Throughout the semester I have continued to expand my vocabulary of Korean terms, specifically focusing on food-related terms (meat, vegetables, grains, fruit, types of meals, etc.) I also have been retaining my knowledge on how to tell the date, time, and weather each day by writing it in Korean each day. With my newly learned vocabulary, I hope to be able to use these terms in sentences that can be used day to day, for a restaurant setting or grocery store/market setting. Something that we’ve both enjoyed doing is watching a Korean Drama to aid in the language learning experience as listening to the language really helps one to get used to the vernacular, pinpoint new words, and understand sentence structure. Some strategies that have been implemented into my language learning journey include resources provided by global studios (Korean to English dictionary textbook) Youtube, music, entertainment, vocabulary quizzes, and actively writing Korean. These strategies have been very effective in helping me retain what I have learned from my language partner and continue to practice and build with what I already know well. The use of Quizlet for vocabulary quizzes has really helped me with memorizing terms better. Before using Quizlet, I would struggle with keeping up with reviewing my new vocabulary but Quizlet made it easier with the flashcard function and the test function. I will build on what I have learned about the language by starting to focus more on sentence structure and how and if it changes when slowly making it more complex. I would also like to learn if Korean has measured words for people or objects and learn more about when to use the right honorifics for the right person. I think now, I feel even more enthusiastic about continuing to learn Korean because I didn’t realize how much progress I’ve made and much faster I have become physically writing Hangul. In the connection between the language and the Korean culture where it is spoken, I have learned from my language partner the importance of using formal speech to perpetuate politeness as it is important to the culture and the Korean people. Even the simplest of phrases have a specific way that they should be said to a stranger/acquaintance or someone that is older or in a position of power. So that is something I will definitely need to continue to take into consideration when I am writing and speaking Korean. I will definitely have to make revisions in your task lists and/or short-term and long-term goals by continuing to focus on expanding my vocabulary but also making sure to slowly integrate grammar so I am able to progress in the aspect of practicing to form my own sentences correctly and communicate effectively with those that speak Korean. I am very grateful for my language partner that has helped me so much. The self-directed language course has encouraged me to continue on with my language-learning journey with Korean in the future.
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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BgqLOryWsIBVDhYRXA0GXrVE5Ys4OdCzHKSbW44EiVk/edit?usp=sharing
Brief presentation on how deaf children learn languages compared to hearing children, also the challenges that deaf children born to hearing parents face in their language development.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OJxGCo_fIFHaOHkDIXEpmPjGoCtz_4Bm?usp=sharing
Sharing my bibliography for the final:
Boggs, Laurie. “Language Development in Deaf Babies.” Lifeprint, 30 Apr. 2008, https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/languagedevelopment.htm.
Dougherty, Elizabeth. “Getting the Word In.” Boston University | The Brink, 6 Mar. 2017, https://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/asl-language-acquisition/.
Parogni, Ilaria. “‘It’s Who I Am’: Why Name Signs Matter in ASL.” The New York Times, 16 July 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/16/arts/kamala-harris-name-sign-language.html.
Schembri, Dr. Adam. “How Do Children Learn Sign Languages?” Aussie Deaf Kids, May 2005, https://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/how-do-children-learn-sign-languages.html.
“Sign Language for Parents.” National Association of the Deaf, 2022, https://www.nad.org/resources/early-intervention-for-infants-and-toddlers/information-for-parents/sign-language-for-parents/.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/106dsIwqEbjDfYd2x09W7Uj9KZlxotoEX/view?usp=sharing
Reflection Paper #2
What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer? What did you find difficult? What have you enjoyed?
I learned that I progress much faster in my target language when I am able to meet for shorter sessions more frequently rather than longer sessions less frequently. I have mentioned this in many posts throughout the semester, but the Mahsa Amini protests that are currently ongoing in Iran have halted my and my language partner's ability to meet as frequently. Because my language partner lives in Iran, the consequent internet shutdown made it sort of a game of hot potato trying to find which communication service worked the best for that given day.
I know the idea that more frequent shorter lessons align with the topics in class and might be rather obvious, but I realized this semester exactly how crucial this aspect of language learning is for me. This is not to say I am not able to function in the latter form of learning, I think just making a little bit of Farsi part of a daily routine is easier for me to plan around and manage time for.
I also have to give myself a little bit of credit, as I think I ended up being much more adaptable than I previously suspected in my language learning. Even though the internet shutdown proved a challenge, my language partner and I still made it possible to meet, and I was able to compensate for the lost time in meetings with increased linguistic and cultural study.
Other major difficulties were just dealing with the increased complexity in the Intermediate lessons on PLO. As stated in other posts, the jump from Elementary lessons (#21-40) to Intermediate lessons (#41-60) is significant. The topics become more abstract, such as culture, lifestyle, and economics, and in order to accommodate this jump, the grammar and vocabulary spike in difficulty as well. I think this combined with the less frequent lessons hit me pretty hard, as it is already more of a challenge to remember the vocabulary.
All in all, I have still had great enjoyment this semester. With the more complicated lessons brings more opportunities for cultural learning. I am excited about what is yet to come.
How will you continue your learning?
Right now, I still plan on using PLO. It has been a great resource, and now that I have completed SDLC/SDLAP 105, I will be more equipped to tackle the grammar. I think I might take more advantage of iTalki next semester, both as an opportunity to speak to someone new and as a backup considering Iran's volatile politics and internet. Everything else will remain relatively the same. As soon as the internet ban loosens up, I hope to meet with my language partner more frequently again. We already practice me reading a passage and translating, my language partner reading a passage and me translating, me rephrasing a passage with different grammar/vocabulary, my language partner asking comprehension questions and conversing about the passage with me, and practicing conversational/cumulative speaking.
I might delve more into presentational speech and writing, but that is not a goal for me right now.
Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful? What would you like to learn more about?
Though I need to practice it more, I think IPA/articulatory phonetics as a whole will prove to be quite useful. I remember reading papers in the past that used terminology I did not know then -- but now do. Now I will be able to understand more precise instructions on accent/pronunciation. I want to delve more into morphology and syntax, as it got a little cut off at the end of the semester, and Farsi is much different than English in both areas. I especially want to learn more about case.
Audism: discrimination or prejudice against individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing
Examples include interactions like,
Person A: Hi, my name is…I’m Deaf.
Person B: I’m so sorry!
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Staunton, VA. 1839: We have opened the Virginia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind to help the invalids learn English.
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Hearing person to a HOH individual: Are you sure you can work the cash register? I’m just worried because you’re hearing impaired*.
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According to my instructor who is a CODA, discrimination against the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is based on the idea that they are “broken.” Most Deaf people do not feel this way, and despite being labeled ‘disabled’ by US legal conventions many would not consider themselves so. Thus, audism is a unique form of discrimination that intersects but does not fall under ableism. Yet, given that our higher learning institution is based in the American south, I feel that anti-black racism needs no introduction. “Incidents” at said higher learning institution and the corresponding Collegian articles speak for themselves.
What I ask of the reader today, is to open their mind to the intersection of the two. If I asked you outright, “are there deaf black people?” You would likely say yes. It seems obvious. However, they were rarely included in the conversation around Deaf education, Deaf culture, and how to improve living conditions for the Deaf and HOH community because of their blackness and continue to be discriminated against for both reasons today.
ASL as we know it is the “Standard” sign language used in the United States because of its availability in schools and the amount of linguistics research it has attracted in the last 50 years. However, it is still a predominately “White” language. That is to say, the spread of ASL throughout the United States in the past was a tool for forced assimilation by the majority population of European colonizers just like the English language. I discussed this briefly in an earlier post about Plains Sign Language, also called “Handspeak,” used by the Indigenous American communities in the Midwest. I recognize that the Deaf community at large was, for a long time, forced to learn English as best they could to assimilate into the larger hearing culture. However, ASL was still weaponized against Black and Indigenous Deaf communities for the same reasons.
Black Deaf people, of course, also faced segregation in the Jim Crow south. BEcause they were not allowed to attend White Deaf Schools, they had to make their own and learn to sign on their own which led to dialectical differences. When schools did integrate, the two Deaf communities still could not communicate with each other because they had different signs, used space differently, and had different facial cues. Students who could attend these integrated schools learned ASL to use in class and for their White peers in an act of manual code-switching. Then, at home, they could use the language that was theirs: the language that continues to be a testament to Black innovation.
Dr. Carolyn Mccaskill at Gallaudet University is a Black professor and head of the first ever Black Deaf Studies program. She spoke with ABC news on the subject last year in the first video I have included below. The second is from a prominent social media influencer, Charmay. She is a Black Deaf TikToker who went viral during the height of the pandemic for sharing videos of her and her grandfather signing in BASL to educate the community on this oft-ignored facet of Black American history. I have included her shorter video as an example of the differences between ASL and BASL signs.
*Hearing impaired is a very offensive term to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community today for reasons discussed in my podcast.
All signs have handshapes. They are one of the five main parameters for signing along with movement (left, right, up, down, diagonal), location (near the chest, near the eyes, etc.), orientation (palm facing out vs palm facing in), and non manual markers (eye contact, eyebrow position, head tilt, body tilt, smile, nodding, tongue out). The handshapes are simply what shape you make with your hands. However, some handshapes are used like pronouns in English where that which is being represented (or described) by a specific handshape must be "introduced" prior.
Based on those handshapes, signers will recognize the type of objects being represented in a story. These specific handshapes are called “Classifiers.” The basic categories handshapes represent are nouns (objects, people, animals, vehicles, etc.), shapes of objects (including outlines, perimeters, surfaces, configurations, gradients, etc.), size of objects (amount, largeness, smallness, relative size, volume, etc.), and their usage (movement paths, speed, interactions, etc.).
For example, holding your index finger and thumb beside each other in G shape is Classifier G. It is one handshape that can be used in multiple contexts, usually to describe how small/thin an object is. Held on top of your head it means “short hair” or “buzz-cut.” Held by the eyes, it shows the action of “winking” or “opening the eyes” or even “surprise.”
Now that you understand classifiers, I can discuss the ART of ASL storytelling. I have included a video by YouTuber, Dack Virnig. He best demonstrates how expressive and detailed stories and also conversations can be in ASL. It uses the entire body to convey multiple characters, multiple emotions, describe music, and sequential actions. It is a performance that goes far beyond the pantomime that most hearing people assume signed languages are. Classifiers make this possible by acting as placeholders for larger ideas. In the first part of the video where he portrays a scene from the animated movie, ANTZ, he uses classifier CL-B to represent the shoes threatening to stop the ants. This flat handshape shows the enormity of the shoe compared to the ants better than the actual sign for “shoes” which is signed by making two fists and gently tapping them together in front of you. In this case, the classifiers also help display the size and shape of the object in question, the shoe.
This is possible because classifiers can help to clarify the overall message by referencing specific details. Classifiers represent the object itself, as I have described: also, conveys how an object (in this case the shoe) relates to its environment. In the same clip we see him use the flat hand classifier to show how the shoe moves in long strides, stomping against the ground while the ant holds onto the loose shoelace flying behind the shoe.
I have started writing mostly simple words and phrases in Portuguese. I prefer to write in free hand (we learned this on the first day when we tried to use a computer as a common medium to teach on and it failed spectacularly). I have started to see the patterns in how nouns are gendered and conjugation patterns across verbs with specific suffixes. However, I have just recently begun to notice these patterns as we have learned about the grammatical rules behind them in class like parts of speech (and sentence trees), subject-verb agreement, and the concept of government, in terms of sentence structure, generally.
For example, a simple sentence is made up of one clause and a complex sentence is made up of more than one clause (including one independent clause and however many dependent clauses).
Learning about the broad linguistic concepts that apply to languages universally has allowed me to stop comparing grammatical rules in Portuguese to English or Spanish, but instead begin to build my own knowledge of its grammar in reference to concepts of sentence structure, subject-verb order, and more that we have learned in class. For example, adjectives are modified according to the verb’s gender in Portuguese. Additionally, there are several general patterns of verb conjugation depending on verb suffix. There are also irregular verbs that do not follow any of these rules. I am better able to conceptualize these concepts in terms of verbs, subjects, and adjectives through our conversations about parts of speech and agreement.
Some examples below:
Irregular verb:
Ir = to go
Eu vou = I go
Voce vai = you go
Ele/ela vai = he/she goes
A gente vai = we go
Nós vamos = we go
Voces vao = you go
Eles/elas vao = they go
Verb suffix patterns:
Falar = to speak
Eu falo = I speak
Ele/ela fala = he/she speaks
Comer = to eat
Eu como = I eat
Ele/ela come = he/she eats
Partir = to leave
Eu parto = I leave
Ele/ela parte = he/she leaves
Conjugate cantar (to dance), decidir (to decide), beijar (to kiss).
Languages go extinct when they are not passed down by those who speak a language. Languages have to travel generationally in order to continue existing. Languages can also go extinct through extreme events that cause large groups of people to pass away. These events particularly could cause elders, who hold the language skills and cultural traditions of a group, to pass away, which can be detrimental to sustaining a language and culture. When a language dies, there are imminent consequences. An entire lifestyle, oral history, and belief system can be lost. Languages carry so much cultural infrastructure that is difficult to sustain with the loss of a language. Reflecting on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the loss of a language can also mean the loss of a perspective on the world. There may even be a lack of understanding of cultural artifacts, which will cause the beliefs and lifestyles of a people to be misunderstood or be completely unknown.
A dead language can be brought back to life with extensive enough resources and with efforts to propagate the standardized learning of that language. It becomes more and more difficult the longer the language is dead because artifacts and resources that could be used to revive the language will become less and less accessible. Linguistic diversity is being documented by linguists through in-depth research studies of archeological findings as well as how the makeup of languages has changed over time and space. Overall, language diversity should be documented and maintained in order to prevent further language death and the negative consequences associated with it.
I realized that my learning plan was a bit ambitious after a few weeks. It would take us multiple lessons to familiarize with the phrases and words that apply to the specific topic I had listed in my learning plan. I had listed a lot of these topics and tasks. We will definitely not get through them all this semester, but I think that it was good to have all of my interests in one location. With the longer list we could prioritize what I wanted to learn, but also what my language partner felt the most confident teaching and thought was the most useful.
I have been able to notice the grammatical patterns we have discussed in class in Portuguese. I have also started to notice them across the various languages I have learned. It is helpful to notice these structural similarities to better understand how I have learned them in other languages and how Portuguese differs slightly.
Language and culture are deeply intertwined, which is why I think it is great that my language partner and I are meeting 1-on-1 to discuss both Brazilian language and culture. What I need to be better at to improve my communicative competence in Portuguese as of right now is being able to ask for clarification on specific terms. In my plan, I have focused mostly on grammatical and textual competence, simply because my Portuguese skills are not that advanced. Further along in my studies I would focus more on illocutionary and sociolinguistic competence.
Sebastião Salgado, an economist by education, began to photograph professionally in the early 1970s. His international trips as an economist in his early career inspired him to take up photography. He is famous for the directness of his photography of individuals and groups who are in dire economic circumstances. He is unwilling to present his portraits individually and instead will only display them in collections. I thought that this was an interesting principle. As I became more familiar with his work, I realized that he uses collections to powerfully connect his photos across broad overarching themes, such as conservation, migration, and Indigenous culture. His style of portrait is well-known for not isolating the subject(s) from their surrounding circumstances, but instead captures the dynamic between the subject(s) and their environment. Again, as I viewed more of his work, I began to understand how that would present not only individuals, but their livelihoods as well. It is difficult to capture people in poverty without invoking pity and/or painting yourself as a savior. However, he is known for techniques that work to avoid those reactions and instead emphasize reality and empowerment. Lastly, he photographs only in black and white. I haven’t been able to find the reason for this, but it gives both commonality and depth to his photos because textures can only be depicted in shades between black and white. He also only uses natural lighting, stating that he does not know how to use artificial lighting.
The artifact I would like to focus on is his exhibition, Amazônia, that depicts 12 different Indigenous peoples (cultures) of the Amazon, many of which are located in remote areas and some of which are in chosen isolation. Some of the photographs also highlight the unique landscapes, flora, and fauna of the region. Salgado traveled around the Amazon, immersing himself in Indigenous communities for weeks, capturing their day-to-day life and surroundings. The goal of the series was to show the inseparability of Indigenous peoples and the ecosystems around them. The photos are displayed with an Amazonia soundtrack of people talking, animal noises, natural soundscapes, and music. The series also includes videos of Indigenous leaders speaking out against the deforestation and degradation of the Amazon rainforest. Salgado was traveling while Bolsonaro was still heading the Brazilian government, so a lot of the commentary surrounds the lack of governmental support for the environments and peoples of the Amazon. The funds made from the exhibition largely go to Instituto Terra, a nature institute and reserve founded by Salgado and his wife that focuses on reforestation of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and environmental education.
However, I think that it is always worth calling into question the ethics of traveling to Indigenous territories to showcase their lifestyles. The exhibition is great for giving Indigenous leaders a platform for their socioenvironmental advocacy. However, particularly for Indigenous peoples who have chosen to be isolated or even relatively isolated, I find that the ethics become blurry depending on the desires of the community. Salgado is bringing modern technology into areas that may be very unfamiliar with their functioning. He doesn’t know any of the Indigenous languages and used interpreters the entire time. All I hope is that the extent to which this project is displayed was known by all the subjects in Salgado’s photographs.
Sources:
Before you listen to this, be aware that I did go over time. I felt that it was worth keeping this length because the flow of our conversation and her answers improved and felt more developed towards the end of the interview once we had lost the jitters. Also, she is a mom and her two year old daughter joins us to share her opinion on hair clips and cookies around the 12 minute mark. Lastly, when I first used this software two years ago it was free and that is no longer the case. This interview cost me six dollars today; my Venmo is @RosaLovo, if you feel so inclined. Thanks for the listen! Have a good break!
Some historians believe that the Tropicália Movement, one the most significant counterculture movements in Brazilian history, originated or took great influence from Oswald de Andrade’s Anthropophagic Manifesto. The most famous line in the work was: ‘To tupi or not to tupi: that is the question.’ Tupi are an indigenous people of Brazil that practiced cannibalism in the past. The statement then adopts a popular line from Hamlet, modeling its anthropophagic message by combining Brazilian culture and English phrases. The manifesto argued that Brazilian culture thrives through the ‘cannibalization’ (adopting it and modifying it in a Brazilian context) of other cultures, particularly as a way to improve upon and differentiate influence from colonizing cultures.
The Tropicália Movement began in Brazil the late 1960s. It was a creative movement that was fueled by oppression under the rule of a military government that took over the previous government of President João Goulart. The movement’s name was meant to be ironic, playing on the portrayal of Brazil as a tropical paradise. A rallying cry of the Tropicália movement was “Seja Marginal, Seja Herói,” which means “be a delinquent, be a hero.” It was described as “a creative explosion.”
The artifact I am focusing on today is the infamous musical album, Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis, which is misspelled Latin meaning Bread and Circuses. The album popularized the movement and cemented it in history. Collaborators on the album included Caetano Veloso, Gilerto Gil (a former Minister of Culture), Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, Tom Zé, Nara Leão, Torquato Neto, and Rogério Duprat. The titular track, Miserere Nóbis, was a rock song satirizing the bourgeois. Gil and Veloso were the main writers on the album. As the album continued to gain popularity, they were imprisoned by the dictatorship government for their radical music. The album is known for bridging the genres of traditional Brazilian music and rock, further epitomizing anthropophagia. It is also known for revolutionizing Brazilian sound through anarchy. Psychedelia, samba, bossa nova, and traditional Brazilian styles are balanced and recombined throughout the album in a way that had never been done before.
The cover art was also very purposeful in portraying the message of the Tropicália Movement. The cover is an ode to the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A large photo of some of the collaborators takes up a majority of the cover of Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis. The bold text of the title, which are in Brazil colors embody the bold, empowered resistance of the movement. Subsequent music that was created at the time became tinged with politics, as Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis had set the trend for music being used as a vehicle for political messaging.
Letícia, my language partner, began playing the first track on the album for me because I had asked her to play one of the songs. Her eyes went slightly wide as she turned to me after just the first few bars and said that she knew this song, it was played all of the time in Brazil. She started humming along. Nothing could’ve cemented more to me the lasting legacy of this movement and the music that propelled it forward.
Source: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/what-is-the-tropicália-movement/ygUB8lo7KJ2GJQ?hl=en
Kobra is a globally recognized mural artist from São Paulo, Brazil. His name, Kobra, came from Brazilian slang. Kobra formally means snake and informally means ‘something that is quite different, someone who is quite good at something.’ Kobra began as a graffiti artist in one of the poorer neighborhoods of São Paulo. He was originally inspired to begin creating murals by the idea of creating art that highlighted and maintained the historical heritage of São Paulo, as he noticed that so much of public art in the city depicted buildings that no longer existed. He created the Wall of Memories in 2002, a series of murals that portray scenes of São Paulo from the beginning of 20th century. He also painted a mural in 2011 to protest the demolition of a building in Lyon, France and the displacement of its residents. They asked for Kobra’s services because they believed the art would call attention to their cause and the history of their building. He has many other famous works, such as Etnias, a mural made for the Rio Olympics in 2016 or Cacao, a mural honoring the making of chocolate and is the world’s largest spray-painted mural. Many of his murals focus on issues such as discrimination, conservation, and human rights. However, one overarching theme across all of them is unity across and within religions, cultures, and countries.
The artifact I would like to focus on is Kobra’s most recent work, A mão de Deus (“The Hand of God”). It is known as his most autobiographical work. He recently lost his daughter and was also severely sick for months. He says that the mural was meant to depict God’s hand rescuing him. The mural depicts two arms grasping one another. One is underwater and the other is reaching from above the water to grip the arm underwater. The arm above water is checkered with vibrant colors, which is Kobra’s signature style. This pattern is seen on the skin of most figures in his works. The arm under water is a solid light blue.
Every Sunday, the highway that offers the best view of the mural is shut down, so that people can walk/run underneath it and admire it. People interpret it to mean that you should always offer help to those who appear to be struggling. It doesn’t matter whether it is related to COVID-19 or just some other hardship in their life, it is always best to offer help to someone in need. People also see it as a sign that you are never alone. There are always people who will pull you back to the surface. It is a depiction of generosity, but also strength. The ability to offer the help as well as be vulnerable enough to accept the help. That is the unity that shines through this mural. It embodies the idea of being stronger together. Kobra says that it doesn’t matter how you interpret God. He is a man who has faith in lending a hand when someone appears to be in need and reaching out when he needs that help as well.
Portuguese is an Indo-European language derived from Latin and belongs to the romance languages language family. Its origins are in the Western Iberian Peninsula, where Romans first introduced Latin as a language. Vulgar Latin, a nonstandard form of Latin, became the main language on the Peninsula. This language than developed into Galician-Portuguese language in the area on the Atlantic coast. These languages then divided into Galician and Portuguese branches after Galicia joined Spain. In the 14th and 16th centuries, Portuguese spread to Asia, Africa, and The Americas. In Asia and Africa, it was largely used as a common language for trade. The spread of Portuguese to the Americas lead to the development of the Brazilian Portuguese I am currently learning.
In terms of its history, I understand Portuguese to be a language of commerce and colonialization. It was widespread at one time, influencing the development of many other languages, but is currently mainly spoken in Brazil and Portugal. It is the 8th most spoken language in the world.
Portuguese phonology particularly changed over time from Galician-Portuguese phonology to Modern Portuguese, and Contemporary Portuguese. Galician-Portuguese had a 7 oral vowel system and Modern and Contemporary Portuguese both have an 8 oral vowel system. However, in certain areas of Africa and Europe, a 9th oral vowel has developed as well.
Linguists track changes in Portuguese like this through texts from each time period. With Portuguese, they are able to specifically use the development of the language in different geographic areas to see what words and rules are common amongst all of them to get a better sense of sustained aspects of Portuguese throughout its history.
We recently discussed listing objects and how to describe a three dimensional space. The former changes a lot depending on the situation. For example, if I have three children I would sign ME HAVE THREE KIDS. I would sign the number three with my dominant hand before switching to my non-dominant where I would hold out three fingers (thumb, index, middle finger). TO name and describe each child I would point to the corresponding finger descending from oldest to youngest. But after indicating which child I would use both hands to describe them before returning to the three finger list on my left hand to discuss the next.
However, if I am listing options for a meal, let’s say pizza, burgers, or soup, then I would not use the hand list. Instead I would shift my body three times and sign one option at each position. That is the same for discussing places to go or activities to do. My understanding is that you only need to make a list with your hands when you need to say something about each item on the list. I learned this the hard way. I did not need to make a hand list to talk about the different rooms in my apartment.
When working with three dimensional spaces, the concept of space in ASL overlaps greatly with the English language concept of spatial awareness. That is to say, we work clockwise, from the bottom up, and start with the things closest to the “speaker.” It’s one of those things that you don’t think about often, but imagine you are recording the interior of a renovated house about to go on the market; wouldn’t you orient yourself and direct the video as I have described above?
Clockwise works best because most people are right handed, regardless of the language that they speak. Bottom-up works because ASL is a visual language, so with our signs we are helping the viewer visualize themselves going through the space from where they would enter, which is usually the ground floor. Distance is important in ASL for both physical and metaphorical spaces.
I suppose that this commonality is not just between English and ASL, rather it is shared in Western cultures, broadly speaking. Our perception of personal space in the US tends to extend farther from our front and back than our sides. That is to say, our “personal bubble” is more oblong than circular. However, when I visited Sweden last year, I saw that people went out of their way to maintain an evenly spaced distance from one another to the point that on a busy train it was still common to find people standing rather than sitting beside a stranger.
Through SDLC 105, I realized that language learning is not something that you need to have a knack for or that requires overwhelmingly long-term hard work and dedication. I liked that we talked about breaking down language learning. It was nice to realize that it is similar across languages. It made me feel like I could use my previous language learning experience to advance my Portuguese learning. I also enjoyed that we talked about tips and tricks of language learning. For example, cognates mean that you already know some of the words of a language. It is these little bits of familiarity and encouragement that really buoyed me when I was struggling with beginning to learn Portuguese.
This class also confirmed that I am someone who learns best conversationally and through immersion. I like learning small concepts that I can grab onto and then being plunged into a native speaker conversation where I can pick out that concept and see how it is applied. I have realized that is one of the best ways I can remember something.
I have learned that I love the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. That is one of the most fascinating concepts that I have learned through this course and in general. It definitely has made me see culture and language in a completely different way. I also really enjoyed learning about the points of articulation for sounds and the phones of a language. However, I did struggle with other technical linguistic concepts such as lexical morphemes, lexical categories, and secondary manner.
I think that I will continue my learning through SDLC 110. I plan to take it next semester. My goal is to recognize how these concepts apply to my further language learning next semester. I have no background in Portuguese, so I am truly creating the foundation of my language learning. Through the concepts of this course, I will likely be able to detect patterns of the language and know the terminology that applies to it. This will be helpful to better remember and conceptualize these rules in my mind, accelerating my learning of Portuguese.
I found it very helpful when activities had us use our target language to explain the linguistic concepts we were learning. For example, when we had to find affixes in our target language and what they mean. It was interesting to see how these concepts are shared across languages and also definitely helped me with new words in Portuguese to see how they can be modified with certain affixes.
I also liked when we did word trees of various words. These were super fun and interesting, particularly to debate. I also enjoyed the presentations at the end of the course. These were a great way to see people’s different interests in the scope of their target language. I also thought it was fun to learn about words and cultural concepts in other people’s languages. After those presentations, I could talk about the history of Farsi, the divisions of Catalan, and the development of Korean music genres.
