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Richmond, VA
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Reflection Paper
Throughout this course, I have gained crucial knowledge and practical skills for learning a foreign language. Bahasa Indonesia is a beautiful language, and I am grateful for the experience of having practiced learning it. As a language learner, I have struggled in more traditional language courses, but the self-directed model has allowed me to get a better grasp of the language at my own pace. I took this course for fun, not for my communication requirement, which also made a difference because I came into the course with more enthusiasm–feeling that language learning was less of a “chore”, so to speak. I have learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses as a language learner, but the self-directed model has increased my confidence and comfort level learning Indonesian. As a cultural explorer, I have realized the importance of engaging with media in the target language. Watching Indonesian TV shows and listening to Indonesian music have aided my immersion, understanding, and…
Read more…Cultural Post #4
Deaf clubs have historically acted as vital social clubs for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to not only find community during the oralist and other discriminatory movements but to advocate for their community. Oralism promoted speech and lip-reading over sign language and frequently discouraged or outright banned the wide use of ASL, especially in schools. As a result, many deaf and hard of hearing individuals experienced isolation from both hearing society. Deaf clubs offered sponsored events like holiday parties, athletic events, and plays among other things, and were the center of social life for members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, especially those who were doubly discriminated against for being a deaf person of color. The story of deaf clubs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZbgSBX3vYk&t=1sHowever, the popularity of these clubs has declined over the years because of a growing divide between the younger and older generation of deaf and hard of hearing…
Read more…Podcast Interview
Below is my podcast interview with my language learning partner.https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hwkIq8MEsd4abqzN0eQU2UkyuPSLi5rF/view?usp=sharing
Read more…Cultural Post #3
William Stokoe played a transformative role in the recognition of ASL as its own independent language as, before his research, ASL was regarded as a mere pictorial version of English. While teaching at Gallaudet University, the world’s leading university for deaf and hard of hearing students, Stokoe began closely studying the structure of ASL, recognizing patterns and linguistic rules that his collegues didn't, suggesting ASL functioned similarly to spoken languages. His observations led him to develop the Stokoe notation system, which became the first widely recognized written system for documenting ASL. This system transcribed the phonemes, or parameters, of ASL including handshape, location, palm orientation, movement, and non-manual markers/signals into a recognizable linguistic format providing undeniable evidentce that ASL was a language of its own, independent of English. It contradicted the longstanding beliefs of the oralist movement that emphasized teaching deaf individuals…
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Comments
The thing most interesting to me after reading this is how scientists have found ways to correlate which side of the brain is correlated based on hand dominance and how many parts are involved in learning language. More specifically, it was found that the left side is dominant for languages for right-handed people 95%+ of the time and about 60% for left-handed people. The claims I have read are not particularly problematic because if they did research and found a pattern it is cool that many people were similar in that way. I do think language is a biological phenomenon to a certain extent because people wouldn't be able to speak languages and interpret them the way we do in society today if it didn't have a beneficial use to our cultures and survival. The front part of the parietal lobe is related to hearing and speaking in a language, the fissure in front of the Rolando is important for studying and writing language, the Wernicke's area is important for the comprehension of language, the Heschi's gyeri is important for auditory understanding and a few pieces around the area help to write, manually sign, and process things visually. We process meaning through lexumes which are semantic fields that are grouped together based on similarity. They are different from ideas but related in a way of grouping which is interesting. I will use these to better grasp and understand Korean quickly. These readings inspire me in thinking about how complex the human mind and humans are and help me want to dive further into language study.