Items of Interest

Spring 2025 SDLC 105 Syllabus

Spring 2025 SDLC 105 Calendar of Activities, Assignments, and Deadlines

Spring 2025 SDLC 110, 111, 112, 113 General Syllabus

Weekly log for language partners

Global Studio Catalog of Learning Materials and Resources

 

Self-Directed Language Acquisition Program

Sept. 3- Recorded Presentation by Derek Miller, UR Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, Guidelines and Resources for Community-Based Language Learning

Sept. 3- Bonner Guidelines for Community-Based Language Learning, PPT.

 

Benny Lewis: TEDx Talk on Rapid Language Hacking

https://youtu.be/HZqUeWshwMs

 

ACTFL Inverted Pyramid Proficiency Scale

 

New Electronic Catalog of Global Studio Language-Learning Materials

Over the last few weeks, our fantastic team of Global Studio Fellows have been creating an electronic catalog of language learning materials on reserve in INTC 226. There are interesting resources for Korean, Turkish, Hindi, Hebrew, and Portuguese See the ongoing collection, here. Use the tag list to focus your search.

 

Vocaroo for sharing audio files with language partners

Vocaroo is a great free tool to share audio recording files with your language partners. Check it out! https://vocaroo.com/

 

Open-Source Repository of Grammar Reference Textbooks

In internet searches, I came across an open-source repository of grammar reference books pertaining to a wide variety of different languages. Feel free to peruse the collection, here

 

Lang-8 and HiNative Communities for Native Speaker Feedback

This is a great free resource to get free feedback from native speakers of your target language. On the site, you can receive commentary on submit writing samples, or address questions of grammar and usage to an active online community. You can access the site, here. **Note: Lang-8 stopped accepting new members, but you can still access similar networking resources for writing feedback on their new site, HiNative

 

WikiTongues

Library of recordings from endangered languages.

https://www.youtube.com/user/WikiTongues

https://wikitongues.org/

 

International News Resources

Check out this curated list on interesting foreign-language news resources!

 

World Atlas of Language Structures

http://wals.info/

 

Endangered Languages Project

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/

 

Which languages are the hardest to learn?

Here's a chart! What is difficult about the language you're learning?

 

Try Mango Languages 

Just starting a language?  The University now provides Mango Languages, which offers beginning or 'survival' language lessons in many languages.  To try Mango, go the Boatwright Library web, click Research Databases > M, and look for Mango Languages.  Once you have created an account through the Library site, you can download the Mango Languages app and use it on your mobile device.

 

Infographic on word etymologies and historical trade routes

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapping-words-along-trade-routes/?fbclid=IwAR2IQRiSW3KqaFGi_kjkrSbkjXUri_PZI7tAMEB4iKH5W0DPrp_yQj1OzuE

 

 

Articulatory Phonetics Memes

https://goo.gl/bzVfCL

 

Preserving Regional German Dialects

This article from Deutsche Welle discusses what is lost when regional variants of a language are lost. It also discusses the difference between a language and a dialect and why 'dialects' are losing ground in Germany.

 

Radio Segment on North Koreans on South Korean TV

On Sunday, January 31, 2016, NPR had a radio feature on the appearance of North Koreans on South Korean reality TV.  You can listen to the segment here: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/01/31/464798910/south-koreas-newest-tv-stars-are-north-korean-defectors .

 

An Interview with Linguist K. David Harrison on When Languages Die

 

 

Slate article:  Photos of Women Who Could Go to Prison for Singing for Men


A series of photographs and a very brief discussion of things women in Iran are forbidden to do, including singing for me and studying English literature.

 

The 'Halal Internet'


A Deutsche Welle article about the 'Halal Internet' coming to Iran has been posted as a discussion item in the Persian group.  Join the discussion!

 

The Free Dictionaries Project


Looking for a free dictionary?  Check out the Free Dictionaries Project!  Especially interesting are the picture dictionaries.

  

Alphabet Blocks for Hebrew, Korean, and Arabic

The Global Studio now has alphabet blocks for Hebrew, Korean, and Arabic.  (The Arabic may be useful for the Persian learners.)  There are also magnetic letters for Hebrew.

What can you do with alphabet blocks and magnetic letters?  Quiz yourself on the letters, put them together to form words, and learn the names of the animals pictured on one side of the blocks.  The Korean blocks seem to have a puzzle, too.  Want to try?  Ask at the Global Studio desk!

 

Visit the Conflict Kitchen, a take-out restaurant that serves food from countries with which the US is in conflict.

 

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Finding Books in Your Language


A number of people have asked about finding children's books, 'easy readers', and popular fiction in the SDLAP languages.  The Global Studio has children's books in Swahili and Turkish (thanks to Professor Grove), and I'm willing to buy more.  However, I prefer to buy books that are culturally authentic, i.e., not translated from English.

 

I have found the following online bookstores that seem to have a good selection.  Please send me (Prof. Scinicariello) a list of things you…

Read more…

What is Social Bookmarking? (That's Diigo)

Wikipedia: A Short Explanation

YouTube: Social Bookmarking in Plain English--This is about Delicious, but the theory is the same.

YouTube: Diigo V.3--This video has information about Diigo groups.

Latest Activity

Lavi Ohana posted a status
Journal Four: Over the past few months, my Hebrew learning journey has grown in ways. I recently finished my last lesson with my mentor, Rabbi Sherry, and our work has evolved significantly since the beginning of the semester. Early on, we focused on reading short passages from a textbook and practicing basic conversations at the beginning and end of each session. As I grew more comfortable, we shifted toward full conversations entirely in Hebrew, with a focus on me expressing my plans,…
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Joyce Kim posted a status
Reflection Paper #2:

This semester has been a very valuable experience for me as I got to learn more Korean as a language and I was also able to learn more about Korean culture. This experience helped me think more about the cultural aspects of Korean and how they relate to its language, and the things we see in everyday life and in media. I think that I realized that perseverance is very important when learning a language. Even when you think you understand and get the majority of a concept,…
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Jeremy Um posted a status
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Jeremy Um posted a status
SDLC110 - Learning Journal #3

As I’ve come to reflect on my third learning journal, I’ve had decent improvement in my speaking and conversational skills. I think that intentionality is a huge aspect of learning or wanting to develop in a language. Pushing my limits and using Korean as frequently as I can whether it be with my language partner or someone I can speak Korean with has been challenging but helpful significantly. Furthermore, the more consistent I am, this helps reinforce my…
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Jeremy Um posted a status
SDLC - 110 Learning Journal #4

For my fourth learning journal, I have been researching and exploring more regarding Korean cuisine. This is tangent with my research topic on my final presentation for SDLC 105. I think that cuisine is such a huge part of culture and an excellent avenue to exploring any culture further in depth.
My research regarding cuisine focused more on the fermentative aspect of Korean cuisine. Fermentation is such a large sub category within Korean cuisine and is a part…
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Jeremy Um posted a status
Cultural Post #4

Cafes in Korea over the past several decades have been extremely popularized as depicted largely in forms of media and entertainment. Cafes are such a huge part of Korean culture that there are even different forms of cafes that exist. This ranges anywhere from animal cafes, gaming cafes, all the way to themed cafes. Most of these cafes place an emphasis on aesthetics all the way from the decoration of the interior to its foods. Oftentimes you will see that the drink, bread,…
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APRIL 27 110 Monthly Language Learning Journal Entry: Learning Korean Through Cooking Videos and Food Vocabulary
This month, I tried something different to make learning Korean more fun and meaningful: I used Korean cooking videos to learn new vocabulary and practice listening comprehension. I’ve always been interested in Korean food, and since food is such a central part of any culture, it felt like a natural way to explore the language in context. Watching native speakers cook and explain…
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A network of participants in and friends of Richmond's Self-Directed Language Acquisition Program.

Diigo: Modern Hebrew

Diigo: Persian Learners

Diigo: Turkish Learners

Diigo: Asian Language Learners