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105 Reflection 4:

Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don’t exist in American English? If so, provide several words and their phonetic transcriptions of words as examples to support your argument. What do you need to know about the sound system of your target language? How will you acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segments in your listening, and to produce these sounds in your speech? 

My target language, Ge’ez, has the same phonetic inventory as my native language, Tigrigna except for one letter, “ha”, that is pronounced with what seems like stronger throat involvement. The letter in IPA is [ʜ] pronounced as [h] in Ge’ez. For example, the word for he dwelt is spelled ሓደረ [ʜɔdrɜ] but because the sound for ሓ is not in Ge’ez it is spelled with an alternative “ha” sound like so ኀደረ [hɔdɾɜ]. Even when ሓ is seen in Ge’ez it is pronounced as [h]. However, intonation is another thing to consider in Ge’ez which I think is not as much of a concern for in Tigrigna...however I have yet to study it. With the word ወረደ [wɜrɜdɜ], it has the same meaning and spelling in Ge’ez and Amharic but the difference is in intonation on the [r]. My teacher told me that there are several types of reading with different intonations used in different situations, however, this is something to be learned in the future and does not always affect semantics.

What kinds of structures do you observe in your language of study? Refer to the diagram on page 9 in Aitchison’s linguistics. How do you combine different disciplinary perspectives to formulate a more holistic understanding of your target language? Do you give preference to one disciplinary approach over the others? How will your knowledge of language structures and disciplinary methodologies influence the trajectory of your learning plan?

In Ge’ez what I am focusing on the most is the syntax and semantics of the language. This is mainly because phonetics and phonology are close to my native tongue so I feel like I don’t have to start from there. Crystal brought up an interesting point saying that, studying the aspects of language in an isolated fashion may help you focus but it introduces an artificial element to the study. When you are learning the language to use it, the stepwise fashion that is described American linguist Leonard Bloomfield is helpful, because essentially you are using building blocks to get to meaning and without having those your meaning or semantics can be misconstrued. Structure dependence is important to understand as you are going through this process. It might guide how much focus you may need in syntax or what style you should mimic in learning. Languages like latin don’t have much dependence on structure from what I understand.

My Learning Plan

Learner Name: Lidia Amanuel

Semester: Fall 2019

Language: Ge’ez and secondarily Amharic

Course: SDLC 110 and 105

Where are you now?  What can you do? What do you know?

Use the Levels of Competence document and the LinguaFolio® checklists to assess your current abilities in your language.  For more information, see the SDLAP Wiki.

Amharic:

• Interpersonal Communication: Intermediate Low
• Interpretive Listening: Intermediate High
• Interpretive Reading: Novice High
• Presentational Speaking: Novice High
• Presentational Writing: Novice Mid

Ge’ez:

Much less proficient; I can only read it in the context of Church scriptures I have already reviewed. I can spot similar roots and cognates. I know the phonetic inventory. I can greet people in Ge’ez and listen to short poems and songs. 

What is your ultimate goal?  What is your goal for this semester?

What do you want to be able to do with this language at the end of this semester and in the future?

• My ultimate goal is to feel more comfortable reading and writing in Amharic through knowing the basic grammar concepts and expanding my vocabulary.
• In Ge’ez I want to learn about sentence structure and basic conventions of Ge’ez and expand my vocabulary.

What tasks will you complete and what activities will you do this semester to meet your goals?  How will you document and evaluate your progress?

• I will use youtube videos and podcasts for listening.
• Create written responses to improve in writing.
• And read regular scripture and some health news reports.
• I will use the grammar books for amharic and dictionary for ge’ez to help me.
• My language partner will assess my speaking and listening and also grade my written responses.
• Interact with the people at the Ethiopian Church I attend on Sundays, communicate with my language partner in Amharic.

I have left room for flexibility in my learning plan due to the fact that I am starting with my learning partner a little later and I would like to see how his approach pans out first. So far, we have agreed on me reviewing class material outside of class alongside the 2 hours of instructional time. He is sending me important vocabulary words and grammar concepts as we go. Additionally, we have decided to conduct the class in Amharic unless there are any discrepancies to be cleared up to give me more exposure to listening to it. Additionally, I will be attending weekly services in Ge’ez in order to assist my exposure in Ge’ez. There are some resources online for spoken poetry in Ge’ez called Qinie that I will be using as well. Lastly, I will read parts of a story every other day in Ge’ez and Amharic then compose a summary in Amharic. Soon, my teacher will be giving me small compositions in Ge’ez as well. I have identified a dictionary that will help me with this that we have acquired.  

105 Reflection 2: 

Summarize some of the main ideas behind Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture. Do you predominantly agree with these assessments? Are there any statements, generalizations, and opinions expressed in the reading that you find problematic? How do these ideas relate both to your own native culture, and the target culture associated with the language you are studying?

This article is really interesting because it gives definitions and terminology to a lot of concepts that I notice and analyze daily in my own life. I often feel like my cultures as an American and Eritrean directly contradict each other. In each category, I saw that a dichotomy between my American and Eritrean Cultures. 

In Eritrea we are collectivists, while in America we are individualists. 

In Eritrea have a polychronic time while in America we have a monochronic one.

In Eritrea there is an external worldview, largely due to theist influences. In American culture, I see a widely internal change oriented worldview. In regards to communication, I find that I can’t say the same thing in English as I can in Tigrigna or it seems wordy, and vice versa it might sound curt, because of the culture of indirect and direct communication. The article also made a point to say one culture isn’t fully one way or another, which is a good point. It failed to mention the layers of the concepts outside of the dichotomy, the different ranges and mixes that there may be in attempts to simplify the article. However, overall in reading this article, I appreciated how it explained the concepts in a very simple way and didn’t unnecessarily elaborate. 

My first cultural artifact based on my target language (Korean) is one of the most popular songs in Korea currently in the Hip Hop/Pop music genre. The title of the song is "it's been a while" by an artist named Loco. When I first listened to this song, I didn't really understand most of the words. There were only a couple of words that I could make out and understand, but it was hard for me to fully comprehend the actual meaning of the lyrics. 

To better understand the lyrics and the meaning of the song, I first slowed down the song on YouTube to half speed in order to clearly hear the words the artist was saying. This helped me clearly hear some words that I didn't hear the first run through. There were words that were said in a different way, much like slang in English. 

The song itself is very interesting when compared to American pop songs. The beat is a lot different, where the bass isn't as boosted or emphasized. There aren't many high hats or strong, overpowering baselines. The treble sounds and melody are more emphasized in the instrumental. There are also elements of English in this song where the artist says a word in English as he speaks in Korean. The line for this part of the song was: 달라진 건 더 이상 쫄지 않아도 돼 모든 price tags (price tags). In the song, Loco actually says price tag in English. He talks about a girl and how she doesn't have to change her personality and compares her to price tags. At first, I thought it was really odd because the "price tags" kind of came out of nowhere and didn't seem to fit the song. But as I listened to it a couple more times, it actually had a good flow with the song and made it that much more interesting. The whole song is about a girl that the artist was close to in the past and hasn't seen in a while. He reminisces about their past together and how she has influenced him to the person he is now. He still misses her and wants her back, and Loco brings up how much he still loves her. 

The meaning of the song is similar to most pop songs in America, where most songs are about love. But compared to American pop music, there are fewer lyrics about sex, drugs, and guns. I also thought the music video was very interesting in the way it was directed and filmed. Every scene is very simple and odd, but there is deeper meaning within the scenes. To practice reading and understanding Korean, I took the lyrics in Korean and printed it. Then I read through each line and attempted to translate each line and word. After I finished, I looked at the English translation to see if I was somewhat correct in interpreting the lyrics. Furthermore, I listened to the song one last time to recognize all the words I read through. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyHgrjEJtfM

This week was the first time I met with my student teacher, Jenna. We met at the library in a study room. The first meeting was very basic and introductory. I basically got to know her as a person, what she does on campus and where she is from. Then we dove into my skill level as a Korean speaker and writer. I talked about my proficiency in speaking and listening but my struggles in writing and reading. I talked to Jenna about my goals for the semester and my short term and long term goals. My short term goal is to learn how to read and write Korean at a basic level and also be able to talk to my grandma, who speaks only Korean, about deeper conversations. My long-term goal is to be able to pass the COM2 test here at the University of Richmond. I think that it is important for me to preserve my Korean abilities as I grow up because I was born in Korea and don't want to forget the language. Furthermore, I have started to compile websites and different platforms where I can learn Korean from. This includes VoiceNotebook, Duolingo, youtube, and radio garden. I will have to see what kind of topic I want to explore in the upcoming semester. I aim to learn mainly writing and reading more than speaking and listening. Of course, I will practice speaking and listening, but I really want to focus on reading and writing. I want to find a way to practice speaking by talking with native speakers. This could potentially be a phone call with my grandma every day or talking with a friend that is a Korean native. I will continue finding ways to practice Korean in my free time and find topics that I am interested in. I told Jenna about my hobbies and what I like to do, so she can teach me vocab that I would want to learn about. This includes sports like basketball and football and cultural elements of Korea like pop music and food. 

Hopefully, in the next two weeks, Jenna and I will begin learning the basics of Korean reading and writing. Since I know most of the basics of Korean, I want to review the basic alphabet and how to write the different characters the correct way. I am very excited about my journey in learning Korean. I will aim to meet with Jenna once a week for 2 hours every Thursday at the library. Individually, I will be learning Korean on my own time, listening to Korean music, watching Korean drama and TV shows, and watching sports broadcasts in Korean. As we learned in class, the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the target language's culture and truly be able to remember real-life experiences with words. Although I cannot go to Korea, by listening to Korean natives speak, either in person or on YouTube, I will begin to get used to the words and phrases in Korean and be able to understand it more easily.