I was pleased with my performance, in the sense that I could understand and participate in a non-rehearsed conversation. There were certainly things that I wish I had done differently, such as say that I studied physics instead of eating them--but overall I was pleased. Regarding my monologue, looking back I wish that I had made it longer and incorporated more of the things that I had learned over the semester, but my nerves got the better of me, and I kept to a short script. The evaluation proved that I can both memorize necessary phrases, as well as use them in conversation, a good way to end the semester.
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Posted by Becky Walker on April 20, 2009 at 5:14pm
This week was spent almost exclusively practicing my oral skills. I created sentences for the week, and read them with my drill instructor, who helped me both with pronunciation and grammar. Fortunately, this week I had only a few errors with my grammar. The sounds that do not exist in English such as the 'kh' or the 'gh' have posed a problem for me throughout the semester, however this week I was able to pronounce them "like a pro (according to Mona)" so long as they were the last syllable in the word. When they fall mid-word they still cause me to stumble if I am reading them, however when I am speaking, I do better.This last week of reflection is a bit bittersweet. My greatest fear is that when I return to studying Arabic this summer that I will lose much of what I have learned and accomplished in Farsi this semester. Thus my next goal is to learn how to learn both Arabic and Farsi together, so that they supplement each other as opposed to hindering my learning process. Overall, this course has been a wonderful experience of how much I can accomplish without direct instruction--my ideal learning style for most classes.
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Posted by Becky Walker on April 16, 2009 at 11:26am
My favorite part of the week was spent researching for my cultural project about the Iranian Youth. I am focused my research on unemployment, marriage, university enrollment rates, and the relationship between the youth and state/religion dynamic. Though I did not touch upon divorce rates in Iran in my presentation, I have since done some investigating as to the rates and reasons of divorce. A very liberal media site said that one of the reasons that Iranian women are divorcing their husbands is due to sexual dissatisfaction. This is interesting for a variety of reasons. The first being that women are initiating these divorces. The second being that they are allowed to divorce on the grounds of sexual dissatisfaction--when traditionally sex was reserved exclusively for procreation. It was not until 2002 that women were even allowed to divorce their husbands without their spouse's written permission. I have yet to come across what I would consider an accurate statistic for the divorce rate, but when I find it, I will be sure to include it in one of my posts.Otherwise, this past week was spent piecing a lot of things together. I built upon my knowledge of the verbs I already know, using them in new tenses, and new ways. Additionally, I am working on constructing more complex sentences, with direct and indirect objects, which is creating a variety of questions that I am continually on a quest for answering.
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Posted by Becky Walker on April 14, 2009 at 11:24am
Morgh baraye sham mipazam. I cook chicken for dinner.Ghahveh ba sohbhane minoosham. I drink coffee with breakfast.Seeb va noon kikhoram. I eat apples and bread.Moaleme khaharam ra mishnase. The teacher recognizes my sister.Shoma ra nemitoonam beshnavam. I can’t hear you.Daneshjooe oloom dare migeere. The student is taking science.Man a bra tarjee mikonam be sheer. I prefer water to milk.Baraye man benevees. Write it down for me.Zire yek mobl paydash kardam. I found it under a couch.Shekle madar bozorgam astam. I resemble my grandmother.
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Posted by Becky Walker on April 6, 2009 at 10:22am
Culture week was great. I watched a movie, which gave me the opportunity to practice my aural skills while observing the cultural interactions between the characters. In addition to watching the movie, I also spent time researching for my cultural project--how Iran's youth is affecting the country, and vice- versa--which provided a cleared image of Iranian culture for me.I did not have the chance to look into the customs declaration phrases, so I have moved that for next week's task. I made this decision as I spent far longer watching, and rewatching scenes in the movie than I anticipated. It was something that I needed to do however, because though I was constantly frustrated not being able to understand the conversations, simply observing Iran through the lens of an outsider (the character was not a native) was beneficial.This upcoming week I will return to more grammar based learning in order to improve the ways in which I can build upon what I already know.
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Posted by Becky Walker on April 6, 2009 at 10:06am
Reintroducing the Rosetta Stone was a good decision. At the beginning, using the Rosetta Stone was not entirely too helpful, for without knowing any of the words, I would rely on using the pictures to remember them, as opposed to taking the words to memory. Fortunately, I am much more familiar with the words used in the first lessons of the Rosetta Stone, and this helped me to practice my aural skills. Though next week I am planning on focusing more on culture--knowing what gestures I can use to accompany the phases I am learning--I will continue to use the Rosetta Stone and other aural programs to practice my skills.
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Posted by Becky Walker on March 23, 2009 at 9:43am
I hit the point that I knew was coming--the same point that I hit in every language: I realize I have a large deficit in aural skills. Though I could attribute this lapse to my deafness, unfortunately I don't think that I can fall back on that as my sole excuse. The problem is not that I am unfamiliar with the material, for if questions are asked to me in English, I could respond to them, or even translate them, in Farsi. I have tried listening to the BBC and other aural exercises in order to accustom myself to the sounds and voice inflections in Farsi, but it is increasingly becoming more of a struggle to understand not only single words, but entire sentences. I thought that the Modern Persian CDs would benefit me as it would pair the aural exercises with sentences with which I was already familiar. I think what I will now do, is return to some of the aural exercises that I completed at the beginning of the semester, such as the basic phrases on Biki and the first levels of the Rosetta Stone and listen to those without looking at the screen in order to get a stronger grasp on my listening skills.Otherwise writing my practice sentences has been a great tool in knowing what questions I want to learn. Through writing them I begin to question placement of things such as the where prepositions belong in sentences and to which words can possessors be attached. I will continue making sentences on a weekly basis in order to both reinforce the grammar that I have already learned as well as use it as a means to develop new questions.
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Posted by Becky Walker on March 23, 2009 at 9:20am
As mentioned earlier, I wanted to refrain from doing two similar artifacts. Therefore I decided to transliterate 10 sentences in order to demonstrate my understanding of sentence structure and grammar. The following sentences have no theme-based connections, they were written simply from the vocabulary with which I am already familiar.Doost daram varesh bokonam.. I like to exercise.Dirooz hobedam. I slept yesterday.Seebe bist rial ast. The apple costs 20 cents.Peydaram haste hasteh. My father is tired.Noun forookhdim. We sold bread.Ajaleh daram. I am in a hurry.Kelase avalet oloom ast. Your first class is science.Ba madar bozergeshooh khordan.. They ate with their grandmother.Barow daresh man ra aziat mikoneh. His brother annoys me.Chai minewshan. They are drinking tea.
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Instead of having two similar artifacts, I am going to use this as a simple practice exercise in order to improve my oral skills. Below is the transliteration of my oral snippet. The recording explains my weekly class schedule.Kelase avalam do shanbe ast, ke kelase farsi zaban ast. Bad kelase musikey daram. Seshanbe dota kelas daram, ke kelase oloom va ingelesi astan. Chaharshanbe dobare kelase ingelesi daram. Panjshanbe seta kelas daram;aval oloom, farsi zaban dovom, musikey sevom. Jomeh kelas nadaram. Een hamaye kelasam astan.
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This is the first week where I felt as if I were trying to put too much together too quickly. I have included an objective from week six and kept it on my objectives for week seven, as I don't feel comfortable in my competency to explain directions to someone. I felt as if there were too many filler words which I was not yet familiar with, despite my having learned how to say the third street on the left, I could not say phrases such as "then continue" or "as you are approaching".Other than this objective, I feel as if I am progressing. I am beginning to pick up more of the words and phrases while listening to the BBC Farsi, which makes the task far less frustrating. I was pleased with my artifact as one of my benchmarks, as it displays what I feel comfortable with up to this point. I have learned more vocabulary and tenses than I included, however, I do not know how they grammatically function in a sentences--which is why they are being left until later to be recorded.
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