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As a French and International Business major, I have always been interested in international affairs. At an early age, I made it my goal to pursue a career in the international or government field. I started looking into opportunities with the U.S. Department of State, Embassy of France, and international corporations. I also decided that the first language I wanted to learn was French. I started taking French in the 8^th grade. At first, I performed poorly in my French class; however, as I became intrigued with the language and culture, I began to take more of an interest in learning about it. I have been taking French for over six years and it will always be my preferred foreign language. Nevertheless, I started to become fascinated with foreign languages in general. I decided that it would be enjoyable and beneficial if I began to learn more languages. The next language was Farsi.

            Farsi, or Persian, is a widely spoken language especially in Afghanistan and Iran. My interest in foreign policy and relations directed me towards learning Farsi (especially because I am interested in working for the Department of State). Although I would not change my decision to learn Farsi, the language is extremely difficult to learn. Unlike Farsi, French came easy to me after a certain amount of time because I was fascinated with the culture. Afghan and Iranian culture has caught my interest; yet, learning the language is still a hard task. Not to mention, French is a romance language and uses the same alphabet as English. The Persian alphabet is very similar to art. And, I’m not very artistic. It takes concentration and practice in order to be able to write words easily. For me (and in general), learning the alphabet is the foundation of the Persian language and without knowing the alphabet, learning words and phrases is a futile task. The Rosetta Stone in the Global Studio was also helpful in learning new vocabulary words. The visuals in the program helped me to remember the words. Also, having a language partner was very helpful because they are knowledgeable in the language and culture. MLC 105 really allowed me to explore a language that I may have otherwise not have been able to. The fact that it is “self-taught” is convenient because, as a business school major, I have a heavy course load and I’m taking French classes. Therefore, learning another language in a classroom setting would have been too much pressure. With MLC 105, I was able to develop a learning plan and learn the language at my own pace. I will definitely continue to learn Farsi and I look forward to continuing my language-learning journey.

I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to study Hebrew as a self-directed learner this semester. Autonomous language learning has been the perfect setting for me to delve into improvement of my Hebrew proficiency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Since I have a unique situation in which I have studied Hebrew in an immersed setting for a few years in elementary school, but haven’t had to apply it since, I am able to express myself verbally much better than I can actually read or write in the language. For this reason, I primarily intended to focus on retention of new vocabulary by reading research and news articles online, and then writing summaries on the topics I covered. What I found, and have been complemented on in the past couple months, is that my vocabulary and speaking have benefited from these efforts as well.

What worked? As I noted above, I think that reading articles online was most beneficial to my learning. Since I chose to read about topics that interested me, I was motivated to keep reading and spend a substantial amount of time trying to grapple with harder articles. Also, I chose to focus primarily on politics and international relations because of its relevance to my studies and other courses. This also helped by providing context and ensuring a level of understanding that could transfer to my use in conversation and writing. I found the cultural components of MLC really supportive of my learning as well. Sometimes when you grow up familiar with a culture, its traditions, stereotypes, hand gestures, and assumptions, you tend to overlook them and not pay attention to how they’ve developed or what their significance may be. The articles we read for MLC 105 and the culture presentations that were built into MLC 110 were great eye openers for me. I found it really interesting to think about the cultural assumptions built both into the Hebrew language as well as Israeli culture. Using Diigo and the Ning cultivated a sense of importance to the research I was doing. I enjoyed being able to share neat clips or articles I found with others, as well as look back at my personal journey throughout Hebrew learning this semester. It documented for me some of the cultural finds and learning I experienced. These included dissecting the Zohan clip for its stereotypes, understanding the subliminal messages embedded in political cartoons, or reading into the lyrics of Israeli songs. I found that the more interactive I was with the process of learning, the better I retained the new vocabulary and its contexts.

What didn’t work? Part of my learning plan included the completion of a novel in Hebrew. While I did so, I found that I was least excited about this assignment. I believe this is because I did not stop often to look up the words I was not familiar with, and I was reading at a much slower pace, while trying to understand the nuances of the story. I think the more interactive things I worked on were more effective. Since even when I was living in Israel, I preferred to read books in English, I am still really proud of completing the book. Another thing that could have improved my work would have been a possible connection with a native speaker with whom I could converse. I think that this would have supported my application of new vocabulary and been good motivation on a regular basis. Maybe in the future this would be possible through Skype conversations.

I think the biggest accomplishment for me was being able to understand Hebrew within the cultural context of its evolution. Understanding that Hebrew in its original form is such an ancient language, helped me gauge the tremendous transformation that occurred when it was in transition to being applied as a modern language. So many sects of society that we take for granted just did not exist in biblical times. Thus, it was helpful to understand that many new words were introduced to the language since the time of the European Enlightenment, as well as many adopted words that were blended into modern Hebrew, especially from Arabic, English, German, and Yiddish. Furthermore, I’ve found that there is a lot of specialized vocabulary depending on areas of expertise, vocation, or the military, which was supportive of my research. Other accomplishments include regular reading in Hebrew and practice in my writing, which I haven’t done since the sixth grade.

         Starting out in Self-Directed Language learning, I was really excited about working with Bethany and learning Kannada. I must admit, I was a little overenthusiastic and over-expectant. I expected that we would have an extensive vocabulary and be able to carry on intense conversations with the people we would meet. As we started learning, I realized that some aspects of the way I learn were exactly right: I am a audible and social learner, and the way Bethany and Aarti and I practiced together was perfect for my learning style. Our conversations would be filled with fun moments, like sitting outside in the courtyard on a pretty day, or going to the prayer room and talking about life in a sacred place. We had jokes too - like not pointing feet at people (as this is EXTREMELY rude in India). 

         My favorite moment, though, was when Bethany and I learned a song in Kannada which we created ourselves. I definitely learn by musical tones, and the lyrics of the song will stay with me. We placed the words to a popular tune that we know, and every time I hear the song, I will want to sing it in Kannada! 

          Some of the articles such as sociocultural factors and communicative competence I truly enjoyed reading because I could effectively look back at my study abroad experience and then look forward to how it will be different in India in a different culture and with a different language. For me, the articles brought in the cultural aspect that was missing from the language time with Aarti. I learned about the use of henna in India, and then started wearing henna and telling stories with it. I really enjoyed this aspect, and I have a henna pen in my room that I fully intend on using next year and learning new designs. In addition, I learned more about Indian culture in general - their views on family, on time, and on food. I think if I were to do this over, I would spend more time on vocabulary based on the culture (i.e. chutney - a favorite breakfast meal).

         When we go (now next summer) I am extremely excited about using knowledge about Indian culture; and in the meantime Aarti and I are going to keep learning together and cook together in my apartment. I felt like I grew from this class in ways that will stay with me. I fully hope to spend the rest of my life understanding cultural differences and talking to people from every people group and ethnicity and nationality. Learning Indian culture and Kannada are the first step in cultivating a greater communicative competence in my future.

This semester as a self-directed learner for Swedish has been a very challenging and rewarding semester. At the beginning of the semester I was very motivated to begin this course even though I was hesitant about my ability to remain motivated when there were only goals set by my self and my own responsibility in keeping up to date. These were legitimate concerns since I had never before participated in this type of course, but I was very soon convinced that the course would be a success when I began speaking Swedish and recognizing significant improvements in my fluidity and confidence. My goals at the beginning semester were to become more confident speaking in formal settings and expanding my vocabulary in order to speak about more complex topics beyond daily tasks and activities. My focus would be on developing my presentational speaking through readings taken from Swedish media and conversation with my language partner. At the beginning of the semester it was a little difficult to place my language level because I had never had any formal training in the Swedish language but could nonetheless communicate rather effectively in daily conversation. Determining my level was one of the interesting discoveries I made throughout my first conversations with my language partner. I realized that I was very uncertain about the conjugations of certain words and lacked confidence but many times I utilized complex sentence structures naturally. My language level was at a very interesting point at the start of the semester but I realized later through a particular reading that revealed more about my learning style and how that reflected my Swedish language development.

            The reading was a short article taken from The New York Times that explained the results from a study that showed the brain activity of an individual taught to learn a language like a native speaker. The studies showed that by focusing on oral ability and communicating a context where the spoken ability and fluidity is more important, learners exhibited brain activity similar to that of a native speaker’s brain activity. I realized while reading this article that a majority of my language learning has stemmed from such learning and that although I may score highly in immediate responses that are culturally appropriate I do struggle with written language. This was confirmed during the European Swedish language exam I took during my final evaluation. In listening and speaking I scored C1 and B2 levels respectively and on the other hand was not too surprised that my lowest score was in the writing section. This semester I have learned more about how to assess my languages and marked significant improvement since the beginning.

            Reflecting now on my experience, I believe the most fruitful part of my learning has been meeting with my language partner consistently twice a week. I have improved my speaking abilities tremendously and as I compare the amount of time I spoke to him to the amount of time I spoke in a French class, it has been much greater. I realize that had I been given the same opportunity to speak with a language partner for other language such as French my level may have been more advanced. Not only did I learn to communicate, but also I further developed my own cultural nuances through conversation of Swedish culture in comparison to the United States. If I could do one thing differently it may have been to focus more on writing, but saying this I am not sure this would have made my experience equally enjoyable and rewarding. I accomplished the majority of my goals that I made at the onset of the semester and of this I am very proud. A self-directed course took great organization and prioritization in order to remain up to date, but I know now I have the ability to direct a similar course for myself once again given the skills and I gained this semester.

Learning a language is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have.  At the same time, it can also be one of the most daunting and frustrating experiences if you’re ill-equipped to embark on such a journey.  While I have always been a lover of languages different from my own, I have never been a quick language learner.  As a result, many of my previous language learning journeys were like emotional roller coasters in which I would love the new language I was learning and its accompanying culture in one moment, and be completely frustrated with it in another moment.  Contrary to the intended structure of the course, I did not register for MLC 110 and was not technically learning a language on my own.  Still, I was learning a language – Portuguese! 

My purpose in MLC 105 was therefore a bit different from most students taking the course.  Having just returned from a semester abroad in Brazil, I was really excited about Brazilian culture and mesmerized by the Portuguese language.  I acquired a fairly decent proficiency of the language while abroad, but I was afraid of forgetting a significant portion of it upon returning home.  As I said in a previous blog post when referring to the need to practice a language, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”  Therefore my goals in MLC 105 were to maintain the Portuguese proficiency I gained in Brazil through sufficient practice, and to continue to improve my knowledge and understanding of it.  More specifically, I wanted to be able to navigate between the past, present, and future tenses with relative ease, learn 10 new vocabulary words a week, and learn at least 3 new songs in Portuguese. 

These goals were very realistic and easily attainable for me, because I was also registered in the Portuguese for Spanish Speakers (LAIS 313) language course.  The course covered material ranging from grammatical constructions and syntactic structures to cultural aspects of the language, such as music and regional social norms of Portuguese-speaking countries.  In the process of taking MLC 105 in conjunction with the LAIS 313 course, I was able to have a structured schedule of language learning.  I can say with confidence that I am now able to navigate with greater ease throughout the various tenses in Portuguese, and I learned a tremendous amount of new vocabulary words.  Similarly, I listened to a lot of Brazilian music during this time, both in and out of class.  Out of class, I used the wonderfully free internet source, Pandora, to listen and learn about some great new Brazilian music. 

If I had an opportunity to do things a bit differently however, I would have tried to obtain a language learning partner even though I was not registered for MLC 110.  I think it would have been really beneficial to have someone to practice the language with in a way different from classroom practice.   Perhaps in the future, language partners could be provided for students who request one, even if they are not self-directed language learners.  I’m sure such a task would be difficult, but I think the relative gains would be high in terms of the speaking proficiency of students learning foreign languages.    

One aspect of MLC 105 I was really pleased with was the cultural presentations.  Through these presentations, I had the opportunity to research and learn more about a culture I had always been interested in (the Gullah people).  In addition, I was able to learn more about the respective languages and cultures my fellow classmates were learning.  It was very interesting to see the existing patterns inherent in many languages and to see how cultural tendencies tend to overlap throughout many cultures.  As an International Studies major, I relish in any and all opportunities to gain insight from discussions on the linkages between language, culture, and society at large.  I also enjoyed the required readings for the course.  While some of them were a bit technical (i.e. How the Brain Handles Language), I found it very helpful to learn about the theories underlying language studies and about the various strategies for approaching language learning.  The information provided through this texts are not common knowledge and I might not have sought out such information on my own if it were not for this course.            

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the progress I made in MLC 105.  For the most part, I have accomplished the goals I stated in the beginning of this course.  While I was unable to practice my speaking as much as I would have liked, I still received more practice than I most likely would have achieved without the structure provided by both MLC 105 and LAIS 313.  In the process, I gained a wealth of knowledge about languages and cultures I previously had very little contact with.  Thank you Dr. Grove and Professor Scinicariello for your assistance in this process!  I will end this reflection with a bit of Portuguese: muito obrigada a vocês por tudo que fizeram.  Estão lindíssimas!   (Thank you all for everything that you’ve done.  You’re wonderful!)        

Reflection%20paper.docx

Babu_MLC105_Reflection_Paper

Coming into this semester my experience with Dari was never really structured. All of my relatives speak the language; however, I grew up only speaking English at home. On the other hand, when I travel abroad to visit my relatives, the only means for me to forge any type of interaction with them is through speaking Dari. Over the years, being immersed in Dari while abroad has allowed me to develop the ability to speak the language proficiently. Unfortunately learning the language through immersion presents some difficulties since I never picked up on proper grammar or pronunciation. In addition, while I needed to speak in Dari with my relatives, there was never a need for me to learn how to read or write in the language. As a result, my goals for the semester were to improve my speaking ability—pronunciation and grammar, and learn how to read and write.       

Personally, I did not find Rosetta Stone to be a useful tool for my language learning. I spent my first few weeks of the semester attempting to learn how to read and write through online resources. Nevertheless, Dari is an extremely difficult language to develop reading and writing skills on one’s own. Therefore, I did not notice any strong development until I began meeting with my language partner. Initially, during the first few meetings, I focused on learning how to write the alphabet. After becoming comfortable with the alphabet, I began to form words and then read. Eventually, as my abilities improved, I was able to write and read basic sentences. By the end of the semester, portions of the meetings I had with my language partner consisted of her saying words and sentences in Dari and having me write them; I found this task particularly useful. In regard to my speaking ability, I felt that it naturally progressed as I continued to learn how to read and write. Paying attention to grammar and pronunciation is especially vital for developing literacy in any language, not just Dari. In turn, that attention translated into improvements in my speaking.

Aside from the meetings with my language partner, I reflected on my past language learning experience with Spanish, and I tried to develop ways to apply my past approaches to Dari. One of the most essential aspects of my language learning was practicing Dari daily. I tried to spend anywhere from five to fifteen minutes each day, if possible, reinforcing what I had learned throughout the week. For instance, when I was first learning the alphabet, I would write each letter of the alphabet I could recall from memory; I kept doing this until I could recall the entire alphabet. Furthermore, I was fortunate to have family members that spoke Dari who were able to gauge my ability in the language, and then suggest improvements. To my surprise, the artifacts and culture project also aided me in gaining a better grasp of Dari. At first, I thought that the assignments would leave me repeating things I had previous knowledge of; however, I was mistaken since the assignments offered me an outlet to learn new words in an attempt to better portray whatever topic I was presenting.

Looking back on the semester it is difficult to find any aspect of my learning process that I would have altered. I do not feel that I did anything which impeded with my ability to progress with the goals in my learning planning nor do I feel that there were any other means to help me learn the language in a better way. Although, I do feel that my coursework, aside from learning Dari, was occasionally too great for me to be intently focusing on my language learning as well as I could have. Nonetheless, there was no way to alter my coursework, so I learned to accept the fact that I had to make some exceptions to my daily Dari practice.

Taking into consideration my ability in Dari at the beginning of the semester and the goals I put forth in my learning plan, I feel that I made noticeable improvements. I am confident that I could read children’s books in Dari, or write a simple sentence on command. Albeit, after one semester, I do not think I could delve into anything more advanced. While I do not feel that the levels of complexity of the topics I can discuss have drastically changed, I do feel that I have better control over my speaking ability. I definitely would consider this semester a success, but my ability in Dari ultimately relies on how much I continue to use the language. Consequently, I have decided to continue working on my Dari by moving onto MLC 111.

Today my teaching assistant and I focused on learning some vocabulary. He taught me that woman in Turkish is Kadin, man is Adam, child is cocuk, water is su, bread is ekmek, tea is cay, car is araba, house is ev, pencil is kalem, money is para, city is sehir, movie is film, morning is sabah, noon is oglen, , afternoon is ogleden sonra, night is gece. We focused a little bit on vocabulary since we had been working mostly on conjugations and grammar for the previous weeks.  We discussed these words and i was told that in order to say them in a plural form, all i had to do was add ler or lar to the ending of the word, depending on whether the last vowel before the ending of the word was either e,i,o,u or a,i,o,u. In order for me to be able to memorize the words, my language assistant made picture cards and would pop them out in random order while I would have to quickly reply what the picture is showing in Turkish. My language assistant told me to practice that throughout the evening since he said that I would most likely forget the words by the next day. That evening I did not practice the words because I had to study for two midterms in other classes, surprisingly however, I tried to test myself with the cards and noticed that indeed I had forgotten the words over night. That experience taught me that vocabulary needs to be practiced in order for it to stick in my memory, and better yet applied while speaking, that way it will never be forgotten, at least not so quickly.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/04/thinking-in-foreign-language-makes-decisions-more-rational.ars?clicked=related_right 

This semester has been incredibly rewarding for me. I initially had no plans to sign up for MLC 105 and 110, but on a whim, I decided I might want to try adding it to my schedule because I wanted to take the opportunity to learn Korean formally. I approached it with a very open mind - I didn't get frustrated with myself when I wasn't able to progress at the speed that I had initially thought I could reach. It turns out Korean is even harder than I thought! I was forced to relearn many things I thought I knew, but I found that there were several words and concepts that I was entirely wrong about because of my incomplete and informal lessons. Although immersion (speaking it at home) is a great way to learn the most important and useful parts of language, it does have a tendency to put other aspects on the back burner, such as grammar and more formal concepts. Consequently, I found myself constantly rethinking things I had become accustomed to as a novice Korean speaker. 

I enjoyed learning about some of the concepts that I encountered while learning my language. The concept of anomie was very familiar to me, but I had no idea it was a recognized word until our reading about cultural isolation. I enjoyed reading the various articles about different kinds of learning and case studies pertaining to language. The universality of language is almost paradoxical because they are all different, but somehow, the foundation is very similar for many of them. It was interesting to learn about the cultural aspects of language as well. 

Watching the video about exchange students and about the different perceptions in various countries was both enlightening and entertaining. I was able to learn quite a bit about things that I really had no experience with - I had no idea what an exchange student's life was like. It made me reflect on how I will interact when I go abroad eventually. Also, the different gestures and intricacies of other countries were new to me for the most part, so learning about things like crossing your leg over the other is simple, but useful. 

As a language learner, I think I learn best when I motivate myself through social pressure. I find that when I am in a situation where I am forced to speak with as much clarity and fluency I can conjure, I usually am able to rise to the occasion. For example, I speak in Korean with one of the language partners just for fun and because I know I would feel embarrassed if I made a silly mistake, I take extra care and spend more time thinking about what I want to say. Through this kind of practice, I have found that my conversations with my parents have become better and better, and even my friend thinks I've improved! Although learning to write and read Korean wasn't a goal of mine, I think I have had the extra benefit of a little improvement for both thanks to sheer exposure. 

I've learned the significance of culture and language through my experiences as a self-directed language learner. I really enjoyed this class because I was able to learn about other languages through my peers, as well as through lessons with my language partner. 

MLC 105 Reflection Paper

Afghan Education    Follow the link to read

Below is the link to a paragraph about my weekend.

Second Farsi Paragraph

This demonstrates my first Farsi paragraph! How exciting?

FARSI PARAGRAPH

Farsi Etiquette-Click this link

vocabulary 1

vocabulary 2

vocabulary 3

Follow the links below to find the verb conjugations

verbs1

verbs2

verbs3

verbs4

v  Introduce myself

v  Ask others introductory questions (name, age, how he/she is doing)

v  I can count in Farsi

v  Talk about the weather

v  Describe myself ( female, student, favorites)

v  Say what I did yesterday, today, will do tomorrow (simple sentences)

v  I can talk about what I did during the week/weekend (basic sentences, but use “then”/ “after”

v  Talk about my family

v  Tell time

v  Learned some about the lunar calendar/how Farsi-speakers talk about dates

v  Form basic sentences/questions based on my vocabulary

                                  "Chanda" Panda!

You are pretty.          "Neevu chanda aderee"

In Kannda, beautiful/pretty is "chanda".

Do you see this panda? Isnt it pretty? Chanda panda!

Since Chanda and panda rhyme, its an easy tool to remember the word in Kannda. Remember the pretty panda and you are on your way to complimenting someone's beauty:

"Neevu  = you

"chanda" = beautiful

"Aderee" = are

This teaching method was really effective in helping one of our friends learn the word chanda. The rhyming nature of chanda and panda help recall, and then having an item that is pretty and lovable also helps with the meaning.