Self directed learning enabled me to learn more about different language learning styles. It also helped me find and develop my own language learning style. Before I took this class I used to think that there is only one way in which a person can learn a new language properly. Now I realize I was wrong, and that languages can be learned in various ways. Personally, I discovered how much I enjoy learning while interacting with people. On the other hand, I realized the importance of having a balance between in class and in person interaction in Hindi. Sole memorization without practice makes no sense, while the combination of both helped me improve my grammar and speaking skills.

Taking this class forced me to approach Hindi more than just a language. I was challenged to think and find out about body language that is characteristic to Indian culture and society. Thus, I have been talking to my language partner and observing hand gestures and body expressions in Indian movies and soap operas. Now I feel more confident in using some of typical hand or facial movements while speaking Hindi. For example, if I want to say – yes – I can simply nod my head in a way people in the west nod for no, and Indians would understand me.

This method of learning language also encouraged me to incorporate techniques of language learning that I might not have done if I have taken a professor thought language. For example, I listened to many Bollywood songs in order to try to learn and remember certain phrases that keep on being repeated in the song. By doing this I was using alternative ways in acquiring Hindi language skills (by watching youtube videos, movies, soap operas, listening to music).

At the beginning of the class it was very challenging to come up with realistic goals and plan ways in which these goals will be achieved. Furthermore, I needed time to realize what will be the most effective way for me to approach studying on my own, creating a weekly plan and making sure I am following the schedule. This is where the MLC 105 in class discussions helped me because we shared tips and advice amongst each other and with Dr. Grove.

Readings used in the class were well planned and relevant to our language learning process. A possible improvement for the future is maybe creating a few questions that students should think about while reading the article prior to coming to class. A disadvantage in our class was a small number of students which kept discussions shorter and faster. Especially, in case someone would fail to show up for class.

I would definitely recommend to the new self-directed learners to firstly discover which kind of learner they are and how they approach a new language. I used to believe I knew which kind of learner I was, but studying entirely on my own proved that I was wrong. It is much harder to test yourself and keep on practicing when there is no direct teacher supervising you.

In order to improve as a self-learner I think I should incorporate reading more books/texts from Hindi authors on India and Hindi, as well as about the society in general. I believe this would give me a literature aspect on the culture and offer me a deeper understanding of the society.

I think MLC 105 is a well planned course. I really like the discussion portion of the class. Maybe current journal and newspaper articles could be incorporated in the list of readings. 

Listening to other cultural presentations allowed me not only to learn more about Persian and Hebrew cultures, but also to notice some similarities between these two and Hindi culture.

Namely, I’ve learned that in Iran and Afghanistan people consume a lot of dairy, and sweet tea for breakfast and ice or vegetables for lunch. In India it is similar as they drink chai or milk for breakfast, and rice is a popular dish for lunch. Also, I found out that in these two Farsi speaking cultures people consume food that is high in fat. This makes sense due to geographical environments Iran and Afghanistan are located in. Dry and hot weather requires people to consume a lot food that will enable them to save energy much longer.

Considering Farsi speaking societies, I realized that Persian weddings are very similar to Indian weddings. This is in terms of the amount of people invited, rituals before and after the wedding ceremony. One interesting thing I was surprised with was the fact that a bride choses which present she wants to receive from the groom and his family. It is different in Indian society where the bride has to pay a dowry to the groom and his family.

An interesting observation I made was that in Farsi dost means “I love you”, while in Hindi it means “friend”. In some way I can understand the similarities between these two words, but I wonder if these two languages influenced one another in regards to this word.

On the other hand, I knew nothing about Jewish communities in Asia. I am glad Lily explained differences between Jewish communities around the world. I also never knew that Judaism was passed on by father, but by mother. India also has a significant population of Jewish people in Cochin. During my stay in India I visited this city, but I had no idea about large Jewish community present there.

Proverbs in Hindi:

अब पछ्ताए होत क्या जब चिड़िया चुग गई खेत
(No use crying over spilled milk)

अंत भला तो सब भला
(All is well that ends well)

दूर के ढोल सुहावने लगते हैं
(The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence)

अपना वहि जॊ आवे काम्
(A friend in need is a friend indeed)

आमदनी अठन्नी और खर्चा रुपैया

(Income is half rupee and expenses are a full rupee)

One of my learning goals for the semester was to learn Hindi proverbs. The reason why I chose these five proverbs is because they also exist in English and Serbian. Even though I did not focus on reading and writing in Hindi script during the semester, I am able to read and write these proverbs. 

The third proverb is a universal one, but the reason why I wanted o include it was because one of my favorite Bollywood movies is called Three Idiots.In this movie the main song is called All is well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-LltgOtFSg

Aal Izzz Well

Murgi kya jaane aande ka kya hoga
Aree life milegi ya tawee pe
fry hoga
Koi na jaane apna future kya hoga

Honth ghuma
Seeti bajaa
Seeti bajaa ke bol
Bhaiyaa aal izz well

Aree bhaiyaa all izz well
Aree chachu aal izz well
Aree bhaiyaa all izz well

Majority of Indians still follow arranged marriage system, which might seem impractical to the western world. Spending time in India, I was able to learn that this way of marriage is the most preferred choice in Indian families. Indian families give a lot of importance to family relationship and protection. As marriage is considered one of the most important steps in life, as an act of family love it is carefully thought out and planned. Living in India for almost five months I learned about advantages and disadvantages of this practice. Even though I can say that I still do not agree with the idea of arranged marriages, meeting people and hearing their life stories enabled me to understand the reason for this practice. 

One of the main goals of arranged marriages is to ensure the separation between upper and lower casts in the society. It was important to keep the wealth within the family and the upper cast was strongly encouraged to make arrangements within their cast. Also, arranged marriages are often seen as a way to promote class system and are the best way to take dowry. Dowry system is very old and its purpose is to provide for the woman in case something unfortunate happens with husband such as divorce or death. Therefore, it all started as an honorable way to protect the bride and give her security. Sadly, today dowry system turns into bride-price system, where a good dowry size ensures a good match for a girl and her family. 

Closely related to arranged marriages are child marriages. In the past it was a common practice for parents to arrange marriage for their children during their childhood. This was a way to ensure that children will marry a person from the same cast and same economic status. It was also a way to prevent their children to fall in love or search for someone else, as from their early age they knew whom to marry. Those who would find their own mates would be threaten by parents, so the easiest way would be to accept the family choice in order not to invite shame for the family. Today child marriages are abolished by the law, but parents still do have a huge influence. 

Nowadays, once marriage is arranged two people are allowed to meet and get to know each other before the wedding day. However, it is important to notice that in India marriage is not only between a bride and groom, but rather between their families. This is because Indians mainly live in joint families and wives come to live with husbands’ family. By marriage woman enters into bondage, and her freedom is often limited. 

Sarees come in variety of colors, patterns, designs, and materials. Also the price for sarees can be from US $5 to a few thousand US$. The price range depends upon material and designer. Choosing a color for your saree often depends upon the occasion. For weddings, brides usually wear red or hot pink saree with many golden color details attached to it.

Most of Indian women wear sarees. My host mother needed a couple minutes to fix it and look amazing! Trying it for the first time was not easy. It took me more than ten minutes, and in the end I needed someone to help me out with putting it on. However, just like anything else I needed a bit of practice and after a few times I became more faster and more comfortable with putting it on. I am not an expert, but am able to fix it for myself.

Wearing a saree is as comfortable as wearing a dress. The only difference is putting it on and making sure it does not unfold. Indian women wear it throughout the year, since the temperatures never get too low. The photo below is taken in a saree shop at the local market in Udaipur, Rajasthan. 

Coming from a developing country, I was sure my cultural shock will not be as great as when I came to study in the US. However, I was wrong. My home country might be considered a developing country, but it is definitely better off in terms of poverty than India. Yes, it was the huge amount of poverty present everywhere which was the first shocking thing after my arrival. Just seeing poor people living on the streets, having nothing to wear, or eat, with children playing around and begging for money is the hardest thing to deal with. Living in a luxury hotel for a week in Jaipur, and having a poor family living outside my window made me wonder and think about the chance in life I have compared to them. This is the main reason why I decided to include the picture Taj Mahal in this post. Taj Mahal represents the beauty and wealth and roofs of homes where the poor live.

The contrast on this picture also represents the beauty in variety that India offers. Not only in terms of wealth distribution, but also the cultural wealth this country has. Going the local market I was able to learn about different tradition from other parts of India. Clothing for example varies from state to state in India. I find it very interesting that there are 18 official languages in India, and that some people from the same country are unable to understand each other, unless they speak a common language.

Another thing I learned is how warm and welcoming Indian people are. Everywhere I went people were willing to talk to me, listen to me, and invite me to their homes. However, sometimes this welcoming behavior would become overwhelming, and I realized that this is another cultural difference I have with Indians. It is nice to feel accepted and appreciated, but at the same time, it is hard to get used to the lack of personal space I am used to having (even though Bosnian people are pretty similar to Indians in terms of personal space). As the picture depicts it, crowds and lack of space are nothing unusual in India. People are not physically close to each other, but also are very close in terms of “human relationships”. Neighbors spend time with one other and help each other. I like this close interaction between people present in Indian culture, as I think “westerners” often have no time for other people, or for relaxed social gatherings in the way Indians do.

A cultural difference I had a harder time adjusting myself to is the male-female relation in India. Taj Mahal was built by the emperor Sahan Jahn in memory of his wife.  Therefore, Taj Mahal can be seen as a symbol of a woman who is isolated in the society. Women do not have a lot of choice, and their lives change entirely once they get married. Arranged marriages still take place. In many traditions in India a woman cannot talk to all the members of her husband’s family and is in many ways often isolated and separated. That is the reason why I view a woman as Taj Mahal who is a part of the scenery, but at the same time is not entirely included in it.

TukTuk.pptx

Even though some people argue that a person can be competent in another language and another culture, I believe it is possible. I think sometimes you do not even have to have an advanced level in another language in order to communicate. For example, while I was studying in India I was able to talk to people, even though my Hindi was very limited. Thus, being competent in another language means more than simply being able to speak it.

I remember using hand gestures that are often used within the Indian culture, and with a mixture of Hindi, English, and gestures locals would get my message. Now after living there and having a solid knowledge of Hindi, I feel competent to communicate in Indian society. Of course, this is not to say that I should not upgrade my language skills, but that communicative competence is based not only on grammatical and textual competence, but also illocutionary and sociolinguistic competences.

Moreover, living in the US for three years of my college life, I also feel competent to communicate within the American culture. One is able to adapt her to different situations and environments by living and interacting within a new culture. Hence, exposure and experience also play an important role in communicative competence. This allows us to become comfortable enough to interact in everyday conversations such as usage of humor and nonverbal communication.  

I think I have experienced culture shock at least ten times in the past six years. Luckily, the change was happening quickly, so I would not have a lot of time to think about it, but simply to try and adapt myself as quickly as possible.

For this assignment I decided to go through my journal from India and found the following entry:

"After three weeks in India, I feel I did I am finishing the physical part of adjustment on the new environment in Jaipur. Food was the biggest problem for me since I am not used to eating spicy and hot food. Traffic jams, and crowds on the streets are everyday reality here, and I am still learning how to manage basic daily routines -shopping and jogging for instance without getting too much attention from the locals for being a foreigner." Now I am not only able to eat spicy food and enjoy it, but also travel alone through India, shop and bargain on my own and be free to interact with local people.

Coming from a developing country, I was sure my cultural shock will not be as great as when I went to the US to study. However, I was wrong. My home country might be considered a developing country, but it is definitely better off in terms of poverty than India. Yes, it was the huge amount of poverty present everywhere which was the first shocking thing after my arrival, and I still think I am not (willing to) adjust to it. Just seeing poor people living on the streets, having nothing to wear, eat with children playing around and begging for money was the hardest thing to deal with. Living in a luxury hotel for a week in Jaipur, and having a poor family living outside my window made me wonder and think about the chance in life I have compared to them.

I tried to stay open mind and understand rather than criticize which enabled me to be aware of my cultural shock and find my place within Indian society. It is interesting to notice how hard it is for some, yet easy for other people to live in another culture. At this point I feel that no matter where I find myself in the world I will be able to manage and easily learn how to adapt to a different environment.

After English and Mandarin, Hindi is the third most widely-spoken language in the world. It is a subset of the Indo-European family, and I can sometimes find some similarities between Serbian and Hindi. The writing system of Hindi is derived from Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages in the world.

Hindi language came from Hindustani. During the ninth and tenth centuries, Hindustani was the colloquial language of in Northern India (area around New Delhi). The language was named Hindi by the Persian Turks who ruled in Punjab and Gangetic plains areas and created Delhi Sultanate within it.  Hindi absorbed Persian (and also Arab words) and therefore, the language was a mean of communication between the migrants and local population in the eleventh century. As the Delhi Sultanate was expending, so was the language.

Upon the British arrival to India, Hindi became a national language, as the British started using it amongst the government officials. In the eighteenth century it started to expand as a literary language. Hindi is written in Devangari script.

After the independence of India in 1947, government worked on standardization of Hindi language and in 1965 it became the official language of India. Different colonial powers influenced Hindi language. Thus, languages that enriched Hindi are: English, Portuguese, Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish.

Even though Hindi is a standardized language, there are many dialects of Hindi. While I was in India I studied the standardized Hindi, and often was not able to communicate with people living in villages who also spoke Hindi.

Sources:

http://www.jazykhindi.com/hindi/history.asp

http://www.hindisociety.com/ArticleHindiHistory.htm

For this assignment I watched the first episode of Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai soap opera. Not being able to understand everything they said, I was still able to conclude the relationships between the main characters. The plot is about a Hindu family and there are mother, father, daughter and son. Also, there is a grandmother who is mother’s mother, and she seems like a funny character. One gets an impression that the mother is more willing to tolerate her son, than her daughter. I realized that because when son says he does not feel well, mother is immediately concerned and letting him skip the school, even though he is just pretending. During the same scene, I came up to a conclusion that the grandmother is ridiculing mother’s oversensitivity towards the son.

At the same time when her daughter asks to go to the movies, the mother is not willing to let her go, and the girl only gets to go see the movie because she got her father’s permission. The only interaction with her husband was when the daughter was asking his permission to go out. It seems that the husband does not take in consideration mother’s will against her daughter going out, and he gives the permission to her. The relationship between mother and father does not seem like a happy one.

Furthermore, there are many motives of Hinduism in the house, so that is how I concluded that this is a Hindu family. It is incredible how much one can actually understand just by noticing body language, hand gestures, and behavior amongst the characters. Of course, the episode ends with the daughter singing a song while the actions (life) of her mother is being presented to the audience. The combination of a slow song, and sad look on mother’s face makes me conclude that the girl sang about her mother, and maybe their misunderstandings.

Watch Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFLyE9-tJH8

After watching the soap opera, I listened to one of my favorite songs in Hindi, Pee Loom. Just like the majority of popular Hindi songs, this one is also from a movie called Once Upon a Time in Mumbai. While I was in India I watched the movie, and really liked the song. Just as one can conclude from watching the video – it is a song that a man sings to a woman he loves and her beauty. Typical Bollywood :)

Video for Pee Loon song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olOK2OYI7Fo

Since I lived in Indian state Rajasthan, I decided to read Rajasthan Patrika. I was able to read, but I honestly did not understand what I was reading. Hopefully by the end of semester this improves :)

Link for Rajasthan Patrika:

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/Rajasthan_Patrika/400x60/0

The first language I started studying was English. I was only six years old, and still not able to read or write in my own language (Serbian), but I could spell words such as mother, door, window and ‘the cat is under the table’ – Random! I know. But my father believes that children can easily learn a language before the age of ten and so it all started.

I am fluent in Serbian (Croatian/Bosnian which is almost the same language, but people like to have different names) and English. In primary school I was taking German as well, but was never good at it. The main reason (besides me not liking the way this language sounds) was that it was not logical that certain words that were feminine in Serbian were masculine in German. So after two years I gave up, and started taking Italian and Latin. These languages were not as difficult to understand as I grew up listening to and understanding Spanish from radio and TV.

During high school I was able to learn intermediate Italian and am now able to understand movies, read short texts and have small talks. At the UR I decided to start taking Russian. I liked the language, and it is a Slavic language so I already had some basis. I also discovered that being older it does take me longer to learn a language, so I guess my dad was right. I decided to take Russian also because it is one of six official languages spoken at the United Nations, and as it is my dream to work there one day it became useful.

However, not going abroad to Russia, I ended up in India where I was forced to take Hindi as a part of my program. Well, this was something entirely new for me! For the first time I had to learn new alphabet, and sentence structure that I entirely unfamiliar before. Instead of saying ‘My name is Nina’ I had to start thinking and saying ‘My name Nina is’. How weird!? It was really hard and challenging, and by the end of the semester I loved it and was so proud that I was able to chat with people in the street, while buying vegetables, or just to my host parents.

After that last semester I ended up taking Spanish in New Zealand. It just happened to be a good chance to take this language that I already knew a bit, but never took an official class. The class was very well structured, but I was bored because it was the first level and I was not a complete beginner. I still think it was a good thing to take and learn some grammar while improving my vocabulary in Spanish.

At the moment I am taking Hindi again. I feel it would be a waste spending all that time learning impossible grammatical structures for nothing. And by time I also started loving the sound of it! Maybe I should have tried harder with that German 10 years ago. I think I like having a combination of theoretical (grammar, vocabulary) and practical learning experience where I can practice the theory. My goal is to revise Hindi I already know, and upgrade it next semester. Namaste.

The article ‘Individualist-Collectivist’ classifies cultures as individualistic and collectivistic. The main difference is that the smallest unit of survival in the individualistic culture is an individual, while in the collectivistic culture it is a small, or primary group. This group is usually the immediate family that represents the smallest unit of survival. Travelling, reading, and experiencing I am able to conclude that in general terms American culture classifies as individualistic, while the culture of my target language is more of a collectivistic. Luckily, I can relate to either since I view my culture as a blend of both.

I believe that Bosnian culture has a facade of individualistic culture, and the soul of the collectivistic kind of culture. Furthermore, the classification of culture in broad terms can be divided between the East and West. East would be more of a collective, family oriented type of culture, while the West represents individualistic approach. Also, I would like to emphasize that one should not generalize and ‘place’ every single individual who belongs to the either of these two types of cultures in the same ‘box’. I have met individuals from the West who are more of a collectivist mind-set than some people from the East. People are different and one’s personal background and life experience determines where he or she sees him/herself in terms of culture and identity.

The culture of my target language is a collectivist type of culture. Indians reflect this cultural aspect through their usage of suffix ji to names of people regardless on their gender. For example, when showing respect to a woman one would say Gitaji, while to a man it would be Puriji. While in individualistic cultures there are specific terms such as Mr., Mrs., and Ms. Another difference between these cultures is the presence (or lack of) personal space. In the US I would feel rude and inappropriate to approach a person to the same distance at which I would feel free and comfortable at home. This is not due to my personal discomfort, but my awareness of the other culture and me trying to adapt to it which is not always easy.

Differences in interpretations of time, gestures and manners, explain a lot about a certain culture. Furthermore, understanding these parts of nonverbal communication enables the learner to understand the ways in which people perceive time, each other, the world, and life in general. Nonverbal communication in collectivist cultures conveys a great percentage of the real message. It (nonverbal communication) is also closely connected to the usage of language and words in it as the example above demonstrates (ji vs. Mr., Mrs., Ms.).

The first question that came to me after reading this article was: How do I learn and how does my brain function? There is so much more than the physical usage of language (lips, the ear, or the tongue). Brain plays the most important part in language. The mind is actually what one uses to speak, not his tongue and mouth.

The two brain hemispheres each have its own role and are more involved in performance of some than other activities. For example, the right hemisphere usually controls the awareness of position in space, while the left hemisphere is more connected to the sense of progression and step-by step activities. Therefore, the part of brain which controls language is in the left hemisphere. Logically, language cannot be learned all at once, and our brain needs a lineal progression when dealing with language. Our brain needs time and exercise in order to become comfortable with logical steps behind connecting letters into words and into meanings.

Interestingly, according to the article slips of the tongue are not random. They are found within a similar rhythmic or grammatical construction (lit exchanged for hit). Observing these kinds of errors I make as a learner can tell me how does my brain perceive the new language and can even help me learn from my mistakes.

When studying a language one should focus on different aspects of it and not exclusively on one. I believe this is because our brain needs and is capable of connecting different components of linguistic organization in order to create sense out of it and enable one to communicate. A learner has the need to place study of individual levels within a more general structure perspective in order to understand the way language as a whole is organized (page 182). Therefore, the importance of levels and structure is a must in effective studying of any language.