Week 3 Learning Plan

[Sayed]

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.