Well I Learnt Basically Nothing
Posted On November 6, 2023
I googled “creative ways to learn ASL” and the Start ASL website on the article The Best Songs in Sign Language. So I decided to to wach some of the songs and see if I could pick up any sign language from the songs/videos in that article. I decided to use songs I already knew from that website to make it easier.
Check out the videos I watched:
- Let It Go
- Pump It by the Black Eye Peas
- Firework by Katy Perry
- Tik Tok by Kesha
- Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus
- American Idiot by Green Day
- Fireflies by Owl City
My feelings on the Start ASL’s The Best Songs in Sign Language.
- Information – 1/10
- Engagement – 10/10
- Comments – Ok so some of the videos were actually quite commercial. For example, the video for Let It Go or Pump It – I found it hilarious, I was literally laughing watching them.. I also enjoyed that it had a bunch of songs I knew well and songs I jammed to in my early teen years. I was definitely engaged with the videos and found them entertaining. However, I did not really learn anything from the videos. I learnt a total of 7 signs in 7 videos. Even then I had to google some of the words to double check I was correct. It was too fast, and there was no repetition. Plus, I couldn’t tell what sign was for what word in the song and whether it was for a phrase or just a word. I tried watching the same video multiple times, which did not help either. I was very confused and entertained while watching. I have only given these videos a 3/10 overall because they were entertaining and comical. I would not recommend trying to learn ASL from them.
- Overall Rating – 3/10
*I do want to mention that in these videos, you can really see how facial expressions and body language can affect meaning in ASL.*
Below are pictures of the 7 words I learned from the various songs/videos I watched this week.
About The Author
Alannah Uliski
2 Comments
I feel that often during my own learning with ASL I either felt like I learned a lot or nothing. Did you find this to be an issue with other resources as well? Also do you think there’s a better way that you could use something like this form of learning in an effective way to learn some signs?
I think you are right. Most resources were either great or not, in terms of how much I learned from them or how effective they were. I want to try taking a class or program-type thing online and see if that is an effective or ‘easier’ way of learning.
In terms of a better way to use these songs to teach or learn. I was thinking about that after I was writing this post because I realized it did not go so well. I couldn’t come up with any that would make it a great resource, but I thought of some ways to maybe make it a bit more effective. Something like repeated practice over and over to learn the songs after already knowing a bunch of the most common signs and basics of ASL. Or maybe there was a tutorial or slowed-down version to help learn all of the signs before trying to sign with the music.