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From this weeks reading I learned several key things attributed to effectively learning language. I was not aware how much effort and how difficult it is to speak consonants, vowels, and recognize syllables. For instance the mouth changes from front to back of the throat as well as the tongue changes shapes in its various pronunciations of the primary and secondary cardinal vowels. I believe there are 10 different parts of the mouth or throat that produces the sounds necessary to formulate words and sounds.

In hindsight I guess it is harder than imagined to find syllables. At my ripe age of 22 it is no longer a challenge, but I can see how it can be hard with a syllable usually being larger than a single segment, but smaller than a single word. Now that I am trying to learn a foreign language like Hebrew I recognize the difficulties in finding the syllables. Having a familiarity with a certain language helps finding these syllables and currently I have no idea how to formulate words properly in Hebrew.

I completely agree with the text on its discussion of tone of voice having an impact on how one interprets the other person speaking to them. You can quickly decipher whether the person talking to you is being friendly or stern, just by the inflection and tone of their voice. If it sounds booming and authoritative they are acting stern, if it is softer and is accompanied by a smile then the person is acting friendly.

The section talking about babies and their auditory skills was also very interesting. I have a niece now that is nearly 2 years old and she has been very receptive to voices that she has heard over the last two years. The text argues that babies only respond and take in voices that they are familiar with. Rowan always responds to my family members, but rarely responds to me because she rarely sees me. I am thought of as a stranger in her mind, so she does not actively listen to me. There is also a correlation between her babbling and spoken language. At her age she has maybe 100 plus words in her vocabulary, but she has about 500 babbling words. I have confidence that as she increases in age those babbling words will translate in to words we actually recognize.

Finally is the sad truth that speech can wrong at any point in one’s life. You can have 60 years of great speech, but one stroke can cause a person to lose everything they have accumulated over those previous years. Speech is a very fragile thing, it is great to have so we must all be grateful for it. Hopefully none of us will ever have to experience the problems mentioned in the text with speech problems and acquisitions. 

       Losing our fluency was my favorite section of this reading, it hit home with me.  While I was not fluent in conversational French, my reading and writing skills were excellent.  It was easy for me to articulate what I was reading, and extremely easy for me to understand what i was reading and then saying.  However, this fall i had the opportunity to go to Paris for Fall break to visit some friends, and to say i was TERRIBLE at french was an understatement.  When in Paris i stammered, i stuttered and i had no idea what i was saying, thinking or reading.  I did my very best, after a few days i started to get the hang of it, but i still felt like an alien.  I felt so lost because i could not articulate what i was thinking, fortunately french is not necessary, however it would have been nice to use the tools i spent so much time and effort learning. 

       I had a similar experience when in temple this year for the High Holidays.  I sat down to read the prayers and follow along in the service, and I realized that I only knew the songs from memorizing them, my ability to read hebrew has lessened.  This fact really upset me in the fall, and as a result, I have decided that starting this summer I will begin relearning the alphabet and letters in order to read better.  I hope to travel to Israel this summer so this re-earning of hebrew will help me.

Losing fluency is difficult to come to terms with but quite easy to do.

I found the beginning of this reading to be extremely mechanical.  As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I took a Linguistics course so a lot of this was again review, but I feel that I would have had a hard time understanding the reading had I not had any previous knowledge of the subject.  I feel like learning the specifics of these sounds would be more helpful if I had a Farsi-speaking linguist who could identify how each sound is made in the language.  Since that doesn't exist, and since native speakers don't tend to think about exactly how sounds are formed as it just comes naturally, I'm not so sure that this information will be able to help me in learning Farsi.  I thought that chapters 13 and 14 were interesting because they talk about how children learn, which although my brain isn't developing like a child, I am learning a completely new language like they do.  Chapter 13 talked about how important surrounding sounds are because babies can learn to recognize several words even at a young age.  This point reminded me about the point made in class about listening.  In class, it seemed as if the majority of us didn't believe that listening to speech that we couldn't understand would actually help us to learn.  This reading, however, seemed to enforce the view that listening does in fact help because certain words used in repetition can eventually be recognized.

On that same point, I did try to do some more listening this week, although I wasn't able to get to 15 minutes per night.  Michael pointed out to me that BBC has a Persian page that has news articles and clips in Persian.  The site is pretty difficult to navigate since I don't know what the different tabs mean, but I managed to stumble upon various clips and just click on them to play.  Although I didn't really understand what was going on, I found that I was able to pick out some words that I'd learned, such as numbers and the names of some places.  After listening a few different days, I decided that this will be an effective way for me to learn and that I should continue listening.  Although I wasn't learning new words from the clips, I was getting used to hearing the sounds of the language, which I think will help me in my pronunciation.  I also got used to hearing the sentence structure, and noticing patterns in verb endings.

Aside from listening, I also met with both of my language partners this week.  In both sessions, we worked on the alphabet and on basic greetings and conversations.  Wadia wrote down some useful phrases for me to learn, such as: please, thank you, you're welcome, good morning, etc; and I have been practicing these phrases throughout the week. 

It's my goal to have the alphabet memorized and be able to recognize all of the letters and know the sounds that they make by the end of this week, so it's really important that I continue to practice writing.  I'm in the process of making note cards for each letter so that I'll be able to recognize them out of order too.

So far, Rosetta Stone has been most helpful in learning new vocabulary, but I'm finding it hard to really learn grammar from it, since I'm not sure about rules of verb conjugations and am sometimes confused about the actual meanings of sentences.  For this reason, I think that it's important to incorporate language textbooks into my learning.  This way, I will have some concrete rules on conjugations and tenses. 

In my first meeting with my learning fellow Maya, we didn't focus on any single topic to start learning about. What we did was discuss her experiences and how she knows Hebrew and things related to the culture of Israel. She was very informative and interesting and gave me a good idea about topics i could write about in the culture postings. We then discussed all of what we wanted to learn. I am meeting with a partner, my roommate DC, and we both decided to learn the same things. 

All three of us then began to go over some general vocabulary, not only to try and memorize the words, but also to familiarize ourselves with the different kind of sounds that you have to make in order to speak Hebrew. They are sounds that do not need to be made in English and therefore can be very challenging to pronounce. I have always found that what I lack in the ability to pick up on grammar in languages I am able to pronounce words the correct way.

In parting we decided on a plan for the following week. We decided to discuss directions. For example how to say where something is or how to get somewhere. 

Another thing I found interesting was that humans have the ability to recognize correct sounds, but not be able to pronounce them correctly (pg 87).  I have often found that to be true in trying to learn a language.  I can often recognize when a word or sound is pronounced correctly; but I, sometimes unconsciously, pronounce the word incorrectly.  This phenomenon often happens in when I meet with my language partner, and she has to correct me on words that I had no idea I was mispronouncing. 

This past week in my meeting with Maya I learned more Hebrew words, but more importantly learned about the culture of Judaism.  In our hour long session we learned of the difference between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The Ashkenazi Jews come from Europe, while the Sephardic Jews come from Africa. The Ashkenazi are the elitist group of Jews, while the Sephardic are treated as a secondary group of people. For several years the tensions have been high between the two religious sects. At least 20 years ago the tensions were as high as the civil rights movement seen in the United States, with the Sephardic Jews wanting to be treated as equals. Much like the relations between whites and blacks have become peaceful, the relationship between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews is less tense. However, from my tutor’s personal opinion the Ashkenazi still feel like they are better then the Sephardic’s.

Another interesting thing about Judaism overall is that the Jewish religion represents less than 1% of the world population. Christianity is the leading religion with 2.1 billion members, while Judaism makes up only 14 million people. It is clear that such tragic events like the Holocaust put a severe damper on the growth of the religion.

Each week I have made it a goal to learn one new interesting fact about Israel, the Hebrew language, or the Jewish religion. So far I have been successful in accomplishing this goal. 

From this weeks reading I found very useful teh chapter on how to treat body language. Eventhough we may not understand what is been said the bodili behavior can help with our understanding of the meaning of certain words. One of the most difficul things I have encountered up until this moment about leraning Farsi is merely the fact that I have no background on persian culture whatsoever. Learning a new language that I have never been exposed to is very hard, with more popular languages (like english, spanish, french, german, italian, among others) I may not know how to speak htem but I have been exposed to them somehow either by travelling, movies or by meeting people from such countries. But with persian is a whole new world for me. Up until this moment I only know the basic vocabulary to introduce myself and ask another person how they are. Persian version: saelam, hal shuma chetor ast? xub (good) or baed, baed nist (not bad ).khoda hafez (goodbye) and shab bakhair or sob bakhair.

The chapter on how we make speech sounds is very useful as well because Farsi has a certain sound like when we peonounce the word xub that is not in Spanish as well as the way they prononun the letter geyn. This chapter help on how to use our mouths to make uch unusual languages. I have decided to use prof.Grove suggestion on trying to set myself the goal of learning at least 5 words per day and during the weekends I have decide to just repeat them as well as making flashcards to help with the memorization.

This week I met with my language learning partner and the other students who are studying Farsi.  Having someone who is a native speaker makes more of a difference than I would have originally thought.  He was able to show us how each individual letter was used, how they connected to each other (or didn't), and the sounds that each letter makes.  Only after a few days of practice with the alphabet and learning to distinguish the individual letters, I can sound out a lot of the vocabulary words that I am studying.  Sounding words out that I don't know or that I haven't heard though is kind of useless because I could still be doing it wrong and have no idea. 

I was able to work a lot with Rosetta Stone and make some progress with more vocabulary, a little bit of grammar, and writing practice.  I'm beginning to pick up on grammatical consistencies but I still don't know why certian words appear in sentences when they do. 

I have not held to my goal of learning 5/10 words a day.  Now that I am more familiar with the alphabet and can sound words out, I hope that this process will become more of a learning process than a process of memorization.  I currenlty have about 150 words and phrases in my vocabulary list and I can identify about 45 of them without too much trouble.  I still need to sound most of them out though.  Eventually I would like the word recognition to be automatic.

The reading for this week was a little techinical.  It was very interesting to see how we proces and produce language though.  This section reminded me about the last reading we did when the author talked about all of the processes that go into reading a word.  Similarly, I never thought of all of the processes that go into producing a word (lungs, vocal chords, clicking).  I also rarely think about the sounds that I hear as waves being transmitted to through my ear to a bunch of little bones and an eardrum after which my brain has to make sense of it all with a sort of language template in which the sounds have a specific meaning within a specfic context.  I know that last sentence was a bit of a runon... sorry. 

Over the next few days I hope to study my vocabulary lists and continue practicing with the alphabet and sounding out words.  I also want to continue working with Rosetta Stone.  The recent protests in Egypt have also kept me connected to the news.  Usually I listen or read the news in English or Spanish but now I hope to incorporate a little Farsi into the mix.  I know I will not be able to get a lot out of it yet, but I hope to build my familiarity with common vocal inflections and speaking rythms of Farsi.  I also want to see if I can recognize any words in written news stories in Farsi, or begin to look some of them up to expand my vocabulary. 

Reading Response (pg. 171-259)

This passage allowed me to consider many ways to design learning strategies for myself. Since the brain retains information in a variety of ways, some more effective than others, I have decided to try a variety of learning strategies. My goal is to learn 10 vocab words per day. To accomplish this I am going to use notecards and lists that I will have with me at all times throughout the day so that I can take them out and practice whenever I have a free moment. Making vocab learning part of my daily routine will ease the learning process. I will be able to see more words more often throughout the day than I would if I simply sat down for an hour and tried to memorize 10 words. I am also going to utilize as much conversational practice with my language partner as possible while implementing some games, music, etc. The reading emphasized "fields of meaning". This will guide my topic-based learning strategy upon which my 10 words per day will rest.

Which resources are most helpful? What difficulties have you encountered? How do you assess your progress? Reflect on learning new words. Set yourself realistic goals for vocabulary learning.

-The most helpful resources is obviously my language partner. Thai, being a tonal language, is very difficult to pronounce new words properly without the assistance of a native speaker. Other useful resources are my old Thai textbooks, workbooks, dictionary, and the Byyki.

-It is difficult to attempt to expand my vocabulary because I haven't actively learned Thai in about a year so I constantly need refreshers on remembering what I once knew. As a result, I have been spending half of my time learning new vocabulary and half of my time quickly reviewing old workbooks.

-I am assessing my progress based first on my ability to learn new words but ultimately I will assess myself based on my listening comprehension skills. If I am going to truly improve significantly at learning Thai I need to be able to process sentences quicker with a broader vocabulary base.

-I have a solid base of Thai built up so learning new words is not that difficult at this point. I have been able to teach myself 10 new words per day. My goals are to continue this trend while keeping good records of the topic-specific vocabulary learned.

Response to Reading (pg. 1-57)

It was interesting to think about the more broad concept of communication rather than a narrow concept of language as verbal communication. The reading discussed numerous ways that people communicate non verbally (i.e. body language, handshake, body posture, an eyebrow flash etc.). The differences in non verbal communication between Thai people and people from the US really helps to highlight many of the cultural differences. For example, the wai is a bow that Thai people use in place of a handshake. The length and extent of the bow depends on the relation of the two people in the interaction and their respective places in society with regard to age, job, etc. There are many forms of non verbal communication embedded in a simple wai that need to be accounted for. It was also interesting to read about the various ways by which we create sounds with our larynx, pharynx, lips, jaw and tongue. The fact that many muscles are responsible for creating sounds unique to different languages provides me with insight into why it is much more difficult to create certain sounds in Thai that a native speaker is so accustomed to making with ease. Thai is a tonal language. There are five tones that can change the meaning of a word. For example, the word "Cow" can be used to mean rice, him/her, or knee depending on which tone is used. It is often times very difficult for me to replicate the necessary tone because my muscles are not accustomed to making that sound. This also applies to listening. It is very difficult for me to listen effectively because it takes a while to process what is being said and think about the words as if I were saying them. As a result, I have to often ask for repetition and sound out the sentences to myself.

The different types of languages and how we use them are quite interesting.  Language does not necessarily have to refer to someone speaking but rather how they send messages to one another.  Communication fits this description as it encompasses sound, sight, touch, smell, and taste.  However only sound and sight are used to express meaning.  These meanings can also come from the face as well which is an important mode of language. 

This tactile mode of accepting languages is a way to use nonverbal languages with a small selection of terms.  With a handshake one is able to say hello or pleased to meet you.  These come in the terms of the visual mode, which can show us just as much as speech, such as the thumbs up sign.  However, the properties of some languages cannot be understood.  This relates to cultural references too, especially when looking at body language.  Body language can be completely different for a westerner than it may be for an Asian.  Some things may be taken as disrespect in one culture while not in another. 

The paralinguistic example is easy to understand as well.  This shows us how we can interpret language and actions through the different inflections that people have.   If you hear someone speak when they are laughing than you can tell they are in a good mood.  As later discussed such paralinguistic examples have different types of airflow and use the respiratory system in a much different way.  Furthermore, the discussion about the use of them mouth, larynx and a myriad of other body parts was interesting.  I never knew that so many different sections of the mouth played a role in speech.   Additionally, the section about ears seemed important as it stated how sound is pinpointed. 

To sum it all up there are many ways to understand and use speech.  You can either visually witness it or hear it through the actual speaking of the language.  Either way there is still communication of meaning.            

Language is more than the words we speak- rather it is made up of several components such as body, signs, tone and much much more.  Language can come through music, films, love, animals, and much much more.  It is interesting and intriguing to think about how many ways one can interpret language, hear language and understand meaning through language.  The fact that five of our senses can receive and send language is again interesting because most would assume that only our mouths speak and our ears hear- but our hands, facial expressions and more communicate with others. 

Body language at times can speak louder than our actual words.  I know that if i am excited when telling a story, my hands will move, my face will light up and my over all body language will be excited.  Whereas if i am bored, not interested and disengaged, my body will show that, my face will show that without even expressing a word.  I think everyone should be more aware of their body language, especially when in professional or important settings- in these situations one must be engaged, an active listener and a calm and collected speaker. 

As the book continued, learning about how we form words and how we speak continued to educate me and forced me to think about things.  The way our lungs, tong and other aspects work together in order to make a sound and bring our thoughts and ideas from our minds to words is fascinating.  We can articulate in various ways, dryness in our mouths can have negative impacts, tiredness can stall our speech and so much more. 

Sound is another interesting part of language and speech.  Loud, soft, foreign, accents, strange...there are so many sounds and pitches to interpret and distinguish in our lives.  Our ears are precious and should be protected, sound is something we should value, for it brings so much meaning and excitement to our lives. 

Before this reading, I never really considered learning body language as a part of language learning.  The reading brought up several interesting aspects of body language, including the fact that "most gestures and facial expressions differ across cultures" (7).  This has made me want to also ask my language partners (Wadia and Maroof) about some of the gestures and facial expressions that go along with the Farsi language.  I was also interested by the idea of contact; "Some societies are much more tolerant of touching than others, so much so that a distinction has been proposed between contact and non-contact societies - those that favor touching (such as Arabs and Latin Americans), and those that avoid it (such as North Europeans and Indians).  I think that I will ask both Wadia and Maroof about their opinions of touching and if Farsi-speaking countries are contact societies. 

I actually took a linguistics course last spring where we studied the sounds of various languages.  As a part of the course, we were required to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet, and studied the different types of sounds that were discusses in most of this reading.  I remember that it was difficult to learn the different symbols for sounds that only have one symbol in English, such as the distinction between two different "TH" sounds, both being fricative dentals, but having some variations.  I found that it was helpful to review the IPA and realize that it is even more helpful now as I attempt to learn the Persian Alphabet.

This week I did a lot of work on Alefba, the Persian Alphabet, with both of my language partners.  The order of Alefba is very different from the English Alphabet and there are many new sounds, which make it difficult to memorize and even pronounce.  Additionally the symbols are all different from English, so I spent a lot of time this week writing the letters over and over.  I find that a great resource for me is writing so I like to write the letter multiple times while saying it aloud.  Maroof had us start out with just five letters and then gave us some words that we can write using those letters, so it helped to actually see myself making progress and being able to spell whole words.  While going over Alefba with Maroof, I remembered how we had discussed in class that music is a great way to remember things so we asked him if there was a song that would help us to remember Alefba.  He sent us an audio file for alefba and I also looked up a few videos on youtube that put the letters to music so hopefully this will help me with memorization. 

I've been using Rosetta Stone a lot in my learning.  Sometimes I find that I'm just repeating words, not knowing what I'm saying, so I believe that better understanding the letters and Alefba will actually help me to learn faster with Rosetta Stone.  I seem to be picking up the new vocabulary pretty easily, and like that Rosetta Stone repeats the same words so many times and associates pictures with the words, this has really helped me to pick them up because I feel like I can use them in sentences.  I really do notice significant progress and can't believe that after three weeks I can already identify so many words.  Recently, I learned some basic colors and am working on how to count.  I like the idea of setting small goals for myself because I really do get a sense of fulfillment when I reach a milestone, which encourages me to continue working hard. 

I think that this week I am going to try to find some children's TV shows like Sesame Street in Farsi, hopefully they will have some small segments with counting, colors, and Alefba so I can really feel comfortable in these areas. 

I think it's pretty realistic for me to try to learn 5 new words each day.  I try to get to the Global Studio as much as possible, but find that it's sometimes difficult to find the time in my day to go sit down for a few hours and do work with Rosetta Stone, for this reason I think it'd be helpful to copy some pages of textbooks so that I can continue my learning even on days when I don't have the time to make it to the studio.