Broughton Island (Dec 15/03) - Markosie Aningniuq has a special gift he can share with students, teachers and classroom assistants at Inuksuit school.

His gift is with languages. Not only does he speak Inuktitut and English, he also has a third language -- sign language.

This is Aningniuq's first year as a classroom assistant and part of his job is working with two hearing impaired students.

"It's been challenging, but I wouldn't trade it for any other job," he said.

Aningniuq said it is hard to describe the feeling of being able to communicate with someone who can't hear.

"It's the best feeling in the world," he said. "I'm contributing to the students' education."

"Knowing sign language is very important because it's the only way the two students can learn and communicate," he added.

When Aningniuq first started working with the students, he admitted he was a little nervous about using his new skills.

"The first time one of the students, a little girl, signed to me I didn't know how to reply," he said.

"When I did sign back the girl was surprised that she had someone to talk to."

Harder than it looks

Aningniuq said sign language may look easy, but it is very complicated.

"When I was first learning I thought it was just finger spelling, but it's a lot more. There are a lot of body movements and facial expressions. Everything has to be very visual," he said.

Aningniuq learned to sign in April of last year. In June, he completed all of his training. The school was looking for people interested in learning how to sign to become classroom assistants.

"The classes were hard in the beginning," he said. "When I started getting the hang of it I realized just how much I learned."

"I never thought that I would ever get into sign language but I love it," he said.

Even though Aningniuq can understand most signs, he is still learning and building his vocabulary.

"I learn a lot from the students that I work with," he said.