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I have been practicing reading the Korean hangul language as I have been learning. I learned the complexity of sounds and how it's difficult to relate English letters to Korean characters sometimes. The vowel pronunciations don't change like English vowels depending on the word. Some consonants in Korean change sounds depending on where it is within a character. One of the symbols that looks similar to a backwards S (except with straighter lines) makes a sound between an R and an L. I find that the most difficult to pronounce. When I read, it takes a while to put the sounds together, but I can eventually read most words. I feel very accomplished in being able to do even this little by reading slowly because a couple of weeks ago, Korean letters just looked like scribble scrabble to me. My goals of an extensive vocabulary does seem more difficult than I had imagined. I need to overcome the struggle with simple words before I can move on to much longer phrases. I think my goals are still realistic, but it will just take a lot of practice. 

For my cultural project I have decided to focus on the mandatory involvement of Israeli citizens in the IDF. In my research I would like to explore the affect of this law on nationalism, political activism, community, international perspective, and on culture and society as a whole. Since Israel is a westernized modern first world country, I think this topic is especially important in understanding some of the cultural differences that occur between this nation and countries in Europe or versus the U.S. I think visuals and specific examples will be most successful in conveying this aspect of Israeli culture to an unfamiliar audience.

Having visited back in Israel I am extremely interested in catching up with some of the military related terms that have become mainstream language used daily in Israeli culture. In order to grasp the bigger picture of this culture I plan to research written texts, video clips, photographs, etc. 

In order to gain a more personal perspective, I plan to interview one of the soldiers that accompanied my birthright trip and just recently was released from a paratrooper's unit and ask questions related to his experience of being Israeli prior and after serving in the IDF. 

This week I have made flashcards from all of the vocabulary that I have accumulated over the past six weeks. In order to refine not just the translation of the words, but also their use in literary context, I have created new sentences using the vocabulary in order to practice implementing it. 

I have also started my research for the cultural project which I will be doing on military culture in Israel. I am interested in this topic because service in the IDF is mandatory for the citizens in Israel and is thus immersed into the culture of living there and being an active citizen. This is an experience that I did not and most likely will not partake in as an Israeli citizen because I have spent a majority of my life living in the states. I look forward to learning not only the vocabulary involved in military participation, but also the ideology and its effects on society and political awareness.

This week I have introduced another news source to my regular reading of the news on Ha'aretz in order to try comparing perspectives and political subjections of the source. I think it will take more than a week to come up with this analysis. 

I have additionally enjoyed researching video clips on youtube to get a feel for cultural contexts and mainstream media in Israel.

Lastly I continued reading in my novel.

My partners, Jessy and Sheetal, and I, have decided to make our cultural project focus on the standards of beauty in Korean society. We are going to talk about the influence of Western standards in Korea/Asia, and particularly on the ideals of skin color (light), height (tall), and eyes (big and double-eyelids). While my partner and I were researching, one of our first and most resonating thoughts was that none of those qualities are naturally considered to be Korean. When you think of a tall, light-skinned, and big-eyed lady, do you imagine Lucy Liu or Scarlett Johanson? It makes sense, therefore, to imagine that the standard is based off of a Western look, and consequently, unattainable through natural means. 

As a result, plastic surgery is common and very pervasive in Korean culture. Often, plastic surgery is given as a high school graduation gift for procedures such as eyelid reconstructive, skin bleaching, or nose jobs. Unlike America, beauty is a very narrow consideration in Korea - differences are not celebrated the way that they can be here. The youth emulate pop stars that emulate the most popular artists in America, and the cycle is vicious. Until boys and girls find peace with their natural bodies, plastic surgery will remain prominent in Korean society. 

I already had done some research on blepheroplasty, or eyelid surgery, so I was interested in the other aspects of Korean beauty. I learned a lot about methods of skin whitening, such as bleaching and special creams and lotions, as well as the emphasis put on tall, lean legs. It is fascinating to read about Korean standards of beauty because although I am Korean, I have a different perception of beauty altogether, and I absolutely am not light-skinned, tall, or have double-eyelids. Yet, I am comfortable with my appearance and wonder how I would be received if I went to Korea. 

I have implemented the use of artifacts quite a bit thus far in my study of Hebrew. I have taken advantage of my prior knowledge of the language by watching clips of tv shows, listening to music, and reading a whole assortment of texts. I find these to be supportive in my learning of the language, especially in their ability to place the new vocabulary I am learning not only in linguistic context but in a frame of reference and cultural context of when and by whom it is appropriately used. I have found that there is a lot of specialized vocabulary depending on areas of expertise, vocation, or for example in the military. Such popular fields have also made new words in modern Hebrew become more mainstream and commonly used. One of my goals this semester was to grasp a better understanding of some of the slang that is used that is not officially in the Hebrew dictionary. I anticipate that artifacts such as comedy clips and others will reveal some of this culture and its vocabulary that I am foreign to.

I have spent a majority of my self directed study in Hebrew by reading, so it has been an extremely influential tool for me in my advancement of the language. Reading has provided me not just with the opportunity to learn new vocabulary, but examples of the context in which I can apply that vocabulary, a cultural background for its use, whether it be political, storytelling, street vocabulary, or military slang etc. and has been a great source of engaging me with the process of learning. Some of the ways in which I have sought to apply what I have learned through my reading and retained the new vocabulary is through creating my own sentences with the new words that I am working on adding to my repertoire. One of the weekly tasks I have assigned myself is keeping up with news briefs in Hebrew. After catching up on the news, I write a summary in Hebrew about the article, my opinion, and my thoughts about the author's perspective. Another way I have challenged myself with understanding not only the written aspect of language but its subliminal messages is by trying to interpret political cartoons. This has been difficult because it requires knowledge of political figures and a political context from an Israeli perspective. Both of these tasks have stimulated my interest in discovering the language and teaching myself how to implement what I am learning.

I wrote a card to my Korean friend's mom.

For the free topic cultural post this week I have decided to focus on the culture of arts and creativity in modern Israel and its importance in unifying a diverse body of people in the relatively young nation. State formation required not only the obvious variables of law, governance, education, a common language, and army, but also a core culture that people could identify with and value. Israel saw immigration from over 100 nations with immigrants who had been indentured in assimilation and the culture and linguistics of their homeland. Arriving in Israel was not just a challenge economically, but also in creating a sense of identity in place which they could take ownership in and raise new generations within a specifically Israeli culture. For this reason, the arts in Israel have prospered intensively especially in the era of technology. For a nation that is ultimately westernized and adopts many aspects of American and European culture, Israel is home to unique radio shows, TV series, music artists of all genres imaginable, world renowned artists, movie and theatre productions, etc. One of the sites that I was excited to stumble upon detailed all the yearly festivals that are held in Israel. I was previously familiar with parades that are held for national and religious holidays, however, I was excited to find out about unique festivals that include story telling, children's theatre, belly dancing, and jazz, just to name a few. These can be found on popular social media websites under CultureIL. I also found in my research that Israel is home to the highest number of museums per capita in the world! I thought I had been to quite a few myself, but clearly there are dozens I've never heard of. One of my favorite experiences with Israeli arts has been the Nachalat Benyamin arts and crafts market. Every Tuesday and Friday a main street in Tel Aviv is closed off for local artists to set up booths, sell and display the work. It is a great opportunity for no-name artists to get their talent out and it is genuinely beautiful and ranges from woodwork to glasswork, jewelry, to painting and ceramics. This personal interaction with the artist is one of the great things I value about the Israeli culture of the arts.

SDLAP_learningplan.docx

This week in MLC 110 I accomplished the following:

-Writing:  I wrote out 15 sentences utilizing the main interrogative words (who, what, where, when) -- have not studied "why" yet, as it is much more complex than the other four interrogatives.  The sentences helped me gain a better sense of the word order that one uses when utilizing the question words, because at first the word order when using these interrogatives was quite confusing for me.

-Grammar:  Memorized 7 post-positions (especially ka) -- and worked on Usha Jain's exercises in the "Introduction to Elementary Hindi Grammar" book for the "ka" postposition (of or belonging to me, you, we, he, she).

-Listening and reading:  Completed all the activities and listened to all the lessons about "Kinship" on the Defense Language Institute (Foreign Language Center)'s website for Hindi as preparation for next week's focus on family life and hobbies. URL is available here: http://gloss.dliflc.edu/products/gloss/hnd_soc321/hnd_soc321_act1.html.  This activity took me a very long time to complete because of the amount of Hindi reading that was involved, which I am still quite slow at accomplishing, since I am a beginner.

-Vocabulary:  Most of my vocabulary that I learned this week was based on interrogative words and postpositions, since they are completely different from Punjabi.  I studied the main interrogatives, yes/no indicators, and the postpositions.

My first artifact was well received by my Grandma. She loved it! My mom is visiting soon and will be bringing a letter for my grandma and her response. I would like for my next artifact to be of a recording of me reading the letter to show that I have learned to pronounce words better. I will also post the translation of the letter. My goals for week 4 and week 5 were to understand how to ask questions and how to answer questions. My goal was to be able to know answers to common questions and responses for what to say when I don't know what someone is asking. My language partner taught me what is most commonly said and questions that are most commonly asked. I learned that Koreans often mention eating in conversations because it is polite to make sure people are well fed. I achieved my learning goals with the help of my language partner and by additional research online. I learned that responses to even yes or no questions vary depending on how formal one person must talk to the other. Hierarchy is very important to every conversation even what would seem to be a casual small talk conversation. There is definitely more for me to learn because questions and answers and endless. I am confident with the words I did learn and think that I am on the right track towards my ultimate goals of communication with my Grandma and also traveling in South Korea. 

During this week I focused on learning more about a current debate in Sweden surrounding a recent proposal to implement a 40% mandatory quota for women in the board of directors of businesses. This proposal was made by the Social Democrats and has been a highly debated topic since Norway's recent adoption of this same law. In order to understand the diversity of opinions and arguments for the quota system I have followed media coverage in several news sources and listened to interviews with top representatives of political parties, feminist groups, and the Swedish organization for enterprises. The following are some of the articles I have read:

Interview with a female representative from the Organization of Swedish Enterprises

http://www.newsmill.se/artikel/2011/09/23/lika-inte-s-rskilda-r-ttigheter-arkelsten
Interview
http://www.expressen.se/debatt/kvotering-fungerar---se-bara-pa-norge/
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/valet-2010/norsk-kvotering-gav-hojd-kompetens
http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/karriar/ratar-norges-modell_2051167.svd

Through reading of these articles and discussing the topic further with my language partner I have also expanded my vocabulary in the areas of argumentation and related vocabulary.

jämställdhet: gender equality

särbehandling

rättigheter

måltavla: target

särskildt: particular

likabehandling: equal treatment

kvotering: quota

bolagstyrelse: Board of directors

egenskapar: personal skills

målriktaded: goal driven

undersökning: research study

motsatset: the counter

jämfor med: compare with

talesperson: representative

This week I read through a 100 page autobiography of my grandmother who is 97 and had her story recorded by an Israeli journalist. I created a vocabulary list of words that I was not familiar with and accumulated a word bank of twenty words that I was able to apply in forming written sentences to practice their use in context.

I also continued my practice of reading the daily news in Hebrew. This week there were a significant number of articles on the Iranian nuclear situation, Syria's internal problems, and interestingly a section dedicated specifically to US 2012 elections.

I also watched an Israeli comedy clip on reality show interviewing from the News channel in Israel. It was great for insight on modern culture and slang which I am not familiar with in comparison to family communication or news briefs.

Reading Korean is difficult. of course it's not impossible, but it is frustrating sometimes. Although Japanese uses three different written forms (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji), it's easier to read than Korean (I'm going to exclude kanji, though). The tricky thing about Hangeul (the written Korean language) is that you have these sort of 'letters' that must be combined in order to make a syllable or something similar to one Japanese character. Since I'm still a beginner, reading quickly is difficult for me. I noticed that I learned to read Japanese quicker than Korean. It takes more time to figure out what you're reading and how the 'letters' are combined to form words. As for comprehension, I can understand some things, but not many. It honestly depends on what sort of text I pick to read. I practiced reading a newspaper and I couldn't understand most of it, but I could get the gist of some things. I think it would be better if I started with children's books or something really simple. I think it also helps to read aloud. Not only does it help with the reading, but it also helps you to practice pronunciation and enunciation, which is always a plus. I'm working on vocabulary as well. I've memorized the lists given to me by my language partner. We've been focusing on simple things like fruits, beverages and words related to hobbies. I've made tons of flashcards and that's been helpful. Do I have realistic goals? I don't see why not. I'm not trying to rush myself; I'm just focusing on pacing myself and repeating the words I've already learned. Memorization definitely requires repetition. 

I've finished my first artifact for the semester and I have to say, I'm quite proud. I wrote a card to my Korean friend's mom and I wrote it in Korean. It's not a very long message, but I think it's a decent length. In the card, I introduced myself (the mom and I haven't met yet since she lives in Korea) and just talked about what I liked. I asked her is if she liked strawberries because it had been on of my recent vocabulary terms. It was fun.  My learning goals for week 4 and 5 were completed. I learned  how to order food in Korean, how to ask which dish was the tastiest and also whether something had beef in it. Week 5, we extended from the restaurant food ordering to money exchange. I learned to count money and to ask how much something was, how to say expensive/cheap, ask if they take cash/check/credit card. So, mission accomplished. 

Attached below is my presentation on the history of Persian:

History of Persian.pptx

I had never really taken the time to learn about the history of Persian (even though I knew some of the language) until tasked with doing so for this assignment. Much of the information I learned about Persian regarded the language's development and influence. For instance, I had no idea the Persian was one of the most widely spoken languages in Asia decades ago because it was a bridge language; a bridge language is a common language spoken between two people who speak different languages. Moreover, I previously knew about the strong impact of Persian literature and poetry from centuries ago that still impacts the culture today; however, I did not know that Persian written during those times was considered Modern Persian. Essentially, Modern Persian is the Persian that you would encounter today in Iran or Afghanistan, and it has been spoken since 800 AD. As a result, assuming you know Persian, you can pick Persian text from over 1000 years ago, and still be able to read and comprehend it with little effort. 

With regard to evaluating my first artifact, I did not realize how difficult it would be at first for me to produce a recording that I actually liked (similar to what Claire said about recording her video).  At first, it seemed stressful to be able to talk about greetings and introductions with my language partner while using the correct verb conjugations, greetings, etc -- all while being taped on the Flip cam!  After about three tries (yes, it took me a while), I finally had a recording that I liked.  I found that as I became more unaware of the video camera, I was able to focus more on the grammar and pronounciation.  However, I am still aware of my accent in pronouncing "maii" vs. "mai" ("I" vs. "in").  When I was practicing, I kept having to differentiate between the two, and when my LP and I were recording the conversation, I forgot the very slight difference.  One of my most complex sentences was the one in which I responded to my LP's query about my family by saying, "My family is fine, but my grandmother is sick.  But the doctor gave her medicine."  I think this was a little too much of a grammatical stretch for me, since I haven't really studied the past tense of "to give" yet.  If I were to improve upon this, I would use a simpler phrase that I am more confident in saying, such as "...but she has medicine."  It was very helpful to write out the script.  Although it was difficult not to see it during the recording, I felt that not using the script was a better measure of my ability to improvise, remember, and actually have a real conversation with my LP.  One other improvement I would make is making the hand gesture while saying Namaste.  I had studied this, but my LP (who is young) said that young people do not really make the gesture when talking with other young people. I just wanted to make a note to remind myself that if I interact with an older person, I would definitely make the "hands together" gesture.

Evaluation of Learning Goals for Weeks 4 and 5:

Week 4: Week 4 was really successful in terms of the activities I did.  I loved listening to the Jab We Met Hindi film dialogues -- it was amazing to actually recognize words.  Most of the words I could recognize were colloquial expressions about identity, family, or questions.  Contextual clues helped a lot in determining what was said (like the film star's facial expressions, etc).  I noticed that when I did not have the subtitles on, there were definitely many parts where I misinterpreted what was said.  This usually happened when the conversation was talking about the past or about the future, since I haven't studied those yet.  With regard to grammar, the grammar activities in learning about unmarked/marked masculine and feminine nouns were helpful. I did grammar drills from "Introduction to Hindi Grammar," by Dr. Usha Jain.  It takes me a very long time to read the words (the exercises are all in Hindi, not transliterated), but I think it is helpful.  A very helpful additional activity was the script I created for the video artifact -- it was definitely difficult and I did make a few mistakes with certain letters (forgetting to put the line on top of the "p", etc), but overall, it was definitely worthwhile.

Week 5: 

I really enjoyed learning the interrogative words, but the word order when using them is somewhat tricky, and I did not account for that in my goal.  Thus, I am spending a little more time than allotted to hopefully master these question words and word order.  I am able to talk about myself in present progressive and imperfect, but I need to work more on using verb conjugations for others (he/she, they, we, etc).  I think I will continue working on this for this week.  The post-positions are not as tricky as I expected -- I am doing drills in the Intro to Hindi Grammar, and many are similar to Punjabi.  The ones that are different, though, are definitely ones that I must get more familiar with.  Hopefully I will review these with my LP this week!

Topic of your choice for this week's MLC 110 Cultural Post

India's religious diversity is an interesting phenomenon to observe, as India is home to many different religious traditions; however, people unfamiliar with India commonly assume that because one is Indian, one must be Hindu.  Often, this is not the case.  In my experiences in India, I found people's experiences with religion to be a blend of different practices and faiths.  Religion seemed to be more about appreciating the unknown, rather than adhering strictly to a certain tradition.  During my time in India, I went to many historical Sikh gurdwaras, a Hindu temple, a Sufi festival, and a Buddhist temple.  Additionally, as a person who does not adhere to a particular faith tradition, I found it very interesting to see how different aspects of religion permeated many aspects of daily life in India.  For instance, although my host family was Sikh, they still had Hindu sculptures of Ganesh and other deities around their home to "bring good luck and prosperity."  In the morning and evening, the housekeeper, my host mom, and my host dad would all pray in a certain room in the house that held the Sikh holy scripture.  It was interesting to see how these different roles, so varied in socioeconomic status, all came together in spiritual worship.

India is home to Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism, and many other religious traditions.  Hinduism is the predominant faith tradition (practiced by about 80% of the population).  In Punjab, Sikhism is one of the most widespread religions.  Sikhism is a religious tradition that, in the 1600s, diverged from Hinduism and Islam, the most common faith traditions of the time.  Sikhism is monotheistic, opposes the caste system, supports equality between men and women, and has a holy book that includes the teachings of the Sikh gurus (teachers).  On the other hand, Hinduism is polytheistic, with many different gods that one could worship.  Hinduism supports the caste system and also proposes the existence of karma.  Hinduism has many different religious festivals that are associated with gods and goddesses, as well as with the earth -- for example, there is Holi (spring festival), Dussehra, Diwali, and more.

In India, I really enjoyed seeing how people of different religions came together and supported other religions as well.  For instance, at the Golden Temple (a major Sikh place of worship in India), people of all religions are welcomed, despite the religious/political conflicts between Sikhs and Hindus in the 21st century.  Similarly, with my host parents, I learned that being of a particular faith does not mean having to not practice traditions of other faiths.  To them, religion was about appreciating spirituality through many different perspectives, whether Sikh, Hindu, or Buddhist.  This view of religion reflects the nature of India as a whole, with many multifaceted traditions, languages, and beliefs.

Here is one of the pictures I took at the Golden Temple at sunrise during the summer:   

MLC 105 Learning Journal #5: Reading in Target Language --  Try to do some "reading" in your target language.  What have you learned?

Last week, I read a dialogue between two people in the Teach Yourself Hindi book that I am following.  The dialogue was between two people -- Javed and Raju, and each person was asking the other person about his family.  In the Teach Yourself Hindi book, the dialogues are printed first in Hindi (Devanagari) script, then followed by a transliteration.  When I attempt to read Hindi, I cover up the transliterated part (in English) with a post-it note because if I don't, I will be tempted to read the transliteration of a word if I don't understand it in Hindi first.  I've noticed that I can recognize "little" words that use the common vowels/consonant sounds (probably because I see them more often), but there are also words that I have a VERY difficult time even sounding out because the combination of consonants/vowels are so intense.  When I read the dialogue, I had particular trouble with recognizing the word "adhyapak" (teacher) in Hindi because in Hindi, if two certain consonants are next to each other, they become connected and half of the first letter is removed, so it's difficult to even recognize the two letters for non-native speakers.  What I am learning how to do is to pronounce the word with the other letters first (that I do recognize), and then think about the word that it could be using contextual clues and my Punjabi vocabulary.   This worked for me when I was trying to determine what "adhyapak" could be without knowing the "dy" letter combination.  The most important aspect of reading so far, for me, has been trying to be more patient.  It is frustrating sometimes that I have studied the script but still cannot recognize certain (rare) letters that only occur in writing, but I can recognize them by sound.  When this happens, I try to remind myself that learning a language, particularly with regard to reading, takes time and is a continual, very gradual process.  As students taking other courses as well, it is also important to ensure that with regard to reading, we are both realistic and determined in setting appropriate goals for reading, which I believe I am doing.

I have now started to learn the Turkish alphabet and how certain letters are applied in different ways than in the languages i am familiar with. Learning the alphabet wasn't too difficult since most of the letters are Latin and several sounds are similar to sounds of Russian letters, therefore the alphabet learning process took very little time. I then moved on to greetings and common phrases used in acquainting. I learned that there are several various ways of saying the same exact thing in Turkish, and they all sound very different. However, with the help og my language partner i have been able to learn these sayings and i feel pretty comfortable with saying them now. it is nice that their are several ways to say a certain phrase since if my memory fails me i will always be able to remember one of the four ways to say goodbye rather than just one or two ways as I have seen in other languages. The difficult part of Turkish in my opinion is recognizing how to pronounce words, the language is nothing like the other languages in my arsenal and therefore it has not been easy to get the pronunciation down for several words that i have read in my exercises. Nevertheless, i am making progress and am happy with that,