What is your interest in 'your' language and the culture(s) where it is used? What do you hope to learn this semester? this year? in the future?
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What is your interest in 'your' language and the culture(s) where it is used? What do you hope to learn this semester? this year? in the future?
You need to be a member of The SDLAP Ning to add comments!
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I am interested in learning Hebrew for a few reasons.
1. It is the language of my religion. In Temple I do not understand the majority (practically all) of the Hebrew and would like to be able to understand all of the prayers so I do not have to read the transliteration and translation underneath to follow along.
2. I am going to Israel in May and want to be able to communicate with people while I am there.
3. I used to know how to read and write Hebrew when I was in Hebrew school but have unfortunately lost that ability. I want to relearn my skills as well as improve my knowledge and begin to understand the language.
4. I want to be able to understand Israeli culture better; there are many amazing programs for college graduates to go teach English in Israel. I am interested in applying to one of these programs but want to understand the culture and language better before doing so.
This semester I hope to be able to regain the reading and writing skills I had when I was younger as well as be able to speak conversationally Hebrew so I can get around. If I do end up going to Israel to teach English I would be able to speak fluently by the end of the 10 month period. For now I am not looking to be fluent but it is something I may want to pursue in the future.
My interest in Hindi language stemmed from my love of Bollywood movies. I grew up watching Bollywood movies since there were no Afghani film industry that would have made movies and western movies were not popular in the conservative culture of my country. Watching Bollywood movies I have learned to understand the language but because of lack of formal education the grammar has always escaped me. Also because of the difficulty of the pronunciation of the words, I usually shy away from practicing the limited phrases that I can put together in my mind. Through this course I would like to learn more Hindi words, learn the basic grammar so that I will be able to say something without being embarrassed. This course will also give me a chance to practice and talk more in Hindi.
My interest in Hebrew began when I was 4 years old and I started Hebrew school. I was in Hebrew school weekly for several years, and then that amount of time increased to 4 times a week in preparation for my Bat Mitzvah. Being Jewish, I have always been around the Hebrew language and I am comfortable hearing it, speaking it, writing it and reading it, but I am like a robot, because I have no idea what I am saying. My goals for this semester are to begin to grasp the Hebrew language - I want to master some basic introductions, cement my abilities to understand the alphabet system and the vowel system, and lay a foundation to later begin to learn more vocabulary and form sentences. Hebrew is a difficult language, but because I know the alphabet and am familiar with the sounds, I feel like I have an advantage. I also want to be able to learn more about Israel. I went there two summers ago and absolutely fell in love with it - it felt more like home than any other country I have visited. If I can learn a little more Hebrew and increase my vocabulary and level of comfort with the language, then I will be able to feel more at home in this place that I already love!
Hindi has been a language constantly spoken in my presence growing up. It was the language my parents would switch to when they didnt want my sister and myself to understand what was being said. All of my older relatives speak the language as well. However, I never learned how to speak Hindi. My parents were too concerned with my maintaining my fluency in both english and spanish, so they never pushed my learning Hindi. Being an Indian who fully embraces her culture, I think it is very important that I begin learning how to speak in Hindi. It is really important to me, for i feel like it should be a part of my identity. At college, I have made friends with many Indians - all of whom can speak in Hindi - all except me. I dont like feeling left out of the culture that I should be a part of, and a major part of a culture is in fact the language. It is for this reason that I am very keen on learning how to speak in Hindi. I no longer want to be the only reason everyone has to deal with subtitles in a Hindi movie. I want to fully become my Indian self. Learning a language is a long process, and I am fully aware of that. During the semester, my goal was to just begin the process of self-directed Hindi studies so as to know how to continue at the end of the semester. After the semester is over, I plan to continue my Hindi studies as well as practice with whomever possible, until one day I am fluent in the language I am meant to be fluent in.
My interest in learning Swedish is mainly so that I can communicate with my boyfriend's family. I have also wanted to be bilingual and can speak Spanish decently fluently but I thought that learning Swedish would give me an opportunity to accomplish those two broader goals. Ultimately by the end of this year I hope to learn more about Swedish culture so that I can relate to the Anderssons and their ways of being. I'd love to be conversational enough that I can talk to his grandparents about myself and the things happening around us without needing one of his bilingual family members present. I guess that essentially means that I'd like to know a lot of vocabulary that can be used in daily life and also enough grammar/verb conjugations to speak semifluently.
My interest in my language stems from my knowledge of the Russian language. Because I know Russian, I figured it would be nice to apply my knowledge of the language to learn a new one. Ukrainian is considered as one of the most beautiful languages in the world. I also have relatives in the Ukraine who I haven't seen since I was a kid and it would be nice to have a chance to visit them and apply my language skills. Ukrainian is spoken heavily on the western side of the Dnipro river that flows through the entire country and effectively splits it into two halves. Ukrainian has a similar alphabet to Russian, they both use Cyrillic however there are slight differences in pronunciation and even some completely different letter that are non existent in Russian. Although Ukraine is its own country, they are very close to Russia politically, geographically and socially. I am very interested to learn how similar greetings are between both languages in terms of context and appropriate application time. As far as I know, there are some words that are very similar and some that have no relation at all to Russian but are similar to words in Polish or other slavic languages. I'm excited to see how far I can take my learning of the language. It will definitely be a challenge to learn the differences in application of specific words that might seem acceptable in Russian but would be misused or misinterpreted in Ukrainian, however I am excited to take on this challenge.
Ever since I went to Iceland about two years ago I have been interested in Scandinavian cultures. There are a lot of attributes that are similar to that of culture I am used to but there are a lot of ones that are different. Take for example, time. If you are invited to a dinner party at 6, you get there at 6. While in a lot Hispanic cultures (my family being Dominican) you say 6, you shouldn't arrive earlier than 7. I think something that is entirely different is the fact they aren't very touchy feely people. In Hispanic families you kiss each other on the check and hug when greeting each other but in Scandinavian that doesn't normally ring true. I plan to learn Swedish, Danish, and perhaps Norwegian if I am feeling really ambitious. I chose Swedish first because I knew of a language partner who would be willing to work with me. Its been.... interesting so far but really fun as well.
Since I was a kid, I had a very special interest in learning different languages. I loved learning Urdu since my childhood because we have lots of TV series in Urdu back home and watched lots of Bollywood movies which I loved them all. I am sure that I am going to love learning Urdu this semester. I just need to stay patient and try to find good ways of learning it such as watching short movies, videos, reading picture text, and practicing my writing. I am going to work very hard to spend a good amount of time to practice, study, and most importantly to work with my language partner which is going to be a great help toward my learning of Urdu language. I love Indian and Urdu songs. It will be awesome that I can translate them by myself one day. Urdu is such a beautiful and sweet language. Its songs give you all the great emotions of being happy, relaxed, or go crazy. I am very excited and can’t wait to learn how to talk and understand Urdu by the end of this semester.
A very sweet Urdu song with nice words