Blogs

Language Partner Meeting #3

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 9/24/12 – 9/30/12

Date: September 29, 2012 and September 30, 2012

Goal for the day: Be able to tell time

This week Sanya and I met twice. During our first meeting, we went over the alphabet. I wrote the consonants from my memory. I was able to recall approximately 25 of the 33 consonants.  After this, Sanya asked me to put consonants and matras to get and I got all the aksars right. Sanya also asked me to write vowels. I had an extremely hard time recalling all the vowels.  Therefore, we went over the vowels and I wrote them multiple times.

After this, we refreshed my memory of numbers. I remembered all the numbers I was taught and I was able to move on to learning about time. To make it less complicated, we divided the clock into quarters: sava, sadhe, and pone. Sanya drew clocks and I told the time.

In our next session, we went over the alphabets again. This time I got all the vowels, consonants, and matras right. Then we practiced some basic greetings and introductions. We utilized both formal and informal terms. Next, we went over time again. This time instead of simply telling the time in Hindi, I wrote short sentences telling time.

Our session ended with cultural talk. In this meeting, we talked about our families and the similarities/differences amongst them.  We also discussed the difference between being an “Indian-American” versus being an “Indian-Indian”. We found some fundamental similarities such as the importance of passing along the Indian culture and we also discovered some differences in the way which the culture is passed along. 

Below are the PDF files of the Hindi alphabet that I wrote. I put consonants together with matras in order to from aksars.

20120929152536566.pdf

20120929152815833.pdf

20120929152936188.pdf

20120929153054232.pdf

Attached is my first culture presentation for SDLC 105. My topic was cuisine in Iran and how it reflects Iranian culture. 

First Cultural Presentation.pptx

This week's journal entry is focused on reading in my target language. After I learned the alphabet, I had to learn how to put the consonants and vowels together. There has to be consonant with every vowel in each word. At first it was a bit confusing but with more practice I got started to get the hang of it. Reading in characters is much different from reading in cyrillic (which is what I am used to.) Although reading in Korean is challenging, it is still very fun to learn to read. I can now read my new vocabulary and this is really helpful because I can teach myself how to pronounce new words on my own. So far, I think I've learned over 120 words included with vocabulary, dialogues, and numbers. I did not set a limit to how many words I should be learning but I did set a goal for my reading skills. I am more focused on being able to speak the language rather than read but at the end of this semester, I would like to be able to read small blurbs, titles of places and any time I see Korean writing. I may not be able to know what these things mean but I will still be able to read it and ask someone what that word means.

This week I began to use Rosetta Stone for Persian. At the end of each unit I finish, I will describe what I have learned. There are four units in the first level, which I hope to complete by the end of the semester. I hope to complete all three levels of Rosetta Stone Persian by the end of next semester. I also occasionally use a supplemental website, easypersian.com, to solidify my grammar skills.

My language partner had us learn about nouns this week. We had to look up certain English nouns in Farsi and learn them, such as ‘sky,’ which is ‘aseman’ in Farsi. Each week, we learn about ten words through the media we use in our lessons.

The first two weeks of the semester served as a great time to review everything I had learned last semester in SDLC 110. Although I spent time reviewing what I learned during the summer, having a moment to actually dedicate time for review was difficult, and often very brief, if I did have the time. That said, after working more with Dari these past two weeks, I feel confident that I have retained most of what I had previously learned. However, there were the occasional aspects of the language that I forgot or did not review well enough coming into the semester. Luckily, I have been able to use the past two weeks effectively and catch up to where I felt I was at the end of last semester. Certainly, I feel ready to further develop upon what I learned last semester. 

While most of my language learning these past two weeks has not focused on anything to new, there have been some changes to my language learning. For one, this semester we have an FLTA from Afghanistan who will be teaching Dari; as opposed to last semester's setup, in which a fellow Richmond student and native Dari speaker served as the language partner. Another interesting aspect is the level of knowledge my peers taking Dari have. Last semester most of the students, myself included, were learning Dari through SDLC 110. However, this semester there are students in SDLC 110, 111, and 112; which has made things a little interesting. Personally, if find it useful that everyone in enrolled in Dari is a different levels is it allows me to sharpen the skills I gained through SDLC 110, while also allowing me to further progress in my knowledge of Dari as I learn more throughout the semester.  

For the first two weeks, we focused on learning the alphabet. The Perso-Arabic alphabet is very different from the Latin alphabet used to write in English (although sometimes the Latin alphabet is used for simplicity, as I will do here when writing Farsi words so that people who cannot read the Persian script can still read the Farsi words). The first week, my language partner wrote the alphabet on the board and had us repeat it after him. For homework, we had to write out the script twice, with the four forms (isolated, initial, middle, end) of each of the 32 letters. As one of my artifacts, I have attached the Persian alphabet, or ‘alefba Farsi,’ written by me.

alefba.docx

After the first two weeks, I went from only being able to recite the alphabet to being able to read and write it!

For the second week, I filled out five LinguaFolio checklists to evaluate how competent I am in Farsi, which are attached.

In presentational writing, I am at the lowest level, novice low, which makes sense as I have just learned how to write. I would definitely like to be able to write more effectively, but writing is the aspect of Farsi I am least concerned with. I am much more interested in learning listening, speaking, and reading than writing. Right now, I can write my name – I hope to be able to write simple sentences and paragraphs by the end of the semester. 

Presentational Writing Layla Samandi checklist.doc

In interpersonal communication, I am a mix between a novice low and a novice intermediate level. I can greet and introduce myself to people and answer simple questions. By the end of the semester, I would like to be able to express my likes and dislikes, introduce and describe myself and others to people, and order a meal.

Interpersonal Layla Samandi checklist.doc

In interpretive listening, I am at the novice low level. I can understand some common expressions and pick out a few phrases that I understand in other people’s conversations. I would definitely like to be at a higher level by the end of the semester, as listening is one of the aspects of Farsi I want to improve. I would like to be able to follow directions, understand basic information like the days of the week, and understand descriptions of other people. Listening to my language partner speak every week will help me improve my listening skills.

Interpretive Listening Layla Samandi checklist.doc

In interpretive reading, I am at the lowest level, which makes sense as I only learned to read this week. I can connect sounds to their letters on the page, and follow along on the page. I would like to be able to read simple sentences and paragraphs by the end of the semester, like descriptions of people or objects.

Interpretive Reading Layla Samandi checklist.doc

I am at a novice mid level in presentational speaking. I can introduce myself, sing a song, imitate sounds, and say familiar words. I would be like to be able to list my daily activities, describe myself, and be able to give a short presentation with phrases in Farsi by the end of the semester. 

Presentational Speaking Layla Samandi.doc

Although I had some previous background in Dari, spending last semester learning Dari, in SDLC 110, improved my skills in the language tremendously. I went into the semester not knowing how to read or write in Dari, in addition to not having the best speaking skills. However, I came out of the semester with the ability to read / write the alphabet, read / write simple sentences, and I also improved my speaking ability. 

After taking a look at the Levels of Competence, I have certainly progressed from where I was at the beginning of last semester. At the beginning of SDLC 110, I posted the following assessment (based on the "Levels of Competence" chart):

Interpretive

• Listening: Novice - Beginning 2
• Reading: Novice - Beginning 0

Interpersonal 

• Speaking: Novice - Beginning 2

Presentational

• Speaking: Novice - Beginning 2
• Writing: Novice - Beginning 0

Going into SDLC 111, my updated assessment is the following:

Interpretive

• Listening: Intermediate - Developing 1
• Reading: Novice - Beginning 2

Interpersonal 

• Speaking: Intermediate - Developing 1

Presentational

• Speaking: Intermediate - Developing 1
• Writing: Novice - Beginning 2

While I have certainly made progress in all areas, I still have a lot more room for development. Hopefully, I can fully move towards an intermediate proficiency in Dari by the end of the semester. A few of goals for this semester are listed below:

• Improved pronunciation
• Speak more fluidly / clearly
• Improve my ability to follow conversation 
• Develop writing skills (transition from crafting simple sentences to paragraphs)
• Learn vocabulary used in more complex dialogue (e.g., current events, politics, business, academics, etc.)