Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
The Advertiser-Tribune
The deaf community has its own culture even though it’s not assigned to a particular geographic area, a local educator says.
“The deaf community has a culture that goes along with it,” said Joe Moore, director of the International Cultural Center that’s housed at Tiffin Middle School. “The deaf culture exists in small communities and small pockets around the world.”
American Sign Language is one of three languages instructors are teaching during the cultural center’s eight-week language series. This year, the cultural center opened the classes to children.
American Sign Language is an adult class with one pupil, 14-year-old Emily Funkhouser, an eighth-grader at St. Joseph School.
Children in grades three through seven are learning Japanese.
Third- through fifth-graders and adults are taking Spanish courses, and third- through seventh-graders are learning how to communicate in French.
Moore said about 70 people are enrolled in the weekly classes, with children accounting for more than half of the total.
Moore said the classes fit more easily into people’s schedules than an academic-type course that might meet several hours per week. Also, the courses offer students something to do during winter evenings, he said.
“It was very well received (last year),” he said.
Funkhouser, the youngest participant in the American Sign Language class, said she previously knew how to communicate her name using the language, but now knows signs for animals, greetings, numbers and phrases.
“It’s friendly. It’s a nice class. It’s fun to be in,” she said. “(Learning sign language is) easy and kind of hard. It’s easy to learn, but it’s hard to get it out. It’s hard to read. … It’s easy to do it.”
Sue Fuller, an American Sign Language interpreter who works at Columbian High School, is teaching the course.
She said several deaf citizens live in the community, and skills her 17 students are learning are to enable them to have social interactions with members of the deaf population.
They’ll learn how to greet deaf people and say their names, which would enable them to make person connections, she said.
Fuller said she’s teaching her students fundamentals of American Sign Language, such as the alphabet, numbers, common phrases and typical greetings.
They’re also learning about words associated with eating, school and time.
“There is so much to learn with any language; it can’t be covered in a period of eight weeks,” she said. “It exposes people to an entire language that many are fascinated with but don’t know a whole lot about.”
Fuller said she always talked with her hands, fell in love with American Sign Language — the only visual language — and made a career out of deaf communication. She said she has 15 years of interpreting experience.
“I love to communicate,” she said. “It just gives me an opportunity to communicate … through a completely different avenue.”
The deaf community has its own culture even though it’s not assigned to a particular geographic area, a local educator says.
“The deaf community has a culture that goes along with it,” said Joe Moore, director of the International Cultural Center that’s housed at Tiffin Middle School. “The deaf culture exists in small communities and small pockets around the world.”
American Sign Language is one of three languages instructors are teaching during the cultural center’s eight-week language series. This year, the cultural center opened the classes to children.
American Sign Language is an adult class with one pupil, 14-year-old Emily Funkhouser, an eighth-grader at St. Joseph School.
Children in grades three through seven are learning Japanese.
Third- through fifth-graders and adults are taking Spanish courses, and third- through seventh-graders are learning how to communicate in French.
Moore said about 70 people are enrolled in the weekly classes, with children accounting for more than half of the total.
Moore said the classes fit more easily into people’s schedules than an academic-type course that might meet several hours per week. Also, the courses offer students something to do during winter evenings, he said.
“It was very well received (last year),” he said.
Funkhouser, the youngest participant in the American Sign Language class, said she previously knew how to communicate her name using the language, but now knows signs for animals, greetings, numbers and phrases.
“It’s friendly. It’s a nice class. It’s fun to be in,” she said. “(Learning sign language is) easy and kind of hard. It’s easy to learn, but it’s hard to get it out. It’s hard to read. … It’s easy to do it.”
Sue Fuller, an American Sign Language interpreter who works at Columbian High School, is teaching the course.
She said several deaf citizens live in the community, and skills her 17 students are learning are to enable them to have social interactions with members of the deaf population.
They’ll learn how to greet deaf people and say their names, which would enable them to make person connections, she said.
Fuller said she’s teaching her students fundamentals of American Sign Language, such as the alphabet, numbers, common phrases and typical greetings.
They’re also learning about words associated with eating, school and time.
“There is so much to learn with any language; it can’t be covered in a period of eight weeks,” she said. “It exposes people to an entire language that many are fascinated with but don’t know a whole lot about.”
Fuller said she always talked with her hands, fell in love with American Sign Language — the only visual language — and made a career out of deaf communication. She said she has 15 years of interpreting experience.
“I love to communicate,” she said. “It just gives me an opportunity to communicate … through a completely different avenue.”