Week 14:
Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying:
Since a very young age, I have been taught that Punjab is a monolithic province one a single ethnic group, the Punjabis. However, my view of that has changed greatly since starting to take this course. My eyes have been opened to culture that has had huge impact of the people and history of Pakistan. Since the inception of the country, the Siraiki people have contributed in politics, science and have played a huge part during Pakistan's times of crisis. To add to that, I have had the opportunity to explore the power of peers in the Siraiki community. These individuals whole immense wealth and power and have been known to exploit the poor and illiterate. It has been great learning more about my own country and heritage. It is this knowledge that has allowed me to reconnect with Pakistani and helped me realized what truly means to be a Pakistani.
Self Assessment:
I am fairly confident that I was able to address my learning goals during the course of the semester:
1. Accent: Since the very beginning, Ziad was not pleased the way with which I pronounced words. I have improved enough for Ziad to not bug me too much regarding my accent
2. Vocabulary: The number of Siraiki words in my vocabulary have definitely increased. I am sometimes going through my head trying to remember the words for different objects when I am talking about them in Urdu.
3. I can carryout a conversation in Siraiki. I do have issues articulating sentences but I have lesser difficulty understanding what the other person is saying.
The most interesting part of preparing for Siraiki was writing the scripts. This involved coming up with funny scenarios and translating them to Siraiki. This allowed me to learn new vocabulary and get new grammar tips as well.
The least fun part was try to memorize the words. Because of the mechanical nature of pure memorization, the task was not too appealing.
Siarki Presentation
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