LUFKIN, Texas (AP) - People from all backgrounds meet every week in East Texas with a common goal - to learn sign language.
The Lufkin Daily News reports Angelina College hosts non-credit courses designed for the community not for any particular degree program. Instructor Sandra Cantu leads the beginner sign language class each Tuesday starting at 6 p.m.
The students begin class in a close, comfortable circle where they can easily see each other and their instructor.
Cantu then opens the class with a little warmup. She quizzes the students on important terms they have been learning since the first class.
The environment is light and fun, with Cantu repeatedly making jokes, keeping her class on its toes. After the warm up, the class moves into the history of sign language.
Cantu touches on culture and important milestones in the building of the language. One important difference she touched on this week was the different dialects of sign language.
For example, American Sign Language and English Sign Language may seem similar, but there are important differences. While ESL is a word-for-word translation, ASL is more of a visual or pictorial translation, Cantu said.
“I try to let them be more hands-on rather than just sitting there,” Cantu said. “I try to get them to relax, be involved.”
Each student joined the class for a different, personal reason. Some wanted to be able to communicate with family members, some work with people in the deaf community, and still others just have a general interest in communication and language.
Margaret Green picked up the class because her daughter’s boyfriend of two years is deaf, and she wanted to be able to speak with him herself.
“She has a level one interpreting certification, so she always interprets, but I want to be able to talk to him,” Green said. “I want to learn.”
Tondayla Samford started taking the class to learn how to communicate with her 7-year-old granddaughter. She first found out about the class from an advertisement on Facebook.
“My daughter texts me and says, here it is, the perfect opportunity for you to learn sign language so I can talk to my granddaughter,” Samford said.
Cantu is deaf, and Green said, at first, she was nervous about being able to understand the instructor during class, but Cantu voices very well.
“We’re learning how to talk to her, and it’s so exciting,” Green said as she attempted to remember the sign for exciting that she learned in an earlier class.
“Our teacher is so great,” Samford said. “She’s doing a really good job. My daughter says I’ve learned so much.”
Cantu said she enjoys being able to teach her students from a deaf person’s perspective.
“I can teach them a little bit of deaf culture and the history of the language,” she said. “I really have a good time in my classes. I try not to let them be tied up. I try to get them to relax.”
Right now, there isn’t much of a deaf community that actively gathers and socializes, Cantu said. She would like to change that.
“One of the biggest concerns is having a social life,” Cantu said. “I would love to get together in the evening at a coffee house, once a month maybe.”
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Information from: The Lufkin Daily News, http://www.lufkindailynews.com
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