Study Abroad
New Zealand and Australia May 14 - June 4, 2025
New Zealand and Australia May 14 - June 4, 2025
During the summer of my Junior year, I studied abroad in New Zealand and Australia from May 14th to June 4th, 2025. We first went to New Zealand, visiting the cities of Wellington, Rotorua, and Auckland. And then to Australia, where we visited Melbourne and Sydney.
All of these experiences and lectures included a variety of languages all within one room. In New Zealand, all of the classes and interpreters provided signed in New Zealand Sign language (NZSL), and our tour guide, Rachel, translated NZSL into American Sign Language (ASL). In Australia, we had the same experience, where classes were completed in Auslan (Australian Sign Language), and Rachel translated it into ASL. There were some situations where anywhere from three to four languages were all present in the same room, including NZSL or Auslan, ASL, English, and specific to New Zealand, the Māori spoken and signed language. This was one of the biggest culture shocks that I experienced while studying abroad, as I would be looking at two or more people signing in multiple different languages at the same time. This was an experience unlike any other, and was truly amazing to see so many languages being able to communicate with each other in one room.
Our study abroad video below was created by the help of Clemson College of Arts and Humanities, as well as Dr. Jody Cripps and Rachel Soudakoff, our tour guide from Deaf Adventures. This video was created to piece together student's thoughts and what we have taken away from the experience. In our final presentation on the last day in Australia, I shared that I never thought that this would be an opportunity for me, to travel internationally as well as to grow my cultural knowledge and forming relationships with the Deaf community even across the world.
Wellington, New Zealand, the capital of the country, was the first city visited. We participated in many different guest lectures both at at local colleges in their interpreting and sign language programs, as well as organizations that work with the local community.
We had a visit at the New Zealand Parliament, also called "The Beehive," where our tour guide was fluent in NZ Sign Language! We spent time at the Wellington Deaf Society, a local Deaf club, where we got to socialize and learn more from the Deaf community in Wellington. Later in our trip, we went to the Te Papa Tongarewa, the NZ museum, learning more about the natural environment and culture.
Wellington allowed us to all become acquainted with one another as well as how multiple different languages would be interpreted, giving us an early opportunity to learn fingerspelling and a few vocabulary words from NZ Sign Language.
Then, we headed to Rotorua on an early morning flight. When we arrived, we spent an abundance of time getting to know and experience the Māori Culture more through visiting the Te Puia Geothermal Park and the Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, where we got to experience traditional Māori dances and food. We then visited different thermal parks and cruised across Lake Taupo to get an up-close view of the Māori Rock Carvings that are culturally historic.
Our last stop in Rotorua before heading to Auckland was a tour at the National Kiwi Hatchery to learn more about New Zealand's native and endangered animal, the Kiwi Bird.
Rotorua had a heavy focus on culture, including learning about the Maori Deaf Culture, which has a different dialect derived from NZ Sign Language. This added another layer of language and culture.
Our last stop in New Zealand was Auckland, where we got to visit different colleges and sit in on lectures in their NZ Sign Language classes. The first college we visited was the Auckland University of Technology where we got to sit in sign language classes and have conversation with many of the students who attend the program.
Pictured is a local Māori Deaf school, Ko Taku Reo. At Ko Taku Reo, we were welcomed through the Māori culture's traditional welcoming ceremony, a Powhiri at the school's welcoming house titled Ruaumoko Marae. We were welcomed through a series of traditional dances historically used to intimidate visitors prior to the community knowing that the group comes in peace, and then got to participate in their cultural welcoming tradition, which includes touching noses with the community and the newcomers. How visitors show peace is by picking up a leaf that a member of the Māori community has placed on the ground. This experience was especially powerful, as it brought the two communities together not only physically, but also gave us a chance to have a deeper connection with the culture.
While Rotoura had a heavy emphasis on the indigenous culture, Auckland had a heavy emphasis on that culture within the Deaf community.
Moving to Australia, we stopped in Melbourne, and our first stop was the City Centre and visiting a few different nonprofit organizations that support the Deaf community. Our second day in Melbourne was a recreational day, where we spent our time at the wildlife park.
We also visited Melbourne Polytechnic, a local school that offers courses in Australian Sign Language, or Auslan, where we got the opportunity to meet students learning the language. Our final stop was a visit to Victorian College For the Deaf, where we got to sit in on different classrooms ranging from elementary to high school ages, see different curriculum that students are learning, and experience different modality and bilingual teachings in both Auslan and English. Their campus has a fully Deaf run cafe, so we tested our Auslan skills and ate lunch there.
Our final stop of study abroad was Sydney, Australia. Here, we visited different service providers that work with the Deaf community, and went sight-seeing at the Sydney Opera House and different museums where our tours were Deaf-led. We also visited the Sydney Zoo, where Clemson students played Tiger Rag for the tiger pictured.
We visited the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, now named NextSense, where we visited a variety of different classrooms and had a presentation on the curriculum and learning of the school, as well as Macquarie University, where we got to sit in on lectures in their interpreting program.
Goals:
Before leaving, I had practical and personal goals such as to learn how to navigate a different country, something that I had never done before, and improve my signing skills. I expected growth in independence, flexibility, problem solving, and a stronger cultural awareness. What I did not expect was how deeply language and strong cultural experiences would influence me.
One of the most impactful aspects of the trip was that we communicated entirely through ASL, while also learning two additional signed languages, New Zealand Sign Language and Auslan, each having their own vocabulary, fingerspelling, and cultural norms. I experienced first-hand what it was like to navigate language barriers, and in order to communicate, we often wrote things down. Each community learned the fingerspelling system of each, and this allowed us to fingerspell words to each other to learn the respective signs for that word.
Rather than simply learning how to function in a new country, I was learning how to function across linguistic systems. Miscommunication occurred not due to difference in culture, but because of subtle linguistical differences. This ultimately gave me a deeper understanding and respect for language diversity within the Deaf community.
Culture:
Culturally and socially, New Zealand and Australia share similarities with the United States in terms of social norms, education systems, and public infrastructures, allowing social interactions to feel relatively familiar. However, there were major differences in how signed languages are recognized and valued. New Zealand Sign Language is officially recognized as one of the country's official languages, made visible in public spaces, educational conversation, and national identity. Comparing this to the United States made me reflect on how, although ASL is widely used, it still does not hold the level of recognition that it deserves. Seeing NZSL being recognized in a formal setting challenged understandings about what language equity can and should look like.
Looking back, I did in fact learn how to navigate a different country and improve my signing skills. I did that, but I also learned how to navigate different languages, different signing systems, and different cultural frameworks. This experience ultimately strengthened my connection and support to the Deaf community, my adaptability, my understanding of language barriers and learning different systems of communication and expanded my awareness of what it means to be involved in such amazing communities.