I enjoyed learning a little bit of sign language this semester. I was able to learn the alphabet and some numbers really well. I even tried to learn a song, which is much more difficult than it looks. Below is a part of 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' from The Little Mermaid it was a rough go, but I think that with more practice, it could be improved.
The journey that I have been on this semester going through this learning project was a rough one, however I came to learn a lot about myself. One thing that I learned was that I have poor time management skills. Setting aside a time once a week to work on this project would have been a great idea...there is a reason why they say that hindsight is 20/20. I found that at the beginning of the semester I was going over some basic ASL on an almost daily basis, but it was soon put on the back burner and my other classes consumed my time. I think that I would have been able to learn more had I set aside even two hours a week to work on this project. Another thing that I learned about myself if how much I am willing to search for resources that I think are beneficial. There were many ASL videos that I did not find helpful, especially when it came to learning a song. Here are the videos of the alphabet and numbers one to ten that I learned: Below is my video of where I started at the beginning of this project. The few words that I did know I don't recall how I learned them. I was also able to pick up on a few of the commonly used signs from the TV show Switched at Birth. I haven't been blogging as I've gone along on my journey so I need to recall what I have done.
My first thought when I decided to learn ASL was to decide what I want my end goal to be. This I thought would be an easy decision--why not learn a song. That was the easy part and now I am stuck on deciding which one I would like to learn from the following choices: a) "O Canada" Canada's national anthem b) "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from the Little Mermaid c) "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas d) "I Won't Say I'm in Love" from Hercules I chose these as my options because I am familiar with the English versions of all of them. The next thing that I did was look at apps in the App store. I focused on the free apps as I wanted to see what was out there for those who want to learn but don't want to spend money on apps. The apps I use: a) ASL Coach: This app provided me with the alphabet and the numbers 1-9. I used this one the most to go over the alphabet and is the one I used the most to learn the alphabet. b) Marlee Signs: I haven't used this one much, but it has a lot of sayings and common words used daily. This app has lessons or you can learn how to finger spell words. c) The ASL App: This app comes with the alphabet, numbers, universal gestures, handshape exercises and the basics. There are also other free sections you can add and some that you can pay for. For my ECMP355 class at the University of Regina, one of our assignments is to learn something, anything only using the internet and technology. We were allowed to choose whatever we wanted with no restrictions. My struggle began with what I wanted to learn. I was torn between learning how to paint with water colours or learning how to sign. I asked people around me which one they thought that I should do. They all said that water colour would be fun and a way to let off steam and relax, but that sign language would have a greater benefit as a teacher. I agreed with what they were saying, thus my decision to learn sign language.
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