Identify a topic for your culture project and reflect upon how this project relates to your language learning. State your learning goals for this project.
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Identify a topic for your culture project and reflect upon how this project relates to your language learning. State your learning goals for this project.
You need to be a member of The SDLAP Ning to add comments!
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I had worked on a cultural presentation for SDLC 105 on understanding a traditional Sindhi wedding since I am really trying to gain more knowledge about my culture. Weddings are a big topic and I found that there was so much to cover in one small presentation so I made it very basic and explained only certain basic key factors of the wedding in that presentation. But the topic is something I personally love because I’m so mesmerized by the beautiful rituals and events that take place at a wedding that I want to further work on the presentation and explain it in detail for my final cultural presentation.
Another idea that had come to my mind was to study and understand the various sects or classes of Sindhis. Sindhi is an ancient community that believed in the caste system but that has now been broken and Sindhi’s are mainly recognized by the towns or villages from where their ancestors come from. Resources on this topic were very limited so I had to abandon this idea.
Picking my culture project was a struggle. I actually was thinking randomly throughout the semester. Although I have more confident in what my current topic is, I will give the timeline of the previous topics I thought about and why.
Food: This is the easiest topic for me because I identify myself with Korean culture the best with food. Also in the presentation I could have included food ad the cultural aspects which have influenced it. Also I can talk about health in Korea. The health care system is something I am highly interested in, regardless of what country, because in the future I wish to work in health care. (I want to become a nurse practitioner to be more precise.) But then I decided not to do it because I still did not feel passionate enough about it.
Elders in Korea: I know when reading this title it might make most people confused. My reason was because I could once again discuss health care. Another reason was because I could incorporate the aspect of family in Korea. Korea is certainly a country that revolves around community. I thought it would interesting I could have proven this fact rather than directly discussing how it is a collectivist country directly.
Well these two were my initial topics, but after much though I knew what my real passion is. Currently I am highly interested in mental health. This interest branches back to me going on a conference known as ECAASU (East Coast Asian American Student Union). At one of the workshops, we discussed the idea of mental health being taboo specially in the Asian American community. I discovered that day that the highest suicide rates in America are Asian American woman between the ages of 18 to 24. This just sparked my interest in finding out how mental health is perceived in Korea as well.
Aside from my cultural topic, my learning goals is just to read and write. I believe if I can do this one my own then I can continue with the language learning process after college. Unlike many of my classmates, I do not have the privilege of retaking this self directed course because I will be graduating soon. Realistically if I can do work on my own, then I can continue to study. I was thinking more in the future rather than the present when studying Korean this semester. I believe although I might not currently know so many phrases, I can probably pick it up quickly if I can force myself to “think” in Korean. This means feeling comfortable when reading something, and being able to remembering it quickly since the language will not sound in foreign anymore in my mind.
At first I was thinking of examining Korean dramas because I've been spending at least one hour each week watching an episode to improve my listening comprehension skills. But as I thought about what aspect of K-dramas--should I concentrate on the exportation of K-dramas as part of Korea's globalization, the social conventions of Korea as represented by K-dramas, etc?--I realized that this would be a difficult topic to efficiently and effectively explain in a 10-15 minute presentation.
So I shifted my attention to an aspect of Korean culture that lies near and dear to my heart: cuisine. This project relates to my language learning in that I have been learning vocabulary regarding food and cooking. My learning goals for this project are as follows:
1. to provide as thorough and comprehensive overview of important aspects of Korean cuisine (a typical Korean dish)
2. to show how Korean cuisine has developed due to Korea's history and environment, and emphasize the philosophical ideas behind it.
It took me a lot of time to figure out a topic for my culture project. There is just so much I want to learn about Turkey and Turkish culture that I just could not make up my mind. First I wanted to do a project on how Turkey got its name, then I changed my mind to talking about Children's day which is April 23rd, the day when I will be delivering my presentation, however in the end I decided to talk about the integral part of Turkish culture- Turkish coffee!
Turkish coffee is very popular in Europe, especially on the Balkan. However, not so many people know much about the tradition of "Turkish coffee" or the actual rituals of preparing and usage of it. I did some research on this topic and I can tell that this topic can be very interesting for both myself and the classmates that I deliver my presentation to. Few things I found interesting so far: in arranged marriages, Turkish coffee plays a very important role. By sweetening coffee too much or too little, the girl tells the guy indirectly whether she is interested in marrying him or not. Turkish coffee is not only about drinking it, there is another part equally important and that is fortune reading from the coffee grounds remaining in the cup. There are many more rituals related to Turkish coffee that I want to talk about in my presentation and need to do further research. I have also asked my language partner what she thinks about this topic, and she said that talking about Turkish coffee is a great idea.
My learning goals for this project are the followings:
- get deeper insights in Turkish culture
- learn what makes "Turkish coffee" so popular in the world
- learn more about the rituals related to drinking "Turkish coffee" such as fortune telling, or marriages
- be ready to prepare a great cup of Turkish coffee in case I get an arranged marriage with a Turkish guy
I believe this is going to be a very interesting topic from which we all can learn more about the Turkish culture and tradition. I am truly excited to work on this project.
I believe my project will be on Rabindranath Tagore and his influence on Bengali literature. He was the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and is considered the Shakespeare of the South Asian region. I find that this topic is good for my language learning because it makes me interpret his writings to come to an understanding of what he is trying to say. It tests my understanding of Bengali when it comes to literature, which I have never had before. I haven't tried reading his poems in Bengali script because it is more advanced than I can read for now, so I read the transliterations and try to make sense of that.
My goals for this project is to see what types of influence he had over Bangladesh in literature and philosophy or culture. It's interesting because he was Hindu and Bangladesh is a Muslim state and had heavy conflict with Hindus during his time. Despite his religious identity, the new State of Bangladesh chose one of his songs as its national anthem when it separated from Pakistan in 1971. Because he was born in Calcutta, Tagore is Bengali-Indian, and his first language was Bengali.
This is an excellent topic, but you need to identify your specific objectives because the topic is so broad. What are the questions you are trying to answer? How will you attempt to answer them?
questions I am trying to answer are: what are nice places to visit in Iran, and why are they important to the culture. I will attempt to answer them with the travel websites and from people who have visited them and historical foundations preserving ancient sites.
For my cultural project, I intend to talk about cinema within Iran. I would like to do this with particular emphasis on women's experience whether viewing or making films.
Here is my powerpoint presentation. I would highly suggest checking out the links in the sources and further information sections.
Cultural Presentation.pptx
More specifically, I will be presenting on the film, Facing Mirrors by Negar Azarbayjani.
This is an excellent topic, but you need to identify your specific objectives because the topic is so broad. What are the questions you are trying to answer? How will you attempt to answer them?
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