The Deaf Culture Club offers experiences, knowledge

Most people assume being bilingual means learning a language from another country. However, at Owens Campus of Delaware Technical Community College, Deaf Culture Club Advisor Ed Hall said American Sign Language is the second most-used language in the world.

The Deaf Culture Club has offered students experience with sign language and knowledge on deaf culture since it’s start in 2014 by Hall and the club’s first president Michael Hoffa.

Hall said Hoffa was living in Illinois when he stumbled upon videos that Hoffa was posting online, showing his viewers basic words in sign language.

“I had been interested in learning sign language for 25 years and was blown away to see someone doing whole words in the language other than just the alphabet,” he said.

Hall said he eventually decided to start the Deaf Culture Club on campus and really wanted to find a way to get Hoffa involved despite living in another state.

“I used to Skype in and teach the club,” Hoffa said. “Eventually I visited and fell in love with this place so I moved here and started teaching in person.”

Hall said Hoffa had to step down as president, but is still heavily involved in the club. Now the two work together to create lesson plans for the club members.

“Even though Michael’s not the president, he acts as an instructor,” Hall said. “What he does is he creates the video lessons on Youtube, he posts them on our Facebook and everyone studies them throughout the week.”

Hall said the club has people join mid-semester all of the time and it’s not hard for them to catch up because of their Facebook page. New member are able to learn what they’ve missed on their own time. He said the members are like sponges and are always excited to learn more.

“Usually what happens is that they enjoy learning it so much because we have a live group going over what we've learned in a fun manner,” he said. “The language is an art, very beautiful and engaging.”

Hall said during the meetings they don’t just learn sign language, they go over the dos and don’ts of deaf culture.

“It's considered extremely rude to walk between two people who are signing because they can't hear,” he said. “You would be blocking them and when you walk in front of the conversation, that's the same thing as turning music up really loud when hearing people are talking.”

He said it’s acceptable for people who are deaf to tap each other on the shoulder, grab each other or wave in each other’s faces if they need to get another’s attention.

“What is typically rude to hearing people is sometimes necessary for people who are deaf,” he said.

Hall said the club is not solely made up of people who are deaf or people who are hard of hearing. He said the bulk of their club is made up of hearing students but they have both deaf students and hard of hearing students as well.

“A lot of our members are people who have a family member who is deaf, so they have some draw or some interest in that,” he said. “Or some members find it fascinating because it is an artistic language.”

Vice President Shaneer Henry said her motivation for joining came from her internship at Howard T. Ennis School, in Georgetown, for students with special needs or disabilities.

“I saw the kids signing to communicate, and ever since then I fell in love with the language,” she said. “I joined the club to learn more about the culture and to learn ASL.”

Hall said the club’s success is not only due to how much fun it is to learn the language, but also how much fun they have as a group.

“We have people coming back semester after semester and we even have members skype back in to participate in some of the meetings,” he said. “We’re all like a little family.”

For more information on the Deaf Culture Club or to join, contact club advisor Ed Hall at ehall4@dtcc.edu.

The Deaf Culture Club at Owens Campus shows how to sign the word "love" in American Sign Language. Photo submitted by Ed Hall.