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After reading "A Picture of Language," I learned a lot about the different methods of learning and teaching grammar, which is a language learning aspect that many disregard. Throughout my lifetime in education I have studied many languages such as: German, Russian, Ukrainian, English, Spanish and now even Turkish, however grammar was never something I could pick up on very easily since every language has their own conjugation systems and grammatical exclusivities. This article discussed the many difficulties of "parsing", which I found interesting. Parsing develops a learner's practical skills in analyzing sentences and picking up on tenses, parts of speech, and the form and function of the included conjugation. From past experiences with learning languages I can definitely agree that this is not a very fun process and it does not develop the learner's speech, however I believe that it is a necessity to analyze how sentences work for a language learner because it creates the foundation on which the learner can build his or her language skills, and make sure that they are grammatically correct. I was not surprised at the end of the article, that most of the people interviewed by the author who were language learners were expressing how important it is to learn with "parsing" and come up with an approach that is more visual and relatable to learners, especially because that was the way I would try to learn my grammar when learning other languages. I would usually find a trend or visualization that I could relate to myself and help remember.

After reading Sociocultural Factors, I learned about different approaches and unique ways of treating and accepting cultures. This was very interesting to me because it provided me with an insight that I had never considered myself before. The section about stereotypes was particularly interesting because it was a topic that I could relate to, especially since I am a foreigner myself with a different culture. The section discussed how stereotypes are noticed by people because they judge those who come from different backgrounds and cultures, while they disregard the stereotypes that could be derived from their own culture and beliefs. Francois Lierres's suggesting article for his fellow Frenchmen, who was planning on traveling to the US was very entertaining and pointed out how people in the US are unaware of their own stereotypes that they have created while mocking french people. The second culture acquisition concept hit very close to home for me, mostly because of acculturation, which is the claim that a person who is learning a second language usually develops a second identity. Cultural shock can make a serious impact on someone who goes through acculturation, especially if his original culture and identity is questioned and mocked by the people of a different country and culture.

The reading, "Communicative Competence," offered some useful insight.The term communicative competence is defined by Dell Hymes as: "that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts". I believe that out of the different competences, communicative competence was the most the most interesting and applicable term for my own learning of Turkish. The definition of communicative competence includes several subcategories such as: grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Grammatical competence refers to the competence used to learn the linguistic code of a language, discourse competence refers to a wide range of competences that includes our ability to speak and our interaction with written text, sociolinguistic competence indicates an understanding of the social context of a language, and strategic competence refers to an individual's ability to recover from mistakes they make when speaking the language, often due to a lack of fluent knowledge. I found learning about the different forms of competencies to be very useful tool in measuring my learning of Turkish. The different competencies have shown me what areas of improvement I need to focus on. For instance, since I am a beginning learner in Turkish, building my strategic competency will come in handy throughout conversations with experienced speakers who will notice my shortcomings in speaking the language and provide help with fixing my mistakes to become a better speaker. I believe my greatest benefit from reading "Communicative Competence," was the knowledge I gained from learning how to make an example out of particular logical aspects that are associated with language and could be applied to my further learning and advancement in capability of speaking Turkish.

 First, I want to start from the bottom and talk about something that really intrigued me this semester: the concept of time.  In past semesters, I have tried to figure out the lunar calendar and make sense of where the Western concept of time falls in comparison. In my Black Vernacular class, we learned that in Africa as well as the Middle East, time is circular. It does not depend on the clock, but rather on nature, which only makes sense. I best made sense of the lunar calendar by relating it to astrology. In Afghanistan, the first day of the New Year is the first day of Spring, which can be March 20 or 21. This is also the first day of the astrological sign: Aries.  This calendar is also about 11 days shorter than what we are used to because the 12 months each have approximately 29.5 days.

   I then wondered about when my birthday would fall during the lunar calendar and more importantly, how are birthday celebrations in Afghanistan and Iran if the calendar slightly shifts each year? After talking to Mirwais, birthday celebrations are more of a big deal for children from the ages of five to 15, so the need to be exact is not dire. Also, the day one celebrates his or her birthday is close to the exact date, so there is not much confusion about this. 

      Moving on, I learned about Buzkashi which is known as the "most dangerous sport." Select males are trained from a young age to be strong, horse jockeys so they can compete in the Buzkashi games. The game involves aggressive, physically fit men riding on horses and trying to carry a sacrificed goat across the goal line. The competitors wear little, if any, protection and whip one another to cause the goat wielder to drop the goat. I used this as part of my presentation and watched some videos about it. I commend those who choose to compete.

      Something else I gained more insight on is the school system in Afghanistan. Mirwais said the school system is still new and has been strengthened in the last decade. There are private and government-run schools, as well as private and government-run universities. Private schools require students to pay tuition and the education is better than that of a government school. This is very similar to private vs. public schools in America, but I would not say that the education gap is so severe in all cases. There is a very important test that students much take before entering a university; it's called the University Entrance Test. I wanted to compare it to SATs at first, but found that it is much more important. The higher the score, the better opportunities he or she has when going to a university. There is also a totem pole in regards to test scores and majors. If someone scores 250 or above, they can have an engineering or medical major; between 250-200,they can have an arts major; and failing is below 200. If someone fails, they can retake the exam in one year or just go to a private university. Government universities are better than Private ones, which was intriguing in comparison to secondary school standards. 

   I was actually more fulfilled by just learning about the culture this semester even though my findings are surface level in comparison to Afghan and Iranian history. 

I formatted the learning activity in word document and emailed it to my sister to see if she could successfully conjugate verbs in Farsi. She is now a Spanish teacher, but learned some Arabic when she attended an Islamic primary school in Washington, D.C. Although, she could recognize the similar alphabet, she was unfamiliar with Dari. Based on my instructions, she was able to conjugate the verbs  correctly for all pronouns with the exception of "they". She added an extra "nun" and "dol."  Verb conjugation is my strong point and I learned conjugations based on simple instructions.

Learning Activity

Goal: To be able to conjugate verbs in the past tense and form simple sentences.

• There are six pronouns used in Dari, find them below along with a phonetic spelling.

من  - (man)  “I”

شما   -(shoma) “You” (formal)

تو  -(tu)     “You” (informal)

ما –(mo)      “We”

 او – (o)       “He/She/It”

 آنه (oanha)  “They”

• In the English language, we deal with irregularity of verbs when it comes to conjugations, which complicates the learning process. However; past tense verbs in Dari are regular as far as I can tell.
• Below, you will find the traditional suffixes for verbs based on the associate pronoun.
• من        Drop “ن” and add “م”
• شما     Drop “ن” and add “ید”
•  تو     Drop “ن” and add “ی”
•  ما       Drop “ن” and add “یم”
•  او      Drop “ن”
•  آنه      Add “د”

Find an example below of a past tense verb conjugation

دیدن : TO SEE

من    دیدم

تو   دیدی

شما     دیدید

ما     دیدیم

او     دید

آنها    دیدند

Now conjugate the verb رفتن meaning “ to come” for all six pronouns.

Part One of First Artifact: Brief Monologue 

I was confident, as I should have been by now, in greeting listeners, stating my name, age and where I am from. I also said that I was a student. I incorporated new words dealing with clothing and shopping that I learned in the beginning of the semester. I also said that I have a big family as a way to try to be more descriptive. Furthermore; I told my parent's names, which I could not put into a sentence before. My accent sounds much more believable now in my opinion, but a native speaker may disagree. I feel more fluent in my speaking ability because I am more confident in what I am saying. I think I could improve the sentence about my family being large by using less formal words ( whatever those may be). I search for words in dictionaries and do not know how relevant they are in regards to a typical Dari conversation. What I truly want to work on is expanding my vocabulary. I have a lot of personality, so using basic words to describe things that are interesting will not do. That is a goal of mine for this semester.

Parts Two, Three and Four : Alphabet, Numbers and Days of the Week

Alphabet: It took me  a very long time to memorize the alphabet in order. I used to say all the letters and just count in my head until I got to the final one. Now, I have made sense of it. I am very proud of this as it is the groundwork for language learning. I still struggle with saying a few of the letters, but think I tackled them all in this recording. I have trouble saying " ق غ" in most cases. The goal is to be able to say both of them with as much confidence as I use in the remainder of the alphabet.

Numbers: I cannot count past 40 because I do not know how to say 50,60,70,80,90, etc. Learning numbers is not in my learning plan, but it is necessary so I will try to weave it in. 

Days of the Week: I am still unsure on how to pronounce these perfectly. I think I am just saying them with an American accent and Friday is the trickiest. I  still do recognize the days in conversations.

I will work on improving all my issues by asking questions to native speakers about pronunciation, saying the words aloud and researching the language.

FinalLearningAssessment_LailaHart.docx

I filled in information on the original chart and added an overall assessment at the top.

Thank you,

Laila Hart

SUMMARY: I had planned the entire semester to present on what young adults in Afghanistan and Iran did during their free time. That plan got changed as I found that the forms of recreation were very similar to that of the U.S. and that made me lose some interest. I quickly found another topic: cultural celebrations. I know that religion is very important in the Middle East and wanted to explore a few of the big traditions. This, in turn, helped me learn more about traditional culture than an exploration of what people do for fun would have. I explored four events : Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, Buzkashi and Nawruz. My presentation featured an oral trip through each tradition fused with relevant videos and two discussion questions throughout to engage  the audience. I ended the activity with a brief, fun quiz.

Find Links to the Presentation Below: 

Cultural Presentation

Cultural Presentation Activity

LINKS USED FOR PRESENTATION

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/eid-al-fitr-2012-celebration_n_1792570.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKDAUGq-a8

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/islam/eid_haj.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pvv8wAgR2Y

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UB3eA8B4qI

  During this final section of learning, I spent the session talking to Mirwais about the cultural project. My initial goal was to talk about the lives of young adults in Afghanistan and Iran. I wanted to know if the idea of fun was similar to the United States. Going to clubs, restaurants, movies, skating and more are typical ways to blow off steam for young Americans. Prior to meeting with Mirwais, I read a New York Times article about what a young man did in Iran for fun. That example was a bad one, or a less common one I should say, because this man did drugs and drank. 

   Upon speaking with Mirwais, I learned of what he and his friends do for fun in Afghanistan. The activities are as follows: swimming in lakes, climbing mountains, playing sports, watching television at night, shopping and going to restaurants. I was informed that clubs were not a part of life in Afghanistan and that the popularity of hookah is growing. 

       I ultimately decided to change my topic to cultural celebrations because I could not find more information about young adult life from reliable sources. 

       The process was an interesting one nonetheless and I definitely learned more about the culture, which was obviously easier to digest than the language. 

    This time was spent mainly on different verb tenses, specifically the present tense. I had a tiny idea about these verb conjugations being more difficult as I remembered the irregularity of "رفتن" ( meaning : "to come") and its changing to "میروم" (present-tense first person). Once  I was able to figure out the irregularity, I was able to conjugate for the subsequent pronouns.  This task seems like one that takes years to learn as you hear the language, it is easier to gauge what is correct.  The verb meaning "to see" is "didan" (دیدن), but when conjugated in the present tense, a "ب"  after the  "می"  ( present tense prefix). "Budan" is the verb meaning "to be." If I conjugate it in the past tense, it is regular ( i.e. Man budam, tu budi, Mo budame, etc.)  However ; the present tense is very different and spelled "میباشم" ("Mebasham") for the first person. 

   This task will be best learned by listening to conversations with native speakers ideally.  

Hello,

 This week I was taught the many familial terms in Dari. There are a lot and it gets so much more specific than the English language as you will see. For example, there are specific words for "child of your sister" ( as opposed to niece/nephew) ,  wife's brother, father's brother, etc. It will definitely take me a while to get used to all of this. Below, I have listed many of the words I have learned to build a family tree.

پدر: Father

مادر: Mother

خسر: Wife's Father

خيا شنه: Wife's Sister

کا کا: Father's Brother

ما ما : Mother's Brother

شو هر: Husband

زن: Wife

بچه: Boy/Son

رختر: Girl/Daughter

I also learned about some new phrases for questions, as well as been refreshed on what I already learned in past courses.I was already familiar with "why" ( چرا), " what" (چي) and" who" (کی). I learned that I can add "دیگر" in front of who and what to ask ( who else? and what else?).

I also learned that "با" means "with," which was helpful as I responded. 

  Recently, I have been learning about prepositions, which has been helpful in forming more complex sentences. 

 The word for "preposition" is   حرفرباط.  Please click on the following link to see  the Dari  prepositions and sentences I have written using each.

Prepositions

Sentences using preposition

 The comprehension portion continued as I was given a reading about a little girl who got a dinosaur game as a gift. I was expected to read this out loud, which I did at a much slower pace than  a native speaker understandably. It was hard to understand what was going on considering I do not have an extensive vocabulary. Also, I appreciate the comprehension portion, but it would be nice if my learning  plan was considered as per my many requests. That way, I would actually be interested and engaged with the information I was "assigned" to read. Maybe next week. 

    During the first week of this, I was( refreshed) about verbs. The Dari word for verb is فحل. Below you will find a list of some verbs I learned and I conjugated each one for all six pronouns( من  شما   تو  ما   او  آنها) OR ( "they" "he/she/it" "we" "you(inf.) " "you(formal)" and "I"). Instead of uploading that for each, I will choose a verb and conjugate it for an example.

دویدن : To Run

پحتن : To Cook

خندیدن : To Laugh

چشیدن : To Sip, Taste

لمس کردم : To Feel 

جوابیدن : To Sleep 

دیدن : TO SEE

من    دیدم

تو   دیدی

شما     دیدید

ما     دیدیم

او     دید

آنها    دیدند

We focused on conjugating them in the past tense and there were no irregular verbs that I noted. 

During the second part of this, we learned some adjectives and how to write superlatives in Farsi.If you look below, I will write a set of three sentences and indicate the superlatives.

جدی سریی  دوید.   (ADJECTIVE)

سلیم  سریی تر دویدو  ( Superlative for "better" in this case "faster")

محمد   سریی ترین دوید   (Superlative for "best" in this case "fastest")

  This week during class, we watched " Raz Hai Een Khana" ( "Secrets in/of This House"),  which upon research, I found is Afghanistan's first soap opera. Click here to view The goal of viewing this was to see how much Dari we could comprehend when it was being spoken by natives at an obviously normal pace. We were asked to write down familiar words or phrases we heard while in class. I picked up the following words ( dakhtar-daughter, bood-was, chetor hasted- how are you, Salam Alikum- Formal Greeting, Tashakaar-Thank You, Rafti America- You came to America). I was faily impressed with myself considering the pace of the speed fused with my delay in comprehension. 

     On a cultural level, this showed the communal relationship among Afghan people. The men in the first part of the video spend plenty of time asking how each man is doing, as well as how their families are. The general message I gathered from the portion of the selected episode is that one of the men's daughters is getting married. There is some serious tension that comes from the women and although it is not directly stated, their facial expressions tell it all. 

     We were then told to spend more time on the film and to write down words that we did not know. That was an issue because if I do not know the word apart from hearing it in an episode, then it is hard to decipher. The words blended together, so I was unsure where one word ended and another began. 

   The plus side to the film was just more exposure to the flow of the language.

This was the last time my partner and I met to review everything together. I realized that for next semester's self directed learning, I need to have more conversations with my partner and just to speak more. I focused more on writing and reading that my speaking skills aren't up to par by the end of this semester. I have never done this before and I also learned that I am a very "by the book" person cause that's how I've always learned. I teach myself other subjects as long as there is a set lesson for each day. When it came to having a lot of freedom and to choose whatever I wanted to learn, it made it very difficult on me because I could not organize everything well enough for it to be completely efficient. Next semester, I will try to use the books more and do a lot speaking. 

As for my self assessment, I think I managed pretty well with completing my goals and tasks. I achieved majority of my goals. I learned the alphabet, numbers, self-introduction, greetings/farewells, days of the week, months, telling time, about family members, daily tasks, writing, reading, and about food/ordering at a restaurant.  In addition I learned a lot about Korean culture through my cultural project and the cultural posts. Some of the obstacles I came across were learning the alphabet, pronunciations (saying the letter L/R), and understanding structure. The alphabet was a bit difficult at first because they put a consonant and a vowel to create one block and it was hard to figure out how to combine them because the letters are characters. I'm used to the cyrillic alphabet since I am taking Russian right now so it was very different. The pronunciation of each alphabet was a little hard because of some of the sounds that the English language lacks. After lots of practice, I got the hang of things. Basically... practice, practice, and more practice was the key to overcoming these obstacles. I thought the number system was interesting because different words were used for counting numbers and for telling time. Everything about the language was fascinating so I could not say anything about what I least liked. For next semester, I would like to learn the grammar and conjugation instead of just full on memorization of phrases. This wasn't the most effective way to go about learning a language. Overall, this experience this semester has taught me a lot and I am excited use the skills I have acquired.

Included is my powerpoint presentation of my cultural project.

Traditional Korean Wedding

Despair.com posts “demotivators.” They seek to motivate through demotivate by “crushing dreams with hard truths.” One of their motivational posts was on tradition. “Just because you’ve always done it that way,” the poster reads, “doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.” This quote, I don’t think, is meant to be offensive or betray cultural intolerance. It is more I think an important and friendly means to communicate the importance of thoughtful evaluation. In our efforts as independent learners and visitors of culture, I think this is an incredibly useful reminder as to our primary responsibility as accepting, compassionate, and critically thinking global citizens. It adds another dimension to the definition of cultural awareness, of what it means to be culturally competent. For me, this means that we are not overly passive participants or guests in a culture. Acceptance and passivity can be easily misinterpreted as being “worldly” and “open-minded.” I think this is a mistake.

I believe that the ability to be able to constructively and sensitively criticize sources of misery/difficulty, or issues within an existing cultural system is important as a cultural participant. Isn’t this what members of the country do anyway? To some extent, wouldn’t these people invite different ways of spreading the message? Should we not show disapproval for the consequences of certain cultural assumptions, fears, and traditions? Racist, bigoted, and inhumane beliefs that are immorally inhibiting the well-being and lives of others should not be accepted or let go, even if they are of a different culture.

I’ve chosen this topic for reflection for two reasons. First, as a prospective historian, to understand another culture provides new eyes into one’s own culture, and into the other. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I see one of historians’ job to destroy myths and irrational conceptions of the past and understandings of how the present came to be. Second, there were a few cultural presentations that inspired this post, specifically Susan’s presentation about marriages and Layla’s presentation about the tremendous prestige ascribed to doctors. I found myself curious as to how these issues affect individual human experiences, for better or worse, why, and which groups had particularly strong opinions on the matter. This is another layer of cultural understanding I hope to delve into with my own study of Bosnian culture and the effects of the war.

Indeed, to understand a culture, it is important to experience its reality as it is. Of course, the more comprehensive one’s ability to empathize with the society’s celebrations, treasures, and struggles, will make one more able to make better and more careful suggestions for positive social change.

chewCulturalProject

or

https://docs.google.com/a/richmond.edu/file/d/0B46sTCU00X7fY3hYM3kxaGVBOW8/edit

To enhance my ability to understand spoken Bosnian, learn more about current events, and get a better feel for what fluency sounds like, I've decided to turn more attention to "Radio Televizija Bijelina." This is the highest viewer rated radio-television company based in the Republika Srpska. It reports Bosnian news 24 hours per day and seven days per week. Despite my lack of comprehension, I typically watch twenty minutes while looking up words I hear repeatedly and celebrate when I hear words I can pick up on (weather, years, and numbers for instance).

Next semester, I hope to use this channel more. While I recognize a few words here and there, I'm still not able to summarize, in English, what I think is going on. This will be a future learning goal. Here is the link: http://www.rtvbn.com/

Here is also the link the prestigious and popular Sarajevo-based newspaper I attempt to read: http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/

In the beginning of the year, within the first two weeks, one of my learning tasks was to order food from a restaurant. Milica and I went to the Balkan restaurant. I was able to order a meal and ask for the location of the restaurant in Bosnian. We ordered waters, a cevapi, and split some burek. It was quite good, but as my language partner assured me, no where near the quality of home cooked Bosnian cuisine. Bosnians' ability to cook food I discovered, is a particular point of pride. This was the first time I'd used the language outside of my social network. It was interesting to watch the intrigued and warm faces. The waitress was welcomed my efforts and replied in Bosnian. This was one an encouraging episode of the language learning experience. Next semester, we plan to visit the Bosnian market in Richmond. Here is the link to the menu: http://www.balkanrichmond.com/Menu.html

Hi Sharon,  I just saw that I had this saved as a draft and it never got posted.  SO sorry!

For my fourth artifact I wrote out the verb conjugations for many of the verbs that I worked with.  Such as:  to love, to study, to think, to ask, to write, to eat, to go, to see, to buy, to sing, to try, and to want. I wrote the conjugations for singular masculine (the tense I use to refer to myself and other males), and singular feminine.  I didn't include the plural because Shir and I didn't have a strong emphasis on it.  However, next semester I will be working on the plural conjugations of these verbs and many more.