, but a way for him to communicate with a new friend.

“I was Volunteering at a group called project support at my school and one of the girls there was deaf. I started learning so I could help more, and we got close so I learned more and more” Miller said. “She is one of the sweetest people I ever met and it is really awkward to go through a translator.”

Knowing sign language is a huge step when working with deaf people, and in the future that will be important to MN. There have been plans to add a curriculum for the deaf into Millard North’s special needs program.

“Until now we have outsourced students that were deaf to another district” Said Rohde “The district is beginning to implement programs that would allow us to keep more student here.”

However at the moment the club isn’t for deaf students, but instead just students that want to learn a language unlike any other.

“A friend and I started learning it together just before school started” senior Claudia Holm said “We both saw it in the T.V. show ‘Switched at Birth’ and thought it would be interesting to teach ourselves”

American sign language is something that many rely on to communicate, but these students want to teach others how much fun it can be even if you do not have to use it.