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Rosa M. Colon's Posts (36)
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Counting to 20
When I first decided to enroll in the self-directed language course, I had very little knowledge of not only the Turkish language, but also Turkish culture. I honestly could not locate the country on a map or simply greet someone with a friendly hello in the language. Therefore, I was a bit nervous to start completely from scratch in an area so new to me. However, with my experience of previously learning to speak Spanish I figured that I had already developed many of the skills that would be necessary in trying to learn another new language. At the start of the semester, I knew nothing. But, as we approach the last week of classes I have completed close to all of the tasks that I originally set forth for myself. Currently, I am able to greet others, introduce myself (name, where I am from, age), count, briefly talk about family, ask questions such as “who/what is this/that?”, describe the weather, and indicate the names of the week/month/season all in Turkish. In addition, I have gained an understanding of the Turkish culture in regards to the Turks most important values and ways of life.
Although I am proud of the progress I have made thus far, the road to getting where I am today has not been an easy one. Teaching myself a language has challenged me in ways that I could not have imagined. Self-directed language learning requires a lot of self-discipline and motivation. Therefore, I found it much easier to attend class and review new vocabulary and grammar rules with my language partner than I did watching Youtube videos and trying to teach myself on my own. However, the more I practiced independently, the easier it became. I think that the most difficult challenge for me was pronunciation. While memorizing words and rules about sentence structure required a lot of mental effort, pronouncing words correctly required more of a physical effort. It was very frustrating at times because I would know what a word is supposed to sound like but I struggled with shaping my mouth and moving my tongue in just the right way to produce the proper sound. With lots of practice and continuously watching Youtube videos, I learned to improve my pronunciation and Turkish accent.
One thing that I really enjoyed this semester was having the SDLC 105 course in addition to the SDLC 110. The SDLC 105 course really allowed me to not only demonstrate the progress I was making in speaking the Turkish language, but also gave me the opportunity to delve more into the culture of Turkey. Additionally, the course exposed me to other cultures that my classmates were studying like Korea, the Czech Republic, Brazil, and Spain. The juxtaposition of each of these cultures really emphasized their uniqueness and changed my perspective on the way in which we should view others who may be different from us. Taking both of these courses has opened my eyes to the importance of learning about other cultures. It brings us together and provides us with an understanding of where others come from. By continually spreading awareness of different backgrounds we can truly make the world a better place.
For our learning activity, Emily and I wanted to teach the SDLC 105 class how to count in Turkish. Unfortunately, with the little class time we had at the end of the semester we were unable to however attached is the PowerPoint we intended to use for our lesson. Below I will list the plan we had for teaching Turkish numbers:
1. Introduce the numbers from 1-10 and have the class repeat after us for pronunciation.
2. Repeat 1-10 for clarity on pronunciation.
3. Introduce each of the tens places (20, 30, 40, etc...) and how to add on to each up to 100.
4. Repeat the tens places for clarity on pronunciation.
5. Test the class! From here, we wanted to provide numbers in English and ask the class how they would say each in Turkish. Example: 88=seksen sekiz
Please refer to my combined final reflection/self assessment for 105 and 110.
Turkish%20Wedding%20Traditions.pptx
SUMMARY:
In my presentation, I wanted to focus on the wedding traditions in Turkish culture. First, I began my presentation by talking about the different types of marriages that existed in the past and then introduced the two main marriage arrangements that currently exist today in Turkey: arranged marriages and love marriages. While arranged marriages are those set up by the parents of the prospective bride and groom, love marriages are those in which the prospective bride and groom choose each other without the input of their parents or family members. From there, I explained the traditional phases of marriage: the agreement, the engagement, and the wedding. Although each of these phases are considered separate from one another, the purpose of each is to bring the bride and grooms families together to celebrate the newly formed relationship between the bride and the groom. Additionally, these phases emphasize the importance of the transforming bride as she prepares to leave her own home and family to join the groom and his.
Resources and vocabulary are provided in the PowerPoint presentation attached to this post.
This week, my goal was to learn the names of different parts of the body. In class, we learned the different parts of the face and practiced by playing rounds of Simon says with my learning partner and classmates. Outside of the classroom, I googled other parts of the body such as the arms, legs, feet, hands, and belly. I recorded this information of my notes and continue to read review them outside of class.
This week, my goal was to learn the days of the week, months, and seasons in Turkish. Our learning partner provided us with the proper vocabulary and practiced our pronunciation by having us repeat after her. In order to try to help us remember the vocabulary, we went through and indicated which months sounded similar to English such as Mart=March and Mayıs=May. Similarly we went through the days of the week and looked for patterns to help us remember them better. We saw that Friday=Cuma, Saturday=Cumartesi, Sunday=Pazar, and Monday=Pazartesi. These endings simply mean the day after so it made it a little simpler trying to memorize those four days of the week. After class, I continued to study my notes.
This week, I wanted to learn how to describe the weather in Turkish. In class, our learning partner taught us different ways to describe the weather like sunny, cloudy, rainy, hot, and cold. From there, we learned to construct sentences like "Today, the weather is cloudy" or "Begün, hava bulutlu." We practiced by asking each other questions like "Is it cold/rainy today?" and responding with phrases such as "No today it is not cold/rainy." I then continued to practice by watching Youtube videos of Turkish weather broadcasts and reviewing my class notes.
This week my learning goal was to learn the different members of the family and how to pronounce them in Turkish. In class, our learning partner taught us how to say each relative of the family. We practiced the pronunciation of each out loud by repeating our learning partner and then we completed worksheets by indicating the names of each relative in the activity. Additionally, we incorporated our knowledge of numbers by learning how to say things like "I have 2 younger sisters" and "I have 1 aunt."
This week, my goal was to extend my understanding of vowel harmony by learning how to make words plural in Turkish. Rather than simply adding an -s or -es to a word to indicate that there is more than one, Turkish requires that you add either -lar or -ler to verbs depending on the vowels preceding it. If the last vowel in the word is a, ı, o, or u, then you add -lar because these are considered the thick vowels. If the last vowel in the word is e, i, ö, ü then you add -ler because these are considered the thin vowels. After an in class lesson, I completed a worksheet that required me to make singular plural by adding the appropriate endings. This lesson has aided me in my understanding of vowel harmony which applies to other circumstances in the Turkish language.
This week, my goal was to learn how to tell time in Turkish. Since we have just how to count in Turkish, I found that the lesson was not too difficult. In class, we practiced telling time by first learning the question for what time is it, "saat kaç?" When responding, you simply just say "saat ..." where the dots indicate the time. For example, if it is two, you would say "saat iki." After learning the basic framework for telling time in Turkish, I practiced with classmates by asking what time it was and allowing them to respond and vice versa.
Up until this point, I would say that I am pretty pleased with the progress that I have made thus far. I am now able to read/pronounce the letters of the alphabet, say common greetings and farewells, introduce myself, say where I am from, count, ask questions such as "what is this/that?", and add suffixes to the ends of words to indicate pronouns/plurality. Although I would not say that my knowledge is completely solid on each of these topics, I do think that with more practice and studying I will be able to crystallize my learning. As the semester continues, I will practice more outside of the classroom by studying my notes, watching more Youtube videos for pronunciation, and continue expanding my vocabulary with apps like Duolingo and Mango on my phone.
This week my goal was to learn Turkish numbers and to be able to count in Turkish. I accomplished this goal by practicing the numbers with my learning partner and classmates. I studied a practice worksheet with a number chart that indicated how to count to ten and then gave the names of the different tens places all the way up to 100. My classmates and I played a game where we went around the room and we all counted together with each person saying one number until someone messed up, then we would start all over. This game was helpful because not only did it make learning how to count in Turkish fun, but it also required that we actually pay attention to our classmates and memorize the number line. Currently, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on Turkish numbers.
Evaluation and assessment of Artifact 1:
In my first artifact conversation, Joora and I introduced ourselves, said where we were from, asked how we were doing, and said our farewells. Therefore, I would say that I met my weeks 4 and 5 goals pretty well. However, I feel that I could work towards making the conversation flow better by practicing my pronunciation and becoming more familiar with the vocabulary. By doing this, the conversation would sound more natural and less choppy. In the upcoming weeks, I plan to continue studying greetings and farewells while also beginning to incorporate more vocabulary and cultural knowledge.
A) My goals and tasks for weeks 4 and 5 are to be able to learn Turkish greetings and farewells, introducing myself, and being able to ask questions like how are you and where are you from. In this way, I will be able to hold a very basic, brief conversation.
B) In order to achieve these goals, I will first practice pronouncing and memorizing the vocabulary necessary for carrying out these types of conversations. Then, I will begin practicing with my learning partner and other classmates by having small conversations. I will then continue to study my notes to perfect my pronunciation and to help my responses flow more smoothly.
C) I will evaluate my success by asking my learning partner for feedback and by listening to recordings of my progress. From there, I will evaluate my accent and accuracy at conveying the correct message.
After learning the few additional letters that exist in the Turkish alphabet and reviewing the way in which each letter is pronounced, reading Turkish words has not been too challenging. However, I want to continue working on perfecting my pronunciation of Turkish words. I do find it more challenging to write in Turkish. Turkish is more difficult to write because the sentence structure differs from English in terms of the order that you place the subject and the verb. Additionally, each pronoun requires that you add a particular suffix to the end of a word. I am still trying to identify the patterns that exist in the Turkish sentence structure but I am beginning to get a grasp.
It seems that the question of whether or not bilingualism makes a person smarter or not has been a controversial topic throughout the years. However, based on the articles there truly is no definitive answer being that it depends on one's own definition of intelligence. While a bilingual individual may struggle during childhood constructing two different vocabularies, researchers suggest that they are able to make up for this hindrance later in life because there are long-term cognitive benefits of being bilingual. Although bilinguals experience a lot more interference with switching between language, the brain is able to take this frequent interference and use it to strengthen cognitive functioning. Overall, this is not to necessarily say that bilingual individuals are smarter than monolingual individuals, however bilinguals do seem to reap some benefits from knowing more than one language.
At this point in the semester, I would estimate that I have learned somewhere between 150-200 words. A majority of these words I have learned from the lessons with my learning partner Sezgi, with the rest of them coming from apps that I have on my phone like Duolingo and Mango. So far, my goals have been in line with the information I have been learning. My vocabulary currently consists of greetings, common classroom objects, numbers, occupations, and places. This list of vocabulary will aid me in engaging in small basic conversations and I intend to expand upon my vocabulary within the final weeks of the semester.
