I really enjoyed being an autonomous learner this semester and not worrying about learning or pacing myself through someone else’s standards. Focusing on my own individual goals was an awesome change of air from the learning I have been accustomed to for more than 10 years of being a student. I believe the main hurdle most people have in autonomous learning and especially in autonomous language learning is motivation. But for me, from day one I knew this was never going to be an issue due to the pain and discomfort I have felt for years by not assimilating in my Persian community back home. Sticking with the rational model/framework even thou sometimes I wanted to stray toward other mechanisms and having the discipline not to really helped me have a consistent level of learning during the many weeks.From the outset I wanted to focus primarily on the oral elements of the language and especially the sub-areas that would help assimilate better in the Persian community back home. By far, the greatest resource for me was my language instructor. The resources provided to us, i.e. Rosetta, TV channels, textbooks, etc were okay but I didn’t feel they played even a minor part in my development throughout the semester. Having stockpiled an array of personalized recorded clips that my language instructor and I critiqued was the by far the main resource in my learning process. Hearing and listening people has never worked for me, I have been listening for more than 10 years in the Persian community and it hasn’t helped one iota. Therefore, I focused on recording myself as much as I could and continuously going back and forth until I perfected my recordings for whatever area I was working with at that time. This also helped me realize which areas I was progressing with and which areas I was not, i.e. the “ka” sound was one of the most troublesome, tongue-twisting areas for me. Working with various forms of comedy no doubt was extremely interesting throughout the semester and I feel that I can somewhat go back home and at least not feel as uncomfortably conscious of my Farsi when I am with strangers. My flashcards helped me maintain the vocabulary I learned starting back from week 1 because I knew there were too many words for me to use on a regular basis and so a more systematic approach worked better on that front.The cultural project helped me understand the context behind shifting my accent from Khandari to Kabuli. Throughout the semester as I worked on having one consistent dialect in my speech, I did not bother to understand the history and underpinnings behind the two variations of Dari, and the cultural project as a whole helped bridge my overall learning between the two accents. Understanding precisely how and why the two dialects emerged from one language and not just the differences on the surface can help escalate my long-term development in mastering a single accent.My original learning objectives were not realistic or precise enough for me to be consistent and successful throughout the semester. I had too many goals and if I tried to achieve each one before the end of the semester I would’ve had no progress at all. Therefore after meeting with Dr. Scinicariello and revising a new plan with my language instructor I decided to focus on comedy (jokes, riddles, satires, sarcasm) and elevating my childish, Khandari-esque accent into a more mature Kabuli variant form. On the comedy side, I believe I’ve made huge strides as I can comfortably understand most children jokes, and I’m gradually getting a bit more comfortable in the longer mullah nasrudin jokes. The most difficult part in this front was trying not to translate a Persian joke in my head into English to understand it, most Persian jokes don’t make sense in English let alone be comedic, therefore the ones I posted in my blogs were the closest I could muster that were at least somewhat witty in both languages. My pace in telling jokes is a bit slower compared to my conversational pace overall, but when compared to the gap that existed early in the semester, I believe I am close in developing a consistent pace in both areas.I know some people spend decades without completely erasing their accents in a language, so therefore this semester I primarily wanted to work on developing at least a more mature tone in my conversations and not sounding like a child. This area was a bit more difficult than my other learning objective, but I feel more proud in my development in this area because at times I felt completely frustrated as I never did in my development in Persian comedy. Working on pronunciation and many tongue-twisting, i.e. 5 or more syllable words were areas I primarily focused on in my weekly recordings. At our sessions, I spent more than 80 percent of the time talking and I believe that was the correct way of approaching it. I am extremely glad with my progress in phonetics and intonation and overall I see them as very good building blocks that I can carry into the future to further remedy my accent.
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For my final artifact, I wanted to expand on what I did in my second artifact, instead of recording myself saying short children jokes, I have here recorded myself here saying the more longer and mature "chicken soup" joke that I mentioned in my week 10 and 12 blog.
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Semester Goals and Objectives:My first draft on 1/26/09 encompassed many goals and objectives that I don’t believe was very realistic for a semester’s length of time although they were perfect for a more long-term based approach. With that said, I still plan on just focusing on my oral skills because I believe they will have the most practical use for me and I find it a lot more interesting. My two primary areas of focus were one, Persian jokes, riddles, satire, sarcasm, etc. and two, improving my child-like accent into a more adult sounding form while increasing my vocabulary.I decided to focus on forms of Persian comedy because from my experience, if a person can feel comfortable making others laugh or understanding other people’s jokes that are from a different culture than yours, it’s one of the fastest and safest ways to form a connection with that person and consequently use it as a springboard for further learning and development. Many times in the past I felt ostracized from Persian gatherings and events because I did not understand or appropriately react to various forms of comedy for various reasons, which really prevented me from forming bonds with those people and hence increasing my progress in understanding their community. Being able to understand and relay jokes is one of most important social tools a person can have in a foreign environment and I believe if I can improve on this area it will escalate other need areas for me long-term in the language.Secondly, I wanted to focus on this semester on improving my accent in the language. Due to the fact that my language instructor and the Dari community overall in this country use a Kabuli dialect, I wanted to gradually shed my Khandari accent and adopt a more Kabuli tongue so to speak. I also have been told in the past that my accent was akin to a 5 or 6 year old kid but with a very deep voice, and therefore developing a more mature and confident accent was important for me. I know I might never if at all get rid of my accent completely, but I do want to improve upon it and set myself up for further improvement in the future.Future Goals and ObjectivesBe able to follow very complex and lengthy forms of comedy, ie. >1 min as I discussed in my blogs.Recognizing when to match voice level and intonation to a variety of situationsUsing correct grammatical structure for a variety of purposesIncreasing knowledge of proverbs and fablesDeveloping a faster pace in my daily conversationsStart having more dreams in Farsi, because it is said that dreaming in a language is one of the first signs of comfortLess reliance on physical gestures to communicate what I am trying to say
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Week 10 and 12Although I am happy with my progress in my knowledge and conformability with jokes and riddles, I don’t think I’ve progressed as extensively when in comparison to my accent. I initially thought this was the easier of the two semester goals but its proving otherwise.My language instructor recommended a few youtube comedy clips that have Farsi voiceovers, where the actual visual is an American movie but the dialogue as been altered to Farsi and unrelated at all to the movie. For example, I watched a 5 minute clip of a dialogue between two generals in the Trojan war but instead of talking about the war the Farsi voiceover had them talking about circuses and flying boats. My language partner recommended such odd variations of clips that had a separation of visual and oral elements because they would help reinforce on relying just on sound to understand the flow of conversation without any aides.I am getting a bit more comfortable with the 15-30 second mullah nasrudin jokes, I definitely haven’t mastered them in all there rudiments but I think I’m a the point where I don’t have to worry about understanding them but just finding the reasons why the punch lines are funny and sometimes with no fault of my own, unknown cultural references hinder me on this.I have tried the >1 minute jokes and although I am struggling with them, I think they by extension will really help master the 15-30 second jokes which really is what I am more concerned with. According to my language partner, no one says a one minute joke at social gatherings in Afghanistan but rather short and quick ones like the 15-30 second variations I have been practicing with. However I still find the >1 minute jokes very interesting because in some ways there not just longer variations of the 15-30 second jokes, they really are more confiscated in their cultural references.Here are some of my favorite >1 minute mullah nasrudin jokes that also make sense in english:One day a friend of Mullah Nasrudin visited him with a chicken as a gift. Nasrudin was very happy to receive such a rare and expensive gift. Consequently he killed the chicken and made a delicious soup from it and enjoyed it with his friend. Several days later, a stranger came asking for Mullah Nasrudin. Upon inquiring, Nasrudin was told that he is a friend of the friend that brought the aforementioned chicken. So Nasrudin invited him to have dinner with him and offered some chicken soup that was still left in the house. A few days later another stranger appeared claiming that he is a friend of the friend of the friend that brought the chicken. Nasrudin, now a bit annoyed nevertheless invited him to supper and offered him a soup. Yet another day, one more friend of the friend... came to see Nasrudin. Without further questions Nasrudin offered him a soup. "This is the worst ever soup I tasted. It tastes almost like water. Is this the way you treat a friend of a friend of a ...?" the angry friend shouted. "Pardon me sir, this is a soup made from the soup, that was made from the soup,..... that was made from the chicken."When Nasrudin was a magistrate, a woman came to him with her son. "This youth," she said, "eats too much sugar; I cannot afford to keep him in it. Therefore I ask you formally to forbid him to eat it, as he will not obey me." Nasrudin told her to come back in seven days. When she returned, he postponed his decision for yet another week. "Now," he said to the youth, "I forbid you eat more than such and such a quantity of sugar every day." The woman subsequently asked him why so time had been necessary before a simple order could be given. "Because, madam, I had to see whether I myself could cut down on the use of sugar, before ordering anyone else to do it."
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Week 8This week I will be working mostly on my artifacts and getting started on my cultural project. My language partner recommended me to keep studying my flash cards and making my recordings.
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Week 7 and 9 combination-I have been remembering my vocabulary much more these few weeks most likely because of my flash cards. I have also listed which words are used in the Kabuli accent and which ones in the Khandari accent so that I don’t mix and match them in my oral usage.-I think I am improving on the “ka” syllable that I had a lot of trouble a few weeks ago but I still feel very conscious about it whenever I use it and I just need to keep practicing with it until it becomes natural and I don’t even think about it.- This week I wanted to use Becky Walkers “Time, Dates, and Festivals” Diigo link to practice on lessening my Khandari accent because time and calendar related words are one of the most contrasting subjects between Kabuli and Khandari accents. Some of the Iranian-based Farsi phrases I had to disregard thou.Diigo Link: http://books.google.com/books?id=M38LSAYmqacC&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=telling+time+in+farsi&source=bl&ots=InwsSmkfuV&sig=uV8fmAlmT7vRyO7Ek7I4Nki3ofQ&hl=en&ei=OrKISY3gK5W6twei5pCYBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA169,M1Differences:Friday - Instead of Jom-e, its Jum-a, Summer is Tawesten instead of TabestenAdverbs, ie, never, here, there, 100 percent the same in Khandari and Kabuli and even in Iranian FarsiContinued….Dar-am instead of Dar-ad (I have)Auto-mo-bil can be used, but Khandari prefers to use Mo-tar (car)I am doing a great job identifying liaisons, or linkages, (the ways that words and parts of words are linked together) but for some reason I’m still struggling in the intonation element of Farsi, I don’t think I’m sensing what my language instructor calls “the rhythm”.My language partner recommended a BBC series for me to listen to everyday for an hour to help me with this. I’ve been recording myself copying the people speaking and Muska and I work on the troubleshoot areas or areas I am doing good and we try to understand why those areas are working for me whereas other areas are not. For example, I show up at every session with at least 5 different recordings of me mimicking a dialogue and then the language partner and I critique those recordings.The main hurdle on working on my pronunciation/accent were areas that affected comprehensibility, that is, areas of my accents that basically made it hard for my language instructor to understand me at all and luckily for me the only area that this entailed was comedy/jokes which is one of my learning objectives for the semester.Nasal vowels are extremely easy for me, but I still practice themI am however having a hard time when I go back and fourth between difference scenarios, whether its from very structured exercises to extemporaneous speech, I sometimes cannot keep up and just follow one type of pattern which I’m trying to fix.But the great thing from my 6 years of experience with Spanish is that I’m not wasting time getting frustrated and just sulking when I feel stuck or lost, my patience is really one of the driving forces that’s lessening my accent and I can already feel a small difference from when I stared 2 months ago.
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Week 6I reviewed some more children jokes and riddles early on and I feel very comfortable understanding them and relaying them back to my language instructor. Therefore I wanted to start working on the mullah nasrudin jokes and the 30-60 seconds jokes.My language instructor basically told me that if I can get real comfortable with these jokes by the end of the semester, that’s the most realistic goal I can aspire to because the more advanced jokes really don’t make much since at all in English whereas the mullah nasrudin jokes do actually make sense and are funny somewhat in English as well.Mullah Nasrudin jokes are more than 700 years old and are still considered the backbone of Persian comedy. He is the pioneer and model for most comedians in the middle east including the Arabic and Turkish speaking parts of the world.Muska gave me some BBC links that had the so called “modern adoptions of the mullah” but the jokes were weaved into stories that were too complicated for me so therefore we settled on just working on the jokes without any type of additional background. We also decided to just work on his most simple jokes, ie, “why the mullah is dumb”.The main jokes that I am having problems finding the comedic element to:The mullah said this to a man sitting beside him in a tavern, “only one drink makes me drunk” the other man replied “really, only one?” the mullah replied “yes and its usually the sixth”This sounds equally confusing in both Farsi and English for me, and although I can see the punch line as being funny if its supposed to be a drunk remark by the mullah, my language instructor told me it’s the only reason.Jokes that I understand:Mullah Nasrudin’s friend said to him one day "my wife is very touch the least little thing can set her off." The mullah replied "you are lucky, mine is a self-starter”The punch line here makes sense in both English and Farsi, but in farsi the punch line doesn’t have as many interpretations when the mullah says “Self-starter”
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For my first artifact I wanted to illustrate the unique sense of Persian humor and how much it differs from the humor we are accustomed to in the West. Some of these might not seem very logical or let alone comical, but I believe Persian speakers will treasure its uniqueness:1. One day a Qazvini (person from the city of Qazvin) goes to a pharmacy in Tehran and requests two capoots, the supplier humbly replies, “no, no, no, all the names here have been changed, for example, a computer is now called ra'ya'neh,” The confused Qazvini responds, “then what is a capoot?” the seller smirks, “it is ga'ya'neh.”2. One day a Turk and his camel were walking in a desert when they meet a stranger. Stranger asks: Where are you going with this donkey? The Turk replies "Are you blind to see this is not a donkey ? Stranger quickly replies: Ba' to nistam. Ba' wotor hastam.3. One day a Khandari went to a doctor for a routine check-up, the doctor came back after he got the man’s test results and told the man, "I'm gonna have to be honest with you" the Khandari nervously replied "Is it serious?" the doctor replied "Yes, you got AIDS" the man starts sobbing and asks the doctor " Is there anything I can do?" the doctor says "Yes, eat 15 kilos plums, 10 kilos of nuts, 15 kilos of rice, 10 meals at an Indian restaurant, 25 meals at a Chinese restaurant, drink 10 pints of beer and eat 10 oranges" The man got really excited and asks "Will this cure it" the doctor replies "No, but it will give you an idea what a “koon” is for."“Jokestan.” Persian Jokes in English. 1996-2000. Jokestan.com. February 16, 2009. <<http://www.jokestan.com/>>
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Week 5Last week I worked on jokes, this week I will work on improving my accent while simultaneously improving and expanding my vocabulary.I have decided to make flashcards based on category similar to what I did while studying for the SAT’s in high school, and reviewing them for 20 minutes everyday because I feel like I'm forgetting some of the words I learned in weeks 2 and 3.My analysis of my accent: my pace and speed is perfectly fine, but I literally sound like a 5 or 6 year old with an extremely heavy voice. To make matters worse, it’s a combination of Kabuli and Khandari, the northern and southern parts of Afghanistan, because my dad is from Kabul and my mother is from Khandhar. Because my language instructor recommends me to gradually leave my khandari accent, she is herself speaks with a kabuli accent and the kabuli accent is regarded more as the educated variation it is the best one for me to work on.-Spanish has the rolling R’s that took me a long time to master, in Farsi the equivalent problem I am having is the “ka” sound at the end of many words ie zan-a-ka (women)-My language instructor is telling me that every noise in Farsi, at least if I think about it in terms of syllables, there’s a very similar or exact English sounding noise for it, but I’m trying not to think or start to use English as a reference at all and just fight it out in Farsi which is really frustrating but I know if I take the easy route my long-term development will be much more slower overall.
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Reflections Week 4After altering my learning objectives to target two main areas I can focus whole-heartedly in, comedy and accent/vocabulary, I’ve decided to go back and fourth every other week in these areas. Starting this week I will focus on very short jokes, ie. children jokes, riddles, etc and understanding them and hopefully gradually progressing to move longer and mature forms of comedy. Some of them will make sense and others will not due to translation and cultural reasons.- The main issue that I am having with these children jokes and riddles are that although I am gradually understanding them more and more, but because they are meant for children I don’t find them very interesting or funny. But I need to get a firm grasp of these easy starter jokes so that I can understand the mullah nashrudin jokes and beyond.-Surprisingly a lot of them deal with animals that are not found (even in zoos) in the middle east.-A lot of the jokes also aren’t meant to be funny but teach some type of moral, and some aren’t very clear morals at thatie. Why did it rain? (Cheera baran shooda?)-Because the clouds were sad (abra besar tangh shooda)An examples of a joke that I had difficulty understanding:- Why do fish need to live in salt water? (cheere mai zendege mekoni da awi namak?)-pepper makes the fish sneeze every time (moorch akash mekona mai ar daf)The problem I had with the above joke was trying to translate my answer in English to Farsi, when I did that it did not make any sense at all, I have to get rid of the transitory phrase of translating everything from English first in my head and just start and end in Farsi. Also I kept getting confused in saying “pepper” without the “black” because usually “pepper” is usually never said without a type, ie, black pepper, red pepper, spicy pepper, etc.
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This week I want to divert off from my oral objectives and focus on an area that will enrich my education as a whole. I feel there isn’t any meat so to speak behind my developing skills because the context in which I am learning them is missing one crucial element, my cultural and historical education in the Farsi language. Up until this point, my education in the cultural and historical aspects summed to a few fragmented stories from my parents and the media hogwash from our televisions.Objectives:*Learning and understanding the main holidays and customs of Iran and Afghanistan*Differentiating aspects of the society into religious and cultural components*Trying to understand how Farsi is an Indo-European language if it derived primarily from the more Semitic Arabic language* The political organizations of Iran* The aftermath of the Islamic revolution post-Khomeini* Learning the basics of Persian cuisineResources:* Past BBC clips from their archives that date more than 20 years ago.* Tolo TV* LexusNexus and WorldCat online databases* My language partner, comparing and contrasting her interpretations from the ones I concluded from my English articles*Making Flashcards for the holidays and their datesEvaluation:*I think the trick may lie in how I can find the middle ground to what I assume will be very different interpretations of the political structures and instruments that me and Muska will have due to me using primarily secondary and English resources and her being from the country.*Being able to specifically label which customs and holidays have a Afghan/Iranian cultural origin or an Islamic one.* Being able to carry a conversation with my language partner on the cons and pros of Iranian politics compared to that of the States.*Knowing exactly what dish or beverage my language partner is describing to me and giving its specific name back to her.* Being able to describe the alterations of Iranian-American customs and culture compared to that found back in Iran and Afghanistan and knowing why and how the variations stem from.
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Reflection on Week 2This week I decided to work on a subject area that I’ve always been very unsure and uncomfortable in for years. Taking the advice of my professor, I decided to use this week to the work on a very specific area, and I choose the area of formal, informal, and professional addresses. Using “Tolo TV” clips, one of the mainstream media outlets in Afghanistan, from their official website and Afghan forums/messageboards recommended to me by my language partner Muska, I picked out specific moments when guests and speakers would arrive at the main set and notice the various ways the two or more individuals greeted each other. This varied from professional, family, semi-professional, etc. settings. I was unsure of why the females were never addressed as “zanaka”, a broad term I’ve used for years to address the female sex, and a plethora of other questions popped in my head which I tried to remedy in my sessions with Muska. Here are a couple of very specific nuances and rules that I learned:* “Zanaka” is a very degrading name to address females in any setting unless its used as slang in very informal jokes* “Zan” is a lot more proper in addressing women in informal and professional settings compared to “zanaka” but hardly the best way. It’s a lot more proper in informal settings, yet is also susceptible as a degrading name if used in a improper tone.* “ Khanoom” and “Na-taq” are far and above the most proper ways of addressing females in any setting. It’s resistant to becoming degrading in any context or tone.* “Quar-ak” which means “sister” is a bit of a wild-card. It can be used in informal and formal settings but is generally not accepted in a professional setting unless the individuals are comfortable with each other. However, where the three previous titles can be used in a marital sense, this title cannot.* When dealing with females or males generally at least 20 years older in a non-professional formal setting, it’s accepted to use the titles “Khal-ah” and “Ka-Ka” respectively. The literal meanings are “aunt” and “uncle”, but it is used nonetheless.* The titles junior, senior, III, etc. are not used in FarsiI have omitted most of the male nuances, but the most interesting thing I learned from that area is that males are usually called by two names, their first and middle, and if there’s no middle name, it is substituted with common titles, such as: Allah, Muhammad, etc. And if they carry the term “Sayed”, it is a reference to their holy genetic connection to the Prophet Muhammad.
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Finding out the severity of my English accent and ways I can remedy them with my language partner. In the past I have been described as being as fluent as a 6 year old, meaning I understand everything orally, however my own, individual oral skills are underdeveloped. Increasing my vocabulary, to the extent I can use at least 2 synonyms for every word. I have no target subject area that I want to focus my vocabulary in, at this stage; any and every increase is needed for me. I have found that the daily BBC news podcasts are an extremely valuable resource. The various clips run anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes long and cover a plethora of subject areas. I plan on completing the first two levels of Rosetta Stone and then retesting myself on it 3 or 4 days later to get a handle on much information I attained. I will use the time with my language partner to ask her any questions I have on the BBC clips. The clips carry a very sophisticated tone and might be above my level but I believe it will greatly accelerate my development. I also plan on listening to the audio clips in Blackboard and afterwards trying to provide a summary outloud to an imaginary audience to determine how much information I can sink in. And once again, I jot down every question or area I find interesting to further discuss with the language partner during our sessions.
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* To be a lot more comfortable in regular, every-day type of conversations without pausing or translating what I am trying to say in English first, but directly thinking in Farsi first* Decreasing my English accent, and developing a more native tone*Develop a faster pace in my conversations* Increasing my vocabulary and knowledge of proverbs* Increasing my knowledge in the culture of the surrounding language, including history, customs, etc.* Start having dreams in Farsi, because it is said that dreaming in a language is one of the first signs of comfort.* Understanding more jokes and connation’s associated with the language* Using correct grammatical structure for a variety of purposes* Speaking without showing frustration or relying on gestures* Responding correctly to humor, sarcasm, and figures of speech* Recognizing when to match voice level and intonation to a variety of situations
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Well, the only language I can use as a barometer to judge my experience as a language learner was Spanish. However, from the outset and throughout my journeys in learning Spanish, I never truly had any passion to learn the language. I spent seven years in that language and it was a strain on me the whole time. I am much more enthusiastic to learn Farsi than I ever was with Spanish, so that main hurdle of enthusiasm and desire is already met. But with regards to what kind of learner I am, I am believe I fit the "Rational" model more so than any of the others. It's very tough for me to learn following someone else's rigid guidelines, I'm much more open to learning when I can exercise my imagination, and when I'm forced otherwise, I usually find disappointment and fatigue. Learning activities like short stories and movies will escalate my learning a lot more so than rigid tutorials. Having a language partner is extremely vital throughout the learning process, just to have someone to bounce your ideas to can really promote awareness for things otherwise most likely not assumed. I also understand that I work best by myself rather than a group environment, I usually find other people as obstacles in my progress rather than aides.
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