Apps for Review, Humans for Learning
sooo. we're in "going further, honestly" now, which is my fancy way of saying "here's what to do after this class ends." because it will end. eight weeks and then you're on your own, and i want you set up right for that, not just waving goodbye and hoping.
first thing i want to say plainly: apps are fine. i'm not anti-app. i've got a couple on my own phone. but i want to be honest with you about what they're good for and what they're not, because a lot of people get this backwards and it costs them.
what apps are actually good for
review. straight up review. you learned "thank you" in week one, you haven't used it since, an app can remind you what your hands are supposed to do. that's a fine use of an app. flashcard-style stuff, quick sign lookups, checking yourself on a word you half-remember. heck yes, use it for that.
what apps are bad at is teaching you something for the first time, especially anything with movement or facial grammar attached, and especially regional variation. and i know this one from personal embarrassment, not just opinion.
the video that taught me wrong
a while back, before this class was even an idea in my head, i wanted to learn faster than my real-life exposure was giving me. so i found some quick videos online and started drilling signs off them. seemed efficient. seemed smart, actually.
turns out i picked up a version of a sign that was regional, and slightly off from what people around here actually use. i didn't know that. i just went around confidently signing it my way for who knows how long, until a coworker of mine, who's actually deaf, gently pulled me aside and went "hey, so, that's not really how we'd say that here.. it's more like this." no judgment in her voice. just a fix.
but here's the thing. a video can't do that. a video can't watch your hands and go "close, but your palm's facing the wrong way" or "that's technically fine but nobody here signs it like that." a human in the room can. that's the whole difference. that's my opinion and i'll die on it a little bit: apps are fine for review, bad for learning. you need a person who can see you mess up and tell you.
the practical version of this
so here's what i'd actually do, step by step, once this class wraps up.
keep a human source going. that might be a real class through the community ed program, a deaf mentor if you're lucky enough to find one, a meetup, whatever. something with a live person who can watch you sign and correct you. this is the non-negotiable part.
use apps to hold what you already have. once a sign's been taught to you by a person and corrected by a person, an app is a great way to keep it warm. five minutes a day flipping through review cards is genuinely useful. i'm not knocking that.
don't learn brand new signs alone from a screen and then go use them confidently in public. that's exactly my costco-guy story except without the happy ending. you might be out there signing something regionally weird, or worse.
which brings me to my parent.
teri and the "fine" incident
i've told a couple of you this one already if you've caught me at the door after class, but for everybody else: i once mixed up the sign for "fine" with a sign that is decidedly not "fine." did this in front of my own parent, teri, at a family thing. handshape was close. location was off. the meaning was very, very off.
had to explain the difference at 63-year-old volume, which if you don't know teri, means loud enough that the neighbors probably learned it too.
i tell you this because handshape matters, location on your body matters, and you will embarrass yourself at some point learning this language. everybody does. i did it in front of my own parent at a family gathering, which is about as public an embarrassment as you can arrange for yourself. the fix isn't "never make mistakes." the fix is having someone around who'll catch it before you've been doing it wrong for six months, the way that video had me doing.
a real caution here
one thing worth saying plainly: some signs are close enough to other signs, sometimes very different in meaning, that getting it wrong isn't just awkward, it can actually confuse or offend somebody you're talking to. that's not me trying to scare you off. it's just true, same as it's true in any language. it's exactly why the human-correction thing matters so much. a person catches that fast. an app doesn't catch it at all.
so, practically, starting this week
find one ongoing thing with a real person in it. a class, a group, a deaf friend or coworker who's open to it, anything. then let an app be your flashcard box, not your teacher. that split is the whole lesson.
Before next time: go find one app or online sign-lookup tool, download it or bookmark it, and use it to review three signs you already learned in this class. don't learn anything new from it yet. just see how it feels as a review tool.
~terry