Have you heard about the new and budding club, APU Signs? Join me as I learn and explore more about the club and its activities in conversation with one of the co-founders of the club, Dwithi Hariharan.
What is APU Signs?
APU Signs is a club that is dedicated to learning about deaf cultures and deaf communities around the world through learning sign language. Currently, their focus is on American Sign Language (ASL) and later they plan on focusing on Japanese sign language (JSL).
Main objectives
The club aims to accomplish the 3 As- Accessibility, Awareness, and Approachability. The members hope to create a student body that is more aware of the deaf community. This would require a student body that is able to use some basic level of sign language and understands what should or should not be done when people from the deaf community are incorporated into our APU community.
Dwithi said “We believe these 3 things go hand in hand as by becoming more aware of their culture, language and community we become more approachable and accessible to them and vice versa which helps eliminate the gap that exists today.”
Current club activities and future plans
Currently, their focus is on learning ASL as well as using books and videos to study deaf culture, terminology, values, and history. Dwithi further explained that she is trying to get in touch with her Trinidadian sign language teachers so that they can hold a few seminars that shed light on first-hand experiences and detailed explanations.
As for the future, they are planning to introduce Japanese sign language from the next semester. For this purpose, the club is trying to collaborate with the Oita School for the deaf. This will help them gain some insight, arrange seminars on JSL and understand what it means to be a deaf person or hard of hearing in Japan.
Who can join?
The club welcomes students from around the globe. Anyone, anywhere, who has an interest in learning about the deaf community can join. Besides, there is no established teacher-student dynamic. It is more like a study group focused on learning and sharing something new that they learned with each other. As a result, they are open to accepting people who are at different levels of learning.
Lastly, we have a message from co-founder, Dwithi Hariharan
She says “Don’t be afraid to start! Starting to learn a new language can be very intimidating, but since we don’t really have a teacher-student dynamic there is no fear of making a mistake. Most members of the club are absolute beginners and it is a very relaxed, open study group about something that is really important to learn about and be aware of in our diverse community.”
If you have any interest in awareness about deaf cultures, language learning, or if you want to try something new check out APU Signs on Instagram. As for people interested in joining, the club is open for students to join anytime
Find them here: https://www.instagram.com/apusigns/?hl=en
Special thanks to Dwithi Hariharan and Mursalin Hossain for this wonderful initiative and for their invaluable time.
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