Week 5

[Brian Mahoney]

This past week I feel like I made a lot of progress in understanding the way the Persian language works. I've started to get a much better handle on how to say more complicated sentences with multiple verbs and phrases. There are some similarities to Spanish (like the use of que vs. keh, which conveniently both sound and are used almost the same) that have helped a lot. This has helped a lot as I now feel that I am much more able to explain things that I would want to say in normal conversation. It has been hard to find much information about a lot of this in the resources I have been using, though there is some. Because of this, I have been having to do a lot of experimentation and trying to determine the way certain types of sentences are constructed from things that I read. I've found that I often make mistakes, but that I am at least able to say things in a way that would be understood even though it is wrong.One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the things I try to say should be said in the subjunctive mood instead of the way I would usually say them. I remember learning the subjunctive in Spanish, but I don't remember how it is really used. I think it is similar to Farsi, so I'm planning to review it's use in Spanish hoping that it will help me learn it's proper usage in Farsi. Overall I think I made a lot of progress in what I'm able to say, even though a lot of it is not exactly the correct way to say it. Having made significant progress in what I'm able to say, I want to work on listening comprehension a lot more. It still takes me too long to think sentence structure too to be able to follow much when listening, so I need to continue to focus on this.This week's goals:1. Try to learn when the subjunctive should be used- review Spanish subjunctive to hopefully remember when it is used and try to relate it to Farsi- try to identify it's use in things that I read to determine in what circumstances it should be used- practice using it in contexts where I know it should be used2. Learn vocab relating to government and politics- I've learned some from reading news, but I usually look it up but don't necessarily remember it- read news articles and try to pick out vocabulary for government positions, offices, titles, etc.- make a list of vocab encountered and study it3. Work on prepositions relating timing/order of events (i.e. during, then, after, sometimes, etc.)- practice using them to relate events to become more familiar and comfortable with their usage- describe events that happen during the day and future plans- try to incorporate them into the artifact I am working on writing a description of my family and life4. Improve listening comprehension- use Rosetta Stone more at the higher levels to reduce the time delay between hearing something and figuring out what it means- try to find a relatively short interview to listen to extensively; this has been somewhat tedious and frustrating, so I have usually just been listening and picking up on as much as possible but it would be more productive to pause and repeat each sentence to try to understand as much as I can