Promoting sign language, connecting with deaf community

Editor’s Note

Since 2018, the United Nations has declared September 23 as the International Day of Sign Language to raise awareness of the importance of sign language.

At Tsinghua, there is a group of students who are deeply attached to sign language. On this special day, let’s read the story of the Sign Language Association!

Participating for not only compassion, 

but also understanding

The Sign Language Association participates in sign language promotion and social services in many ways.

“We have activities every week,” said the president Gao Yian from the Department of precision instrument, “the association has sign language classes for school every week, teaching basic sign language grammar and simple words. The teachers are all club members who have received systematic training. Sometimes we also invite deaf people or teachers from special schools to have lectures. ”

The club also has some public service activities. Once they tried to teach deaf students in high school physics and math, and they also organized and invited deaf friends to participate in various public welfare activities and gatherings.

When talking about deaf people, the former club president Chen Nina not only shows the compassion that normal people have, but also emphasizes a kind of real understanding. “Actually, deaf people just want more opportunities to communicate with us. What we want to do more is to promote sign language culture, so that more college students can use sign language to communicate with their deaf friends.” 

Warm and harmonious, 

always striving for a joint passion

The association members are all passionate about sign language. One of the senior members Zhang Yunyi from the Department of civil engineering, who joined the club ten years ago, is still involved in club activities and doing research on sign languages. 

The atmosphere in the association is warm and harmonious. The members share the same goal, and the club is developing by inheritance and sharing: the senior members teach the newcomers sign language, and train them to be teachers.

Today, the association continues its daily teaching activities, practicing songs and uploading them to Bilibili, which receives much highly admiration. In the future, the club will carry on to promote sign language and offer help within its power so that we can create a more inclusive language environment.

Learning sign language is perhaps just mastering a particular language technique. But learning to use the heart to help people in need is what one can learn by being part of this organization.

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TsinghuaRen | Promoting sign language, connecting with deaf community

Writers: Liu Ruoqi, Wang Jingjing

Editors: Liu Shutian, Sangeet Sangroula

Designer: Xia Yifei