Mariah Escobar 
Aarykah Navarro/ THE RIDER
The Learning Center hosted an American Sign Language Sentence Structure workshop Wednesday in its building on the Edinburg campus and Friday in the Music, Science and Learning Center on the Brownsville campus.
Ruby Mendieta, an ASL and interpretation senior and a tutor, imparted the event.
“[Students] can expect to see the difference between English and American Sign Language,” Mendieta said.
She added she remembers being a student struggling and hoping to be with a group having similar problems in tutoring and sees students now, “struggling just to feel welcomed.”
Many may struggle with sentence structure as ASL is not a direct interpretation of spoken English, according to the tutor.
“I know for me, personally, when you learn a language, you want to learn it the right way … and I know ASL is a little different from other languages because it’s so highly valued in the deaf community,” Mendieta said. “Just how proficient you are can also just guarantee how accepted you are by … the deaf community.”
Josue Peralta De Jesus, a special education junior, said he is taking an ASL 3 course, improving his skills by showing up to tutoring and practicing daily.
“Sentence structure is something that … I struggle with a lot,” Peralta De Jesus said. “I’m gonna start thinking in ASL, not English. … So, I am gonna use this a lot.”
If more people learned sign language, it would make things easier for deaf people, Mendieta added.
“I notice when students have a good experience and feel confident early on in ASL, they’re more encouraged to continue learning,” she said. “When they continue learning about the language, they want to learn about the culture, and that in itself allows students to have more of an open mind in regards to the deaf community.”
Peralta De Jesus said there are many misconceptions about the deaf community; for example, some people may not know “deaf people drive.”
“Everybody is human,” he said. “So … [the] biggest difference is just a language barrier.”
Mendieta encourages everyone to learn ASL. She mentioned she had a student who was a barista that wanted to learn how to use sign language because she had a deaf customer.
“I’m more than happy to help anyone who’s interested in learning sign,” the tutor said.
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