I went into this course thinking that the purpose of it was to teach mehow to teach myself Turkish. So I found the readings frustrating atfirst because they seemed so irrelevant to what I thought I was supposedto be learning. The book discussed the history of language, the sensoryexpressions of it, and how they interrelate to each other. I found allthat fascinating because I love language and studying it, but I keptwaiting to really get to the heart of the class because I thought itshould be structured differently. Then, about halfway through, Irealized that this class wasn’t about teaching me to learn a language;it was about the cultural dimension of language.

The readings dealt with a society’s relationship with language, andincluded things like how one society’s body language can unwittinglytranslate wrongly into another’s body language. This was very usefulbecause differences in body language or gestures can be the differencebetween a compliment and an insult. It’s necessary to know what NOT todo when in another country as part of the basics of communication. Ialso found it very useful how we looked at the characteristics ofcultures like different perceptions of time, and explicitness versusimplicitness. On the whole, I found it very rewarding, and I feel betterprepared to know what to look for when studying cross-culturelanguages.

Ben Amerikalıyım ve Vircinya’da yaşıyorum.
Ben University of Richmond’a gidiyorum.

Ben politika okuyorum.

Kardeşimin adı Becky.

Arabam beyaz.

Türkiye’ye gitmek istiyorum.

Kedimi seviyorum.

Evde televizyon izliyor.

Kitaplarımı okula getir.

Görüşürüz!

This week’s reading investigated the meaning of the terms “language” and “communication”and how they affect human activity. The two senses most integral to languageare sight and sound, especially for their roles in written and spoken language,respectively. There is also the subtler body language, but this introductionfocused mainly on spoken modes of communication.

Visual cues in language are important to take into consideration when learning a foreign language, in orderto learn not only words but also the method used to communicate. For example,some cultures are more demonstrative with their arms or faces when they speak.Additionally, it is very important to know what certain gestures can meanacross cultural divides, since something in one culture could mean nothing orsomething completely different in another. Keeping track of these disconnectswould be instrumental in avoiding offending someone with whom you’re trying tocommunicate.

It’s also about the time to start thinking about a cultural project to do. One of thethings that I find very interesting, given my background in other languages, isthe huge Turkish minority in Germany. I’ve studied German for the last severalyears, and it’s a familiar topic that Turkish guest workers (Gastarbeiter) whocame several decades ago are now a sizeable and distinct minority insideGermany. There are about 3.5 million ethnic Turks in Germany, as the largest minority, concentrated mainly in urban centers.

Europe as a whole has been experiencing some social upheaval, because for thousands of years Europe remained ethnically homogenous, and citizenship was based primarily on jus sanguinis (or citizenship by blood). Now, though, most countries are experiencing a huge influx of foreigners, often from the Middle East or Africa, and many keep their own cultures and don't assimilate into their host country. This generally creates a conservative backlash by the country's original residents. I'll look into changes in citizenship rights, as well as Turkish cultural enclaves and political trends by Turks in Germany.

I didn’t find much in the reading that I disagreed with or found surprising. It seemed to mostly say that learners can be more successfulif they take an active role in the process, which requires more motivation andindependence. These days, there’s much more of an emphasis on self-directedlearning, especially through the internet. And this view doesn’t bother me atall because that’s how I prefer to learn. I’ve always liked finals week becausethere’s no classes and I can schedule everything myself in order to learn whatI think is important. Actually, in my fourth year at university, I’ve come tothe conclusion that college isn’t about teaching students things; it’s aboutteaching students how to teach themselves. Anyway, it’s what I naturallygravitate towards doing, if I have a block of free time and a laptop withinternet, so I’m pretty excited about the prospect of self-directed Turkishlearning. :D

There are so many resources available, whether online courses, or internet-streaming radio, or books in the InternationalCenter, that I really am not worried about being able to get enoughinformation. The one worry, especially in regards to things posted on theinternet, is reliability. Ease of access means that plenty of information onthe internet isn’t credible, so that’s where my language partner could help meout, by verifying whether a site’s content is actually helpful and accurate. Thataside, I’ve found some good sites so far, bookmarked on the Diigo, includinglinks to the alphabet with pronunciations, foreign-language TV and radio, music& talk radio, grammar layouts, dictionaries, news sites in Turkish, and onlinelessons. I also plan to have a Turkish dictionary, and I should have RosettaStone at my disposal as well, so my next order of business is to check outexactly what is available in the International Center’s book resources.

I've studied a few different languages over the years, and I've learned in time what works best for me in order for words' meanings and sentence constructions to stick. I started french in eighth grade and continued with it until the end of high school, and I studied german for three years in college and then arabic for a semester. The two online questionnaires told me that I was Music Learner, on the one hand, and a Physical and Visual learner by the other. And I would agree with these results. I listen to music constantly and I seek out music from other languages, especially the ones I study. I believe it helps my pronunciation, as well as repeats common phrases and word usages, which pop into my mind later when I'm trying to think of the correct way to express something.
I've also known for a very long time that I'm a visual learner when it comes to learning words. If I see something written out once, I will always remember how to spell it, and I need to see foreign words written out in order to remember them. That's because I recall words by seeing them in my mind, and if I only hear a word and am not familiar with how a word would be spelled, my brain invents its own way to write it, which creates problems later when I try to write.
Alternately, studying grammar first in a textbook is helpful to me to learn how sentences should be constructed, but grammar becomes second nature to me only when I've heard it spoken a lot. Once I know how the language would look written out, listening to it spoken or in music helps me put words in context and learn how they should be used.
The first things I need to understand are the alphabet and the pronunciation of words. I generally learn vocabulary best in lists. I don't necessarily need or want pictures with them since I make my own pictures in my head. Also I've learned it's helpful to learn vocabulary as words that all relate to each other, like foods or household objects. Once I have the basics, I could research the basic grammatical constructions of sentences, since I remember that Turkish placement of words in sentences is very different from English. Then I could understand simple texts, write basic sentences, and learn context by watching tv and kids' cartoons, or by listening to podcasts or music while I run.