Signing along to the beat

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Hannah Gelbert

Pedro Melgoza and Monica Campuzano perform the bubble gum skit in the ASL Show on November 16th. The comedy skit was performed by students in ASL 4 and shows the cycle of a piece of bubble gum left on a bench.

Evelyn Freeman, staff writer

The American sign language show at Carlsbad is a new opportunity to learn a little bit about deaf culture. Students who went to the show were able to experience their peers in the spotlight using this language.

The majority of students enrolled in the class learn the language for exposure and are then able to communicate to the deaf community.

“I think that the ASL show was a good experience because of the passion these kids have to become someone that can translate another language besides english,” sophomore Ariel Cope said.

For Cope, ASL is more than just a language, it is an art and a passion. The students performed for parents, kids and other students with comedy and different types and genres of music.

“The ASL shows are not just a few kids, we have a majority of students and faculty members that support the ASL community and they put on a performance for people to show them that it is cool and it is fun,” Cope said.

For Ariana Johnson, being in the show was not as pressuring or scary as some might think. While on the stage she knew that if she messed up it would be okay because not many people in the audience would notice. The dress rehearsals prepared Johnson for when she went up on the stage to perform.

“We had two days of dress rehearsal before the show so we were prepared for it and when the day came I just pretended that there was no one there in the audience,” Johnson said. “Some people laughed at you instead of with you and some people did not respond at all.”

Johnson finds it easy to communicate with someone else who knows ASL, because they understand what the other is saying. Johnson finds ASL easier to learn than other languages like french and spanish.

“It is fun because sometimes if it is really quite in the room and there is someone else who knows sign language you can talk to them and it is easier to communicate,” Johnson said.”You do not need an accent for it or anything like you would for french or spanish and it is easier to learn.”