Every Tuesday at 8 pm in room f111, American Sign Language club holds a meeting. I first found out about the club at the get involved fair three weeks ago but I went to my first meeting just last Tuesday. I really wanted to go to the meetings because I am a social work major and sign-language would be really useful in my future career. I have long been interested in learning sign-language, but I have never had the opportunity too.

The first half of the meeting was run like a lecture, where one person was in the front teaching and everyone was following along. It did not feel like a class though because after she showed us a motion we all did it too, so it was very interactive. We did not do anything too advanced. We learned words like friend and student.  We also learned all of the colors and the alphabet. After we learned all the new words, we broke off into groups so that we could practice. We asked simple questions like, “What is your name?” and “What year are you in?” It was amazing how much information I learned about people just by signing to them. At the end of the meeting they had sign-up sheets for all of the events that they were going to be doing for the rest of the year.

After the club, I felt really proud of everything that I had learned. I did not learn enough to have a full-fledged conversation with someone and I do not remember everything that we went over, but the club helped me to understand that learning basic sign-language is not that hard. When someone loses their hearing, they lose their primary form of communication. If everybody learned basic sign language, like the alphabet and simple greetings, then deaf people would have a much easier time communicating with rest of the world. I believe that ASL club is one of the most important clubs on campus because it helps students learn a skill that is very important, yet not very prevalent, in our society.