Learning a language is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have.  At the same time, it can also be one of the most daunting and frustrating experiences if you’re ill-equipped to embark on such a journey.  While I have always been a lover of languages different from my own, I have never been a quick language learner.  As a result, many of my previous language learning journeys were like emotional roller coasters in which I would love the new language I was learning and its accompanying culture in one moment, and be completely frustrated with it in another moment.  Contrary to the intended structure of the course, I did not register for MLC 110 and was not technically learning a language on my own.  Still, I was learning a language – Portuguese! 

My purpose in MLC 105 was therefore a bit different from most students taking the course.  Having just returned from a semester abroad in Brazil, I was really excited about Brazilian culture and mesmerized by the Portuguese language.  I acquired a fairly decent proficiency of the language while abroad, but I was afraid of forgetting a significant portion of it upon returning home.  As I said in a previous blog post when referring to the need to practice a language, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”  Therefore my goals in MLC 105 were to maintain the Portuguese proficiency I gained in Brazil through sufficient practice, and to continue to improve my knowledge and understanding of it.  More specifically, I wanted to be able to navigate between the past, present, and future tenses with relative ease, learn 10 new vocabulary words a week, and learn at least 3 new songs in Portuguese. 

These goals were very realistic and easily attainable for me, because I was also registered in the Portuguese for Spanish Speakers (LAIS 313) language course.  The course covered material ranging from grammatical constructions and syntactic structures to cultural aspects of the language, such as music and regional social norms of Portuguese-speaking countries.  In the process of taking MLC 105 in conjunction with the LAIS 313 course, I was able to have a structured schedule of language learning.  I can say with confidence that I am now able to navigate with greater ease throughout the various tenses in Portuguese, and I learned a tremendous amount of new vocabulary words.  Similarly, I listened to a lot of Brazilian music during this time, both in and out of class.  Out of class, I used the wonderfully free internet source, Pandora, to listen and learn about some great new Brazilian music. 

If I had an opportunity to do things a bit differently however, I would have tried to obtain a language learning partner even though I was not registered for MLC 110.  I think it would have been really beneficial to have someone to practice the language with in a way different from classroom practice.   Perhaps in the future, language partners could be provided for students who request one, even if they are not self-directed language learners.  I’m sure such a task would be difficult, but I think the relative gains would be high in terms of the speaking proficiency of students learning foreign languages.    

One aspect of MLC 105 I was really pleased with was the cultural presentations.  Through these presentations, I had the opportunity to research and learn more about a culture I had always been interested in (the Gullah people).  In addition, I was able to learn more about the respective languages and cultures my fellow classmates were learning.  It was very interesting to see the existing patterns inherent in many languages and to see how cultural tendencies tend to overlap throughout many cultures.  As an International Studies major, I relish in any and all opportunities to gain insight from discussions on the linkages between language, culture, and society at large.  I also enjoyed the required readings for the course.  While some of them were a bit technical (i.e. How the Brain Handles Language), I found it very helpful to learn about the theories underlying language studies and about the various strategies for approaching language learning.  The information provided through this texts are not common knowledge and I might not have sought out such information on my own if it were not for this course.            

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the progress I made in MLC 105.  For the most part, I have accomplished the goals I stated in the beginning of this course.  While I was unable to practice my speaking as much as I would have liked, I still received more practice than I most likely would have achieved without the structure provided by both MLC 105 and LAIS 313.  In the process, I gained a wealth of knowledge about languages and cultures I previously had very little contact with.  Thank you Dr. Grove and Professor Scinicariello for your assistance in this process!  I will end this reflection with a bit of Portuguese: muito obrigada a vocês por tudo que fizeram.  Estão lindíssimas!   (Thank you all for everything that you’ve done.  You’re wonderful!)        

"How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language"

The common belief is adults have a much harder time learning a language.  I remember hearing the metaphor when I was younger that a young person’s brain is like a wet sponge, able to soak up nearly anything and everything such as a language.  The metaphor took on a slightly more depressing trajectory, because the older you get the dryer the sponge becomes.  Eventually, the sponge is so dry it’s not able to absorb nearly the amount it had in the past.  Translation: the older you get, the more impossible it is for you to learn a language.

As a result, I was very pleased to read the New York Times article “How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language” by Sindya N. Bhanoo.  In essence, it keeps hope alive for us folks who are aging everyday (i.e. everyone!).  It is indeed possible for young adults and adults to process a language the same way a native speaker does.  Of course, the key component necessary for achieving native-speaker processing and proficiency is practice.  A common theme therefore seems to keep emerging, formal classroom settings teaching grammar help to learn a language but immersion is the most efficient way to learn a language.

ME+IMMERSION in the World= BEST way to Learn a Language!!!

It was really ironic to read the New York Times article “A Picture of Language” by Kitty Florey, because I remember the process of diagramming sentences in middle school.  Reading the article did not make me nostalgic for the art however, nor did it make me reminisce about the joys of grammar learning.  Furthermore, I’m not sure if learning to diagram sentences actually has much utility as far as actually speaking a language.  As the author herself asks at the end of the article, “does diagramming sentences teach us anything except how to diagram sentences?”  I’m not sure that it does. 

Breaking down sentences into small components, classifying each in terms of its part of speech, as well as its tense, number and function in the sentence simply do not inspire me.  Hearing a language, feeling, and experiencing it do.  I suppose this is why I never became an English teacher :)    

I understand studying the grammatical components of a language is necessary in order to obtain a rich understanding of it.  My argument is that this aspect of language learning does not have to be the primary emphasis.  Grammar is indeed necessary and important to understand, but if you immerse yourself in a language and regularly practice it with native speakers, I believe the grammar components will eventually come along (of course, this is assuming the people one immerses herself with speak grammatically correct…). 

As my previous blog entries reveal, I am the type of language learner who learns best with the “trial by error” method.  I love diving into a language and getting a general feel for it before getting into any technicalities of grammar.  Nonetheless, I always appreciate articles showing me various ways of language learning.    

One particular sentence stood out to me in H.D. Brown’s chapter on Sociocultural Factors – “no society exists without a culture.”  While this sentence seems obvious and unextraordinary, it has some powerful implications.  The fact every society has a culture that is unique and individualistic means that there are millions of different ways to view the world.  Our perceptions of the world are therefore subjective to our origins, and can cause us to view other existing perceptions as strange, incorrect, illogical, and even wrong.  We then oversimplify such perceptions and create generalizations about them in order to organize our worldview.  This process happens to just about everyone, but it carries an inherent danger for it leads to the thing nearly all societies have a love-hate relationship with – stereotypes.   

Due to stereotypes, most people believe there are certain Dos and Don’ts for each culture.  There are certain norms which must be abided by and certain attitudes and behaviors deemed acceptable or unacceptable.  Now what does all of this have to do with language learning?

H.D. Brown provides the answer, “a language is a part of a culture, and a culture is a part of a language” (189).  Language is thus the most visible expression of culture.  If we want to immerse ourselves into learning a language, we must understand the roots and causes of its construction.  We must re-orientate are way of thinking, feeling, and of course communicating.  Such reorientation cannot occur without acquiring a new identity associated with the new language; a process Brown calls acculturation.  Acculturation is not an easy process, because it puts us through an emotional roller coaster that includes amazement and adoration, culture shock, and feelings of uncertainty or dissatisfaction.  We must learn to decipher the truth evident within stereotypes and to see through their exaggerations and prejudices. 

Even once we begin to “master” the new language, we find it difficult to fully define our new identity.  How do we find a balance between the culture we were born and raised in and the culture we want to fully understand and immerse ourselves into? 

Over the course of my language learning journeys, I have come to understand the fact that learning a language involves so much more than grammar, pronunciation, and syntax.  On the contrary, language learning involves learning a new way of life.  I believe the more willing we are to fully commit ourselves to the process, the more rewarding we will find it in the end.       

So since I’ve been talking about Portuguese and Brazil over the course of the semester, I figured I might as well end talking about the two :). Here are some funny stereotypes I encountered and had to overcome about Brazilians while learning their language…

http://thegoodblood.blogspot.com/2010/10/cartoons-of-things-that-people-ask-you.html

http://haters-gonna-hate-me.deviantart.com/art/Brazilian-Stereotype-245758091

http://blog.polyanadeoliveira.com/2011/06/yes-i-am-no-i-dont.html

http://yes-butno.tumblr.com/search/brazil

Language competence and cultural competence are two concepts which are inextricably linked.  One simply cannot function without the other.  In other words, you must be able to interact effectively with people of different cultures in order to adequately acquire a comprehensive understanding of their language.  Cultural competency first requires that I understand my own world views and beliefs.  I must then obtain knowledge about the culture I’m learning about and simultaneously avoid stereotypes and other negative images which might prevent me from fully grasping the culture.  Of course, there may genuinely be aspects of the culture that run counter to my own personal values and/or beliefs.  Furthermore, there may be aspects of the culture which make absolutely no sense to me, because they are completely absent from my way of life.

Overcoming obstacles such as these are essential components to acquiring cultural competence.  Brazil for instance has a completely different mentality on race relations than what the U.S. has.  The United States operates primarily on binary systems of race relations.  For example, there are obvious distinctions between those who are “black” and those who are “white.”  In America, if you look black, you are black.  This means of classification emerged from our nation’s history of the “one-drop rule,” whereby individuals with any amount of African ancestry were considered black. 

Brazil’s distinctions on race are not as clear-cut.  Brazilians also classify people according to what they look like, but they use a supremely larger number of racial categories.  According to the website Psychology Today, one study in the Brazilian northeast conducted by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) – the entity responsible for the census – asked people what color they were, and received 134 different answers! 

My mindset of being a black woman in the U.S. therefore had little bearing in Brazil.  In Brazil, I was classified in numerous categories including morena/mulatta (brown), negra (black), preta (brown-black), Afro-Brasileira (Afro-Brazilian), pardo (mixed race), and even branca (white) at one point!  For in the words of one Brazilian friend, “the perception that you have money as an American ‘whitens’ your skin.”  The entire situation was completely foreign to me.  In America, you are forced into clear-cut racial lines.  In Brazil, these racial lines are dynamic and constantly blur depending on perceptions, economics, and status. 

Cultural competence is therefore imperative to understanding the target language and people.  It requires patience, understanding, and a willingness to temporarily see the world through different pairs of eyes. 

Reference:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/looking-in-the-cultural-mirror/201112/what-does-the-brazilian-census-tell-us-about-race

H.D. Brown’s chapter on “Communicative Competence” is a wonderful reminder that learning a language must occur on many fronts.  He defines communicative competence as “that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (223).  While it is important to obtain grammatical competence and knowledge of syntactic structures; this is not sufficient in and of itself.  It is necessary to have the pragmatic contexts of discourse, because the meaning of a sentence varies depending on how it is said and the context it is said in.  As Brown states, “it is not what you say that counts but how you say it” (237).  This simple truth tells us that language is largely dependent on interaction between participants.  Having cognitive and academic language proficiency is all well and dandy, but basic interpersonal communicative skills are most pertinent to the “real world.”    

Focusing on the social and functional role of language is therefore a key aspect of language learning.  Most language learning classrooms attempt to emphasize this aspect of language by having interactive components to textbooks and curriculum.  For instance, almost anyone who has learned a language in a classroom has done an activity such as introductions, exchanging personal information, giving commands, apologizing and thanking, identifying and describing people, asking for information, etc. 

In my opinion however, one truly acquires interpersonal language skills simply by interacting and speaking with native speakers of the language he/she is trying to learn.  There are so many subtleties to language that cannot be taught (i.e. non-verbal communication, gender effects, artifacts, etc.).  Instead, they must be experienced.  In fact, I believe I learn language best through experience first.  I prefer to learn by interacting with a native speaker one-on-one.  While these interactions have often been extremely awkward in the beginning of my language learning journey, they usually turn out to be worthwhile in the end.  As numerous Brazilians told me while I was struggling to acquire Portuguese, it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make because in the end tudo bom (everything is alright).

Want to know more about the subtleties to Brazilian Portuguese?!?! Check out this cute video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTgPMkFWDlQ 

GULLAH CULTURE

What is Gullah?

The Gullah people are located on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia.  They are communities of people who are the descendants of enslaved Africans.  Before the Civil War, the Gullah were more autonomous than other American slaves, because many slave owners preferred to move inland as a result of the extreme heat and mosquitos of the swampy Atlantic coastline.  After slavery, the Gullah people were able to buy their own land, and they remained relatively isolated since there were few connections to the mainland (bridges weren’t built until the 1950s).  The isolation of the Gullah enabled their West African roots to thrive, and they now have a unique culture that is directly linked to West Africa

Gullah Traditions

The Gullah have their own unique blend of crafts, cuisine, and culture.  For example, they make sweetgrass baskets, quilt, and knit fishing nets. Folklore, stories and songs have also been handed down over the years.  There is a wide-known annual Gullah Festival held in Beaufort, South Carolina in May. This is just one of the events held throughout the year to celebrate Gullah traditions.

Gullah Language

In South Carolina, this group of African-Americans and the language they speak are referred to as Gullah (Gul-luh). In Georgia, they are called Geechee (Gee-chee).  Gullah the language was developed among Africans as a way to communicate with people from other tribes and Europeans. It has a unique simplicity in that it is written the way it sounds.  For years (until the 1930s), people thought it was poor English.  People who speak Gullah sound like people who speak Krio, one of the common languages spoken among the people from Sierra Leone, West Africa.

What are the Gullah people like?

• Direct communicators
• Loud talkers
• Affectionate
• Collectivist – family is extremely important
• Time – who needs it?!

Now...

With the incoming of development on the Gullah islands are fears of assimilation.  Younger generations are steadily selling their ancestral lands to development contracters and are encouraging increased tourism.  Older members of the Gullah community therefore fear that their traditions and language are becoming endangered.

Due to my unique situation of not taking MLC 110 simultaneously with MLC 105, I do not have a specific language whose history I need to learn.  As a result, I teamed up with Jack Hodil, a fellow classmate who is also not taking MLC 110, and did some research on the history of language in general. 

There has been extensive study and research on the emergence of individual languages, but interestingly enough there has not been as much study on the history of language in and of itself.  Nevertheless, it is widely known that most of the currently existing 5,000 languages of the world (about a third of them are in Africa) are in linguistic families descending from one common language ancestor.  Experts say many of these “original languages” were spoken as little as a few thousand years ago.  The Indo-European language family is currently the most widespread of these language groups as it is spoken by more than half of the world’s population (includes Hindi, Persian, English, Norwegian, etc.).  Another important linguistic group is the Semitic language group (and no, it’s not strictly referring to the Jewish religious/ethnic group…).  

An extremely important concept to keep in mind when studying the origins of language is the fact that languages have continuously infiltrated each other since the beginning of time, whether it be through conquest, empire, trade, religion, or technology.  So, there is essentially no such thing as a “pure” or uninfluenced language.  Modern English for example, occupies a middle position within the western European family of language with about half of its vocabulary being Germanic and half Romance in origin.

Thus, linguistic evolution is defined by a “survival of the fittest” process.  An ongoing struggle between languages occurs as they all seek to exert their influence.  Words travel/survive throughout time and the world according to their usefulness.  The word “aspirin” for example was coined in 1899 by a German inventor.  Today, it is a commonplace international word used in the medical realm.  The fluidity of language often troubles traditionalists who want to build barriers against the natural changes of languages.  France has somehow become the archetype of this image in recent years.    

In any case, the evolution of language is a long and lengthy ordeal.  Still, it deserves careful inspection, because it can teach us a lot about the cultural nuances evident within our target languages.

References:

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13

http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/2010/07/illustrated-language-tree.html

Since I am not taking MLC 110, I am going through a slightly different process of language learning.  My competency in Portuguese is fairly high right now, but since I am not using the language on a regular basis I fear that I might slowly forget it.  As the saying goes – if you don’t use it, you lose it.   

As such, I plan to set goals that enable me to maintain my reading comprehension and writing abilities, and to improve my speaking abilities.  Luckily, I am taking a Portuguese for Spanish Speakers (LAIS 313) course right now which essentially keeps me on a consistent track.  In place of a long specific learning plan right now, I will list some general goals I have.  While these goals are broad in nature, they are helpful in providing me a sense of the direction I want take.

I would like to be able to:

• navigate between the past, present, and future tenses with relative ease.
• learn 10 new vocabulary words a week.
• learn at least 3 new songs in Portuguese.

For now, I am going to focus a great deal of my language learning on reading skills. Reading in the target language seems to be one of the quickest and best ways to learn new vocabulary and improve comprehension.  Thus, using this strategy will make my goals more realistic and attainable.  

Learning to communicate in Brazil extends way past just learning Portuguese.  There are so many small “linguistic aspects” of the language that textbooks simply cannot teach you.  In these instances, immersion in the culture is the only way to get a full understanding of the language.  The first cultural nuance I encountered when I studied abroad in Brazil dealt with the concept of physical space.  American society holds high importance to the concept of respecting one’s personal space.  Every individual has an invisible bubble, and people generally know the limits of intrusion on the bubble.  In Brazil, anyone who has this so-called “invisible bubble” will quickly have it popped. 

Brazilians are also very personable and passionate when they communicate.  They make use of extensive touching, eye contact, and loud voices to get their points across.  On the same token, kissing on both cheeks is a custom carried out by men and women (exception: men do not kiss men on the cheeks).  With these actions in place, I often thought many of the men and women were flirting with each other on a regular basis.  If someone was standing very close while talking to you, making extensive eye contact, and kissing you on the cheek in the U.S., wouldn’t you think they were flirting or even dating?   

Similarly, Brazilians are extremely indirect and nearly always late.  Their indirectness is characterized by the fact that they absolutely dislike the use of the word “no.”  Thus, Brazilians say “yes” when they actually mean “no.”  The only way to decipher the fact that they actually mean “no” is to pick up on hints provided by body language and voice intonation.  Lastly, Brazilian time is limitless and non-quantifiable (polychronic).  Lateness is customary, and is not considered rude.  Coming from the U.S. where time is a commodity, slightly frustrated my ability to function in Brazil upon my arrival.  Once I became accustomed to the cultural tendencies however, I knew that when someone told me to meet them for lunch at noon, they actually meant 1:30 pm…

Here is an example of the Brazilian "yes" that actually means "no."  In this instance, I was bartering with this beach vendor to buy a beach sarong at a discounted price. He told me I could have the sarong at the discounted price but as you can see by his face, he actually meant I could NOT have it at the discounted price. As a result, he continued to haggle with me for another 15 minutes :)

While I usually do not like to think of people in terms of “us” and “them,” the reality of the matter is that people from different parts of the world speak, behave, and live in ways that are foreign to others.  In order to begin a process of understanding and tolerance between places of difference, it is important to understand the cultural nuances of each place.  These cultural nuances are also important to understand, because they are oftentimes interlinked with verbal and non-verbal communication.  If we wish to go to a country and fully experience its richness, it is not simply enough to know its language.  We must also know how the country’s language is connected with its way of life.

The reading Figuring Foreigners Out identifies the primary dualities existing amongst the various cultures of the world.  The general tendencies of cultures are to be either individualist/collectivist, monochromic/polychromic, internal/external, and direct/indirect.  Using these classifications, I am able to come to certain conclusions about American society.  American society is typically individualist, monochromic, internal, and direct.  In other words, our society values the principle of self-sufficiency.  We believe in making every minute of the day productive, for productivity is the key to self-sufficiency.  We therefore have an active role in our futures, and are usually direct about what we mean and want.

Being able to identify the tendencies of my own culture helps me to better recognize the tendencies of other cultures.  As I stated before, in order to have tolerance and even appreciation for other cultures, we first have to understand their culture.  Keeping this principle in mind will surely help ease the “culture shock” pains that often accompany encounters with new languages, people, and places.    

The workings of the human brain are immensely individualistic and complex.  When analyzing this fact in the context of language speech and comprehension, the complexity only increases.  Everyone’s brain works differently when it comes to learning a language.  For most right-handed people, the left hemisphere of the brain is dominant for language, whereas there is a mixed dominance between the left and right hemispheres for left-handed people.  Similarly, every language has its own unique phonetics, phonology, grammar, and semantics, making it seemingly impossible to find consistent rules to follow by.  As the article by David Crystal states, “different languages talk about the world in different ways (188).” 

Now comes the big question: Is there a best direction for the study of a language?  For me, I think the answer is a big resounding yes.  As I alluded to in my last blog entry, I have figured out that I learn languages best by hearing them in practice; whether they be in movies, songs, or everyday conversations.  Before learning the grammar of a new language (the typical first step in language learning), I like to acquire a “sense” of its sounds and words.  Individual words do not make sense in and of themselves, but they are a pertinent step in the process to finding meaning.  Thus, I often listen to music in other languages without understanding a single word.  Despite the fact that I don’t understand the words, I am often able to sing along to the song and imitate the sounds.  Slowly but surely, I discover that the meaning eventually makes itself evident to me, through visual associations and other contextual clues. 

British linguist J.R. Firth says it best, “you shall know a word by the company it keeps.”  For example, I listened to many Brazilian songs before arriving in Brazil without knowing a single word of Portuguese.  I watched accompanying music videos and live performances that gave me insights into the general ideas the song wanted to convey.  Unknowingly, I had learned some of the collocations (the tendency of words to work together in predictable ways) of Portuguese and was more apt at understanding various phrases when I heard them. 

My language learning style is undoubtedly unconventional, but for now it seems to work.   

Check out the picture below of a concert I attended in Brazil by the internationally renowned Brazilian artist, Seu Jorge.  As you can guess, I listened to his music WAY before I went to Brazil :)

Language learning has always been something I have enjoyed, but slightly struggled with.  Traditional ways of learning such as repetition, flash cards, memorization, etc. never seemed to work for me.  Only after studying abroad four times (Guatemala, Spain, India, and Brazil) and coming in contact with three new languages have I began to understand my unique language learning style.

Generally I am a very independent learner.  I prefer working alone rather than in groups, because I value time to plan and think things through before starting.  According to the FIRE Model for Integrative Thinking, this makes me an Insightful learner.  When I applied my learning style to new languages however, I did not get the same positive results I received in other subjects.  As I have now come to understand, this is primarily due to the fact that I learn languages best through music and interpersonal interactions (according to the Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences surveys), contrary to my typical learning style.  Sitting in a classroom or studying by myself reviewing conjugation, grammar, and vocabulary did not yield the results I wanted.  On the other hand, going to concerts and movies, joining dance classes, and hanging out with new local friends enabled me to acquire Hindi, Spanish, and Portuguese with tremendous speed. 

My situation is unique in MLC 105, because I am not simultaneously registered in MLC 110.  My goal in taking MLC 105 is to continue to learn strategies of learning and maintaining the languages I have acquired thus far.  I no longer remember most of the Hindi I learned in India, so I would like to begin the process of picking it up again.  I have just returned from Brazil for a semester abroad, and my Portuguese is therefore fairly good as of now.  I would like to continue improving in it.  In order to stick to these goals, I will try to actively seek out activities that allow me to practice these languages with other speakers and will also continue to listen to music in these languages.