Sign Language Blog

“This is my existence,” said Kuhlman, who has been volunteering at the Literacy Council of Buncombe County for four years. “There are so many ways to make the world better, even if it’s just one person at a time.”
Dedicated students

Every Friday, Laura Morales is Kuhlman’s student. The two work out of an English grammar workbook, going over exercises that have Morales correcting verb tenses, completing sentences and forming questions.

Eager to learn the language of her new home, Morales tries to study as much as she can. But finding time while raising her three children, including an 8-month-old, and cleaning offices 20 hours a week is hard. It’s that dedication, his students’ more than his own, that keeps Kuhlman returning to the literacy council.

Although her English isn’t perfect yet, Morales can clearly express how she feels about her instructor.

“He’s a very good teacher,” she said. “I am happy with him because he explains, and he listens to me, and he corrects me when I am wrong.”

The hearing loss prevents Kuhlman from teaching large groups. Instead he sees his students one at a time. He can no longer attend cocktail parties. Watching TV is hard. The words, without captions, are just noise, he said.

Rather than hindering him, though, his disability has perhaps enabled him to understand more fully where his students are coming from. He knows what it’s like to be hearing noise that you can’t understand.

“The hearing impaired and the Spanish speakers are very much alike,” he said. “Both are trying to sort through the noise and make some sense out of it.”
More than a teacher

The bond between him and his students is more than just one of shared experiences or circumstances, though. He and his wife served as witnesses when one of his students got married. They were at the baptism of that same couple’s child. One wall of his dimly lit classroom is lined with photos of past and present students.

He pointed at one and said, “This one is from Ecuador, been here for 25 years, been taking ESL for two years.” Pointing to another he said, “She started out cleaning houses then got a job in a bridal store as a seamstress, and now she and her husband manage an upscale bed and breakfast.”

He explains how one of his students graduated from technical school in Mexico and was a track hero but couldn’t find work here. A paper taped to the wall lists his students followed by their children. He likes to keep track of all his students’ children as they become frequent topics of conversation.

“It turns out I am like a small-scale confessor,” he said. “Not the priestly kind, but the kind that will listen.”

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806300301