Sign Language Blitz

It was a blitz all right. I was not overwhelmed with this particular Sign language site. First of all, I didn’t realize when I started that it was only a demo.  I am not a fan of how they teach sign language in this site. I understand that they are trying to teach phrases rather then words, but to be honest, I find that quite overwhelming, and I think I would do better learning individual signs rather then two -five words all at once. You are also unable to skip the demo and just go to the five minute practice screen. If you hit later, you are logged out of the practice screen all together. You can go back to the practice screens, but only if you go through the whole demo over again. The price for learning sign on their website seems quite reasonable though. For $5.60 a month you can have access to learn all the sign language, plus you get a buddy account. Family pricing is $10.50 a month and you get six buddy accounts, so that is very reasonable. It appeared to have 24 lessons up, but I could be wrong. There is also a blog, but sadly, it has not been updated since July 2021, so I wonder if they are planning on updating this service anymore.

Review of Sign Language Blitz

When you do finally get to the practice screens, you can play the video through. If you still feel after watching it that you need more practice, you just hit the “I need more practice” button. If you do think you can sign it right, and you understand what the person is signing, you can hit I was correct. My other problem with it, is that it doesn’t tell you what they are saying, until after you hit I need more practice. As you shuffle through the screens, it repeats some videos so you can review your phrases.

Here is a video of me attempting some of the phrases… some worse then others.

Practice time

One thing you might notice as you walk through these videos and aps with me, is that while not everyone might mouth the words, most people are being very expressive with their faces. The expression on a person’s face as they sign is almost more important then what they are saying with their hands. for example, in the last ap I examined, they mentioned that it was important to raise your eyebrows if you were asking a question. the face is also used to express emotions. The University of Bergen has been doing some interesting studies on just how much grammar and emotions are affected by facial expression in sign language.

This video from CBC is worth watching as well.

Seen and Heard

Ok, that is all for now. This week, I am going to look on U Tube and see what they have to offer. I think I will try… ASL That!