Sign Language Blog

ESU Color Guard Learns Sign Language

September 12, 2008 on 9:13 am | In Sign Language |

East Stroudsburg University’s color guard squad has added a new facet to its performance during football games — they render the words to the alma mater in American Sign Language.

“I’m glad we started doing it,” said Ashlie Grimes, the squad’s captain. “It’s more visual. It’s more audience participation than in the past.”

But while it has performed the song twice thus far this year, the squad hit a bump.

“We took the words too literally and, when actually translated, it made no sense,” Grimes said. “People looking at the sign language wouldn’t understand what we were saying.”

About 5,000 people in Monroe County are deaf or hard of hearing, and about 150 of them use American Sign Language as their primary means of communication, according to Jeffrey Weber, an assistant professor of public administration who has conducted a survey on their needs.

The squad sought out Weber and Sandy Shaika, the sign language interpreter at ESU, and asked them to critique their translation. They found out how far off they were.

“Just because the word sounds the same, it has a different meaning if translated a bit too literally,” Shaika said.

The team had tried to translate the phrase, “mystical charms bind thine children to thee,” from the song.

Instead, their translation said something more like, “ESU is a witch that casts its spell and binds up its children.”

In fact, the sign language translation is very different: “children fascinate connect with the college,” said Shaika.

American Sign Language is a conceptual and three-dimensional language, with different grammar and syntax from typical English, Shaika said. It also relies on facial expression and body language to convey meaning.

The team first got the idea of rendering ESU’s song in sign language when its lieutenant, Caroline Meyers, attended a football game in Syracuse. There, she saw — and was moved by — that school’s color guard doing the same thing.

On Wednesday, Shaika met the color guard on the university’s football field, where she led them in a properly translated version of the song.

Shaika lauded the effort to translate the song. “I’m so happy the color guard has thought of this,” she said. “It emphasizes the diversity in our school and how we celebrate.”

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080912/NEWS/809120353/-1/NEWS01