Mark Kligman's Posts (47)
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Mark Kligman
SDLC 111
Dr. Scinicariello
Ukrainian
I Can Statements
1. I can participate in conversations on a wide variety of topics that go beyond my everyday life, such as my career path, etc.
2. I can explain absentee and sick leave policies and answer questions about them.
3. I can compare and contrast life in different times and different locations.
4. I can explain how life has changed since I was a kid and respond to questions on the topic.
5. I can compare different jobs and study programs in a conversation with a peer
6. I can resolve an unexpected complication that arises in a familiar situation.
7. I can explain why I was late to class or absent from work and arrange to make up the lost time.
8. I can tell a friend how I’m going to replace an item that I borrowed and broke/lost.
9. I can communicate effectively on a wide variety of present, past, and future events.
10. I can give a clear and detailed story about my childhood memories, such as what occurred on family vacations or memorable events and answer questions about my story.
11. I can talk about present challenges in my school or work life, such as paying for classes or dealing with difficult colleagues.
12. I can discuss future plans, such as where I want to live and what I will be doing in the next couple of years.
13. I can exchange general information on topics outside my fields of interest
14. I can exchange general information about my community such as demographic information and points of interests.
15. I can handle a complication or unexpected turn of events.
16. I can return or exchange a purchase when a vendor makes a mistake or when parts are missing.
17. I can clear up a personal, school, or workplace misunderstanding.
18. I can support my opinion and construct a hypothesis.
19. I can give a supported argument about work-related processes that would benefit my employer and me.
20. I can usually defend my views in a debate.
Mark Kligman
SDLC 111
Dr. Scinicariello
Ukrainian
Learning Journal
The overarching goal of my learning plan this semester is to emphasize and understand the major differences between the Russian and Ukrainian language. With the development of current events on Ukrainian soil, it is apparent that both the Russian and Ukrainian culture is very different. My goal is to learn how history and culture has influenced the differences in both languages and use that insight to my advantage as I further embark on my journey to learn the Ukrainian language.
Week 2
In order for me to better understand the complex features of the Ukrainian language, my language partner and I decided to focus on reading, analyzing and memorizing Ukrainian poetry. My language partner and I both agreed that the memorization of poetry is an effective way of implementing complex language in my speech, since it forces me to understand the context of the material and make sense of words that I am unfamiliar with. The poets that we decided to focus on primarily are: Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka. According to my language partner, the three mentioned artists are considered the most influential to the Ukrainian culture and even language. The three poets were rebellious in their work, since they directly attacked the Russian oppression of the Ukrainian people in their notorious pieces of work. My language partner and I focused on not only reading the work by these artists, but understanding the historic background to ensure full comprehension of their use of irony, alliteration and other various writing techniques. It has not been easy to comprehend complex Ukrainian language, especially since these three artists make an effort to use very distinct and traditional Ukrainian language to differentiate their work from the Russian language and culture as much as possible. Although my knowledge of Russian continues to contribute to my understanding of the text, it has definitely become increasingly difficult to rely on that aspect of my language skills and I am excited to see where this journey takes my abilities in the Ukrainian language.
Week 4
As my learning of the Ukrainian language continues, my language partner and I have noticed that my pronunciation has become an issue that we have decided to focus on a little more. Since the level of language difficulty that we are learning now is far more advanced than last semester, it has exposed some of my weaknesses in the language and put me in a position where I need to overcome these language deficiencies in order to further move on with my learning. My language partner and I have been working on intonation and tone throughout my speech. It has been very difficult and challenging to overcome my deficiency in correct intonation, especially since my language partner makes sure to correct me every single time that I make a mistake in my pronunciation. However, I have definitely been seeing improvements in not only the eloquence of my speech, but more importantly in my level of confidence when I speak Ukrainian. As my language partner put it, Ukrainians express themselves as if they are orators especially if they are passionate about their topic of conversation. Ukrainian is a beautiful language that puts emphasis on descriptive techniques and tone of speech; therefore I have continuously been working on improving my felicity of phrases so that I can better express my thoughts and feelings on a subject matter.
Week 6
Time is passing by and my language partner and I have seen drastic improvements in my language capabilities. Currently, we are focused on weeding out words on my vocabulary that are too similar or even identical to Russian. The Russian language heavily influenced Ukrainian language and therefore over the centuries, some Russian words simply replaced traditional Ukrainian words in regular speech. Poets such as Taras Shevchenko made it their goal to restore the distinction of the Ukrainian language in relation to Russian, specifically through applying pure Ukrainian vocabulary and stressing the relevance of language distinction in their work. My language partner and I wrote out sentences that had an identical meaning but used different vocabulary to get the point of the sentence across. The reason we did this was to practice the application of more traditional Ukrainian speech, which is considered formal and eloquent, opposed to the more colloquial Ukrainian, which makes use of words that are identical in sound and meaning with the Russian language. There are several words that I had not encountered in our previous semester and that are very different from Russian. I have definitely noticed myself putting in effort when making word choices that can be deemed more Russian than Ukrainian.
Week 8
My language partner and I have had fun in our learning of the Ukrainian language and the way it can be perceived, depending on eloquence and application of richer vocabulary. We watched several videos of Ukrainian politics making embarrassing speeches in parliament, where they were frequently confused and embarrassed by their lack of eloquence and application of pure Ukrainian vocabulary. I can relate to the politics, since Russian is the language of choice in the Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine. I can also relate to the politics making speeches, since Ukrainian to Russian, is in a way similar to the relation between English and Spanish, where it is easy to make an assumption of what the correct word is. For example, in Spanish, many words end with the letter “O” and many words are also similar to English, therefore it is easy to simply use an English word and end it with the letter “O”, in order to get the point across in Spanish. Similarly, there are Ukrainian words that are very similar to Russian words and it can be assumed that replacing letters “E” and “O” in that specific Russian word with the letter “I” will translate to Ukrainian. Therefore it is easy to make assumptions on what the correct way of saying a word that is similar in intonation to its Russian counterpart. My language partner and I made sure to go into detail of what words can be considered a hazard for making an embarrassing mistake in pronunciation. We made a list of similar Russian vocabulary words, in order to make sure that I remember the correct formulation of their potentially mispronounced Ukrainian counterparts.
Week 10
It is now past the middle of the semester and my language partner and I are very satisfied with my abilities in the Ukrainian language. We are continuing to study poetry but we have decided to deviate a little bit and dedicate some time to learning how to apply technical terms to bolster my practical ability in the everyday use of Ukrainian. Specifically, we decided to focus on my ability to communicate on a wide variety of present, past, and future events, since I experienced some issues in cohesively talking about events that are beyond the present timeframe. My language partner and I worked on building the structure for my stories, memories and past experiences so that I could express myself sensibly and clearly when reflecting on my past. We also worked on improving my descriptive abilities in terms of expressing human character, personality, and physical traits in order to improve my ability of expressing emotions towards individuals both figuratively and literally. In addition to working on the structure of stories and past experiences, my language partner and I made an effort to improve my capability in defining and expressing my future plans and goals logically. We put an emphasis on making sense of statements, focusing on expressing current issues and explaining how they translate to the decisions I have made that influence and guide my future plans. My language partner and I also dabbled a bit in political discussion and the application of debate terminology to further improve my ability to drive my point through statements.
Week 12
My language partner and I continue to focus our efforts on the practicality aspect of the application of Ukrainian language. With the amount of cultural study and research that I had completed at this point, I believed that it was relevant for me to be able to express my opinion on social and cultural issues that are relevant to Ukrainian people. Therefore, my language partner and I exercised short one on one debates in English, where we would take notes of what our main points were and then attempted to do the same but this time in Ukrainian. This learning method worked very well because I was able to preliminarily identify the terms I would use to support my claim in English, and follow by giving my best try to solidify these points in Ukrainian. Of course, I was very unclear on some terms and had no idea how to make sense of some claims, however because of the English discussion, I was able to identify what was unclear or unknown to me, which made it easier to learn from my mistakes as we went along with the debate. My language partner and I further worked on my ability to support a claim or viewpoint by exercising common day-to-day scenarios, such as returning or exchanging a purchase from a vendor as a result of a mistake or misunderstanding. My language partner would play the role of the vendor and I would be the customer who needs to defend his claim that the product he/she received was not representative of their expectations. We would switch roles as well to make sure that I gained as much exposure to various standpoints and positions as possible.
Week 14
I expressed to my language partner that I wished to improve my professional terminology in terms of being well versed in business aspects, since that is my area of study at the University of Richmond. Although my language partner is not a business student, he expressed that he had a solid background in business terminology. We focused on improving my ability to exchange information on topics within my field of study and interest. Specifically, I worked on expressing myself, in terms of what my professional interests are, as well as the reasoning to why I chose a specific career path and what I aspire to make of myself in that field. In order for me to be better prepared to take on a professional setting, my language partner and I went over some cultural basics, such as common business practices and mannerisms and how they relate to my expression of career choice. We further worked on bolstering my ability to support and construct opinions and standpoints, specifically ones that supported my argument in regards to work-related processes that could potentially benefit my colleagues in the workplace. My language partner further taught me how to acknowledge and react to mistakes in both a professional and social context. This was very challenging since even in English it can be difficult to correctly address a mistake or the mishandling of a situation. Once again, we applied our scenario method where I played the role of an employee who committed a mistake and had to own up to his mistake, while my language partner played the role of the supervisor who addresses the mistake made by the employee. We practiced the scenario method multiple times, playing out social scenarios as well where I learned how to express regret, sympathy and responsibility through my speech.
Week 16
On our last week, my language partner and I decided to perform a culmination of what I had learned throughout the semester. We decided that we would have a debate on the currently ongoing crisis in Ukraine that is heavily influenced by Russia. My goal was to apply what I had learned from the historically relevant poetry works by prominent artists such as Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, and the Ruska Triytsia. On top of applying my cultural knowledge, I was also responsible for being able to exchange factual information about social and environmental questions that surfaced as the result of the crisis. This was a very difficult task, as I had to pull together everything that I have learned not only this semester, but last semester as well. Clarity of thought and clarity of expression are two very different aspects of a debate and I definitely learned to make use of my thoughts through applying them in speech but I did struggle at times with wording and phrasing of sentences. I was put on the spot and I had to dig deep into my knowledge of the Ukrainian language to answer some of the concerns that had been raises by my language partner. In other words, this exercise taught me how to explain myself, as well as my viewpoint, in a setting where I was given the opportunity to express my take on a certain matter. Although I stumbled quite a bit, there were moments of brilliance where I was able to eloquently explain and ratify my opinion without resorting to Russian speech or mispronouncing a word. We have achieved a lot this semester and I have learned to define and defend my persona in the Ukrainian language, which is something I am proud of and excited about. I can confidently state that I have learned to express my true self appropriately in a given setting and that I am culturally conscious of the Ukrainian language and culture in relation to history.
Mark Kligman
SDLC 111
Dr. Scinicariello
Ukrainian
Cultural Posts
1.
Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian artist/poet-public figure: 1814 - 1861
Taras Shevchenko is easily the most famous and recognizable Ukrainian poet both domestically and internationally. In addition to Shevchenko’s work in poetry, he was also a successful writer, artist, public/political figure, ethnographer and folklorist. Despite his already impressive portfolio, Shevchenko’s most important achievement is being the foundational representative of the modern Ukrainian literature and language. Shevchenko’s impact on Ukrainian culture was so influential that the gravity of his relevance in Ukrainian culture had to be completely downplayed, in some cases, even prevented from being taught or mentioned at Ukrainian academic institutions during the Soviet era. The reason for this behavior was linked to the Soviet government’s fear of Shevchenko’s strong Ukrainian-nationalism views, which were commonly expressed in his work. The Soviet administration had a concrete way of diffusing the Ukrainian-nationalism message being sent in the works of Shevchenko, through emphasizing the social and anti-Tsarist components of his legacy, such as the class struggle of ethnic Ukrainians within the Russian Empire, while simultaneously casting a shadow on any patriotic and nationalistic observations in his work. Shevchenko himself was born a “serf”, which is the equivalent of a slave in a feudalist society, and he suffered immensely for his strong political views and opposition towards the established order of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. During Soviet times, Shevchenko was portrayed as an internationalist who’s objective was to support the poor classes in society through his work. In reality, Shevchenko was a vocal proponent of the Ukrainian national idea.
Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CS%5CH%5CShevchenkoTaras.htm
http://www.univ.kiev.ua/en/geninf/Shevchenko/
2.
Mykola Khvylovy, Ukrainian writer/poet-public figure: 1893 – 1933
Mykola Khvylovy was a Ukrainian writer and poet who is credited for being one of the founding fathers of VAPLITE (Vilna Akademiya, Proletarskoii Literatury - Free Academy of Proletarian Literature). VAPLITE was a literary union in Ukraine during the Soviet era that existed for roughly two years before being disbanded by the Soviet government, due to its sharp views and expressions against the reigning Communist Party. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin considered Khvylovy a major threat to the Communist Party, specifically because of his unfinished work “Valdshnepy”, which was an ideological text that has drawn comparisons to George Orwell’s “1984”. The first part of “Valdshnepy” was published in a VAPLITE pamphlet under Khvylovy’s pseudonym: “Artem Sokil”. Stalin persecuted members of VAPLITE as a result of the “Valdshnepy” publishing and sent many to oppression camps in Siberia as punishment for their choice to not identify who wrote the text. Khvylovy committed suicide shortly after Stalin carried out his verdict, citing that he could no longer bear the pain he felt as a result of the oppression of fellow writers and Ukrainians. His suicide note read: "Arrest of Yalovy - this is the murder of an entire generation ... For what? Because we were the most sincere Communists? I don't understand. The responsibility for the actions of Yalovy's generation lies with me, Khvylovy. Today is a beautiful sunny day. I love life - you can't even imagine how much. Today is the 13th. Remember I was in love with this number? Terribly painful. Long live communism. Long live the socialist construction. Long live the Communist Party." After Khvylovy’s death, his literature work was banned in the Soviet Union until its eventual collapse; the second part of “Valdshnepy” was eventually confiscated and never retrieved. Khvylovy advocated an orientation towards cultural trends in Western Europe, with an objective of loosening Ukraine’s dependence on Russian forms and inspiration. Needless to say, Khvylovy created major controversy, divided the Ukrainian literary scene, and created tension with Soviet authorities.
Citations: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CK%5CH%5CKhvylovyMykola.htm
http://www.ciuspress.com/catalogue/culture-and-society/3/the-cultural-renaissance-in-ukraine%2D-polemical-pamphlets%2C-1925%2D1926
3.
Lesia Ukrainka, Ukrainian writer/poet-public activist: 1871 – 1913
Born as Larisa Kosach-Kvitka, Lesia Ukrainka is considered as one of the most influential Ukrainian cultural figures and the absolute foremost female writer in Ukrainian literature. In addition to being a writer, Lesia was also a political, civil, and female activist. Encouraged at an early age by her uncle to study traditional Ukrainian folk works and history, Lesia started writing her works at an early age. Ukrainka’s work reflected her belief in Ukraine’s freedom and independence, leading her to receive membership of the Literary and Artistic Society in Kiev, which was eventually banned in the early 20th century due to its relations with revolutionary activists at the time. Ukrainka revealed an inclination towards Western ideologies early on in her life, when she and her brother established a literary circle called “The Pleiades” inspired by the French school of poesy “Pleiade”. The purpose of “The Pleiades” was promoting and developing Ukrainian literature and translating foreign classics into the Ukrainian language. Shevchenko and Franko inspired Ukrainka’s work and as a result, the Russian Empire immediately banned her first published text “Na krylakh pisen” in 1893. “Na krylakh pisen” was however distributed in Western Ukraine, which was a part of Austria-Hungary at the time, and smuggled into the Russian Empire by many. Ukrainka actively opposed the Russian Empire and was a member of several Ukrainian Marxist organizations. Ukrainka has been credited for being the first to officially translate the “Communist Manifesto” into the Ukrainian language. Shortly after her translation of the Marx text, Ukrainka was arrested by Russian police and remained under heavy political surveillance for the remainder of her life. It has been frequently expressed that it was the police incident, and not Ukrainka’s deteriorating health, that lead her to halt all literary work.
Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainkaLesia.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/613095/Lesya-Ukrainka
4.
Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer/economist-political figure: 1856 – 1916
Ivan Franko was a radical political figure and the founder of both the socialist and nationalist movement in Western Ukraine. Ivan Franko is credited for writing the first detective novels in the Ukrainian language and being one of the pioneers of translating classic foreign works by the likes of William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, and Victor Hugo into the Ukrainian language. Along with Shevchenko, Franko is considered as one of the major contributors to modern literary and political thought in Ukraine. Franko’s meeting with Mykhailo Drahomanov at Lviv University (Western Ukraine), who was considered a radical political and economic theorist by the Russian Empire, was instrumental in shaping the literary and political association that Franko expressed in his work. Franko’s association with Drahomanov led authorities to accuse him of belonging to an unidentified secret socialist society and resulted in a nine-month arrest in 1877. After his release from prison, Franko studied the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, contributed articles to European newspapers and assisted with organizing workers’ groups in Lviv. Franko went on to found his own magazine: “Hromadskyi Druh” (Public Friend), which was discontinued by the Russian government after only two issues. Franko was arrested again in 1880 after being accused of arousing Ukrainian peasant to a state of civil disobedience by Russian officials. This time, Franko was sent to an oppression camp for three months to endure exile and suffering for his social and political views. Upon his release from prison, Franko was kept under political surveillance, which many cite as the reason to why he was dismissed as a lecturer from Lviv University. Ironically, Lviv University went on to be renamed “Ivan Franko National University of Lviv” after Franko’s death. Ivan Franko was eventually arrested a third time in 1889 for his contributions to the journal “Pravda” (Truth), and collaboration with the patriotic and anti-Russian compatriots of Central Ukraine. Franko eventually died in poverty and poor health; he struggled immensely in his later years, as he no longer had the health and energy to constantly battle the Russian regime and was limited in his writing due to the full paralysis of his right arm.
Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CR%5CFrankoIvan.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/217438/Ivan-Franko
5.
Holodomor (Extermination by hunger), man-made famine/genocide of ethnic Ukrainians in the Soviet Union: 1932 – 1933
The Holodomor roughly took five million Ukrainian citizens’ lives in a single year. Holodomor was a man-made famine resulting from the deficiency of crops from the weak harvest of 1932. The process was fully controlled by the government, specifically because the urban Ukrainian citizens received their food portions through a government rationing system. Initially suburban Ukrainian citizens were affected the most since they were disconnected from the rationing system, however eventually urban citizens faced the same challenges as their portion sizes continuously dropped lower and lower. Despite various theories, historians believe that the Soviet government used the famine to their advantage to attack the increased sense of Ukrainian nationalism among the Ukrainian people resulting from the advocacy of popular Ukrainian poets, artists, and public figures. Although the Soviet government denied ethnic targeting throughout the famine, there is widespread evidence that the leader of the Communist regime, Joseph Stalin, deliberately targeted the Ukrainian people. The evidence focuses on the extraordinary and especially hostile rationing policies that were for some reason not adopted in any of the multiple Soviet republics, other than on the territory of Ukraine. In 1953 Dr. Raphael Lemkin, a Yale professor who famously coined the term “genocide”, remarked in his speech on the Holodomor: “the Ukrainian is not and never has been a Russian. His culture, his temperament, his language, his religion, are all different...to eliminate Ukrainian nationalism the Ukrainian peasantry was sacrificed. A famine was necessary for the Soviets and so they got one to order. If the Soviet program succeeds completely, if the intelligentsia, the priest, and the peasant can be eliminated, then Ukraine will be as dead as if every Ukrainian were killed, for it will have lost that part of it which has kept and developed its culture, its beliefs, its common ideas, which have guided it and given it a soul, which, in short, made it a nation. This is not simply a case of mass murder. It is a case of genocide, of the destruction, not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation.”
Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CA%5CFamine6Genocideof1932hD73.htm
http://www.uccla.ca/SOVIET_GENOCIDE_IN_THE_UKRAINE.pdf
In my final week of study, my language partner and I addressed the Ukrainian culture and its perception of other cultures. I learned country names and language names of different major countries, which to my surprise were actually very different from the names of those countries and languages in Russian. I then learned how to talk about where I am from, my family background and my travel experiences in Ukrainian. As my language partner and I both walked back from the library to the dining hall, he made me point out and describe the things we see on the road there and apply them in conversation. I felt confident addressing what I saw and conversing in Ukrainian with my language partner. This semester has been a success and I am very pleased with what I have learned and how I was able to apply my knowledge in Russian in a constructive way for learning another language.
Throughout week 7 I learned the names of animals that one would see at a zoo. Speaking of zoo, my language partner and I discussed what locations are popular among Ukrainian people for their outings and the zoo is considered a popular location. After we covered animals, we went into occupations and workplaces. I found it interesting that many of the business terms in English such as management, consulting, marketing, etc. are basically the exact same words in Ukrainian. Several other occupation names were also similar to the Russian language making this topic one of the easiest to learn for me. However, there were some occupations that were completely different in Ukrainian and unlike any other language I am familiar with so we allocated the majority of our time so I could become familiar with those. We also went over addressing university major and minors and how to incorporate that into a conversation in Ukrainian appropriately. Learning these terms an how to apply them appropriately has helped me with my confidence in speaking Ukrainian.
For week 6, my language partner and I focused on telling and asking for the time. It was a little tricky since there are ways of telling the time that are different and unique from Russian. For example: “half of first” means 12:30, or “the 11th hour” which means 11:00. It is still a little confusing but I am getting more used to it, practicing has definitely helped me a lot in maintaining my knowledge of everything that we have learned so far in the semester. My language partner and I have been going over more in-depth conversations in Ukrainian that effectively make me dig deep into everything I have learned so far in order to properly conduct the conversation. We have also been covering imperfect grammatical conjugations that are very similar to the Russian grammar scheme. Overall my knowledge in Russian has been able to ease my grammar learning in Ukrainian since it is almost identical.
It is now week 5 of my learning schedule and as the weeks have been progressing, I have become more and more confident with my skills in Ukrainian and its application in common settings. This week my language partner and I discussed Ukrainian food, table manners and cultural differences in a dining setting compared to the Russian culture. We then focused on learning basic food and dish names and how to place an order at a restaurant or any other dining setting. I also learned how to describe the food in terms of their characteristics such as healthy, ripe, fresh, medium-rare, etc. After establishing a strong foundation in the food category we went into weather. My language partner and I conducted conversations regarding the weather, temperature, and seasons of the year. My objective was to learn how to ask about the weather and conduct a conversation on that topic and I was able to do that relatively well by the end of the week.
Throughout my fourth week of learning Ukrainian, my language partner and I looked into the Ukrainian culture and language and how it has been influenced historically. Ukraine was conquered by Russia and Poland continuously for the past centuries, therefore the pure Ukrainian language became influenced by various cultures and languages that shaped it into the language that we know it as today. However, various elements of the original Ukrainian language are still an integral part of the language and have not been influenced by either the Russian or Polish language. For example, the word “cradle” in Russian actually means “tie” in Ukrainian. My language partner and I also spent time learning the various words in Ukrainian that are identical in meaning in the Russian language, as well as other words for objects that are completely different from Russian. We then incorporated the gained vocabulary knowledge into conversational skills, specifically to discussing a typical room setting and naming all my typical belongings. I also learned how to ask to borrow things such as a pen or phone. The remainder of the week as spent on learning how to describe items in regards to their color, shape, size.
It is now week 3 and at this point I have established a good foundation of grammar, sentence structure and conversation building in my knowledge of Ukrainian. From here on, my language partner and I decided that it would be a goo idea to continue to build on top of my conversational skills in Ukrainian. My language partner showed me a video of the Ukrainian Prime Minister delivering a speech on national television where he ended up using Russian language out of frustration in his failure to correctly pronounce eloquent Ukrainian speech. My language partner pointed out that a main reason why the Prime Minister was having trouble in his speech because he lacked the practice of using Ukrainian in a relaxed setting. Therefore we decided that I will be learning Ukrainian through language immersion since I will get accustomed to its use they way that I am used to using Russian language. We spent the rest of the week learning physical traits, addressing those in a proper sentence and with proper conjugation. I learned how to ask people common questions in regard to their name, height, age, hair, eye color, etc. as well as answer those questions appropriately when I myself am asked these questions.
In my second week of learning Ukrainian I have already seen significant improvement from my first day of learning. My language partner and I have now been going over common phrases that I would use as a follow up to the greetings we learned in the prior week. Therefore we have been reenacting several scenarios where I would act as a tourist in Ukraine who is trying to ask for directions to a common facility. I also learned how to apply metrics when asking or providing directions such as: “walk straight for 200 meters and then turn left and continue for 100 meters.” We discussed the flow of Ukrainian conversation and how to transition from greetings to asking for directions so that I better understand the sentence structure in the Ukrainian language. So far, Ukrainian grammar is very similar to Russian and has been a relatively easy topic for me to cover. If I were dropped off in Kyiv, I would be fairly confident that I would be able to address a stranger in a friendly and appropriate manner as well as ask him/her/them/etc. for directions to a common facility such as a bank, library, or hospital.
In my first week of learning Ukrainian I have been able to apply my knowledge of Russian, specifically in the learning of the Ukrainian alphabet, which is very similar to the Russian alphabet. There are differences in pronunciation of some identical letters as well as some additional letters that are not present in the Russian alphabet. My language partner pointed out to me that my pronunciation is already pretty good, but I need to make sure that I remember the letters that are pronounced differently in Russian so that I don’t make mistakes further on in my learning. Therefore we spent time practicing words that are spelled the same in both languages but simultaneously sound different. I think that practice paid off and I will be able to remember these tendencies in the Ukrainian language. We then went over common greetings and reenacted several scenarios where the variables were: the time of day and the type of person I was addressing (sex, age, relationship, etc). We conjugated several greetings for me to understand the difference in use dependent on who exactly I am addressing in my conversations. I also learned numbers and their grammatical form of progressive adaptation.
Week 1
Learn the alphabet
Learn common greetings (hello, good morning, good night, good afternoon)
Week 2
Learn common phrases (yes, no, maybe, a lot, a little)
Learn common facility names (hospital, school, bank, mall)
Week 3
Learn how to ask common questions about people (name, height, age, hair and eye color)
Learn how to answer common questions about myself (name, height, age, hair and eye color)
Week 4
Learn how to describe object attributes (color, shape, size,)
Learn basic object names (pen, wallet, door, table)
Week 5
Learn basic food names (tomato, beef, watermelon, cake)
Learn how to conduct a basic conversation
Week 6
Learn how to ask and tell the time
Learn how to ask for directions
Week 7
Learn common animal names (dog, cat, horse, bird)
Learn workplace names (bank teller, teacher, cab driver, construction worker)
Week 8
Learn country names (America, Germany, Russia, China)
Learn how to talk about my background in moderate depth
The article "How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language" discusses how language immersion allows people to process and apply a new language with native-like capability. In my opinion, immersion is an easy and efficient way to learn and significantly improve a learner's ability to grasp a language. I can make an example of this out of my own experience, since my capability to speak Russian and Ukrainian proficiently without stuttering and getting confused with the phrasing of English opposed to Russian, is visibly better when I'm back home in Ukraine because the dominant language being spoken and heard by myself and my surroundings is Russian. This is also due to the fact that I do not have an option to rely on another language like english, and in order for others to understand what I am trying to say I have to interact with my peers and family in Russian, and make sure that what I am saying makes sense in Russian even if the phrasing is not what makes sense in English (a problem I very often run in to.) My Russian speaking capabilities and clarity once I come home from Ukraine to the US are significantly better. On the other hand, due to my absence from the US, my English goes through the same struggles as does my Russian, because I become accustomed to hearing and speaking one specific language. I have definitely heard of language immersion before, however I had not really read any studies that supported the theory of language immersion up until I read this article. I also found the study that used electroencephalography, which is a test that measures brain processing in order to determine that people who learn a language through language immersion, actually end up using the brain patterns of a native speaker. It is very reassuring that the brain patterns that are found during immersion are not present with the language learners who learn the sam language in a formal setting, such as a typical classroom. Overall I believe that there is nothing more significant that language immersion for a language learner who is seeking to polish his or her skills in a native manner, which is what makes the difference between being an amateur and a capable speaker of a language being learned.
After reading "A Picture of Language," I learned a lot about the different methods of learning and teaching grammar, which is a language learning aspect that many disregard. Throughout my lifetime in education I have studied many languages such as: German, Russian, Ukrainian, English, Spanish and now even Turkish, however grammar was never something I could pick up on very easily since every language has their own conjugation systems and grammatical exclusivities. This article discussed the many difficulties of "parsing", which I found interesting. Parsing develops a learner's practical skills in analyzing sentences and picking up on tenses, parts of speech, and the form and function of the included conjugation. From past experiences with learning languages I can definitely agree that this is not a very fun process and it does not develop the learner's speech, however I believe that it is a necessity to analyze how sentences work for a language learner because it creates the foundation on which the learner can build his or her language skills, and make sure that they are grammatically correct. I was not surprised at the end of the article, that most of the people interviewed by the author who were language learners were expressing how important it is to learn with "parsing" and come up with an approach that is more visual and relatable to learners, especially because that was the way I would try to learn my grammar when learning other languages. I would usually find a trend or visualization that I could relate to myself and help remember.
After reading Sociocultural Factors, I learned about different approaches and unique ways of treating and accepting cultures. This was very interesting to me because it provided me with an insight that I had never considered myself before. The section about stereotypes was particularly interesting because it was a topic that I could relate to, especially since I am a foreigner myself with a different culture. The section discussed how stereotypes are noticed by people because they judge those who come from different backgrounds and cultures, while they disregard the stereotypes that could be derived from their own culture and beliefs. Francois Lierres's suggesting article for his fellow Frenchmen, who was planning on traveling to the US was very entertaining and pointed out how people in the US are unaware of their own stereotypes that they have created while mocking french people. The second culture acquisition concept hit very close to home for me, mostly because of acculturation, which is the claim that a person who is learning a second language usually develops a second identity. Cultural shock can make a serious impact on someone who goes through acculturation, especially if his original culture and identity is questioned and mocked by the people of a different country and culture.
The reading, "Communicative Competence," offered some useful insight.The term communicative competence is defined by Dell Hymes as: "that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts". I believe that out of the different competences, communicative competence was the most the most interesting and applicable term for my own learning of Turkish. The definition of communicative competence includes several subcategories such as: grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Grammatical competence refers to the competence used to learn the linguistic code of a language, discourse competence refers to a wide range of competences that includes our ability to speak and our interaction with written text, sociolinguistic competence indicates an understanding of the social context of a language, and strategic competence refers to an individual's ability to recover from mistakes they make when speaking the language, often due to a lack of fluent knowledge. I found learning about the different forms of competencies to be very useful tool in measuring my learning of Turkish. The different competencies have shown me what areas of improvement I need to focus on. For instance, since I am a beginning learner in Turkish, building my strategic competency will come in handy throughout conversations with experienced speakers who will notice my shortcomings in speaking the language and provide help with fixing my mistakes to become a better speaker. I believe my greatest benefit from reading "Communicative Competence," was the knowledge I gained from learning how to make an example out of particular logical aspects that are associated with language and could be applied to my further learning and advancement in capability of speaking Turkish.
