ASL
(American Sign Language) taught at Big Sky High

By Aaron Toney

American sign language is more than just a way to talk to deaf people for some people it’s a way of life and for others it’s a class they take at Big Sky. The AlS class taught by Ms. White, Ms. Kate and Mrs. Pearsall is a fun and productive course with an abundance of knowledge to be learned.
“Every day is different from the next but usually we just practice our greetings in sign.
Sometimes we will watch a video of a professional interpreter or go through our class books “Senior Kylee McCloney says” “I really hope to learn how to speak to hearing impaired people easier”.
For those who are thinking of becoming interpreters themselves in the future, this class is a great way to get a head start on that dream.
”I haven’t thought about going into the interpreter field myself but in the future I may have a job with someone that is deaf and I think it would be nice to be able to talk to them easier” Kylee McCloney explained.
Two to three out of every one thousand children are born with detectable levels of hearing loss in the United States. According to deaf statistics of the U.S. there are three recognized “classes” of being deaf, the first (defined as, “deaf in both ears”), the second (being defined as, can’t understand any speech what so ever) and the third (defined as, at best they can hear and understand some words when shouted into their better ear.) The United States are not the only place with with a growing population of “deaf people”.
There are also different dialects of sign language. Interestingly the English dialect of sign language derives from the French dialect. There are a few others including African American sign language, Ghanaian sign language, and Nigerian sign language.
Not only do high school students study ASL but college students too, which is good news for those certain people that what to take their ASL course a little further. “I’m am not personally in the ASL class but I’ve heard some very positive educational views about it.” Trinity Ask says “I think that the ASL class is a very unique class and I think that big sky should have more class that are like it”
“I’m not personally in the class but if had the opportunity to join, like if one of my friends decided to then I totally would, because ASL is a good way to better understand the English language,” Ask exclaimed
“My mom is a home caretaker and she has told me before that sometimes she has to teach some of her older clients some ASL to communicate with them easier” Trinity Ask said.
“These people that she teaches basic ASL to where not born deaf but they just have a hard time understanding words now because of their age, and rather than just talking at them loudly she figured that signing is easier” Ask says.
“I’ve never thought about going into the interpreter field myself, even if I did I think that I would end up messing up,” she explained. Just because Ask doesn’t want to go into the interpreter field doesn’t mean that everyone doesn’t want to. If the ASL class sounds interesting to you, it’s important to take the advantages of it because not everyone will and if you do that’s just extra experience and that can never heart.