Governor Walz's Sign Language Interpreter has Gone Viral

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been holding many many press conferences over the past few months, first for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and now for the murder of George Floyd. But someone has been stealing Governor Walz's spotlight a little bit: his sign language interpreter Nic Zapko.

Nic is from Minneapolis and is deaf herself. She has started going viral with all of the press conferences Governor Walz has been hosting because of her extremely expressive sign language. I took a few sign language classes in college and I loved it, I think ASL is so unique compared to other languages but also extremely helpful in certain situations. Also, something I learned from taking ASL classes it that facial expressions are EXTREMELY important in order to get your point across when you're signing to someone, hence the reason why Nic is so expressive.

I love watching Nic during the press conferences! I can understand what she's saying every once in a while because of my small knowledge of ASL but otherwise, all of her expressions really steal the show. And many people on Twitter agree:

Of course, Nic's ASL interpretation is incredibly important for the deaf community in Minnesota so they're able to understand what the Governor is saying during his conferences. Nic told WCCO during an interview, "'The deaf community in Minnesota is incredibly thrilled, and they are finally able to feel included and feel a part of the state and say we are here, we aren’t separate.'"

Here are a few videos where you can see Nic in action during recent Minnesota state press conferences: