Customer Reviews

Instant Immersion American Sign Language

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I've been signing for almost ten years, and my wife works professionally as an interpreter. I recently picked this package up as a handy refresher to keep my skills sharp. For under $$$, it seemed like a good deal. Unfortunately, this suite of "learning tools" left a lot to be desired. First of all, if you're using XP, expect a whole slew of compatibility problems. The few programs I was able to get working suffered from very poor interface design, and worse yet, presented the user with incorrect information. For example, the Personal Communicator lets the user type in English phrases to get a video ASL interpretation. What the program displayed for you was a literal English word-order translation of the phrase. Words that did not appear in the sparse word list were then fingerspelled. There was absolutely no consideration of ASL grammar or structure. Thus, a sentence like "How long have you been an interpreter?" was translated with the literal signs for "how" (as in, "how does this work?"), "long" (as in "that road is long"), "have" (as in "can I have some water?"), and so on. If you've ever taken a real ASL course, you know how wrong this is. A true ASL representation should have read something like "interpreter how-long (time) you?" In all fairness, creating a program advanced enough to do such an accurate conversion would probably cost much more, but by presenting new ASL students with this sort of misrepresentation is destructive to the language rather than constructive. Another program, the English-ASL dictionary, is nothing more than a copy of a University of Michigan ASL web site, not a carefully designed learning aid for home use.

Bottom line, if you're really serious about learning this wonderful language, do yourself a favor and enroll in a class at a local college or community center. It is the ONLY way to truly learn this language and begin to experience deaf culture. If you want to practice at home, I would recommend The American Sign Language Dictionary 10th Anniversary Edition. It's far more accurate and does a much better job of teaching ASL grammar, deaf culture, and sign vocabulary.

The Instant Immersion in American Sign Language is a great buy. I am presently in ASL classes at college and I bought this software as a learning aid. This software contains four different programs on four different CDs. All of the programs were very user friendly and I was able to install and use immediately.
CD#1: The SigningAvatar Friends uses 3D animated characters to synthesize a signed conversation with you. There are different characters and signing speeds to choose from. The motions are somewhat jerky and a little difficult to read. Though I liked the concept, this was my least favorite learning tool between the softwares.
CD#2: SignLink is my favorite software in this package. It contains movie clips of individual words signed. Though, it is important to note that some signs are regional. SignLink also gives important information about ASL grammar, social rules of interaction, and parameters for different signs. Being in ASL in college, I have learned how important it is to know more than just a word for word translation.
CD#3: The Personal Communicator contains several different programs within one. First is signed exact English with movie clips and written descriptions. The person signing is somewhat small and when the larger image is selected, the image becomes pixelated. Second is an ASL Playroom, which is fun for my kids. Clicking on an item in the playroom makes it do funny things and then the objects sign is displayed on a monitor in the playroom. The last program allows internet access so that I can go to a website and see more signs.
CD#4: HyperSign Kids seems to be for young children. Though I have no use for HyperSign Kids, others with small children may find it useful.
Overall, this is a great package and I highly recommend it.

I will try to limit my comments to what has not already been said in other reviews.
Possible pertinent info about the computer this review is based upon: Dell Dimension 4550, Pentium 4, 2.0GHz, 32-bit display, Windows XP Home edition.

DO restart after EACH CD install even though the instructions do not say so (thank you, Amazon reviewer!). I experienced much better performance after reinstalling everything using that advice. I was also more satisfied when I upgraded my computer.

CD-ROM #1 SigningAvatar Friends = 4.5 stars [produced by Vcom3D]
7 different animated characters sign either their biography (option of ESL or ASL) or sign a preset conversation with you (ASL). You can adjust the distance, angle, and speed of the Avatar without loss of smooth quality.
In the Conversation part, you can have the Avatar repeat/sign its own sentence/question or your answers, except for whatever part you have to fill-in.
In the Biography exercise, each Avatar tells you about itself... about 4 paragraphs each. Unfortunately, if you need to repeat a sentence, you have to have the Avatar repeat the whole paragraph instead. Oddly, the ESL version, which is word-for-word (including 'is', 'a', etc), highlights each word as the Avatar signs it, but the ASL version does not even though it is in different word order. A Gloss would have improved this.
I say "true ASL" with some trepidation, though it is definitely not exact English. This CD is especially useful for practicing comprehension at different speeds and viewing angles.

CD-ROM #2 SignLink = 4.9 stars [produced by Sorenson Vision]
Part 1: Textbook type information: ASL overview, history, grammar, parameters of signs etc.
Part 2: Lexicon: At first I thought this was just like what I'd seen on websites (i.e. a list of words you click on to see a video clip of the word being signed). But it is more! You can click on "Parameters" to see how the sign is formed: the position, shape, and distance from body of each hand at the beginning and end of the movement. While this part is arranged as text, if you click on a specific parameter, a graphic is shown to explain it further. (Click on palm facing in/back, it shows a body with arrows in direction palm faces)
The glitch in this is that the facial expression parameter says "neutral" on every sign I've looked at though I know otherwise.
You can also search for specific signs using the parameters. For instance, search for signs that start with "L-hand" "palm facing in/back" ending "palm facing forward", etc.
Almost every feature includes great Help information and cross-referencing also.

CD-ROM #3 Personal Communicator = 2 stars [produced by Michigan State University CommTechLab]
Part 1 "ASL Dictionary" good ideas but not close to publishing quality. Biggest problem? This "translator" uses ESL (signed exact english) not ASL. Even if ESL is what you're learning, the video quality and speed are poor.
Part 2 "ASL Playroom" a very messy children's room where you click on objects to see the Sign video clip after the object animates (click on the teddy bear: the bear growls and eats a toy in front of him). Funny and cute program for kids, but only 21 words are actually signed out of a ton a objects in the room.
Part 3 "ASL Browser" the same as the one on their website, but no waiting for clip download. The word list looks longer because it includes the plural, -ing, -ed forms of verbs even though the sign is the same for each. Clip speed seems improved, but Sorenson's CD is much better.

CD-ROM #4 HyperSign for Kids = 2 stars [produced by Trinity Software]
Includes a 16-bit version of QuickTime which MUST be used even if you have an updated version. I had severe compatibility issues when installing on my computer. Use the PDF "User Manual". Several games for children that incorporate sound and sign for nonreaders. It supposedly allows access for parents/teachers to change/record their own sounds, replace pictures, and change the word lists, but like I said I had issues with it.
Even so, the interface seems too small and unwieldy for small children. There are several sections to each screen, with none being dominant. Most video clips zip through the sign too fast, slow mode is blurry. Also, there is no incentive to win games. Nothing exciting happens. Not something to expect a kid to have fun doing without a parent beside him/her.

OVERALL 4.5 stars because the first 2 CDs are well worth the price of all four.

This is good for people who know nothing about sign to give them a start but it should be noted that it really is more signed English than American Sign. I am a student of ASL and this was only helpful in providing signs where I lacked them. I think it also should be noted that true ASL requires the sentence structure O-S-V at nearly all times. If the people in your area sign English then this might be okay.

I saw nothing on the advertisement from Amazon that this software was old and not compatible with XP. Needless to say I wasted my money because I tried to install it and it bombed out. Amazon's policy is media must be returned unused or unopened. XP has been out for a long time and I don't know how someone can get away with selling old outdated software. I might not buy any software from third parties like Amazon again. I would rather just go to the store so I can check out the packaging and take it back if it does not work. Or I may buy direct from the makers of the software that will tell you any compatibility problems.

Needless to say I was disappointed in this impulse buy at a local store. Though it claims to be compatible with "Windows95 and above" and while the outside box lists a copyright date of 2003, the software in fact is from 1995 and doesn't come close to installing. Despite having the latest version of Quicktime installed, the installer says Quicktime is not detected and tries to install version 1.0 of Quicktime, and then once you run the program, you get a DirectorPlayer error on startup, preventing the program from loading, saying you need at least "3 MB of Virtual Memory." My virtual memory is at 1300 MB.

One of the discs, a dictionary, works, but the videos are so tiny and grainy that you can't see anything.

I did not like this product it wouldn't load on any computer I tried it on. They were all new computers of mine and my friends. So I give this asl teaching cds 1 star because I can't go any lower

I received this program as a gift last year and was never able to load more than the first disk onto my computer. The disk I did load was not very helpful and I did not feel "instantly immersed" in the art of sign language. Don't waste your money on this program.

Part of the reason for the declining reviews for this product is the fact that it is aging.

While the ASL Deluxe product is probably the way to go, there is a new 5 CD ROM ASL edition out from TOPICS too at about the same (or lower) price as this old one, called TOPICS ENTERTAINMENT Total Immersion American Sign Language 2.0 ( Windows ) here on Amazon.

There is also a new basic 2 CD ROM package with selected new content.

The new versions have a dark-haired woman on the box.

It's confusing because they have called this outdated product 2.0 as well.

Check out the new edition(s) before making your decision!

Ok, I guess my main problem is that I have windows xp and only one of the four programs actually works with windows xp, the others I don't know what's going on with them. The one that does work isn't set up in a learning manner at all. It's more like a dictionary, in fact what I could see from all of them none of them are set up in a learn sign language type way, they're more like here's sign language see what you can remember. I feel like I've wasted time and money on this and it fell short, very short of my expectations which were low to start.