This week during class, we watched " Raz Hai Een Khana" ( "Secrets in/of This House"), which upon research, I found is Afghanistan's first soap opera. Click here to view The goal of viewing this was to see how much Dari we could comprehend when it was being spoken by natives at an obviously normal pace. We were asked to write down familiar words or phrases we heard while in class. I picked up the following words ( dakhtar-daughter, bood-was, chetor hasted- how are you, Salam Alikum- Formal Greeting, Tashakaar-Thank You, Rafti America- You came to America). I was faily impressed with myself considering the pace of the speed fused with my delay in comprehension.
On a cultural level, this showed the communal relationship among Afghan people. The men in the first part of the video spend plenty of time asking how each man is doing, as well as how their families are. The general message I gathered from the portion of the selected episode is that one of the men's daughters is getting married. There is some serious tension that comes from the women and although it is not directly stated, their facial expressions tell it all.
We were then told to spend more time on the film and to write down words that we did not know. That was an issue because if I do not know the word apart from hearing it in an episode, then it is hard to decipher. The words blended together, so I was unsure where one word ended and another began.
The plus side to the film was just more exposure to the flow of the language.
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