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Maranatha Sign Language Students Practice Their Skills at Sea World!
Education Dec 18, 2014
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Front row: Karen Dahlia, Sharon Chung, Caroline Tan, Alx Janetzke, Chloe Jia, Flora Liu, Dani Shishoian; Middle row: Asa Scott, Steven Walker, Jane Tawel, Jenna Wright; Back row: Michael Lee, Gordon Tawel, Christine Tan, Sydney Carpino, Theresa Gibson-Boone – Courtesy photo
For many years, Maranatha High School has had a thriving American Sign Language (ASL) program as part of their Modern Language offerings. In fact, the current ASL faculty member, Mrs. Chung ’02 is an alumna of the school and took ASL when she attended MHS. Recently, Mrs. Chung organized a fun and enriching field trip for her students to practice their skills at Sea World’s “Deaf Day”. On this day, Sea World had interpreters for the shows and the students were able to meet and sign with members of the deaf community. Mrs. Chung organized the trip to give the students an opportunity to connect with members of the deaf community, practice their skills, and learn from watching the interpreters.
MHS student Alex Janetzke ’16 commented, “It was great to experience what it’s like to try to watch the interpretation and the show. Also, meeting and talking to deaf people was a first for me and it was a cool experience signing with them.”
Christine Tan ’16 shared, “It was such a great experience meeting some deaf people and getting hands-on experience with them. Since we told them we were learning ASL, I could tell that they were signing slower for us so that we could understand and that was really nice of them.”
In addition, American Sign Language students at Maranatha have attended “Deaf Day” at Universal Studios. They also practiced their signing skills at a silent mall excursion – using only ASL with each other and store vendors.
