Blogs

• Respond to the reading, reflecting on what is lost when languages die.
  

Reading the article on the revival of Siletz it was interesting to think about how languages go extinct. While speaking a common tongue may be useful for bringing people around the world closer together, I believe holding on to our differences and the things that make us unique is very important. Languages carry the culture and tradition of their societies and it would be a huge loss if everyone around the world all began speaking English exclusively. No one language today has the ability to convey every sound and nuance of every other language, so inevitably the death of a language marks a huge loss of culture and tradition. However, maintaining a language is more easily said than done. With so many different languages and many only spoken by a handful of people it is a huge challenge to preserve the depth and diversity of languages out there. Furthermore, in many cases like that of the Siletz people, you might only be able to speak to a couple other people. While it is important to hold on to our pasts it may be impractical to try to preserve every language in the spoken lexicon. In some cases our best hope may be in preserving the language electronically like that of Siletz.

I would say I have learned about 75-90 new words in Portuguese. The main program that has been teaching me all my vocabulary is duolingo. In terms of a goal for vocabulary I feel I have almost met my goal of learning most soccer vocabulary. From this point I would like to focus more on sentence forming and actual use of the vocabulary.

When a language is lost, many things disappear with it. For example, a culture can be lost as a language can often be the vehicle which culture is brought. Since a culture is rather, broad one can narrow down the culture with which language is brought down to things, such as songs, traditions, stories, and possibly even religion. If the language is isolated and has not been spread there is no way for these things to survive unless they are in physical form. This is why the creation of a dictionary, or something that can physically preserve a language is important for language preservation. Another thing that can be lost with a language is people. It is often the case that when a language is lost, it means that all those who speak the language have passed away. 

This week Joora and I presented on the transition of Turkish from Ottoman Turkish to Modern Turkish. This was something that Sezgi mentioned in her presentation on Turkish culture before Spring break and we thought it was very unique and interesting. Through our research, we learned that Ottoman Turkish was a very complicated mixture of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. It surprised me that all these languages belong to different language families. With most of the words in Ottoman Turkish being Arabic loanwords, the reformation of the Turkish language to create Modern Turkish required the purging of most of the Arabic and Persian vocabulary. Literally people were asked to make up new words to replace the loan words. One of the main goals of reforming the Turkish language was to make it more simple and easier to learn. This makes sense to me as I was surprised by how relatively simple Turkish is and how easy it is to learn. Other than some phonetic sounds that are difficult to make, the language structure is simple without gendered words or endings and the changing of suffixes to denote change in person or time. 

upfile_2899318765.mp3

This is a file of me talking about the recent development that Russia has chosen a singer to compete in Ukraine for Eurovision who performed in Crimea following the illegal annexation of Crimea. I talk about how it seems like a political move to provoke Ukrainians and make them angry and uncomfortable in their own country. 

Recently, Belarus screened a "documentary" in Russian about the Ukrainian Holy Hundred (the people who were killed by police and the Berkut during the Maidan protests in 2013-2014). The documentary falsely claims that the Holy Hundred were actually killed by protestors, and not by the police. This documentary has naturally caused a stir in Ukraine because people feel that it is hugely disrespectful to the people who lost their lives fighting for their country on the Maidan. This documentary ties in with my cultural project, because I have been finding political songs that are about Maidan and the Orange Revolution. Comparing the difference in treatment of the Holy Hundred in Ukrainian v. Belorussian media is an interesting task, as they both have such different takes on the issue. Despite these different takes, however, it is clear that the Belorussian documentary is completely false propaganda with the goal of discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of Russian-speaking people in Belarus, Russia, and (maybe) Ukraine. 

I am really enjoying the learning methods that I am using this semester. I feel that the way my language partner and I have been studying will give me a huge edge when I go to Ukrainian school this summer, because I am seriously working on my listening comprehension. While it is still easier for me to understand what is being spoken when I can read along, I am getting better at hearing and understanding without reading along. I have been working with my language partner by watching cartoons, listening to music, watching TV shows and watching the news to improve my listening comprehension. I did actually notice an improvement when I was in Ukraine over spring break. I was actually able to hear the difference between Russian and Ukrainian, and, even better, I was able to understand a lot more in Ukrainian than I did when I was there over winter break.

Over these two weeks, my language partner and I began trying branch out from cartoons and simple TV shows to watching the news. While it is definitely more difficult for me to understand what the news anchors talk about (they talk very quickly), I have found it interesting to watch Ukrainian news. I have a google alert set up so that I get updates on Ukraine (in English) on my email every morning, so that is actually very helpful for me when watching Ukrainian news. I think that having the background knowledge about things that are going on in English helps me put the pieces together better when I watch in Ukrainian. Usually, we watch a few segments and then we talk about it to make sure I understood what was going on. I often have questions, though, because there have been times when the speaker slides between Russian and Ukrainian, and I go from not understanding much to understanding everything. I know that this is something I will have to get used to (as many Ukrainians do speak with a mix of Russian and Ukrainian), but it still throws me off at this point.  I still have to work hard to keep the two languages separate in my mind, so when people mix them together purposefully, it really confuses me. 

Over these two weeks, I worked with my language partner on maintaining my grammar and improving my listening comprehension (through cartoons, songs and spoken stories). My language partner has started finding some children's stories for us to use in our lessons. He reads them to me, and then he asks me questions about them. It is much easier for me to answer the questions when I have the story in front of me so that I can read along when he is reading, but I know it is important for me to develop my listening skills enough that I do not have to see the words being spoken in order to comprehend them. We are working on taking away that crutch, but for now, it is more effective for me to read along. 

I have also been working on finding some songs for my cultural project. Through these songs, I have learned new Ukrainian words and phrases, and I have also been able to gain a deeper insight into the political climate of Ukraine. 

upfile_2420819641.mp3

• Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language.

By researching on the Reformation of Turkish alphabet, I learned how the cultural and religious reasons were there when the first president, Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, and his party changed Ottoman Turkish to modern Turkish. The government wanted to get rid of Islamic culture and make Turkey secular. It also aimed for young generation not to understand Ottoman legacy. I did not know that there were so many politics related to the big change of Turkish alphabet. Learning the reasons of the Reformation, I understood that there might be some inconvenience and linguistic gap between the young and old generation in Turkey, and learned how the government wanted Turkey to define itself as European/Western country by adapting the alphabet originated from the Latin alphabet that most of the European countries also use. 

In Turkish formality and informality are expressed through suffixes or  by changing the nature of words. For example, in order to formalize the question 'What is your name?' in Turkish both tactics are used. "Senin adin ne" means 'what is your name' informally, while "sizin adiniz ne" means 'what is your name' in a formal fashion. In this case the initial word "senin" is changed to "sizin" and the suffix "iz" is added to the word "adin" to signify pluralization. In a similar way, "Ya sen" - which means 'and you' - is pluralized as "Ya siz". Therefore, a clear pattern appears to exist in the method of pluralization in the Turkish language.

My learning goal for this week is to recap what I have learned so far in Portuguese. I went about this by reviewing my vocabulary I have learned. I also sang some Capoeira songs. Finally I reviewed my introduction in Portugese. 

Learning Plan #2

I could very much relate to the Culture Shock video because I am also an International student in this university. I mainly have American friends and did not establish relationships with any international students so I was unable to assess if my situation was unique or not. That is why the video was a fresh thing to witness. I learned that I was not the only who had a very difficult time adjusting to this country. I was very shocked when it came to greeting people. I come from India and although we are mainly a collectivist society, we do not greet and ask strangers how they are doing. When I was first asked that by people on campus I found it very strange but little did I realize that they did not ask it out of compassion or care but mainly because it was a normal way of greeting one another. I admit that I was a bit hurt when they walked pass me after asking such a weighted question but I got used to it one day at a time. This is why I can very much relate to them and this is why I never underestimate a person’s mental and emotional strength when they decide to go abroad for any reason. 

I think my classmates did a very good job in explaining their assigned culture. I especially loved the presentation on Turkish coffee. It showed the difference between the coffee culture in the US and Turkey. The two presentations on Korean food were well done as well and the presentation on the traditional clothes of Korea, the Hanbok (including the shoes and the beosun) and where they are worn in modern types was a nice way to show how ancient Korean culture is still present today and not forgotten. I only wish that I had done as good of a job as they did when it came to the topic and information collection. It was very hard to find information on academic articles regarding the Korean Pop music industry. 

The Korean language has words that resemble classical Chinese that is sometimes written in Chinese characters. The words are not written phonemically and instead are written in a constant form, therefore, even if the pronunciation is correct according to the spelling, the symbol block formations may be wrong. Korean sentence structure typically follows four forms – subject and noun (I am a student), subject and verb (She runs), subject and adjective (He is a student), and subject, object and verb (I water drink). The SOV is the most common type of sentence structure in the Korean language which is very different from the English language.

To start my learning process, I will use the following resources (including a mobile app called -Learn Korean-

https://www.howtostudykorean.com/

http://mangolanguages.com/index.html

https://www.koreanclass101.com/

http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/learn-hangul.html

https://freshkorean.com/free-resources/

Almost 2 million people speak Korean in China, mainly in provinces bordering North Korea. There are approximately half a million speakers in Japan and Russia, as well as significant numbers in the United States (over 600,000) with large communities on the west coast and in New York. Other communities are found in Singapore, Thailand, Guam, and Paraguay. The Korean language is one that stresses on respect and honor when it comes to age and status. Koreans use non-verbal language such as bowing as a sign of respect while things that are more affectionate (like kissing and hugging) are less common among people. In my opinion, it seems like a very humbling language. This is because when it comes to expressing things about oneself they do not use terms such as my country or my house or my mother, instead, they use the word ‘our’ to describe. In a way, it seems as if the usage of ‘our’ eliminates the self and discusses the collective. Maybe this reflects the collectivist mindset as opposed to the individualistic mindset. 

• Learn how to talk about family
• Ask and answer questions about identity, where you are from, what you do, what we study

-          Used Learn Korean App – It has an entire section on ‘Describing yourself’ (It provides full sentences in both questions and answer forms), vocabulary on daily routines, work, family, and school.

-          Used Korean class 101 to learn vocabulary on hobbies and introductions.