Caarn Heir's Posts (24)
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Bhangra%20within%20the%20past%2040%20years.pptx
My language is Punjabi.
Its been a great semester!
I have learned to say the following phrases. I am beginning to learn how to write them as well!
ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਹੌਲੀ ਬੋਲੋ ਜੀ। tusi kipa karke bolo ji = Can you speak more slowly
ਇਹ ਕਿੱਨੇ ih kinne?= how much is this?
ਮੇਰਾ ਹਵਰਕ੍ਰਾਫ਼ਤ ਨਾਂਗਾਂ ਨਾਲ਼ ਭਰਿਆ ਪਿਆ। mere hovacraft nanga na paria par = my hovercraft is full of eels!
ਪੁਲਸਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਬੁਲਾ! pulsa nu bola = call the police!
ਲਿੱਖ likka= write down
There were a ton of phrases to learns so I chose some of the ones that I plan on using or hope not to use (but should know)!
I used pictures to help people remember the first five numbers in Punjabi!
The first picture is ONE cat and the word is EK (phonetics)
The second picture is of TWO Ferraris and the word is Dthoh (phonetic)
The next picture is of the THREE stooges the word is tehn (phonetic)
The next picture is of a FOUR loko and the word is char (phonetic)
The final image is of FIVE guys burgers and the word is Punj (phonetic)
Interesting fact: Punjab has five rivers running through it thus the name Land of five rivers!
I hope to learn the basics of writing, this includes the alphabet and the structure of the language. I also hope to learn how to say some of the more common phrases in Punjabi as well as learn to write a few of them.
I feel like these are attainable goals, but I guess time will tell.
(This was in my notes, I was not sure if we needed to post this or not)
In response to: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/07/08/what-s-in-a-word.html
This article was incredibly interesting. I wish we had discussed it in class (briefly). The examples that the author brought up were incredible and the tests that were run were pure genius. I felt myself questioning my perception based on the words that I choose on a daily basis. I wonder if slang has the same effect!?!?
I believe that knowing some bits of history in your target language can help you learn the language. I believe that this historical knowledge gives you some what of an insider perspective into the culture and past of the language and it will enable you to relate and see a purpose in pursuing the language. I feel as though this will not help immensily however any help is good help.
The reason I don't see this as a tremendous help to a language learner is that the history has no value to the language. What I mean by the previous sentence is that the history does not translate into vocab for instance and if the knowledge makes you learn historical terms they are hardly practical in modern society.
It might be the youth in me that sees the boring lectures about history that I will never need to know or even care about. I see a small benefit when it comes to cultural knowledge but it should be kept to a minimum as mentioned before. I might just be stubborn on this topic. My views are pretty simple. I feel that history if taught in a language class should only be used in conjunction with vocab and grammar that will be practical in a modern setting.
In response to: http://babel2.richmond.edu/web2/sdlap/BrownCh7.pdf
This article was really quite stimulating. I had been thinking of this very topic (in a less lavish manor) during class. How do stereotypes come about? I feel as though the author was suggesting that stereotypes are a product of our different view points and those view points become references for judging others. I feel as though this is pretty spot on. When you think about it, it makes sense. For example, I have a soft spoken friend and he and I were talking to a girl from London. She was just below my voice when it came to loudness. After talking to her and walking away my friend said that she was obnoxious and when I probed (because I didn't think she was) he said that she was just really loud like all of the people from England. I was not shocked that he said this because he rarely speaks and when he does it is hard to understand him because he is so soft spoken. I told him what I thought and we moved on. Little did I realize we were portraying this article perfectly. Looking back the entire situation makes sense. I found this article kind of a breath of fresh air in that it presented an argument that I had never thought and made it convincing enough form me to think of examples in my own life.
This article was a good read and spot on.
In response to: http://babel2.richmond.edu/web2/sdlap/BrownCh8.pdf
After reading this and discussing in class I have drawn some ideas that I found to be key in regards to Communicative Competence.
My main take-away from the article is that without context a sentence can have a variety of meanings and without learning the various styles of pronunciation you can end up in some sticky situations. The author of the article presented a statement about not liking a dinner. Without context you wouldn't know if the person was saying it in apology or in distaste. I found that interesting, without reading further I thought back to when I took Spanish in High School and my experience just thinking one sentence at a time. I felt as though I was operating like a computer. I then began to read further and sure enough the author mentions that most classes are not taught with context in mind.
This presented another chain of thought. When a person is immersed in a language they are forced to take context into account, could this be why people tend to learn a language with more ease when immersed? I think the logic of it makes sense, when you take context into play you think like a native and thus learn the language from its roots. If you learn a language in a classroom you tend to do it mechanically sentence by sentence and you are not really flowing ideas together seamlessly.
Overall I thought the article was interesting and thought provoking. I would like to see if there are any follow up articles that maybe delve further into the classroom with data that supports the claim one way or the other.
In response to: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/how-immersion-helps-to-learn-a-new-language.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=learning%20language&st=cse
I found this puzzling in the fact that I myself have not seen these results haha. I have tried to learn Spanish in the past with no success at all. I have been working on Chinese but without practice you can not become fluent like a native speaker. I understand that the article is about the brain and how we process a language and whether it is better to be immersed or learn it in a classroom. I feel as though this has little impact on language learning.
Being immersed and being forced to speak the language in order to communicate makes a person think like a native in a more natural way rather than picturing conjugations and characters in their head then translating them to English or vise versa. I think it is an interesting read but without more data and a longer study I see no validity in believing that the learning a language in a classroom versus being immersed is the same.
The "Culture Shock" video was interesting to watch. I took it to heart because I will be going abroad in the fall. I found that the people who aren't shocked by another culture are not getting the full effect of being abroad. I liked how the video focused on different aspects of culture shock and the students that were interviewed often presented solutions to the problems that were being discussed.
The main example of culture shock that I observe on a regular bases from international students studying at Richmond for a semester is the tendency to clump together with other international students. There are a few exceptions however for the most part this is true. I noticed that the international students who have meshed with the rest of the student body are often connected through club activities. I remember in the video one of the students said that getting involved in extracuricular activities helped him meet locals and have more friends outside of the international group. I found this particularly helpful. I will most likely be rooming in an international dorm while abroad in Beijing and I now know not to just hang out with the people in my dorm but also natives.
I was also able to relate to the stereotype discussion. I have been abroad to visit relatives and when talking to them some are curious if the stereotypes of America are true. This isn't the case for just America but all countries have some stereotypes. In the video some of the stereotypes the students came to the University with interested me. I feel as though taking stereotypes with you abroad shows a closed mind. I would like to go abroad and be able to completely accept the foreign culture.
Overall I thought "Culture Shock" was an interesting video that cleared up a lot of perceptions and thoughts that any student going abroad will feel at some point during their career abroad. I found it helpful to the point where I will remember the tips for my trip abroad.
Culture competence is an interesting topic. I find that many people in the United States don't have a very high cultural competence. I define cultural competence as a persons ability to interact and accept someone of a different culture.
I was brought up in Indianapolis, IN. I found that most people who were close to the city could interact with me and see me as an equal and recognize my heritage. However as you moved farther into the more rural part of Indiana I was not greeted with the nice smiles that I have been accustomed to. I feel that culture competence is something that you gain by experience and empathy. Most people who have been abroad will be completely open to new cultures(unless they had a horrible encounter which they might still carry on their shoulder).
I have found that cultural competence is also key when going abroad. I am going abroad in the Fall to Beijing, China. I am very excited but at the same time I am nervous. I have understand Chinese culture in order not to embarrass myself and look culturally incompetent. I have been in situations where a friend has made a culturally insensitive comment and it made the entire group seem brutish.
A person could take an entire course on cultural competence and still not cover everything. I feel like culture competence and worldliness go hand and hand.
I think Cultural Dimensions are interesting especially their connection with someones ability to learn a language. If my interpretation of Cultural Dimensions it means ones surroundings and facilities while learning a language. I take this further and split this into two different categories, native speakers and non native.
When thinking of cultural dimensions pertaining to a native speaker it is pretty easy to see. They are fully immersed in the language from birth and that is the only language that they are able to communicate with. It is also a language that is taught formally or informally at some point in their young lives.
However non native speakers the dimensions of language learning are often significantly different and it shows in their ability to pick up another language. Most of the time a second language is taught at a middle school level (United States) however students are only in class for a short portion of the day and are not able to continue practicing outside of class. This makes it incredibly hard to become fluent in another language. The many dimensions of an American student learning a different language are vast. For instance a first generation American could grow up learning English in school however come home and speak a different language with parents or family. When that student goes to study that particular language in school they are at an advantage since they can practice more than a student without cultural ties. Without these cultural ties the language is often hard to connect to and thus disheartening to the learner.
I feel as though cultural dimensions of language learning are an integral part of learning a language and without ties to the culture you hope to learn the language of it is hard to become immersed without feeling disheartened.
ਸਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ। sat ri akal = Hello/goodbye
ਤੁਹਾਡਾ ਕੀ ਹਾਲ ਹੈ tu hada ki hal he? = How are you?
ਠੀਕ ਹਾਂ। ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿੱਧਾਂ tik ha tusi kidda? = Fine how are you?
ਤੁਹਾਡਾ ਨਾਂ ਕੀ ਹੈ tuda na ki he? = What is your name?
ਮੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ... ਹੈ। meda na...he = my name is ...
I reviewed these words, I also went over a few other phrases to make sure I knew them verbally. These are some of the most commonly used phrases in Punjab. If you know these you will be able to build a rapport with native speakers.
Some of the other phrases:
Some of these are different than the ones above but the difference is in formality and region.
ਭੰਗੜਾ =Bhangra
ਤੂੰਬੀ = Tumbi
ਸਰੰਗੀ= Sarangi
ਢੋਲ = Dhol (drum)
ਹਿਪ ਹੋਪ =hip hop
ਏਲੇਕ੍ਤ੍ਰੋਨਿਕ ਮੁਸਿਕ =electronic music
ਗੁਇਤਾਰ =guitar
In addition to the previous words I found a video explaining a particular term that applies to Bhangra, I apologize in advance( the video is mainly in Punjabi).
I plan on using these terms in my cultural project and presentation.
I have looked into this topic through a couple of sources. I asked my grandfather and father about time in Punjab (where Punjabi is spoken (along with Pakistan)). They both agreed that most people in the rural communities still view time based upon sunlight and farming. Where the men will get up early in order to tend to the fields and the women would make food and sometimes work in the field.
However, in the cities and their suburbs time has become "westernized" where the people operate on a more business/regimented time schedule. This is generally the time standards of any developing country however Punjab has a more relaxed idea of time that most eastern/middle eastern countries have.
Priorities are often worked around meals because meals are very important. Often times Punjabi spend a large part of their day eating and talking. In the U.S. meals are eaten quickly in order to do something else however in India for the large majority, eating is a time to relax and talk.
I have also noticed that Punjabi males often stay up late into the night and drink. One of the reasons is it gets very hot and the night is the coolest part of the day to relax outside. Another is gossip and unwind. The communities are often more tight nit because they get together at night or during meals. This comes about because they have such a relaxed attitude towards time.
I hope to do my Culture project on Punjabi music in order to gain a better understanding of how culture and music are related. I feel that I would have enough insight in the topic to be able to dig into the culture and show many different things via the music itself. I enjoy music a lot and this would be the perfect fit for me. I would also gain knowledge pertaining to Punjab and modern day Punjabi through the music. I feel as though this looks simple on the outside but there are a lot of things you can pull from music and then relate to a culture.
My culture presentation is composed of a series of music videos. I wanted to focus on a relatable aspect of the culture. My first link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHLSWmVnTE
This video shows what an ideal Punjab male citizen was thought to be. I know this song through my grandfather. It shows a more traditional Punjab.
My second link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulcmRmFqoH0
This was to show a more modern and westernized view in music. Along with the western influences in synths and instruments I noticed that the women modern Punjabi music videos are often dressed as they are in English pop videos. I should say that they dress skimpily. I used these videos to arrive at the conclusion that the more modern the music and the culture gets it seems to have more and more western influence.
