Looking for the best ASL software

No offense but why would you sit your ass on a computer and do ASL in front of a computer? Meet and talk with deaf people. This is real life, not virtual.
 
Well, going out and talking to deaf people is one option.. but if you can't find the deaf community in your area, the second best is to use videos and books. I'd check amazon.com for more ASL dvds.

There are many dvds you can use. and there are many online resources.

And remember what a lot of beginner ASL learners have said.. IT seems like most deaf people shun those who are learning or make fun of them.. So the best way is to learn via internet/dvds, or find a ASL class you can go to that will help you learn better.

But remember.. not all deaf people will shun beginners.. I've worked with people who've been learning sign language and I'm patient with those who don't know ASL well.
 
BearBeauty said:
Well, going out and talking to deaf people is one option.. but if you can't find the deaf community in your area, the second best is to use videos and books. I'd check amazon.com for more ASL dvds.

There are many dvds you can use. and there are many online resources.

And remember what a lot of beginner ASL learners have said.. IT seems like most deaf people shun those who are learning or make fun of them.. So the best way is to learn via internet/dvds, or find a ASL class you can go to that will help you learn better.

But remember.. not all deaf people will shun beginners.. I've worked with people who've been learning sign language and I'm patient with those who don't know ASL well.[/QUOTE]

Yep..so true. I am trying to tell my friends not to look down on deaf people who dont know ASL. Half of my friends grew up going to deaf schools so it is hard for them to understand that deaf people grow up not knowing sign language. They said they cant imagine what life would be like without ASL and to them not learning ASL is like a rejection to them. I told them that in most cases, the deaf person doesnt know about ASL due to parents' decisions on how they should be raised. Now, they are getting it and being more patient with CI users and deaf people with weak ASL skills.
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Associating with the deaf is the BEST way to learn, you progress way faster than you would even imagine! Make a friend in the Deaf world and watch what happens, you'll talk to them for hours and learn SO many new things... it's a great (and fun) way to learn... way more entertaining than sitting around reading or studying on the computer.
 
I know this is a kind of old topic, but I wanted to share the experiences I've had with a few different apps over the past couple of weeks since I started studying ASL, and decided it would be better to just continue this thread than to start a new one.

ASL Project "Fingerspelling Tutor"

The ASL Project's "Fingerspelling Tutor" only deals with fingerspelling, not ASL... but for the specific purpose of practicing receptive fingerspelling, it's the absolute cream of the crop... hands down, no contest. It uses a computer-rendered signer, which provides two HUGE benefits:

* When signing entire words, you see the transitions between letters. Every other program I've seen that even TRIES to show entire words just blinks from photo to photo (or, for 'j' and 'z', MAYBE to an animgif).

* You can control the signing rate in fairly fine increments without compromising its clarity. With apps that use video from a human model, the video usually turns to a blurry interlaced mess at slower playback rates.

Unfortunately, it doesn't teach numbers, and it's not particularly cheap ($50 with shipping). But for the specific purpose of practicing the recognition of fingerspelled words, it's ABSOLUTELY the best program of its type available today. In about a week, with about an hour of practice per day, I went from barely able to recognize anything besides A, E, C, T, R, and N (the letters the free downloadable demo version covers) to being able to go as fast as 3 letters per second (with occasional replays).

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Instant Immersion ASL

Absolutely, positively, DO NOT waste your money on the 5-CD version of "Instant Immersion ASL". This program (actually, collection of unrelated programs on 5 CDs) is "turn of the century" CD-ROM shovelware of the worst kind. It has a 2-disc app (Ready-Set-Sign) that's basically a digitized VHS sign-language tape from the late 80s or early 90s... sliced, diced, and repurposed with a Windows 3.1-ish UI. It has (on another CD) a cut-down lite version of Vcom3d's Signing Avatar dictionary, which is arguably this package's sole partially-redeeming feature. It also has an ASL video phrase dictionary that wouldn't be half-bad if they hadn't come up with such pointless phrases to demo, and came on a single DVD-ROM instead of making you swap discs for half the words/phrases.

I paid $30 for it at Borders... basically, because it was there and I could take it home to play with immediately. I DO NOT recommend this SPECIFIC edition of the program (the 5-disc non-Deluxe version) under any circumstances.

That said, the jury's still out on the 8-disc Deluxe edition, which I ordered from Amazon Marketplace for around $20 with shipping. I DO give the program credit for at least TRYING to teach proper ASL grammar, and it appears that the Deluxe version includes the kind of games/tutorial apps that I wanted in the first place.

=======

Rocket Sign Language

I demo'ed the 6-day free edition of Rocket Sign Language. To be honest, it's not half-bad for a first try by a language publisher, as long as you buy it with your eyes wide open and know what its specific shortcomings are:

* The signing game uses English word order. At least, for the 'recreation' signs that are part of the demo version.

* The signing game uses multiple-choice questions... most of which have answers that are so painfully obvious, anyone with the slightest wisp of inductive and deductive reasoning skills can probably guess 17 or 18 out of 20 correctly on the first try, without having even studied any of the signs first. That said, I'll admit that I haven't seen the full version. It's not inconceivable that they intentionally chose to present the recreation signs in the demo version BECAUSE most of them are fairly obvious, and they wanted to give newbies a sense of accomplishment.

* The study guide (for the free 6 lessons, at least) shows signs for things like greeting others, but never even touches upon the underlying grammar or tries to explain what the individual signs were or how they work together. And in any case, uses English word order. But then again, 99% of "learn a new foreign language" books do the same thing in their first few chapters.

* The video was obviously shot with conventional, non-HD/progressive-scan cameras. When you watch a video at reduced speed, it turns into blurry interlace-artifact mush.

* The fingerspelling game didn't particularly impress me... but to be honest, after using the ASL Project's Fingerspelling tutor, I don't think ANY other program of that type could impress me much.

* They obviously hired someone to spam Google, and every blog & message board in the world, in the name of "search-engine placement". To me, that's a MAJOR turn-off. If I Google something, and the first 27 pages of search results are obvious Google-baiting, my warning sirens go off. I did some more research on the company, though, and it appears that they really ARE legit... just a small company that hasn't quite realized yet that if you go overboard with the Google-baiting (like they have), it's going to start turning people off.

On the plus side, the program can be bought online and downloaded immediately for $50 (it's officially $100 + s/h for the physical version, with the $50 being a promo price, but some advanced google-cache browsing quickly reveals that it's perpetually been on sale for a limited time).

Truth be told, I might buy it eventually... especially if the 'Deluxe' version of Instant Immersion ASL ends up sucking as badly as the 5-cd version did. To me, the biggest turn-off is the English word order. Someday when I'm carrying on a real conversation in ASL, I'd like to come across as someone with better language skills than a migrant farmworker. If Rocket ASL used ASL signing order, I'd buy it in a heartbeat just to add one more practice app to my growing pile. One improvement that I think would compensate for the too-easy multiple-choice questions would be for them to add an option to hide the answer text until you actually mouseover it (forcing you to come up with the answer on your own before having the available options revealed to you). IMHO, if they did a "2.0" version with proper ASL grammar and hidden-until-mouseover answers, it would DEFINITELY be the best program of its type.
 
Update to my previous post.

It looks like I was wrong about Rocket Sign Language using English word order. I showed a couple of the videos to a friend who's ASL-native, and he said that the two videos I showed him were definitely ASL, and not PSE. In the meantime, my order for the 8-CD "Deluxe" version of "Instant Immersion ASL" got canceled by Amazon (I ordered a used copy, and the vendor apparently couldn't find the copy that was listed for sale), and I signed up for the first course at SigningOnline.com.

So... here's my current revised opinion:

* 5-CD version of IIASL: still trash. Don't waste your money.

* 8-CD IIASL "Deluxe": probably worth buying if you get it for < $25 at Amazon, questionable value if full price.

* Rocket ASL: Not bad, especially if $50 isn't a big deal for you. Instant gratification via download (assuming you've got decent broadband), you can try the free version first, and apparently they have a ~2 month money-back guarantee. I still wish they'd refine the signing game to hide answers until you mouseover them to make them less trivially easy.

* SigningOnline.com: not particularly cheap at $50 for the first course, but it seems to be the most educationally-sound option for someone starting from scratch who isn't taking an official course somewhere. They aren't shy about introducing you to grammar and inflection, and the videos are decent. On the downside, they don't provide very many practice videos, and they won't allow you to take the test for a lesson until 24 full hours after you begin it. You can't proceed to the next lesson until you pass the test. I can see their rationale for making you linger a bit, but I wish they'd reduce it to something like 18 hours instead, so you could do a lesson one evening, then do the next one the following afternoon if it's a weekend and you end up having lots of free time. I suspect that this will seem like less of a big deal when I get far enough into the course for most of what I'm learning to be all new, and I really DO need more than a day to get through it.

* ASL Project Fingerspelling Tutor -- same opinion as before. The gold standard of fingerspelling practice, and worth every penny. As an added bonus... if you've got ANY programming background whatsoever, it'll take you about 3 minutes to figure out how to define your own word lists even though it's officially not supported. :cool:
 
All asl classes on the college level have books and software the only difference when you study on your own is you don't get the interaction and help from the teacher or those learning asl with you. The best software, or the standard used, is signing naturally. You can get that online from the publisher, Signing Naturally

Check out lifeprint also, thats an excellent place online to learn asl.

Oh, i think I did a repeat. Opps lol
 
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miamicanes said:
Update to my previous post.

It looks like I was wrong about Rocket Sign Language using English word order. I showed a couple of the videos to a friend who's ASL-native, and he said that the two videos I showed him were definitely ASL, and not PSE. In the meantime, my order for the 8-CD "Deluxe" version of "Instant Immersion ASL" got canceled by Amazon (I ordered a used copy, and the vendor apparently couldn't find the copy that was listed for sale), and I signed up for the first course at SigningOnline.com.

So... here's my current revised opinion:

* 5-CD version of IIASL: still trash. Don't waste your money.

* 8-CD IIASL "Deluxe": probably worth buying if you get it for < $25 at Amazon, questionable value if full price.

* Rocket ASL: Not bad, especially if $50 isn't a big deal for you. Instant gratification via download (assuming you've got decent broadband), you can try the free version first, and apparently they have a ~2 month money-back guarantee. I still wish they'd refine the signing game to hide answers until you mouseover them to make them less trivially easy.

* SigningOnline.com: not particularly cheap at $50 for the first course, but it seems to be the most educationally-sound option for someone starting from scratch who isn't taking an official course somewhere. They aren't shy about introducing you to grammar and inflection, and the videos are decent. On the downside, they don't provide very many practice videos, and they won't allow you to take the test for a lesson until 24 full hours after you begin it. You can't proceed to the next lesson until you pass the test. I can see their rationale for making you linger a bit, but I wish they'd reduce it to something like 18 hours instead, so you could do a lesson one evening, then do the next one the following afternoon if it's a weekend and you end up having lots of free time. I suspect that this will seem like less of a big deal when I get far enough into the course for most of what I'm learning to be all new, and I really DO need more than a day to get through it.

* ASL Project Fingerspelling Tutor -- same opinion as before. The gold standard of fingerspelling practice, and worth every penny. As an added bonus... if you've got ANY programming background whatsoever, it'll take you about 3 minutes to figure out how to define your own word lists even though it's officially not supported. :cool:
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I signed up with Signing Online - Learn American Sign Language yesterday. I like the format and the price. I have also contacted a person who hosts events for the deaf community in my area. I will attend those events and practice ASL. I will probably wait for a month or so because I have to learn more signs. I believe that this course in conjunction with practicing with others will speed the learning process. I also like Baby Sign Language Videos & DVDs, Learn ASL the Fun Easy Way! - Signing Time. This is a children's course for learning ASL. It's very entertaining for children and adults as well. I look foward to learning and practicing ASL. I know that I will be very nervous at first. But, I expect to overcome my fears in time. I'll keep you posted.
 
I'd recommend getting the Signing Naturally Series (Dawn Sign Press)... you can often borrow these from your local library, a College/University library, or Deaf centre library. If not , they're still not terribly expensive, and "the standard" used in many ASL classes. Another "standard" book is the ABC book ( A Basic Course in American Sign Language) - also available via dawn sign press.

Truthfully though ... see if you can enroll in some ASL classes in your area. If you've already taken the classes and got rusty, maybe take them again for audit? Many areas also have Deaf socials quite frequently ... or Deaf Coffee nights - and you'll likely learn more in one evening there, than a week starting at a computer screen.
 
shel90 said:
BearBeauty said:
Well, going out and talking to deaf people is one option.. but if you can't find the deaf community in your area, the second best is to use videos and books. I'd check amazon.com for more ASL dvds.

There are many dvds you can use. and there are many online resources.

And remember what a lot of beginner ASL learners have said.. IT seems like most deaf people shun those who are learning or make fun of them.. So the best way is to learn via internet/dvds, or find a ASL class you can go to that will help you learn better.

But remember.. not all deaf people will shun beginners.. I've worked with people who've been learning sign language and I'm patient with those who don't know ASL well.[/QUOTE]

Yep..so true. I am trying to tell my friends not to look down on deaf people who dont know ASL. Half of my friends grew up going to deaf schools so it is hard for them to understand that deaf people grow up not knowing sign language. They said they cant imagine what life would be like without ASL and to them not learning ASL is like a rejection to them. I told them that in most cases, the deaf person doesnt know about ASL due to parents' decisions on how they should be raised. Now, they are getting it and being more patient with CI users and deaf people with weak ASL skills.
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Hi Shel,

I used to use school for my number one source of learning, but that just wasn't really enough hours and vocabulary. I wanted to know how to communicate about real stuff. and now my classes are over for a while before I transfer to University classes. I still have some prerequisites to fill. So now will have a gap. But, I got so lucky because my last Deaf teacher has offered to mentor me, and I am going to job shadow her at her job in the state office that advocates for Disabled Rights. I think that is just too coool.. I should be able to start in about two weeks. I am so excited, cuz that is why I am going after my terp license,,,,,, so I can do advocacy. But, I am really lucky that way. If my Deaf teachers hadn't taken me into their lives, I would have been lost as to know how to meet Deaf people who were willing to teach me. Most hearies aren't that lucky. I have had some extraordinary teachers and they know my heart.


All during the last two years of school, I used ASL Pro a lot, and of course, I Use DR. BILL... Love him, at ASL University.com. I also go to Youtube a lot. Unfotunately, the quality on you tube is not always that good, and when learning new vocabulary, it is sometimes very fast to be able to figure out the context of what they are saying, without already seeing the vocabulary.

Anyway, I totally agree that having someone to sign with is the very. very, very best way to learn to sign. Most people I have met were very patient with me at gatherings and Bonko Parties and other events. It was just too ,much fun, and I had a blast laughing at my mistakes..

Still, like the poster asked, what do you do if you have no readily available Deaf people that want to take their time to deal with a hearie.. ... I found that there are usually places to congregate,, like we have a Boarders coffe shop/bookstore where Deafies and Hearies meet on Friday nights.. It is lots of fun... but, us hearies feel very intimidated and left out sometimes... GEEEEZ,, what a great experience to be in the same circumstances as most Deaf people are when they are stuck in a hearing environment. Left out of the loop. Understanding how that feels is probably the best gift any hearing person can get,, understanding how it feels to be without information or fellowship of others... then they can truly appreciate what ASL means to the Deaf community, and hopefully they might see how valuable it can be to millions of people who suffer from autisim and stroke etc. Communication is just a must.!!!!!
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