My cultural learning goal is to learn more about Balkan history. To do so, I plan to read the most prolific cultural commentary on the area. These works include The Bridge on the Drina, Balkan Ghosts, and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. In sum, my hope is to understand the area from a diverse set of perspectives.
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According to the "LinguaFolio Self-Assessment Grid," I'm somewhere between "high-novice" and "low-intermediate." From the "Levels of Competence Grid," I'm between novice "beginning two" and intermediate "developing one."
My two goals for the semester are as follows:
1. Learn 300-500 new vocabulary words focused on descriptions of the environment, both broadly and Bosnia-specific.
- I'm using a program called "Anki." These flashcards quantify and analyze your progress. It is specifically designed to help you remember things.
- For this semester, I'd like to be able to describe an environment and demonstrate a knowledge of notable Bosnian geographic and historic locations.
2. Improve conversational fluency (speaking and listening) on familiar topics and vocabulary.
- Sessions with my language partner will be half free conversation, and half vocabulary and SDLAP 110 practice. The latter may be in the form of activities such as "describe the word without saying it," reading, writing, or pictionary.
- Intermittently, I plan continue to work with an elementary Croatian workbook, Radio Televizija BN, and Oslobodjenje.
Reading these articles were very enjoyable because it spoke about many aspects of the brain and language. One of the articles that my sciencey and nerdy self enjoyed was the one that discussed Broca’s area due to the fact I have some previous knowledge. The ability to speak a language is a very unique and important function. It has been argued by many that language is an instinct, even being compared to by scientist it is similar to the upright posture. It is not know if the emergence of language arose slowly with the adaption of primate abilities, such as the ability to use tools. Language itself has man hierarchical structure of set rules, such as grammar. The portion of the brain that is associated with language is Broca’s area. Going more into the nerdy science aspect of Broca’s area, there still is currently research that is done. One aspect of research is aphasia. Aphasia is the disability in language. This disorder has different ranges of impairment which can range form having issues from slight issues such remembering the proper word, to greater issues such as not being able to speak, read, or write. The study of chronic aphasia has proved that there is an important role for Broca's area in different speech and language functions. And I currently am aware of the fact that my language learning days are mostly based on this part of the brain.
Another aspect of this article that I thought was equally interesting was the idea of slip of tongue. This is when a person makes the mistake of saying a word that rhymes with their intentional word. After listening to some Korean online by watching videos, I could tell the difference between some of the words. But after reviewing the alphabet, I think there will a great chance of many tongue slips for me. For instance, the Hangul for ㅈ (j) and ㅊ(ch) sound somewhat similar. I believe I’ll say the incorrect word if there are any similar words that separately uses these letters.
we worked on greetings
how to write dari/ farsi
hello: salam
how are you: chetori or "chi hal dari"
i am fine: man khob astam
and you? wah shoma
(with language)
I used byki to work on vocabulary: i am up to animals. I don't know how to spell from memory so I skip that part. I worked on alphabet.
Jurnal #2:
How the brain handles langauage:
The article talks about contents on brain regions, dominance, localization, and neurolinguistic processing. The section that especially interested me is the concept of dominance, which is the functional relationship betweent he brain’s two hemisphere. Each is dominant for certain mental functions, the two major factors of cerebral domance are language and handedness (the left hemisphere are right handed people) but the relationship is not a symmetrical, right hemisphere is fominant for language in left handed people, which is not always garanteed. I am a right-handed person, so I am specialized in analytic tasks, caterozation, logical organization, information sequencing, and language.
“How we mean” and “ How we analyze meaning” are helpful to me because it states that it is not important to understand the meaning of each specific word, but more important to comprehend as a whole. The last article “How to investigate language structure” is also interesting in the four models of language. It reminds me the time when I studied English. When I studied grammar, it is not only exist in a sentence, but also the word structure. In the future, when I study Korean, I will start with a bigger picture, such as learning the whole meaning of the conversation, and try to get the meaning in a big picture, instead of memorizing each vocabulary.
Annalee Yin
SDLC 105 jurnal:
Article1: What is learner autonomy and How can it be fostered?
Overall, I think it is really interesting to know what is autonomy learner and how it works in different situation with the specific skills, plans, and learning strategies or evaluations. I can easily make a link to my own experience to learn a second language. I really agree with the idea that motivation and interests is crucial when people are trying to self study a language. It is the exercise of learners’ responsibility for own learning, which is without external pushing factors. As a result, learning strategies and planning are important. We need to constantly practicing the language, so repetition, resourcing, translation, note-taking, and using the knowledge to understand the background or cultures are also important. Moreover, asking question is required if we want to improve because we are actually learning from the mistakes. It will help us to memorize the language in a much more effective way. Other than those, keeping diaries and evaluation sheets is something new to me. After reading the article, I think this is a possible way to learn a different language too.
The “How We Mean” chapter was of particular interest to me because it deals with the question of meaning. The conventionalist view holds that there is no such intrinsic connection between words and things, that meaning is arbitrarily assigned. I think I personally subscribe to this view more than the naturalist view, which maintains that there is an intrinsic connection between the sound of a word and the thing it refers to (the chapter gives the example of onomatopoeic words). For instance, if I have water and call it wine, most people would say that I am wrong, I wasn’t calling it by its name, water. But what if the majority of the people in the world begin calling water, ‘wine’? What if everyone calls water, ‘wine’? Then what used to be ‘water’ is now ‘wine’. That the names of things are contingent upon what society chooses to call them is another score for the conventionalist view. What we choose to call something, we decide upon as a whole, and determines what a thing is.
That being said, we still use words to establish a sense of the thing, and in the case of language learning, we most often turn to vocabulary. But the chapter is clear to point out: “vocabulary within sentences, always,” for it is “the interaction between words and sentence structure which actually conveys our ‘sense of sense’.” This is, of course, something I already know—that vocabulary learned in isolation, for example with flashcards, doesn’t help commit it to long-term memory. As I continue my language studies, I will try to learn words as they are embedded in sentences because as the chapter points out, the meaning (and nuance) of words change depending on the context.
I will not be using the free Byki software since it's a little too easy for my competence level. The two resources I've bookmarked in Diigo provide cultural information from the perspective of a Canadian couple who have moved to South Korea in 2008. Some things that are included are fun posts about music (not just on K-Pop) and video blog entries concerning such topics as "What are weddings like in Korea?" and "Korean vs Western Humor." The other resource I've bookmarked in Diigo is a webpage collection of lines to online resources including articles on Hangul (the alphabet), grammar lessons, useful expressions, free language courses, links to Korean news and video lessons.
These internet resources will be supplemented with my own Korean textbook borrowed from the library (I'm a tactile person; I need to be able to touch what I'm learning), my own Korean music collection, Korean radio on iTunes, and speaking in Korean with Labiba and my language partner.
My biggest worry for learning Korean is the pronunciation. After listening to some videos in Korean and trying to repeat some common phrases I’ve heard here and there, I realized it is not easy. But with the BYKI program I can learn the essential Korean vocabulary words, alongside repeatedly listen to them. Like mentioned in one of my previous journal entries, one of more useful skill in learning languages is that I am pretty good with listening. Another aspect that helps me learn language is visual aid. If I am watching an education video and hear the associated with vocabulary with it, I’m positive I will be more likely to remember it. This is why I posted the two videos from YouTube on the Diigo “Asian Language” forum. One of the videos slowly teaches the pronounces each of the letters. She slowly repeats herself after each letter, and then talks about the common misconceptions with one of them. Unfortunately, unlike Spanish you can simply read the Romanized letters of each letter directly. The other link that I posted was a link to a YouTube channel for “Korean Language 101”. What I really liked about this link was the fact it has videos both for the language and culture. I personally believe you can never fully grasp a language without learning about the respected culture as well. This is why learning Spanish and Japanese was somewhat not too brutal learning.
Out of all the resources that are present for Korean, my favorite is the TALK NOW! Learn Korean. One thing I know am confident about language learning is that I have a good ear for it. During the summer of my junior year, I decided to study abroad in Japan regardless of the fact I was not in a Japanese class for over a year. But due to the fact I picked up everything by listening to people’s speech, I am confident that this program will help me in a similar manner. Also, I believe the reason I have gained the skill to speak Japanese is because we had drill class frequently, therefore my speaking and listening were constantly being practiced. Fortunately, this program allows me to practice both for Korean as well. Alongside that it has various games I can play to practice and learn Korean vocabulary and the alphabet.
The other resource I believe I will use is the Integrated Korean book. This consist of both English and Korean questions, therefore I can practice my reading as well. It also has some questions I can answer. Answering these questions will force me to practice any future grammar I will learn. One of my weakest points in any language is grammar, so I hope this book will somehow help with Korean grammar. Having constant practice for writing will help my speaking in Korean to get better as well. With utilizing these resources on a weekly basis, I believe I will definitely have a better grasp in Korean than where I am right now.
To be a successful self-directed learner, you need to be able to reflect upon your own learning. In SDLC 105 you are assigned to reflect upon readings about language, language learning, and culture in a blog. This blog is your learning journal, and the assigned topics are designed to help you become a reflective learner. In SDLC 110 - 113, you are asked to reflect regularly on your language learning activities. These reflections should be informed by the work you are doing / have done in 105 but should be much more specific about how you are learning your target language.
Each post should include:
- the task(s) you are working on;
- a statement of what you hoped to accomplish;
- the strategies (activities and resources) you used to work on your task(s);
- an evaluation of the effectiveness of your strategies;
- how you will build on what you have learned about the language;
- how you will build on what you have learned about your strategies.
Other aspects of language learning to reflect upon when it's appropriate:
- your emotions about language learning (pride, frustration, enthusiasm, etc.);
- connections between the language you are learning and the culture of where it is spoken;
- experimenting with new learning strategies for listening, speaking, reading, and writing;
- a successful experience in your learning;
- a not-so-successful experience;
- revisions in your task lists and/or short-term and long-term goals.
I am very exciting about learning Hebrew. This is the first time I will learn a language on my own! I think it will be challenging but fun at the same time.
There are several Hebrew resources in the global studio including books, CDs, and alphabet blocks. As a visual learner, I will use the blocks in the beginning to learn the alphabet by quizzing myself. The “Talk Now” program seems like a great resource. It includes games and quizzes that will help me in memorization. Once I improve, I will move on to the “Talk More” program which helps in learning words and phrases in Hebrew. I will rely on electronic resources more than books this semester because of the interactive and fun experiences they provide.
I also found a very useful video that teaches Hebrew. It is recommended that I should view the video at least twice a day. This Youtube video is a great resource for beginners. It provides pronunciation and teaches how to write down. It also leads to several other videos from the same channel that teach Hebrew.
BYKI is another good resource for Hebrew because it tracks my progress and it provides quizzes based on listening and reading by using electronic flash cards.
All these resources are great for pronunciation and quizzes, but they lack a comprehensive dictionary and that’s why I will use Milingua. This website includes several useful lessons in Hebrew. The free version includes a lot of good lessons for beginners. In addition, it has a nice dictionary for those who just started learning Hebrew.
Rafy Luqa
Being Multilingual
I always think of myself as an overachiever. That is probably the reason I think being a trilingual is not enough and I need to learn more languages. I can speak and write English and Arabic fluently and I can speak Assyrian fluently. I learned to read and write Assyrian twice but I fail to remember it because of lack of everyday experience. I believe that reading and speaking a language is the most effective way of learning. English was relatively easy for me to learn because I learned the grammar and speech simultaneously. French, on the other hand, was hard for me to learn because we did not speak it in class. I was good in French grammar, but I could not put together a long sentence even after four years of learning in school.
While attending the United World College in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I was subjected to several languages drastically different from each other. The two languages I was interested in learning were Russian and German. I picked up these languages quickly and I was able to make simple sentences short after. I learned the alphabet and pronunciation from my friends and I was able to practice every day. I also spent one Christmas and one summer break in Germany which allowed me to practice German. By the end of my summer break I could ask for directions in German and understand what people said in response. I like speaking to a native speaker of the language I am learning. I find it to be the easiest way to learn the modern pronunciation and the everyday language. I disliked not learning grammar because I believe it is just as important as speech. Unfortunately, I was unable to study either one of those languages in college because of my focus on science and mathematics courses.
I learn best by understanding the big picture and then apply the little details into it. I cannot simply learn small things if I do not understand how they fit into the puzzle. I am good at memorizing facts, which helps me with learning random words or grammar. I can memorize things by listening or visualizing them. While I enjoy talking a lot to the people close to me, I like to be concise and direct academically. As a rational thinker, I tie several causes and effects and I believe that everything occurs for a reason. I do not learn well in study groups, perhaps because I like to be the center of attention. My preferred way of learning a language is memorizing things that I hear or read and repeating them to myself or to another person. I also like making lists of words with their pronunciations and meanings. I cannot learn by using flashcards for some reason.
I am now interested in learning a new language and Hebrew seems like a good choice because it is closely related to Arabic and Assyrian. As of now, I do not have a language partner for Hebrew. Therefore, I will approach the language on my own using internet sources and Rosetta Stone to learn the alphabet and basic sentence structure. The new approach I will take to learning Hebrew is recording myself and listening to the recordings at least once a day. I will record words and their meanings and sentences that I learn along the way. I found several other resources in the Global Studio that I can use such as alphabet blocks, quizzes, word recognition and speech recognition that will make learning fun. As a big music lover, I might start listening to Hebrew songs and try to recognize words in them towards the end of the semester.
Begin your blog--your learning journal--with a reflection on your experiences as a language learner. What did you enjoy? What did you dislike? Think about the FIRE model that was distributed in class. What kind of learner are you? What kinds of language learning activities suit your learning style? How do you think you should expand your learning activities?
Maybe this model will help me divide my time into activities.
Under the FIRE model I also like situations in which I am told how to do a certain task. I would much rather not find a new way. I ignore recognition for helping and good team work. Being able to learn on my own time and how I want to will be much better when I am certain of what to do.
Looking at the fire model, I am mostly factual (the first one). I prefer reading than talking because I am visual. I guess it helps to review material in a different way each time so I am not bored into muscle memory and continue to grow.
