Blogs

In the First Artifact Conversation, I noticed that it took me longer than normal to answer the questions when I tried to think of the proper vocabulary associated to the questions. As I listened to the First Artifact Conversation I noticed that I was not used to the very formal greeting in the beginning which caught me slightly off guard because I am always used to conversing with my mother and extended family which is conducted in a semi-formal tone using Tum. I noticed that when Zaka used “Aap” to refer to me, it took time for me to learn how to address and answer Zaka in the same way as well. The conversation did not flow as naturally as it usually does.

For my tasks for week 4 and 5, after memorizing the terms and vocabulary used with time and my extended family from last week’s session I was able to say the different times that Zaka asked me about in Urdu. I translated different times back and forth with Zaka to make sure that I had really understood how to tell time and the expressions used. Next, Zaka and I translated the different names used for various family members in our extended family. First, I went line by line saying the different names used to refer to family members. A few mistakes were made where I called my dad’s relatives by the name of my mom’s relatives. 

Learning Korean has been very interesting and actually kind of tough. It required a lot of time and practice. I found that words and phrases I learned from my friends stuck to me more compared to the ones that my language partner was teaching me. However, phrases that are relevant and useful I remember naturally. Furthermore, when learning Korean what also helped is how it sometimes related back to Mandarin. For instance, in Korean traffic light and in Mandarin sound pretty similar. It is very interesting to find similar sounding words and being able to memorize it instantly. 

I thought that using Mango Languages was very helpful in learning Korean. It helped with my basic grammatical skills. For instance, I often had trouble pronouncing some of the harder Korean words. I would use Mango Language in helping me figure out an easier way to pronounce the word. 

The first week we learned about time. We learned how to tell the time in Korean as well as what we were doing during that certain time. For instance, we would have a partner conversation where Sissi would ask me what did I during the afternoon and I would reply I was having class or studying.

In addition, we also learned about ways to add and take out honorifics. We would learn conversational monologues and by taking out the different phrases it will make it informal. You would use this type with friends or people younger than you. 

After we also learned different popular delicacies of Korea. For example, we learned the phrase for sushi (gim bap), cake (ke-ik), pork belly (sam gyup sal), chicken (chi-kin), and many other phrases. We played a game where she would show us the type of food and we would have to tell her what the food is. Furthermore, we also had a monologue of a conversation that would happen before during and after the meal. In Korea, before you eat you would thank the person for making the food, jal meok ge seum ni da. We also learned how to say the food was delicious, masseseyo. If we wanted to ask for more it is "deo, ju se yo." I often go to Korean restaurants and this is useful in knowing how to describe the taste. In addition, since many of my friends are Korean and I have eaten dinner with her parents. Knowing these phrases is very helpful in communicating and appreciating their cooking. 

Out of the different activities that we did, I thought that the ones where we did the monologue that was applicable to everyday life was very helpful. Especially, the phrases we learned on how to describe. In addition, we also learned about basic parts of a sentence we can add an object to it. Also, it was very helpful in learning the different vocabulary because when my friends talk I am able to pick up on some parts of the conversation. 

I didn't think learning Hangul was helpful in the beginning because I wasn't planning on learning how to write. However, after talking to our language partner we chose the best way was to use it through the pronunciation of English. Also, in the beginning we did not have English pronunciations and that was really hard. We told our language partner and she started to add it so we could better pronounce it correctly. 

The presentation about Korean Muk-bang culture seems really interesting to me because of its popularity in Korean and the purpose it serves. The Muk-bang culture is exactly the produce of one of the most distinct characters of the modern society not only in Korean but many other high populated busy cities. Often those areas have a significant number of people at young age living alone in apartment and very busy on their work, so that they don’t have enough time to social and interact with other people. They don’t even have a friend to can eat with. Muk-bang solves this problem and makes those people gathered together to eat, so that they don’t seem that lonely. At the same time, they get to know what’s trendy at the present by watching different style of Muk-bang. They get to know how “beauty” is defined by subscribing to the pretty-looking girl’s Muk-bang. They get to laugh and enjoy the time by watching people eating in a funny way, etc. However, the Muk-bang does not actually solve the problem of the more mentally and psychologically introvert society. Eating while watching shows in a tiny little screen by oneself can be an entertainment, but not a daily routing. People should still try to go out and make friends in the real life. 

For weeks four and five, the learning tasks were to tell time in Urdu and expand my vocabulary when it comes to discussing the extended family.  The way we achieved the first goal was that we went over basic terms that indicate times such as dawn, sundown, midnight, evening, and afternoon.  Once we established this basic terminology, we worked on how we could tell when a quarter to an hour and or when its half an hour is complete. We practiced telling different times on a clock. In addition to this, we also worked on my learning task dealing with the vocabulary associated with family.  We also worked on translating the names of relatives from English to Urdu so I learn to call them in them by their proper names in Urdu. I learned how to differentiate between my dad’s side and mom’s side and how the names are different.  The way I will evaluate if I have mastered these tasks is by showing a picture of my extended family to Zaka and naming all of them in Urdu. I will test if I have mastered the component of time by telling Zaka the various times I have learned by each minute and the hour. 

This week I would like to learn vocabulary dealing with the current news or terms dealing with political affairs. This is because I would like to follow the Pakistani news and understand the complex vocabulary that is used in the media to better understand what is going on different parts of Pakistan.  The news in India also uses similar complex vocabulary so I will also be able to understand what is going on in India as well. In the future, when I go into a career in law, I hope to work with victims of domestic violence in this culture who speak Hindi and Urdu. I will be able to better understand where they are coming from.  I will be a watching news clips to dissect the complex vocabulary and ask Zaka if I am defining the word properly from the context of the news.  I will especially be looking for how elections are interpreted in Pakistan of the United States especially because Donald Trump is a serious candidate that is being voted upon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhSyWYCIre4

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

The learning task for this week was to discuss my home. This week we integrated both vocabulary and the cultural aspects associated with this topic into our lessons this week. We discussed the names for different types of furniture and kitchen items that I did not know. The words listed below would be pronounced in English by me before.  We also worked on translating the relationships with different family members.  We discussed how the names of certain family members change when it is on the mother’s side in comparison to the father. The list for this is listed below.

• Dresser=Almari
• Countertop=
• Stove=Chula
• Cup=Mugga
• Bed=Bistar
• Hallway=Veranda
• Uncle (Mom’s side) Mamu
• Uncle (Dad’s side)Cha Cha
• Great Aunt=Khala/Phuphu
• Great Grandma=Par Dadi
• Cousin=Mama zad bhain
• Table=Mez
• Pillow=Takkya
• Wall=Dewar

• Second Cultural Post:  Formality and Informality in Target Language

Our language partner when we began taught us the formal way of speaking Korean. In Korean especially, there is a great importance on formality and there is a difference in speaking with an elder compared to younger. For instance, she taught us a lot of phrases and then later teaches us what we can add to make it informal. However, she wanted to make sure we learned the formal way if we were to go to Korea it is better to be formal than informal. Furthermore, we also learned the casual Korean slang for the younger generation which was very interesting. I have heard a lot of it from my friends and now better understand them.

• Reflect on your language learning so far and the relationship between understanding the target culture and the target language.  What do you need to improve your communicative competence?

Learning Korean has taught a lot to me about the culture. For instance, for a class I learned about the difference of formality for elders and friends. This showed that in Korea there is a very high importance in hierarchy. Koreans care a lot about being respectful and even have additional things they need to add to respond to elders. Another class we also learned about different Korean foods. Koreans have a lot of different ways of describing how a food tastes and different ways of saying it if you want to sound cute. Korea also has a lot of cute language culture. Since a lot of my friends at Richmond are Korean, I was able to better understand some of the things they constantly say or do.

Moreover, from learning about a conversation you would hold at a meal you learn a lot about the Korean culture. For example, you learn a lot of the types of food that Koreans eat. They usually have a lot of side dishes unlike American dishes where you have usually one main course and an appetizer. From learning this you also learn that Korea is a collectivist country and understand why they have so many side dishes and share their food unlike the America, which is individualistic. Furthermore, from learning the language I also learned about the different and unique trends happening in Korea like Muk-bang. I would not have heard about it if I weren't learning about the language. It was a very interesting trend and unique to Korea, but has started to spread to the rest of the world. Continuing to learn the language I hope to continue to learn more about the Korean culture. I am interested in further learning about the Korean culture and from the presentations I have learned a lot from other fellow classmates.

What I need to improve on for my communicative competence is the ability to understand a conversation. Right now, I can only pick up certain words and from there guess what my friends are saying. I would also like to increase my Korean vocabulary and learn more phrases. Hopefully in the future also soon be able to hold a basic conversation with someone. In addition, or be able to communicate or ask questions when I am traveling in Korea. I would like to be able to get around Korea and be able to understand when they give me information on directions. I would also like to be able to combine and make sentences myself from the words I have learned. I hope that they will soon create a keyboard for typing online but with English instead of just Hangul. 

• Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.   

My learning goal was focused on being able to speak in Korean since I am a beginner. However, in the beginning when I was learning Korean my language partner wanted us to learn Hangul. This was very difficult to me because I did not understand clearly how the certain parts can come together and become a word. I actually have played with the Korean keyboard on my phone and found that it was interesting how I could type in the random Hangul and make a word. Learning the language, I found that what helped most was having the English pronunciation written out. I realized this was a lot more helpful since I learned to type Mandarin through pinyin which is English letters. It was very helpful using english to help sound out the new Korean words I was learning. 

I am bilingual and I speak both English and Mandarin. I agree that being bilingual requires more skills and more brain work, therefore, it can seem as if bilingual speakers are smarter. Bilingual speakers are able to combine the different languages and think in both simultaneously. In addition, I would also constantly combine languages together when I talk to my fellow friends that are bilingual. Being in an environment where I had to be bilingual really helped me in bettering both languages. I lived in Taiwan where I needed to speak mandarin, but I also went to an American international school where we received an American education. However, now trying to learn a language when I am older is much harder and requires a lot more time and effort compared to when I was learning mandarin. Furthermore, not having the environment that forced me to speak it constantly makes the process of learning it slower.

Citations

Bhanbhro, MS, Wassan, R. "Is Social Exclusion Pushing the Pakistani Hijras (Transgenders) towards Commercial Sex Work? a Qualitative Study." BMC International Health and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.

Humaira, Jami. "Measuring Attitudes toward Hijras in Pakistan: Gender and Religiosity in Perspective." LexisNexis Academic, 30 June 2010. Web.

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(a) What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer?  What did you find difficult?  What have you enjoyed?  How will you continue your learning? 

 I really enjoy being a cultural explorer, even I’m not able to speak multiple languages. I would love to learn about other cultures and the language and traditions that go along with the culture. It is fascinating to me that the world is so complicated yet beautiful with all the different cultures and people. Especially the life philosophy, art, architecture, and food of different cultures. Also, besides all the wonderful thing about other cultures, as I learn, I could also find out about the negative side of certain cultures. For example, some cultural traditions that are violating human rights, etc. If I were not exploring, I would not know that there are still people struggling with their culture because of the transitions to the globalized world and economic market.

However, though I love languages, too, I’m less competent with learning the language. In my lifetime, I’ve tried to learn English, Japanese, Spanish and Danish. I can master none of them except English. Mostly because of that I didn’t learn the language consistently. I took Spanish for one semester, then gave up because the school changed the professor to another that has very different accent than the previous one. This indicates that how important the variation within a language is. I took Japanese for a year, but then gave up because I went abroad for a semester and had not practiced with Japanese for so long. When I came back to school, I found out that it was very difficult to pick it up again. This shows how important the consistency of learning a language is. Similar things happened to Danish. I learned Danish for four months when I was in Denmark. But when I came back to U.S, even if I want to continue, Danish is not popular here and I can’t learn it without a proper amount of practice.

Thus, overall, I do enjoy learning about other cultures, and learning languages. But language does require a lot more than just the culture: time, consistency, patience, practices, etc.

(b) Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful?  What would you like to learn more about?

I’ve learned a lot in almost every supplement reading. I didn’t know that languages and cultures are not just difference because of the pronunciation and writing, but the history, the geography, and interactions with other cultures and languages. Readings are interesting and have reasonable length. Some are more scientific than others, which is good, too, because I got to know how the function of the brain has to do with languages. The presentations are very useful as well. I learned a lot while researching and preparing the presentation. Those presentations made me think creatively and critically about cultures and languages.  

Because the language has been incorporated into the traditions, religions, philosophy and so many other things of a target culture, understanding the culture of the language can be very helpful to learn and use the language better. In a target culture, the language ties everything together. The language has lived for so long that many aspects of the culture, the civilization, traditions, and religion, rely on the language to be passed on from generation to generation. For example, when I was learning Japanese, the understanding of the Japanese hierarchical culture helped a lot on distinguishing which degree of politeness and intimacy should I apply in language when I’m talking to different people. Messing up with addressing people can be very rude and weird in Japan, even as a non-native language learner.

At the same time, the language changes and adapts to the changes in the target culture. The understanding of the culture, especially the pop culture, can be very helpful in improving speaking the language. Many people, including me, enjoy watching Japanese animes, TV shows, and variety shows because we can learn those slangs and trendy expressions. Usually, we learn the language through textbooks that have very formal expression and word. But often, in daily life, there are words and phrases that the textbooks don’t have. Instead, we need to learn the culture of the language, what’s new recently, what happened so that people started using certain words than others, etc.

The understanding of the culture can be considered as the tool to improve the communicative competence. In the textbook, I can learn how to be organizational competence in Japanese. I learn the grammar, vocabularies, syntax, phonology, and graphology. I know how to read the text, to interpret and understand the meaning of the text cohesively by studying the textbook. This seems like the beginner’s stage, the basic and foundation of learning Japanese. It’s more about absorbing and input of all the knowledge of the language itself. This is very important for learning a language because as learners, not like people born with Japanese, I would not know the construction, or how to construct Japanese. I have a friend who never learns Japanese systematically but always watch the Japanese animes. He can totally understand Japanese by hearing it. But he can’t read or write Japanese because he doesn’t have the organizational competence. Instead, he has some degree of pragmatic competence of Japanese because he could understand it by watching people talk and behave. However, of course, pragmatic competence cannot be greatly improved without the foundation, the grammar, etc of the language.

Thus, if I want to improve my pragmatic competence of Japanese, I should watch more Japanese TVs, read more newspapers, magazines, and talk to Japanese in Japanese. I should learn the Japanese culture so that I could produce my own output of the language. I could speak more fluently by manipulating the grammar, using the words and phrases that are popular among people in the present. I could use the address more accurately. I could better comprehend Japanese conversations, implying meanings, even dialects. In summary, I could be not only academically knowing Japanese but socially, by learning the culture. To me, the pragmatic competence is more about socially integrating with the language, and thus, the understanding of the culture of the language is necessary and essential.

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Again, I need to refer to my experience of learning Danish here. As I was learning Danish, I tried to read and write with very limited words I have. I started with menus. Menus were ok because they were illustrative themselves. There were mostly words about food and drinks that I learned in class. Then I tried to read the advertisement while waiting for bus and metro. Those paper posters were easier, because I got time to think and related to the Danish class. Those videos were little harder because people talk in a pace that I could not catch up with. But videos were also very illustrative and I could try to connect the videos with the emphasized word. However, advertisements were made to be concise, easy to understood and simple. Articles were not. In my Danish class, we tried to read a Danish poem. I could not understand much of it without the help and explanations from my teacher. Writing is the most difficult part. I wrote a short paragraph during Danish exam, but it took so much time. The content was basically a copy of the text book, not any original piece from me. 

I actually agree with both of the articles in some way. I’m not a bilingual, but I’ve learned English for years and living in the U.S for three years. English, for me, has become a language that does not require translation into Chinese to understand, in most of times. I can resonate with the article when it mentions that Bilinguals need to switch language quite often, which helps to build up the ability to observe and comprehend things. I can react to things, such as interpret and understand other people’s work during conversation; Not the translation or understand the meaning of the language, but the intention, the “want” of other people.

But I also agree with idea that maybe multiculturalism is the reason for bilinguals to seems smarter, instead of speaking two languages. I’ve learned to adapt the U.S culture during learning speaking English and living in the U.S. As I overcome a lot of cultural differences, I became more adaptive to new environment, people and culture. This experience helped me a lot when I went to Denmark for a study abroad in study abroad (from my home to the U.S). Also, sometimes, I found myself not able to think in Chinese as native as my other friends who stay in China and go to college there. I could not write essays in very beautiful, logical and Chinese Chinese. I write more like translated Chinese, from English. I consider this as a huge disadvantage of being fluent in a 2^nd Language. Since I’ve been used to the English structure, grammar, rules and procedures and I’ve been speaking and using English a lot more than Chinese in collage, it seems that I’ve “lost” Chinese in some way. 

Looking back at my most recent language learning process, which was last semester when I was learning Danish, I learned about 500 words (nouns and adjectives, not including words like preposition, etc). I took Danish class and the learning process was cumulative and gradual. I learned most of the words through conversations in text book. Those conversations were all about daily activities, greetings, parties, events, traveling, etc. So as an exchange student who traveling a lot in Denmark, those conversations were really helpful and interesting. Because I wanted to know those words and how to talk in Danish. Also, the conversations were getting longer and longer in the text book. So not only the new words were included in conversations of later chapters, also the words we learned at the very beginning were also present. In that way, I got to learned a lot of Danish daily life words.

Another way that I used to learn Danish words very effectively was to read the advertisement or signs during traveling in the cities. When I was waiting for bus, metro, etc, I read those ads over and over again. Some were on the stream TV some were on the paper posters. At last, I was able to remember those words that repetitively show up in the ads.

My goal before taking the Danish class was about to learn basic words that could help me to read the menu and order, and 

This semester I believe the manner in which I have changed as a language learner has been from a cultural aspect. In that, prior to my experience with this course, I did not perceive the nuances of culture and tradition as a significant portion of my treatment of the language. Coming from the country of origin of my target language led me to take the cultural aspects for granted. Although they were extremely apparent to me, gender based norms, were not the focal point of how I viewed the linguistics of my language. This course has helped me to realize the complexity behind the tradition and culture which I grew up in. Aspects of the cultural nuances relating to how Indians perceive feminism from a geopolitical standpoint have changed the way in which I regard objects and ascription. While my understanding of English has always been stronger, than Hindi, this class has enabled me to formulate a pathway to reinvigorating my linguistics ties to my home country. An important aspect of my learning of Hindi outside of India, has been a sense of nationalism. Learning Hindi within India, caused me to lack a perceptive variation to understand the differences within my culture and my language. Within the environment of University of Richmond, points of difference between Hindi and English, have become especially relevant, due to the cultural divergences. 

Particularly as my approach was that of feminism from a linguistic standpoint, dealing with the role of females in India and America, was more significant. Had I approached the subject from India, my only experience of the differences perceived, would have been based off of tertiary association rather than primary ones. In that, my connection has been on a deeper more personalized level, and so the nuances have become perceptibly apparent. 

In terms of the classroom, I enjoyed working within a larger variety of language learners, who were engaged in other languages. Such an experience, was unique, as most cases classrooms are homogenous in language when teaching a particular language. By associating and learning with other languages, the larger over arching contextual aspects of my language became more apparent. I found that historical contexts became an important factor in every language. Especially, when learning about Crystal's theories regarding language structure and Brown's views on Communicative Competence, aspects of structure and history became increasingly significant. As well as activities that engaged the classroom with regards to bilingualism and the debates therein, overarching features of our languages were able to contribute to our perceptions of learning two languages.

Conclusively, In the future I would like to further my knowledge of the historical nuances to words and the cultural connotations therein. As Hindi has a deep and complex historical connection with Sanskrit, it might be important to learn basics of some Sanskrit to improve perceptual capabilities.

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This week, I read more articles about the economy in Korean. I also got in touch with my family members and some friends back home to practice my Korean and share stories with them.

Here are a compilation of some of the words I learned this week:

총포괄이익  - Total comprehensive income

기타포괄손익 - Other comprehensive income

포괄손익계산서 - Comprehensive income statement

희석주당이익- Diluted earnings per share

법인세비용차감전순이익 - Earnings before income tax

It is harder to spot words that I haven't understood (conceptually and literally) before. I feel that I have a really good grasp over articles regarding the economy in Korean. The professional terms they use make sense conceptually and on the surface as well. I am really content with my progress.

I've learned so many professional vocab. As I stated above, there are hardly any words I read in complex economy news articles that I don't understand. By reading these articles weekly, I've really come far in expanding my vocab. I also feel very comfortable writing professionally like these news articles are written. I also feel a lot more comfortable speaking in Korean. I was fluent before but there were times when I just felt awkward speaking it (even though I knew I was using the right grammar and words). I feel very free and natural speaking Korean now just because I have been doing more of it recently because of this class. I've been talking to my family members more for practicing Korean. Also, the weekly Korean classes were very helpful as well.

There weren't any difficulties to be honest. I think the fact that I had a very solid foundation in Korean to begin with made it easier for me to make big progresses. It wasn't like I was learning a whole new language with whole new rules. I was only fortifying what I already had a pretty decent grasp on. It was a great semester in terms of the growth I had in my Korean skills.