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Katie Mahler may be a North Hills High School senior on the verge of graduation, but she's still practicing the alphabet.
Mahler finds herself running through the letters while she's walking the halls of her school, but don't look for her lips to be moving. Look at her hands.
Mahler is among the North Hills High students who have taken the school's American Sign Language classes, and with another student recently founded a sign language club.
Mahler is not deaf, nor are any of the club's 15 members, or any of the students who have taken the school's two sign language courses, now in their fifth year.
"It's neat to communicate with people of a whole different world," said Mahler, 18. "Their style of living is totally different, and yet you can communicate with them."
American Sign Language, or ASL, dates to the 1800s. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet is credited with bringing it to America from travels to England and France after being asked to help with the education of a neighbor's deaf daughter. He established the first school for the deaf in America.
ASL, used predominantly in the United States and Canada, is the native language used by deaf people, but how many use the language is not known, said MaryAnn Stefko, sign language coordinator at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Edgewood.
Sign language is recognized as a foreign language, and is increasingly being taught at all grade levels, Stefko said. Businesses are looking for employees with sign language skills to communicate with the deaf, who are increasingly moving into the workplace,
thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"You never know when you might meet a deaf person, and you have to be prepared," said senior Ryan Hoffman, 18.
North Hills High School began offering sign language instruction after a 1999 graduate took up a petition to have it offered as a language elective, said Barbara Drennen, who teaches the class and is the club's sponsor.
Drennen said 45 to 75 students take the class each semester. Their reasons include wanting to know it for a future career, having contact with deaf or hard-of-hearing people, learning how to be more expressive with facial and body language, and developing better listening skills.
"It's not really that difficult to learn as long as you want to," said junior Ashley Markewinski, 17, and a club founder. "A lot of it's common sense. You can tell what the signs mean. You just have to have the desire."
What to do with the chorus from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - owimoweh, owimoweh -- presented a quandary for the club's members as they prepared to perform at the annual "Arts Alive" program last week.
But sign language is not a word-for-word interpretation, nor is it "English on the hands," Stefko said.
"You kind of pick out the most important words and put them together where they make sense," Mahler said.
Sign language is more than hand and finger movements, Stefko said. Facial expressions do for sign language what tone of voice does for spoken languages.
"Most of it is in your facial expressions. You can't sign something sad and smile and make it mean the same thing," Markewinski said.
Mahler and Markewinski have used their sign language skills at their jobs to help deaf customers, who are pleasantly surprised by their ability.
"By the end of the semester, half the students will have met a deaf person in the community," Drennen said. "It makes our community more accessible."
By Brian C. Rittmeyer, Tribune Review
Mahler finds herself running through the letters while she's walking the halls of her school, but don't look for her lips to be moving. Look at her hands.
Mahler is among the North Hills High students who have taken the school's American Sign Language classes, and with another student recently founded a sign language club.
Mahler is not deaf, nor are any of the club's 15 members, or any of the students who have taken the school's two sign language courses, now in their fifth year.
"It's neat to communicate with people of a whole different world," said Mahler, 18. "Their style of living is totally different, and yet you can communicate with them."
American Sign Language, or ASL, dates to the 1800s. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet is credited with bringing it to America from travels to England and France after being asked to help with the education of a neighbor's deaf daughter. He established the first school for the deaf in America.
ASL, used predominantly in the United States and Canada, is the native language used by deaf people, but how many use the language is not known, said MaryAnn Stefko, sign language coordinator at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Edgewood.
Sign language is recognized as a foreign language, and is increasingly being taught at all grade levels, Stefko said. Businesses are looking for employees with sign language skills to communicate with the deaf, who are increasingly moving into the workplace,
thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"You never know when you might meet a deaf person, and you have to be prepared," said senior Ryan Hoffman, 18.
North Hills High School began offering sign language instruction after a 1999 graduate took up a petition to have it offered as a language elective, said Barbara Drennen, who teaches the class and is the club's sponsor.
Drennen said 45 to 75 students take the class each semester. Their reasons include wanting to know it for a future career, having contact with deaf or hard-of-hearing people, learning how to be more expressive with facial and body language, and developing better listening skills.
"It's not really that difficult to learn as long as you want to," said junior Ashley Markewinski, 17, and a club founder. "A lot of it's common sense. You can tell what the signs mean. You just have to have the desire."
What to do with the chorus from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - owimoweh, owimoweh -- presented a quandary for the club's members as they prepared to perform at the annual "Arts Alive" program last week.
But sign language is not a word-for-word interpretation, nor is it "English on the hands," Stefko said.
"You kind of pick out the most important words and put them together where they make sense," Mahler said.
Sign language is more than hand and finger movements, Stefko said. Facial expressions do for sign language what tone of voice does for spoken languages.
"Most of it is in your facial expressions. You can't sign something sad and smile and make it mean the same thing," Markewinski said.
Mahler and Markewinski have used their sign language skills at their jobs to help deaf customers, who are pleasantly surprised by their ability.
"By the end of the semester, half the students will have met a deaf person in the community," Drennen said. "It makes our community more accessible."
By Brian C. Rittmeyer, Tribune Review