Hey everyone! This week I was a little stumped on what to learn. When I first thought about learning ASL I knew I wanted to start with the basics like numbers and letters; but now that those are done I was wondering what category to do next. Well, instead of a category, I decided to learn some basic signs to open up a conversation! I did this with Lingvano.
Lingvano is a free ASL teaching app with in-app purchases. When you first open the app, it will ask you what dialect of sign language you want to learn (American, British, or Australian), then, it will ask why you want to learn and help you set a goal for how much you want to learn in a certain timeframe. So far, I’ve used it a couple times this week to broaden my vocabulary, and have been able to keep a dictionary of sorts through the app. It automatically keeps track of all the signs you learn and how accurately you’re able to learn them through the app’s lessons.
The lessons are quite fun and extremely easy. It will start you off with basic greetings and more frequently-used words. The lessons include a slow-down feature, so in the lessons or in the dictionary, if the video is signing a word too fast for your liking, there is a turtle icon in the corner that you can press to slow down the video. Another fun feature is that the app will show you variations of different world dialects, like British and Australian.
One thing I found quite interesting is that you can do any sign with your left or right hand. I always assumed that there were certain signs for each hand and that specific hand had to sign them, which was quite silly to think as a lot of people try to learn ASL through TikTok or other sites that reverse the video view which would be very hard to replicate. The only thing that is a general rule is that once you pick which hand you prefer to sign with (usually your dominant, so for me it would be my right), you stick with it and not flip-flop between your two sides.
I learned quite a few more things that are important to know when having a conversation in ASL. For starters, when asking a question, you should lower your eyebrows to indicate your question. Another thing I learned was how much more variation there is in sign language. For example, when signing the word ‘deaf,’ you can put your finger from your ear to your chin, or the reverse of your chin to your ear.
Overall, Lingvano is a fantastic app for learning conversational ASL, and will definitely stay downloaded on my phone after this project is over!
Thanks for joining me everyone!
Awesome! I can say you are so determined and have consistency on learning ASL. It’s absolutely stumping but your decision to improve on signs to open up a conversation is brilliant. I really liked the facial expression by eyebrows to indicate a question. I am waiting for your next posts!
Thank you! The expressions were something I never even thought of. ASL is truly a whole body experience.
This is such a great post! I love the app you’ve chosen, it seems like a fantastic tool. The ability to slow down the videos and the dictionary tracking, sound really helpful, especially for beginners. I also found it really interesting that you can use either hand to sign, which I did not know. It’s great that you’re learning not just the signs, but also the small details, like the eyebrow rule for questions. I can see how that would make a conversation feel more natural in ASL. Keep up the great work Carys, and it’s awesome that you plan to continue using the app after your project ends!
Thank you! I definitely think that the more small things I learn the bigger impact it makes!
The app looks super great for learning ASL! I also thought each hand would have specific signs, but now that I think about it, that does seem silly. This would drive me nuts if I preferred to sign with one hand over the other! I love how well-written you blog posts are and the care you put into learning this skill!!
Right?! Thank you so much! I truly do love learning this and can’t wait to apply it with all my inclusion kids at summer camp!
This app that you found looks like a great starting point for you! It’s so inspiring that you are going to learn ASL, its going to be such an amazing and rewarding journey. Sometime in my future I want to learn as well, so I will have to keep this app in mind!
Thank you! It truly is rewarding. Even learning basic signs goes a long way to help out those who can’t communicate with words.
I appreciate your review of the Lingvano app as I had downloaded it on my phone many months ago but then forgot about it and haven’t done much with it. So this was a great reminder about the app and it helped to motivate me to give it a try!
Also, I find it interesting that when asking a question in ASL that it is important to lower your eyebrows. Instinctively I feel I would do the opposite and raise my eyebrows. It is crazy how much ASL relies on body signals that we aren’t even fully aware of when we are speaking a language. This is a good reminder that in all interactions in our daily lives, it is important to be mindful of body language.
I love Lingvano! I keep going back to it to practice! Definitely worth the try!