Communicating by Hand
By Signe Jeppson-
“It’s like a secret code or being part of a secret club,” said Claire Gruver-Pandich on why she likes taking a sign language class at Kirkwood Community College. Every Tuesday and Thursday her mom picks her up at 3:15 to drive her to Cedar Rapids. After a two hour class her dad picks her up on his way home from work, and she gets home around 6. “It’s a big drive, which is tough,” said Claire about the 100 miles she drives every week to take the class, “but it’s worth it.”

At 15, a sophomore at Mount Vernon High School, Claire is the youngest out of twelve in her class at Kirkwood Community College. A typical sign language class consists of checking homework in, learning new signs and vocabulary, occasionally playing games, and of course quizzes and tests. Her teacher, Rachel Quass, has a no speaking rule “which makes it hard to keep up with” said Claire, “the better you are, the faster you are.” Although her no speaking rule makes it tough to keep up, Claire said that she is a great teacher and enjoys taking her classes.

Claire’s favorite part about the sign language class is how much fun it is to be in a classroom learning with others. She states, “we all mess up and it’s funny.” Claire began taking the sign language course at Kirkwood last semester; she is on language two out of four and plans on completing all four of the courses. “I’ve always thought it looked really cool, and I’ve always wanted to talk with my hands,” said Claire about what interested her about sign language.

Learning a new language is tough to do, especially when the language you are learning is hand movements. It is interesting how many of the hand movements are alike but mean completely opposite things. Messing up is part of the learning process and it is easy to do and sometimes very funny. Claire laughs as she adds, “It’s easy to mix up shy and prostitute, so sometimes you go up to a stranger and mean to say I’m shy but instead you say I’m a prostitute.”

Ever since she has taken the sign language classes, people see Claire talking with her hands and think she is saying something bad about them. One of her friends, Nat Klein said that he knows signing has benefits so he “asks her how to say random and silly things.” He says it is a fun way to communicate with others. She is spreading her knowledge to those around her, “she signs at home, we are all learning from her experience,” said Jennifer Pandich, Claire’s mother.

Claire doesn’t’ just want to stop at one language; she would like to learn Japanese, Chinese, or French. Claire has very high ambitions. She states, “Don’t be afraid to try sign language, it’s not that scary, deaf people are nice and understanding of those who haven’t been signing long.”