Funky fingers… and hands…and apps?

So far my learning and teaching of American Sign Language is going better than I thought considering I am strictly learning from online sources. I had a few moments of doubt where I felt as if I was going in circles resulting in going nowhere! However, I have persevered and made it through! Recently I have been trying my best with remembering all that I have learned without looking at a cheat sheet of some sort. Whether that be on my phone, past videos I have created, or searching online for a quick brain refresh. I have the alphabet down pact and can go through all the letters with ease, numbers I am decently confident with up to the number 20, but some greetings and common sayings I have been struggling with remembering as well as mixing up some with the incorrect motions.

Some resources I have been using to teach, learn and remind myself are Youtube, especially videos by Learn How to sign, LauraBergLife, and ASL Rochelle. These free videos I found help me teach myself the best as I am a very “hands-on” learner and like to watch how it is done a few times before attempting as well as going back and being able to see it again. along with free Youtube videos, I also really enjoy using The ASL app on my phone which was free to download and offers free lessons on numbers, alphabet, gestures, hand exercises, and colours. There is also the option to pay for different bundles which include more options such as moods and emotions, celebrations and milestones, signs related to family, sports, LGBTQ, pride, as well as emergency signs.

The app ASL Sign Language Pocket Sign is also a similar app on the phone that I downloaded for free. I really enjoy this app because the more you progress, the harder it gets and more category options open up for learning! There is also a dictionary to search up sayings, phrases, or anything else you might want to find, an alphabet sheet showing all the ASL letters of the alphabet, and a study section where you can test yourself. If you have ever used the tool Duolingo to learn another language this app is very similar to it, only it is sign language instead of actually speaking. Each time you get a question correct you gain diamonds, as well as hearts (or lives) which you can use later on when you are stuck on a question and need to essentially “buy” a hint, pass the question, try again, or bomb out one of the possible answers leaving less to choose from. This app is very fun in my opinion, and also time-consuming. It is a great way to pass by time… sometimes without noticing how much time has gone by!

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Both of the apps on my phone are very handy to have and sometimes almost feels as though I am playing a game due to the fact that I get rewarded when I get answers correct, and can only have so many answers wrong before I run out of hearts and have to wait for them to refill. I also love that the app ASL Sign Language Pocket Sign sends out daily notifications on your phone reminding you to do your free daily lesson. This has been very helpful for me as some days, before having this app, I would forget or put off doing my “daily learning lesson”. The reminders keep me accountable as well as remind me to keep my butt in gear!! Having apps on my phone also make it easier for me to learn while I am out in public and do not want to watch videos or have any noise coming from my phone. I am able to use the apps silently while still learning and engaging, even though it means I am visually learning and not actually doing the signs myself.

Here is also a video of myself doing the numbers 1 through 10 in sign language. One thing I found interesting when doing numbers was I would have thought that because we have ten fingers..we would just use all ten fingers to count to 10. However, that is not the case! Instead, when signing up to 10, you only use one hand (five fingers) to count to ten! Watch my video to see how it is done!