I would like to introduce myself to help you understand my questions, which will be asked shortly. I am Deaf myself, and American Sign Language is my native language. I declared myself to be a natural linguistic, as I know ASL, English, Spanish, and Honduran Sign Language. I am currently learning Russian and Russian Sign Language. I am hoping to find some time to learn Hebrew, as I planned to travel to Israel. I learn languages bit by bit whenever I can because I also have a family to love =D
I came across this course and was surprised that it exists, as many language learning websites consist of only written and spoken languages. I looked at ASL 1 and saw GIF images of you signing. I was impressed by your professional presentation of signing signs. It looks like you enjoy putting this together for anyone who wants to learn ASL.
Now, to the questions, I want to know what motivated you to create ASL course on Memrise website and app? I also want to know if you have consulted with a Deaf individual for accurate signs posted on Memrise?
Your answers will help me understand the purpose of this course from a Deaf person’s perspective.
Hey Azael47, I’m glad you came across my courses! To answer your questions, yep, I’m hearing, and I suppose my motivation for creating these courses was to fill the gap you mentioned—there aren’t many sign language courses on language learning websites, so I was excited to share a bit of what I’ve learned, especially now that I’m no longer working as an ASL teacher’s assistant. I’d never seen a crowd-sourced language learning platform like this before, so I really enjoy having this opportunity to keep my skills fresh and help those who might not otherwise learn any ASL, particularly parents and teachers.
Most of the signs come from what my Deaf and hearing teachers and friends have taught me through classes and conversations; if I am unsure of a sign or if I know it has regional variations, I try to find it in multiple ASL dictionaries (Signing Savvy, Lifeprint, Handspeak, ASLPro, etc.) and choose the most common version.
Anyway, thanks again for stopping by, it’s awesome to have a native signer here on the forum. That’s cool you’re into so many languages; I studied linguistics for my bachelor’s degree and it was a blast!
Do you know that Taiwanese Sign Language exists? Why not learn that instead? That way, you will be able to converse with Deaf locals if you happen to run into them in the near future =P
@Azael47 ~ thank you for this message. Yes, as mentioned in this thread (see above) I am aware of TSL and am currently searching for a local resource.
I did however find some glee a couple of days ago when I randomly flashed a “Hello” sign (in ASL) to everyone on an MRT train in Taipei and someone responded back in like fashion. Unfortunately the person got off at the next station before I could continue with any more signs. Diana’s teaching reaped its first rewards in Taiwan !
Hello again, thank you for writing back! I appreciate it
I saw that your minor was some kind of computer and now understand why you created great GIF images of signs.
After reading your replied post, I have been thinking about my family and my wife’s family, especially around holidays. As you should know that 95% of the Deaf community are born to hearing parents, my family and my hearing wife’s family aren’t proficient in ASL enough to maintain conversations at depth with me. However, my wife is a professional ASL Interpreter and natural ASL linguistic. She is an advocate for ASL and against simultaneous communication (i.e., one who uses sign language and spoken language at the same time), which is a rare gem to be found among hearing people who are involved in the Deaf community.
Back to the topic…I was watching this video and knew that most of the suggestions in the video are effective to language learning. I can confirm this from my personal experience, as ASL and English are my primary language and Spanish and Honduran Sign Language are my second languages. I am currently learning Russian and Russian Sign Language.
I am hoping that you are willing to either revisit the courses you have created or create a whole new course with the approach shown in the video. I believe that my families (my own and my wife’s) along with others who have a Deaf family member will benefit greatly from your courses (because your GIF images are impressive) and the method shown in the video combined. Now, I know this is a huge request, and this is from a ASL native user
I am more than willing to help out! I want to be able to enjoy time quality with my family and give my family a chance to get to know me personally. If you are considering the request I just made, I will be writing down the signs and phrases that my family and I might encounter over this weekend to help you jumpstart.
Please let me know your thoughts on this, and if you are interested in doing this project, we can do this in private correspondence
Thanks for your thoughts, Azael! I’m not sure at the moment about taking on
a new project, but definitely make that list of signs/phrases that are
useful to you this weekend, and I can consider it further! I’ll PM you
sometime after the holidays.
Hey guys, I just wanted to keep you all updated: ASL 3 isn’t up yet, but it’s soooo close; the videos are clipped into individual signs, which takes the biggest chunk of time. Looking forward to making the course public before Valentine’s Day! I hope you’re enjoying your Memrise learning!
@Diana.S ~ I hope you had a blessed and wonderful holiday season.
This is wonderful news !
I am sure that many of us are looking forward to the new course, and the new learning opportunities it will provide. I wish you all the best with the assemblage of it, and by all means take your time. It is quality that counts, not a self-imposed deadline. Blessings.
Hello Diana! In my zeal to learn as fast as possible, I’ve been avidly plowing through your ASL levels for 11 days now. As I approach the end of ASL2 I’m wondering when ASL3 will be released? Also I’m finding that the farther I go the choppier the videos are, to the point that the app is almost unusable on my Galaxy Tab A note pad. They freeze, jump and sometimes some or all four don’t load at all (I’m a full member with offline downloads). Also I’m trying to figure out how to set up a separate account on the same tablet for my wife, so far no matter what I try the app goes back to my account. Are there mobile device improvements lined up? Thanks again for your tireless efforts, you are not unthanked by any means!!!
@IanKennedy76, when you say the that farther you go, the choppier the videos become, do you mean that videos towards the end of a learning or review session are choppier, or that if you learn items in a level that’s further along in the course, the videos are choppier?
Hi there, what I mean is the videos themselves are glitchy and jumpy. some don’t load or just freeze. It’s the same on my phone and my Tablet (both are late models). I’ve tried shutting down as much as possible on the device to see if it’s a processor issue on my end but it doesn’t make any difference. I’ve tried various Wifi insert points too. I’ts almost impossible to identify some signs in stop action, especially numbers. The PC version works great though.
Hey guys! Estimating course completion dates is clearly an elusive art, so I guess I can just say that any major changes/additions to my ASL courses must be done by April (before a tiny new signer joins my family and implodes my whole world ).
@IanKennedy76, I’d love to optimize for mobile, but I’m unsure what to do besides try to compress the videos more (or in a different way?). I try to make the videos as short as possible without compromising clarity. They may get choppier as you progress because you’re learning more phrases and complex signs, which are longer videos. If any of you are experts at video/gif formats, I’d love to chat and see if you’d like to contribute to the courses in some way.
If other people aren’t having the same problem, maybe it’s a bug the Memrise team can look into? Video courses aren’t exactly a priority of theirs, but maybe they have more ideas. I’m not involved with the way accounts are set up, but the Memrise team can hopefully help with setting up your wife’s account as well. Glad you’re enjoying the course and that it works on PC.
@Diana.S ~ Congratulations on your (soon-to-be) expanding family ! Soon you will be focusing not on changes to your courses, but changes of a different sort.
@Diana.S My name is Christopher Morrison and I love the work that you’ve done on these courses!
I wanted to ask you if you’d take a look at a similar project I’m working on. I was wondering if perhaps there could be some synergy we could have together.
Take a look (note that it is still a prototype but I’m hoping it will be a great thing for friends and family of the Deaf Community)
How about you what is your back story? Are you into learning or teaching ASL? I’d love to get any thought you or anyone else might have on what the perfect ASL learning app would look like? Are there things that you like or don’t like about the memrise video flashcard format?
I just went through and read your other posts and got your background!
I would like to introduce myself to help you understand my questions, which will be asked shortly. I am Deaf myself, and American Sign Language is my native language. I declared myself to be a natural linguistic, as I know ASL, English, Spanish, and Honduran Sign Language. I am currently learning Russian and Russian Sign Language. I am hoping to find some time to learn Hebrew, as I planned to travel to Israel. I learn languages bit by bit whenever I can because I also have a family to love =D
Wow you have quite the background. I actually also speak some Russian :).
I am hoping that you are willing to either revisit the courses you have created or create a whole new course with the approach shown in the video. I believe that my families (my own and my wife’s) along with others who have a Deaf family member will benefit greatly from your courses (because your GIF images are impressive) and the method shown in the video combined. Now, I know this is a huge request, and this is from a ASL native user
What you said really resonances with me. If there was some way we could work together to achieve this goal, I’d be estatic!
I’m looking to find people to help make lessons. Someone who has a background in the Deaf community and a passion for helping hearing friends and family of the Deaf community to learn ASL. I took an ASL class this semester, and I’ve been working on creating content from the class. Take a look at what I have so far.
The real key thing that I have on my site is the ability to record videos from your webcam. This allows for fast video creation on the order of a sign or phrase per minute. If you’re interested in talking more you can email me at [email protected] or text/call me at 928 925-3842. I don’t want to hijack this forum for a different project (too much)
To answer your questions, yep, I’m hearing, and I suppose my motivation for creating these courses was to fill the gap you mentioned—there aren’t many sign language courses on language learning websites, so I was excited to share a bit of what I’ve learned, especially now that I’m no longer working as an ASL teacher’s assistant. I’d never seen a crowd-sourced language learning platform like this before, so I really enjoy having this opportunity to keep my skills fresh and help those who might not otherwise learn any ASL, particularly parents and teachers.
I hope you’re enjoying your Memrise learning!
).