Krystin Schwarze's Posts (21)
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In this artifact I demonstrate my ability to say the following identity statements:
I am Krystin.
I am from Michigan.
I am 23 years old.
I have two brothers and no sisters.
I like Thai food and I like to play golf.
I don't like to study.
I want to go to India.
Well... this is embarrassing. I just went back and re-watched my first artifact post which was a video of myself demonstrating that I knew the proper why to greet someone, introduce myself, ask someone their name, count to 10, and list the days of the week. After recording the video and watching it before I submitted it, I remember thinking I had done a pretty decent job, but looking back I realized that in my short 2 minute video about Hindi "basics", I made at least 3 mistakes. The first mistake I made was in regards with asking someone "what is your name?" In the video, I said "App Kia naam hai"- which would translate to, "what is you name" Instead, I was supposed to say, "Appka nam kia hai". The second mistake I made, was with regard to asking "How are you" in a formal manner. I said "app kasi ho", when ho only goes with "tum" (the informal way of saying "you") Instead, the proper way to formally ask how someone is, is by asking "Aap kaise hai?" The third mistake I made was with the days of the week, I switched Friday and Saturday, Friday is "Shukrivar" and Saturday is "Shanivaar". The only comforting thing about re-watching my first artifact is that I am learning, because my mistakes were glaringly obvious to me!
I used several resources throughout the semester to better learn Hindi. The first resource I used was the following website: http://www.learning-hindi.com/ This website was really helpful in understanding the different sounds of the language and basic words/phrases. While I relied heavily on this resource in the beginning of my language learning, I drifted away from it as it is more geared for learners who want to learn to read and write Hindi as well. Another resource I used was the book, Hindi a Complete Course for Beginners by the company Living Languages. I read the first chapter, and it was very easy to follow, but again it is geared for beginners who aspire to read and write Hindi, so it was not one of my primary resources. While this semester I found these resources to be mostly ineffective for achieving my language goals this semester, as I continue to learn Hindi, I am planning on expanding my knowledge into reading and writing, and I anticipate that these resources will then be very useful in later stages of my language learning., which I thought as both helpful and conducive to actually applying the words I was learning into application. I also recently opened an account on Mango languages, which I am excited to incorporate into my learning strategies moving forward.
Resources that I used frequently and found very helpful included the following:flashcard app, Pandora radio station, google translate, of course my Hindi Tutor Niyati, and the following website- http://www.hindilearner.com/hindi_tutorials/ConversationInHindi/conversation_in_hindi.php
The resources I listed above were used in a combination of ways to facilitate my daily learning. I often would meet with Niyati, ask her how to say I variety of words/phrases that I wanted to learn for that day. Then I would transcribe the words/phrases into my flashcard app and review the words/phrases on frequent basis- adding to the list as my learning progressed. I listed to a Bollywood Pandora station frequently, which helped me to learn the sounds and rhythm of Hindi. Google translate was used on days I didn't meet with Niyati, but wanted to learn how to say a particular word/phrase that day. As the semester progressed, Niyati and I started to focus more on having dialogue conversations, rather than learning new vocabulary.
I did try to watch one children's video in Hindi, as well as one Bollywood movie, but they were mostly beyond my comprehension level, so I stopped watching both of them close to half way through. I want to add to my own personal learning goals the ability to someday watch a full Hindi movie (even if it's just a children's movie) and understand it.
I want to teach my roommate how to introduce herself in Hindi, and how to ask someone, "how are you?" and the response "I am well". To do this, I will teach her each word, one by one. Using non-verbal communication, I will bow with both hand together and teach her "Namaste", then, I will teach her "AAp kaisee hay" by again saying each word one at a time, and then I will reapeat the whole phrase. I will use body language in this as well by offering my hand towards her when asking "how are you?". Then, after she has that phrase down, I will teach her "meh teek who", in the same process. I will say each word one by one and then repeat the whole phrase, pointing at myself emphasizing that I am referring to myself and saying, "I am well".
My efforts to teach my roommate the how to say "Hi, "How are you?", and "I am Good and you?" was very successful. While I did not time it, I think that in following the strategy I listed above, she was able to master these phrases within 2 minutes. I think what really helped, was the fact that she was putting these phrases into context right away. We were greeting each other, (bowing with our hands together) and then asking the common question that follows in greeting someone. Also, I think my emphasis on each word, repetition of each word/phrase, as well as my non-verbal communication really helped her learn this basic/foundational Hindi dialogue!
In this powerpoint, I demonstrate my ability to identify and introduce members of my family as well as say one thing about them. I use family vocabulary words which include the word for: family, mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, and step-grandpa.
My learning plan is primarily based on the Lingua Folio self-assessment checklist for novice low/mid learners for interpersonal communication, but I have chosen to slightly modify it to fit some of my preferences.
My learning plan is as follows:
1. Greetings and introductions
2. Basic Vocabulary
- Numbers 1-10
- Days of the week
- Family Members
- Colors
3. Ask/Answer simple questions about myself/others using 1+ words
- Likes/dislikes
- Abilities
- Where I am from
- How old I am
- Family Members
4. Ask/respond to basic daily conversation questions
- What's up?
- What did you do yesterday?
- What are you doing tomorrow?
- Are you going...?
- What time is it?
- Where is the bathroom?/ May I use the bathroom?
5. Express mood/emotions
- Happy/sad
This week I attempted to learn colors, body parts, and practice greetings. As one might guess, I have not come close to mastering this new vocab lists. I think this week I learned that cramming vocabulary is not the best method or process to learn a language. Because I have failed my learning task this week (to learn these words), over the next week or two I plan on implementing some strategies we talked about in class to help me learn these words. This week I tried just learning the lists by going over them with my Hindi partner and studying flashcards. I am going to continue to go over the cards, but I am also going to implement the following strategies: 1) use either myself or my roommate and point to her arm, leg, etc. and then make a sentence with the body part like "She has two hands", and 2) I have plenty of food in my apartment, so I will practice my colors and food by identifying the name of the food and then saying what color it is. I think that implementing kinesthetic learning will aid me greatly in studying these terms.
This week I did try to find a children's song that I could learn, but I was largely unsuccessful. I knew less than 20% of the vocabulary for all the popular children's songs I found, so I decided not to learn a song this week. Hopefully, in the future I can work with my Hindi partner and learn the necessary vocabulary for a particular song, and then implement the song into my learning plan. While this week was slightly discouraging, I am excited to practice and try some new strategies.
Last week I really enjoyed the cultural presentations. The one I found most interesting was Michelle's presentation on the food in Israel. Through her presentation I learned that there is a lot of diversity in the food in Israel, but that traditionally, the food is Mediterranean, ie. dates, olives, grapes, etc. I also learned that unlike the States, where dinner is the biggest meal, lunch is the most important meal and usually students are given 2-3 hours to go home for lunch. Religion also has impacted the food in Israel. Being predominately Jewish, it is less common to have pork on a menu, and most restaurants offer most or all Kosher selections. The coolest thing about the food, is that 70% of the food consumed by Israelis is produced in Israel. That is very appealing to me as I am a big fan of locally grown, organic products.
This next week in Hindi, I want to learn the basic colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, white, brown), body parts (hand, arm, feet, leg, head, hair, face, lips, ears, nose, mouth). To do this, I will look up the words for each of these colors in google translate, then I will put them into my flashcard App, and review them with myself and my tutor. I also want to be able to comfortably greet and ask how my Hindi partner is doing. I will do this by practicing the phrases I have learned, "Namaste!, Aap Kaisee hai?".
