Alexis Witt's Posts

Journal Entry #10 - Cross Cultural Experiences

Posted by Alexis Witt on November 2, 2010 at 2:36pm

For being only 18 years old, I have had a lot of experiences with people from other cultures. I spent a week in the Caribbean, three weeks in Tanzania, and tons of time with people who visit the United States,

When I was in 7th grade, we went on a family vacation to St. Lucia, a small island in the Caribbean. At the time, it wasn't a popular island for Americans to visit, and since it was a territory of the UK, there were many British visitors to the island. My brother and I became good friends with two British girls. We loved their accents, and they thought our American accents were so cool. It was the first time I ever really thought about having an accent. I had heard "southern" accents and British accents, but I never heard of an "American" accent. Looking back, I probably should have realized that to other people, I have an accent, but I had never been around people from other places before, so I guess it was just something I never thought about.

Also, in the Caribbean, we did travel off of the resort to the other places on the island. We visited a Cocoa Plantation and we spent some time in a few of the villages. Although I don't remember much, I remember that their lifestyle was very different. Every Friday night (I think...), they had street parties. They didn't have a lot in the towns and villages, but they still made sure that they had time for each other. We rarely do things like that here, and when we do, it certainly isn't an event for the entire town or city (at least I haven't experienced anything like that before).

It was also the first time that I truly saw poverty. Once we traveled away from the resort, we saw people living in make-shift houses made out of left over scrap-metal. Entire families lived in one or two room houses. It was shocking to me. But they were such happy people, and I never felt that they resented their position in life.

During my three weeks in Tanzania, I saw even more poverty. The children didn't have shoes; the children didn't have store bought toys; people sold their extra goods for a few extra Tanzanian Shillings; people didn't have indoor plumbing, or electricity; people worked all day in the fields, more for subsistence than anything else; people don't have good medical care; entire towns were so poor, etc. Yet they were happy. The children were so smart because they had to make their own toys. It kept them busy. I never saw an unhappy Tanzanian. Here, we always seem to want more. There, they are so thankful for what they have. It is such an incredible difference to me.

Tanzanian culture is so incredibly different than our own, and it is hard to put it well into words. Their mindset is more on the community, and generally, for the religious more on God than themselves. They aren't ever focused on themselves. They look to what God would want them to do, which would lead to more of an involvement in the community. I always tell the story of Mama Allen to illustrate this. She makes about $1 per day from the Diocese, when they can afford to pay her. Yet, on one of our last nights there, she had all of us from America (about 8 people) plus three people from the Diocese plus her own family to her house for a dinner. It was a normal meal of chicken and rice, but since she lives in a more urban area, she wouldn't have been able to grow the food or raise the chickens herself. She had to buy all of it. She probably spent nearly her entire monthly salary on us because she believed that is what God would want her to do. She also had the faith that God would provide for her and her family.

Tanzanian Etiquette

Posted by Alexis Witt on October 26, 2010 at 3:52pm

Interesting Rules of Etiquette

Men never braid their hair. It indicates that he is gay, which is a huge taboo in Tanzanian and other African cultures.
When people of the same sex are talking, it is common for people to touch each other. But when people of the opposite sex are talking, there is very little physical contact.
It is inappropriate for women to smoke in public. Women who smoke in public are often seen as prostitutes.
Dating is becoming more common with younger people in more urban areas. Some elders still see dating as promiscuous.
Girls usually are expected to wear skirts (at least knee-length) rather than pants, especially in rural areas.
Girls are also expected to wear modest shirts with sleeves
Men never wear shorts
You are expected to visit neighbors periodically (ideally several times per week)

http://www.culturecrossing.net/basics_business_student.php?id=202

Journal Entry #9 - Figuring Foreigners Out

Posted by Alexis Witt on October 26, 2010 at 2:33pm

The readings from "Figuring Foreigners Out" help us to understand various things about other cultures. I thought this reading was very interesting, and I really enjoyed applying it to cultures that speak Swahili.

The first section was about Direct (low context) v Indirect (high context) methods of communication. At least in the area that I visited, Tanzanians tent to fit better into the Indirect method of communication. Actions seem to be very important. For instance, to say thank you isn't enough to show gratitude. When we visited, to show her gratitude, Mama Allen cooked dinner for all eight of us, than sang and danced with her family after we finished eating. And in Nyacusa (the local tribal language), there is this word ndaga, which is a greeting, goodbye, and if I remember correctly it is also used as a way to say thank you. Someone really has to know the culture to understand the word. I still don't know exactly what it means. But at the same time, words generally are taken literally rather than metaphorically, which would fall more under the Direct method.

The next section has to deal with how cultures view time. In Tanzania, they are definitely polychronic. Time is not important, at all. One of my favorite stories from my trip that really show came from when we visited a preaching point in the middle of the jungle. It was probably a 30 min walk from the main part of Isuba village to this little pavilion (shown below) in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

It was early in the afternoon on Monday, so we just expected to meet with some church elders. Eventually we see a man go out into the clearing and start beating a drum (later it was explained that he was calling people to worship). And people dropped what they were doing to come to an impromptu worship service. It didn't matter that it was Monday and there was work to be done. It could be done later.

The next portion of the reading discussed individualist v collectivist cultures. Tanzania is very collectivist. What is good for the whole is more important than what is best for the individual. People are expected to reach out and help their friends and family in need. There is almost no focus on the individual. In the younger generations, there is more of a push for people to go to secondary school and if they are lucky enough to "University," but it is more to benefit the community rather than the individual.

I also really enjoyed the nonverbal communication section. I noticed while I was in Tanzania, there were certain things that were universal, especially smiles. I visited a pottery shop near Matema Beach, and kids swarmed around me. At one point, I had six kids hanging onto my two hands. I couldn't speak with them because they didn't even know Swahili, just Nyacusa. But they were talking amongst themselves, smiling, and laughing. My only method of communicating with them was through my own smile. It was one of my favorite days of my time there.

Another thing that I learned were the differences in various gestures or other nonverbal methods of communication. For instance, in Tanzania holding hands is only between friends, not between couples.When I visited Manow Secondary School, one of the guys grabbed my hand and held it as we walked around. It wasn't out of any romantic feelings, but feelings of friendship. And you would never point one finger at someone because it is considered rude.

Journal Entry #8 - Origins of Swahili

Posted by Alexis Witt on October 19, 2010 at 2:00pm

It is sort of hard to find good information on the origins of Swahili because the origins are somewhat vague. Basically. I found that Swahili developed as Arabic and Persian traders came to Eastern Africa somewhere between 500 and 1000 AD. It began as a language to help traders barter with the natives. Eventually, it became a more popular language among the people in countries like Tanzania and Kenya. It is classified as a bantu language because of the syntax and sentence structure, but has influences from Turkish, Arabic, German, and English. Swahili was only really a spoken language until the British took control of German East Africa after WWI and encouraged people to write (according to one of our language partners). Therefore, there could be several correct spellings of a word, for instance asante and ahsante are both correct ways to spell thank you. Swahili is not generally someone's native language. It is generally a second language taught in primary schools. A child's first language is usually a tribal language; then a child learns Swahili in primary school; then English in secondary school (if a child is lucky enough to reach secondary school).

Knowing this helps me learn Swahili because it helps me make connections with other languages that I have already studied. I obviously pretty fluent in English, so it is easy to connect the english word Computer and the Swahili word Computa or the English word car to the Swahili word gari. I can also make connections between Spanish and Swahili for instance the spanish word for table is mesa and the Swahili word is meza.

Journal Entry #7: HLW pgs 336-364

Posted by Alexis Witt on October 14, 2010 at 1:55pm

I really enjoyed this section of the book, mostly because I find languages themselves fascinating. Since I love learning about languages, it was so interesting to learn more about the development of languages.

The first section disturbed me. I didn't realize how many languages were in the world, and I had no clue how many were dying. It is hard to believe that 5,000 languages out 6,000 languages in the world have less than 100,000 speakers and that 3,000 languages will die in the next century. That is a crazy statistic. I'd assume many of those languages are the old tribal languages of Africa, including Nyacusa, which is spoken in the area off Tanzania.

I also learned a lot from the following section. This discussed how languages are born. I learned how pidgin languages evolve into creole languages. This is what happened with Swahili. Apparently, Swahili was invented to help Indians trade with various African people; therefore, it started as a pidgin language. Eventually, it became more popular and more complex, and eventually transformed into a creole language, spoken by many people on the Eastern Coast of Africa. It is also the national language of Kenya, Tanzania, and possibly a few other countries.

I thought the section on how language began was very interesting, but it didn't give any clear answers. I realize that there may not be any answers, but I found that parts of this section were slightly over my head. For instance, I don't have the scientific knowledge to know what the difference between an Australopithecus and a Neanderthal are. It is very interesting, but I would need more knowledge on the development of humans to have a better understanding of this section.

How language changes also is pretty useful while learning a new language. Old English is obviously very different from New English, but language is constantly changing and words are being used in new ways. For instance, slang terms today are different than the slang terms that my parents and grandparents used. When my Dad was growing up the word "gay" meant happy, and today we use it to describe someone (especially a male) who is homosexual. I'm reminded of the song "Back When" by Tim McGraw (yes, I do enjoy my country music). The refrain puts it this way "Back when a hoe was a hoe/ Coke was a coke/ And crack's what you were doing/ When you were cracking jokes/ Back when a screw was a screw/ The wind was all that blew/ And when you said I'm down with that/ Well it meant you had the flu./ I miss back when." Even between generations language changes so much. In Swahili, for example, Hujambo was a common greeting, but now it is mainly used when addressing elders. Now, people just use jambo or vipi to greet a friend.

Journal Entry #6 - HLW pgs 97 - 158

Posted by Alexis Witt on October 5, 2010 at 1:41pm

One thing in the book, that really caught my attention was the part on sign language. I realize now that I accidentally started reading on 159 because I happened to leave the book open to 159 rather than 98, but I still felt that it was worth mentioning. My cousin, Jamie, is currently teaching her year old daughter, Alexis, sign-language, mostly because my cousin's in-laws are deaf. They are teaching her basics, like "more" and "eat," so she can always have some sort of communication with her grandparents. Alexis is better with sign language than English at the moment, since all she really says now (well, the last time I saw her) is Mama and Dada. It is interesting how she picks up the sign language so easily.

That section also reminded me of an Australian comedian, Adam Hills, who does many of his shows with a sign interpreter. I think they do British sign language, but I am not entirely sure. Of course, not all of the signs would be "school appropriate," but he had a skit on sign language that went into some of the british signs for things like Scotland, Ireland, and Australia. It was interesting to see how the sign related to the country or whatever he was talking about.

I found this reading really intriguing. I found this particularly interesting because I have always been better at writing new languages than speaking them. I tend to learn writing quickly because I can easily pick up grammar and other rules in order to write letters or notes to myself.

And I also love looking how people from who speak or spoke different languages write. I always have loved looking at hieroglyphics and other ancient writings. I may not be able to understand them, but the drawings or the characters are written so beautifully. I love watching documentaries where people decode the mysterious messages on the walls of the pyramids or the temple at Karnak. It has always fascinated me, probably because I love ancient Egypt and other ancient civilizations.

Also it is interesting to see the differences in people's handwriting today. I've noticed that generally older people tend to write more in cursive, while younger people like to print. There is even a Facebook group called "Third grade lied to me; I never use cursive." In my AP US History course, my teacher would write in cursive, and there were students who couldn't read it. I was always one of the few who wrote in cursive. My grandparents, older people at my church, older teachers, etc. seem to write in cursive more frequently than people my age.

I also found the analyzing handwriting portion pretty interesting. I've heard several different psychological analyses on it.

I can also relate to the part on spelling. I have always been a good reader, but I have difficulties spelling. This is partially because I was never taught how to spell, in general. In elementary school, we were taught how to spell certain words. We had these "no excuse words" every year that we had to be able to spell, but we were never taught phonics or other strategies to learn how to spell. I have always been quite thankful for spell check computers.

Journal Entry #5: How Language Works pg 58 - 96; Reading and Learning New Words

Posted by Alexis Witt on September 28, 2010 at 1:54pm

I apologize for finishing this post an hour before class, but I almost forgot that I didn't finish my entry a few days ago...

Personally, I felt that most of the reading was pretty boring. It had too many technical terms for me to stay intrigued. But I did find a few things quite interesting. For instance, I had no idea that there was an entire system for classifying vowels (chapter 10). I have always just thought of them as a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y, like we have learned since elementary school. Of course, I knew that depending on the word, there can be long or short vowels, but it was interesting to read about the more complex classifications, even if I didn't completely understand it. I felt that chapter 12 was the most useful because it discussed more how we speak and our tones of voice. For instance, we change our tone depending on what emotions we are trying to express, what kind of sentence we are using (a question v a statement), the meaning of the sentence, etc. I also thought some of the information on how children learn language was interesting, but I don't know how to apply that to self directed learning. I really thought the part on page 87 with the study with the fish was really interesting. Although the child knew that the word was fish, he kept pronouncing it fis.

I think my vocab is coming along well. I can recognize about 50 - 75 words while reading something, and have about half of that memorized into my vocab. My biggest problem is that in drill with Professor Kapanga and our language tutors it is all spoken, and I am more of a visual learner. I have to write something down to remember it. But it is coming along quite well in my opinion.

Journal Entry #3 - Resources/ Difficulties

Posted by Alexis Witt on September 13, 2010 at 9:14pm

I have used many different resources that have been really helpful. I found a website that I ended up linking to on diigo called Mwana Simba. It is a french website, but it also has the entire site in English. It provides lots of resources to help learn vocab and grammar. Being someone who likes learning grammar for other languages, it has been a huge help. It has puzzles, games, music, etc to help. I highly recommend it to anyone learning swahili. It has a PDF textbook, but it is too big for me to open. It also breaks up the textbook on it is website, so I can still access it somehow. So I can only access it when I have internet access, but that it is okay. It is a terrific resource anyway.

My biggest problem so far is memorizing vocab. I have never had to attempt to master so many words in such a small amount of time, but with flashcards and this new website, it is easier.
So far, I think I am coming along well. I can write simple sentences about various topics, if I have a dictionary available to me. I know how to form basic verbs in past, present, and future tenses. I haven't learned much about nouns yet, but I think I am doing well with verbs.

Journal Entry #2: Learner Autonomy & How Language Works pg 171 - 209

Posted by Alexis Witt on September 6, 2010 at 12:09pm

I thought that both readings were very interesting. Regarding the Learner Autonomy article, I think I have always been somewhat of an autonomous learner. From elementary school, I have always been one to do research and learn about various topics on my own. I would get bored in school, and pick up another topic on the side. This is how I know so much about Ancient Egypt and the Gnostic Gospels. It was never taught to me, I read and learned on my own. I haven't been as much of an autonomous learner with languages, but I still have attempted to "take charge" of my learning. Last year, my Latin class moved at a very slow pace because kids just weren't understanding the higher level Latin rules. I understood fairly easily, so I would look ahead or I would translate works that weren't required of us. Anytime I sing something in Latin, I try to translate it, even if English is given. Most of the time the English is close to the the Latin, and implies the same overall meaning, but because we have to make it fit to the music, sometimes it isn't a truly accurate translation. So in that way, I have been autonomous with languages, but not to the same extent as other subjects. Reading the article, I noticed the various learning strategies. I seem to use most of the cognitive strategies, but I rely heavily on repetition, translation, and note taking. I think that stems from the fact that I have mainly studied Latin, and we didn't focus on the spoken aspects of the language. Instead, we worked on vocab, grammar, and translation. I don't use as many of the metacognitive strategies, but I do evaluate myself, and I attempt to monitor myself as I speak another language. I really like the idea of keeping a diary with my progress and problems, but I have attempted to keep regular diaries in the past, and it only lasted a few posts before I would forget about it or just get too lazy to do it. I also think that it is good to have written goals, but I am not sure what is practical for semester goals, especially since Swahili is so different from any other language that I have studied.

I also thought that the reading from the textbook was interesting. I never really studied how language works and how our brains deal with it. It has always been such a natural thing to me, that I never thought twice about it. When I studied Spanish in high school, it came so easily to me, even though it obviously isn't my first language, so I enjoyed learning a little bit more on how it all works. I didn't realize that language was such a complex thing neurologically. And I didn't know that different parts of the brain played different roles in speaking and understanding language.

Learning Styles

Posted by Alexis Witt on August 29, 2010 at 3:34pm

I seem to be have a unique learning style. According to the surveys, I use pretty much everything on an equal level. The only thing that peaked above the rest (and it was only very slightly) was visual learning. I like using books, tapes, videos, and even other people especially when it comes to learning languages. I like using the books to master the grammar and vocab, the tapes to master the pronunciation of words and phrases, the videos to see real-world examples, and other people to practice myself.

In high school, I studied Latin for four years and Spanish for two years. I really enjoyed using the Latin books to translate various works from Latin to English and vise versa. It really helped me to learn the grammar and the definitions of various vocab words. In Spanish, I liked actually learning how to speak another language, partially using the teacher, the book, and the various supplements, like videos.

I think that while I am learning Swahili, I will be using all of these methods to try to master the language. I have books that Professor Kapanga recommended to us, which have an online audio component, and the books in the International Center. There are some videos both online and in the International Center that are available for me to use. Plus, I have friends who speak Swahili, so I will be able to have their help as well. Some of these friends live in Tanzania, and some are studying here in the States. I'm hoping that I'll be able to become fluent in Swahili, eventually, and I think that is a reasonable ambition because I have all of the resources to do it.