This week my language partner and I continued working on using numbers in Farsi. Because Farsi uses arabic numbers I have to get used to identifying the new symbols and words. The symbols are actually kind of cool looking, especially when used to tell time. To practice with numbers, Maroof would type out numbers and I would have to say them. We ranged from zero to somewhere around 11 billion. That's not to say that we practiced every number in between but we practiced each interval between zero and 11 billion. For example we started with single numbers, then moved to tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands... until we got to billions. It was actually satisfying being able to read a large number based on new symbols after only practicing for a little while.
While practicing numbers we also practiced time. I learned how to ask what time it was, say the time and count regular intervals of time. An example of this is that I know how to say it's one-fifty, and also it's ten till two. Both obviously mean the same thing but I can express it two different ways. One thing that I might have mentioned in a previous post is that eventhough Farsi uses arabic numbers, Maroof said that in general people use english numbers on digital watches and clocks.
Maroof also showed me a website that has a bunch of Disney stories in Farsi. While this is still a little too advanced for me, it gives me a goal to aspire to. It also helps becasue I am already familiar with the stories. That way, as I'm looking up vocabulary I will already know how that word fits into the story and use it within a context instead of only using it in an isolated instance.
The readings for this week about languages dying out and being created was especially interesting to me. I thought the story about the Egyptian pharaoh trying to figure out what the earliest language was, was clever (also a little cruel to those kids but an interesting idea nonetheless). One thing that I'm not clear on is why there are a bunch of theories that try to explain how language developed. It seems that all of the theories recognize their own faults and say they can't explain everything. My issue with it is that one of these theories being right does not exclude the others from being right too. Basically, that early man could have used a multitude of different ways to create words including mimicking sounds in nature and trying to express emotion.
Another aspect of the reading that I found relevant was the pidgin languages. When I started reading about them I immediately thought of the lingua franca from the mediterranean. I was pleased to see that the author used this as an example later on in the chapter. I first encountered the lingua franca in Spanish class earlier this semester. We are reading through Miguel de Cervantes' Novelas ejemplares which are a compilation of many of Cervantes' novelas. Because most of them are based around the mediterranean he mentions the lingua franca which was used as a means to facilitate trade between people who did not speak the same native language.
Going into spring break I hope to be able to regroup a little bit and re-asses where I am in my language learning program and my goals. My hope is that I will be able to give more structured time after break to learning Farsi.
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