Julie Cho is the new American Sign Language teacher on campus. She teaches all grades from ASL 1 to ASL 4. This is Cho’s first year teaching at a high school, but she previously worked at Gallaudet University, as well as at the Pasadena Youth and Adult Language Center, where she taught all ages. 

“It’s more like a learning school [where they teach] kids [and adults] throughout all ages. Doesn’t matter how old they are. They all just take the same class, all world languages,” Cho signed.

Being a new teacher at a new school can be stressful. Cho stated that she enjoys working with and getting to know all of her students.

“My favorite part about working at Oak Park is meeting new students: ASL 1 – ASL 4. There are so many students in between. I love working with all of them,” Cho signed.  

One of Cho’s hobbies is art. When she was a child she would get home from school, do her homework and then start drawing immediately after. However, once she got to high school, she stopped drawing as frequently because she was busy with her assignments. Now Cho draws every once in a while.  

“I wanted to do that. It’s the first thing I thought of when I was little,” Cho signed.

Cho felt that since OPHS is not 100% accommodating to the Deaf community, she wanted to explain the struggles she might face while teaching. She signed that the public announcements are difficult and confusing for her and that something like closed captions would help.

“And I have no idea what’s going on. It’s hard for me because I can’t hear it and I don’t understand. That’s the hardest part but for the most part it’s good,” Cho signed. 

Cho expressed how her passion for teaching grew from frustration. Interactions with her Hard of Hearing and Deaf friends who had similar experiences contributed to that passion. It became important to her to share the Deaf culture to people outside of the community because not many people are aware of the Deaf community’s experiences. She felt that she needed to do something about it. So, to help others understand, she started to teach ASL to students.

“It became my passion,” Cho signed. “That’s what inspired me to become a teacher — being frustrated from the start — and now I teach here.”