Intersign ASL - Sign Language

With both BSL and LSM, I completed their entire respective courses before leaving a comment. BSL was manual BSL, and I hoped that full BSL would come in a new section soon even though with a couple thousand signs manual could be done for a long, long time. LSM was right on point. The teacher was interesting, insightful, and very expressive. LSM was by far my favorite of the InterSign apps. The ASL teacher speaks with an accent. A heavy accent. I’m no expert, I only know that no one in my area has an accent that strong in their signing. That signing would be like learning English in a town without a stoplight in Georgia. You certainly know English, can read very well, but everyone might not understand you. I finished the other InterSign Apps, so I plan on finishing the ASL too. With the Korean government making an actual government dictionary of their sign language (standardizing their national sign language) I’m really surprised English apps aren’t picking it up. Who ever heard of a government standardizing their country’s sign language? Well, these apps are great and worth working through. Go LSM. That teacher is very good.

Ok I really didn’t want to make this review at all, but it has left me no choice, a little over a year ago, I downloaded this app to learn ASL with my friends to communicate with friends. At the time, the games did not need any payment, along with the angles of the sign. It also had a chat where you could ask questions and like comments made by other people. It was a whole community. I was very impressed with the quality and the content of the app overall. I stoped studying with InterSign ASL a little over 6 months ago, because I had found a website that had way more options, and was completely free. Paying for the games is a little ridiculous, a person who wanted/wants to learn ASL but would not have the patience for it would use games like this to help them learn ASL. Now, what if they are a child, that cannot afford the amount of money you are asking for per year? Now the angle of the sign, that is down right taking opportunity’s away. Image, you are a young adult, you just had a baby. They are assumed to be deaf, you are hearing. You want to do everything for this child, you choose to learn sign, you cannot afford a private teacher, and you go online. You find this top rated app, with grate reviews, and you chose to go with it. The premium subscription only does minimal things that you do not need, you are thrilled, you will teach your child how to sign and understand the world they cannot hear. A year later, you have to pay for dippers, food, rent, that let alone is a lot, add the subscription to that and the parent is at their wits end. They just want to communicate with their child. (Play SPENT, search it up) OK ANYWAY, you see what I mean though? You’re taking away recourses from your ASL learning children.

This app is so so good for people trying to learn sign language for free/low cost. It’s set up just like Duolingo and the lessons are comprehensive and progressive. They teach multiple variations of signs when they’re applicable, they teach grammar, and they use spaced repetition to keep old lessons fresh in your mind. They also have a handful of sign language instructors each with a slightly different style, so you get to see what different “accents” look like. None of the lessons are locked behind a paywall, so if you can’t purchase a subscription, you’re not going to be forced to stop using the app. There are ads but they’re very very limited. One before and after each lesson, but they’re skippable after only 5-10sec so they’re super bearable. Aside from the lessons, there’s a dictionary/glossary tab which is super helpful if you’re looking for something specific. The only two drawbacks I’ve found is that (1) the dictionary/glossary doesn’t have a section for ‘words you’ve learned in your lessons’ - sometimes I’d like to go and quiz myself on a list of all the words I know, but I can’t do that without individually searching every word. And (2) the end of every lesson takes you back to the home page, which you then have to click on a section and then click on the next lesson in order to keep going. I wish there was just a “next lesson” button once you’ve finished one so you didn’t have to go through the extra steps.