I admit that I was at first upset that this course exists. I wanted to jump back into Turkish. I felt something of a grudge for the first two weeks. On the first meeting day, I wore my CLS shirt to symbolize my feelings. However, no matter how I felt I could not help but contribute into the discussion. I later came to understand the purpose of the course, both as an introductory element of the larger program and as a way of stepping back from my particular language studies to look not at a language, but language as a concept. Outside of the class-room, my goals shifted and this impacted my feelings about this course. While I had a singular focus at the beginning of the semester, planning only for the study of Turkish in Spring, I later became aware of other possibilities and the benefit of widening my scope of focus.
Concurrently to this course, I am taking Arabic 101. My original goal was to learn this language only for the script and basic vocabulary. However, after having studied it for 13 weeks, I began to truly enjoy it. I had a similar feeling to when I first studied Turkish, a joy in participating in the language that flows naturally into a desire to learn more. I felt a desire to learn more languages, and then asked you about Hebrew, which I changed to Persian on my professor's advice. While the languages which I will study next semester, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian all help in my goal of learning Ottoman and are, in this light, a means to an end, I noticed that it, no matter what language I study, I will enjoy it. Stepping away from Turkish, to look at language as a concept helped me come to this thought. This is probably the best thing the course has done for me, given me the environment in which to evaluate my language learning and its purpose. If this was the only thing this course gave me, it would have been worthwhile.
However, it was not the only thing. What I found most difficult and most enjoyable was the IPA. Particularly in regard to vowels, it helped me with Turkish. It also helped me with Ottoman. While I am taking Arabic in part to learn the alphabet for later use in Ottoman, Ottoman has more letters than Arabic, and without prior experience to those sounds, there were letters that I could not sound out. The IPA, especially the interactive IPA chart, allowed me to hear the sounds of those letters. Although it was very hard to memorize, having it as a language learning resource now will be very helpful in the future--with Ottoman and any other tongue I decide to transplant into my mouth.
I am going to continue my language learning by taking Arabic 102, SDLC Persian, and SDLC Turkish next semester. I will continue listening to Turkish music (which is a great motivational tool.) I will try to read "fluent-level" Turkish books, however slowly. I will work on my Ottoman Turkish vocabulary through Quizlet sets. This will help me gain an idea of how familiar Turkish words are written in the Arabic script. After I graduate in May, inşallah, I may be accepted into the ARIT scholarship. Once I get into a graduate program, I will do my best to continue with these languages; I will have to see what that environment demands of me.
Thank you for the semester and the opportunities it has granted me.
Replies
Fascinating post, Chris. I'm very happy that the course managed to give you (and Yuting), some surprising new insights. Good luck in your future studies of Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, and Persian!
I totally agree! At first, I didn't quite understand the purpose of this course and didn't understand how it was relevant to everyone who learning different languages. But the discussions in class really sparked my interest in Linguistics and showed me the link between Language and Culture, History, Religion and Society.