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As the semester is coming to a close I have had time to reflect on my language learning. I have found that the Mango Language App was very helpful for learning basic vocabulary and phrases. I definitely learned a lot using the app and I found the lessons it had very helpful and relevant to what I wanted to be able to say. However, the most effective way of learning was definitely with my language partner Bishan or speaking with my boyfriend Dilsher and his brother Adil. The main flaw in the Mango App was that it did not prompt you to have a conversation. Rather it gave you a phrase in English and asked you to translate it to Hindi. Although this was helpful to master vocabulary, as stated, it did not help very much in understanding questions that people asked me and to be able to think on my feet without a direct prompt of what to say. Thus the most helpful was when I spoke with native speakers and had them ask me questions using vocabulary that I knew but in a slightly different order so I could learn to understand new phrases. Although I did not set out to learn the entire Hindi alphabet the Mango App did also help with recognition of various letters and words because it gave the translation in Hindi script (Hindi lipi). Thus I am able to recognize a majority of consonants and vowels. This is helpful because Hindi script is purely phonetic. Thus as soon as I master the alphabet I should, in theory, be able to read any word. This is much different from English lettering with many silent letters and alternate pronunciations depending on the positioning of letters in the word. 

I also came across a very helpful website in my Hindi endeavors. (Hindi Website). This website had some helpful sound clips so I could master pronunciation. It also had some helpful pages on introductory grammar. Being Hindi grammar is so different from English grammar it was helpful to have a written summary explaining word order and different phrases that we do not have in English. Although my language partner was helpful in describing these things to me I find that I learn very well by reading things directly so it was nice to have this website to reinforce my learning. 

Overall I think this course was very effective in helping me learn some Hindi basics. However, I think that the lax structure may have been a little difficult for me, especially in my last semester. There were definitely some weeks where I felt overwhelmed with other work and did not put in as much effort learning Hindi because I knew that there was no structured class I had to go to other than meeting with Bishan every week. I think in the future if I continue to pursue this language it would be nice to do so in a classroom setting. However, learning at my own pace was definitely nice. I think having a boyfriend who speaks the language was definitely the main driver in my motivation to learn this language. I am excited that I can at least say some short phrases to him and that I at least a little more understanding of conversations when he speaks with his brother or his parents which makes me feel a little less left out. I definitely plan on returning to India and I hope the little bit of Hindi that I have mastered will prove helpful. 

This week I have been immersing myself in the Indian culture. I have been sampling Indian restaurants in the area and I have tried my best to order food in Hindi. Whenever I go to a restaurant I try and bring my friend Adil or my language partner Bishan so they can teach me the names of certain dishes and what is in each of them. Having been to India I am familiar with many Indian dishes but I think it is helpful to continue going to places in the US and to try as many things as I can. I have found I particularly enjoy the mango lassi and a sweet dessert called gulab jamun. 

Along with going to restaurants I have also been expanding my knowledge of Ayurveda for my cultural project. I have spoken with my language partner Bishan whose father practices Ayurveda. I have also spoken with my boyfriend whose family practices as well. Through online research and direct conversation I have learned a lot about the ideas behind this form of medicine and many speak to the benefits of the practice. Although this practice originates in the Hindu religion, it is definitely not limited to followers of Hinduism. My boyfriend is a Sikh and his family practices. I have also found a bunch of Americans who practice through blogs and various websites.

Here is my third artifact. The transcript is as follows:

This is my mother- Ye meri ma hai

What is her name?- Inka nam kya hai?

Her name is Maria- Inka nam Maria hai

What does she like to do?- In ko kya pasand hai?

She likes the woods- In ko jhariyaah pasand hai

And who is this?- Aur ye kya hai?

This is my father- Ye mere papa hai

What is his name?- Inka nam kya hai?

His name is Rick- Inka nam Rick hai.

What does he like to do?- In ko kya pasand hai?

He likes to watch TV- In ko TV dekna achaa lagta hai

And who is this?- Aur ye kya hai?

This is my brother- Ye mera bhaee hai.

What is his name?- Iska nam kya hai?

His name is Andrew- Iska nam Andrew hai

What does he like to do?- Is ko kya pasand hai?

He likes XBOX- Is ko XBOX pasand hai.Artifact%203.m4a

As I have been practicing reading korean with Ji Hae, I am always looking for opportunities to read korean on a daily basis. Social media has been a great help in this case. I opened an Instagram account and started following my favorite korean celebrities. As a result, whenever they post anything on Instagram they almost always have their captions in korean or write comments in korean. Thus find myself trying hard to read and understand what they said not with the initial intention of practicing korean but simply out of the desire to know what they are saying. Another advantage of Instagram is that the words that are used are the words that are very frequently used in conversation and daily life. On the other hand, the words that are usually used in lyrics of songs, books and in korean language level tests are usually only used in written korean and contain words that would never be used in day to day conversations. In order to expand my knowledge of useful words I have also started watching korean shows without subtitles. This forces me to pay more attention to what is being said. I have started to notice the pronunciation of different words, looking for new words, trying to figure out their meanings and many little details that are usually missed while reading subtitles.  

I was watching a Korean variety show one day about kids and they showed how the children spent their day at a folk village school. It was the first time I heard about something like a village school. Therefore I did some research and found that there is a folk village in Korea in the city called Yongin. The village consists of around 270 houses which are designed like the houses in the Joseon era, different workshops and farms. There is also a village school where the children from the variety show had spent their day. Through the show I was able to learn a lot about the school. 

In the show, the children went to the school with their respective fathers. The school building is designed like a traditional korean house and is made mostly of wood. Once they arrived at the school they were greeted by their teacher who was dressed in a hanbok. Both the children and their fathers were made to change into hanbok once they arrived. The children were taken to a traditional classroom where there were several other children (3-4 years old) and were given lessons on good behavior and etiquette. They were taught how to be a good child such as how to greet parents and how to answer to their parents with respect and politeness. Next they were taught how to make ink and do calligraphy. They were taught to be more disciplined. From the show it looked like the parents of the children were very serious in their intentions for their children to learn good etiquette and proper behavior. It made sense because such values of respect and formality is very ingrained in the korean culture that parents teach their children such values from a very early age. 

I created a learning activity for the class that incorporates American brands and popular words with Greek words to show a connection. The lesson is short but gets the point across that Greek is spoken by Americans without them noticing. The Greek word will be shown and pronounced by me to the class and the class will have to find the cognate in English. This way the can begin to see how the word was changed to adhere to the English language and how it maintained its Greek identity.

1. Nike-νίκη=victory

2. oikos-ΟΙΚΟΣ=estate/household

3. marathon=Μαραθώνιος

4. cardiologist=καρδιολόγος

5. dialogue=διάλογος

6. crises=κρίσεις

The opportunity given to me to advance my knowledge of my mother-tongue has been incredibly fulfilling despite the challenges I faced during the semester. Although I cannot say that I have reached my goal of being able to write an academic paper in Greek, I can say that I am well on my way of achieving this goal. I have definitely improved my speaking and reading skills through the assistance of my language partner and various learning activities. My reading of advanced Greek comes far more naturally than it did at the beginning of the semester and I have begun to see patterns and similarities in words that are found in common, modern Greek which helps a lot in deciphering  the meaning of words and even entire texts. During my attempts to work on my reading I found that the hardest part was patiently looking up numerous words per page in dictionaries in order to understand the text, which was often frustrating. This frustration was only remedied through the positive results of my speaking sessions with my language partner, when I applied some of these words in our political conversations.

 As for speaking, my language partner has noted a dramatic improvement in the clarity of my speech and the quick use of vocabulary. This was important for me because I used to often find myself stuck in the middle of conversations trying to remember Greek words for certain things or actions, which in my perspective was embarrassing when Greek is technically my mother-tongue. During the semester, I found that reading out loud was a great way to work on pronunciation of complex words and clarity of speech, and it also helped me memorize vocabulary from the books I read. 

 I decided to stop my writing lessons relatively early on in the course for two reasons. First, because my writing abilities are far behind my speaking and reading skills it would be hard to try to learn advanced Greek and then have to revert to simpler, everyday Greek for the sole purpose of practicing spelling, writing styles, and grammatical rules. Second, I found that learning to read, understand, and speak academic level Greek was a major task and adding writing to that list would be overwhelming and discouraging due to the sheer amount of work I would have to invest.

Outside of the actual results of my Greek learning experience, I was able to gain great insight on the type of learning activities that help me learn. After viewing movies in Greek, watching the news, and reading historical books I found that the latter method was the most effective. This is because I was able to see the spelling of words which helped me in pronunciation and also in deciphering meaning from related or root words. Furthermore, seeing the words and sounding them out in my head or out loud helped develop my vocabulary. Lastly, I found the books very enjoyable which motivated me to continue reading, as well as, immensely educational since they taught me a great deal about Greek modern diplomatic and military history. The least interesting aspect of my learning experience was by far the time spent deciphering sentences that utilized ancient Greek (which many academic authors do to showcase their intellectual capabilities I suppose). Ancient Greek is vary different from modern Greek and it is almost as if its a different language.

In the future I plan to continue my study of Greek. Thankfully, I am studying abroad in Greece next semester and I am taking several advanced Greek language courses which will allow me to further develop my language skills along with my personal reading sessions. All this exposure to the language will hopefully one day translate to the privilege of having to decide whether to write my research papers in Greek or English. What an incredible conundrum that will be!

Cultural Presentation- Greek Abroad Slides

Sources are in the last slide.

My presentation is on Greeks living abroad. Greeks live all over the world with the heaviest concentrations residing in Germany, the US, Australia, the UK, Russia, and the Ukraine. There used to be a large Greek community in Constantinople but due to the pogroms of the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's and tensions between Greece and Turkey the population was reduced to a few thousand. Recently though a revival of the Greek community in the city has occurred as Greeks leave their homeland for economic opportunity. In Australia the Greek  community has established itself in the region of Melbourne and Victoria since the end of the 19th century, as Greeks from Sparta and other areas of the Peloponnese sought economic opportunity. Recently, a new wave of Greeks has arrived on the island-continent as people flee the devastating economic crisis of Greece. Greeks here are influential in local society and hold important political posts. Similarly, in New York Greeks exert enough influence in the area of Astoria so that roads have been renamed with Greek letters. It is clear from the presentation that the Greek diasporas have greatly impacted the communities that have received Greek populations, meanwhile Greeks have been able to maintain their cultural heritage and values.  

I was intrigued but the cultural project that presented Turkish coffee culture. A lot of the words used to describe tools used in coffee making were similar or identical to Greek, such as flijani, which showcased the influence Ottoman rule had on Greek society and Greek culture. The Korean cultural project on plastic surgery was by far the most interesting for me. I had no idea how popular plastic surgery is in South Korea and how looking more "white" in features such as the eyes and nose was a trend. A video that really struck me was that of an ten year old girl that was waiting anxiously for her first plastic surgery. I cannot imagine allowing my child to have plastic surgery at any point in his life before he or she becomes independent. Another interesting presentation discussed bullying in Korea and the high rate of suicide due to stress from demanding academic expectations from families. A girl in one video stated that she could not see her parents because by the time she returned from studying they were already asleep, which made me appreciate the education system of Greece and the US.

The goal of this week was the completion of my book (which I achieved) and practice of all of my skills with my language partner in order to prepare for the impending final. I reviewed my presentation skills and interpretation skills with my language partner by utilizing past learning techniques. These techniques were the reading of articles and translation to my partner and then a discussion of the articles and what they convey in Greek. We surveyed a variety of articles at the ERT website and spend a considerable amount of time discussing in Greek are views on the subjects. The articles ranged from politics to sports. Unfortunately, it appears that my favorite Greek soccer team will end the season in second place once again which has become a habit for Panathinaikos. An article on the subject blamed ownership on poor investments of club money on poor players. The port of Piraeus, the biggest port of Greece situated outside of Athens, was sold to a Chinese shipping company and the issue of selling the rights to national "treasures" was discussed in the article (although it will be Chinese for only 28 more years and the Chinese will make much needed upgrades that Greece cant afford). Overall, I think it was a productive week that kinda showcased my progress over the semester.

After the previous tutoring session with Ji Hae I realized that I needed to be more organized in my thoughts and speech. Therefore, I decided to write a small text and if it would help me use the connecting words more naturally. I decided to write about the Korean drama that I was watching at that time. At first, I was facing the same problem as I was facing before. I ended up writing short sentences. But then I started thinking of ways to connect the sentences using different connecting words. I found out that I was familiar with a lot of connecting words which I had never used. I realized that if I took some time to think about what I was about to write, I could make better sentences. The next time when I had my tutoring session with Ji Hae I tried to think before speaking instead of saying what first came to my mind. Although it took me way longer than usual to say that same thing, the sentences that I said and my ideas were better connected as well. I showed the text that I wrote to Ji Hae and I she corrected it. As she was correcting I found out that I writing Korean was definitely my weakness. I tended to write words as it is pronounced and I still could not get used to way words are spelled in Korean. 

Reading and translation of an important passage at the last chapter of the biography of Constantine Palaiologos. The words are supposedly Constantine's and are addressed to an advisor. He discusses the power of the church in Constantinople and the power of religion to  motivate human beings and more specifically soldiers.

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The focus of this week was to work on my conversational skills a bit with my language partner. By this I mean not academic conversation on political subjects but a normal conversation between friends. He says that although my everyday Greek is close to perfect, I am not exceptionally good with usage or interpreting slang. I had hoped that a side benefit of listening to rap would have been brushing up on my slang but apparently I needed to work on that. So I spent my time with my  language partner conversing as two close friends would about a variety of topics, such as work, school, girls, and football. Because I am not completely up to date with shows, celebrities, and other aspects of Greek pop culture I had trouble understanding some jokes or conversation points but overall I faired well. I also decided to expand my Greek music playlist and listen to some Greek pop and traditional/country music so I gain some insight into  present Greek pop culture or at least learn some useful words that I can use in an everyday conversation. In my search for pop I found Sakis Rouvas and Antonis Remos as good options for my study on Greek pop culture.

This week my goal was to focus on reading. I did this primarily on my own by putting a lot of time and effort towards completing my second book of the semester. I did not finish the biography of Constantine Palaiologos but I have reached the final years of his life. At this point all Aegean island holdings of the empire have fallen to the Ottomans and the city of Constantinople is  under siege as the fateful May 29, 1453 approaches. The book has been incredibly interesting and immersive which has helped me stay committed to my reading learning tasks. I also met with my language partner and had our normal conversations on current events and I also updated him on my progress with the book. I have recommended the book to him but he is not a historical enthusiast. I have also made it a habit to check ERT Greek news website daily and have benefited all week from my browsing of articles. I have already pasted the link to the website but I thought it wont hurt to do so again, so below is the url to the ERT news website.

http://www.ert.gr/

Greek culture is a family oriented culture. It is normal for young adults to remain living with their families well into their twenties. This is even more true today with the economic crisis which is forcing members of families to be more economically interdependent with each other. Greek families also based on a patriarchal system. The father or husband is viewed as the head of the family and children adopt the father's last name, although recently changes have been made in marriage laws to allow the retention of both the mother's and the father's name in the case of divorce. The Orthodox church's important role in society reinforces the traditional patriarchal familial system, as well. Families in Greece generally have a lower amount of children compared to the United States. It is uncommon to hear of a couple with more than two children, especially in urban areas of the country, while in the United States it is relatively common.

This semester I decided to learn Korean and it has been a wonderful, but very challenging experience. I decided that I wanted to learn the basics before jumping into learning how to read or write because it would have been too much to complete in one semester. So far, I learned greetings, farewells and introductions which I have used the most because I have met Korean people throughout the semester, and have been able to introduce myself to them. I have learned how to introduce my family, tell and ask about time, and numbers and dates. I found it difficult to learn the numbers in Korean because there are two numbering systems they use, one for hours and one for minutes, so basically saying  9 in hours is different than 9 in minutes. Because there are two ways of saying the numbers when it comes to talking about time, I haven’t been able to completely master it, but I am still trying and practicing. I also learned how to talk about the weather, emotions, and how to talk about my home. Overall everything I learned was fun and interesting, but nothing was easy because learning a language is never that easy. I found it difficult the way they structure their sentences, and the way they pronounce words, but with more practice I think I can get the hang of it. In the future, I will definitely learn how to read and write, but as for now, I feel very proud of myself for what I have accomplished. 

Even after the first week of being given materials and resources on how to self-teach, I realized that I did not know how to effectively self-teach in my past attempts. I did not exhaust all the resources out there, but I just thought sticking to one book would be enough. However, beginning this semester and having so many resources and different ways to go about learning, it was difficult to make a coherent plan. I tried out different websites and bought the Korean from Zero book and I ended up going weeks just doing different lessons on each and I was only learning bits and pieces here and there. I made my learning goals and I thought they were reasonable for a semester’s time, but I really forgot about what I had on my list. I originally wanted to cover all of the general topics that you could find in a beginner's language course. I was using Korean from Zero and I just wanted to go chapter by chapter because I was really just looking for structure, which I felt like my learning goals were not structured enough. At first I really liked using Mango languages, but I quickly realized I was not going to go anywhere in terms of my learning goals because I was just going lesson by lesson covering what Mango has already structured. I never used diigo to bookmark anything, I just preferred to use my web browser's bookmark tool. 

I was and I think I still am more accustomed to the structure of learning languages in the classroom where there is a set list and going through topics seem to flow naturally. But even with my learning goals, which are topics that a lot of beginner’s Korean books cover, I felt like I was jumping around and not really grasping everything I needed to know. So from here on out, I think if I learn another language or continue Korean, I will find a course to take that has all the important topics based on level laid out. The topics seem to flow and I feel like I can move through them easier in a class setting. I like that in a course, the teacher will have activities where allowing you to learn by interacting with others. I do not know many Korean students on campus, so I did not have a language partner, which is something I really value when learning a language. When I was studying abroad, tandem language partners was a big thing. It is where you teach your partner English and they teach you French, for example. I learned better French abroad in one semester than I ever learned in six years of Spanish classes and although my grammar was not the best, I was confident in holding conversations. For Korean I am nowhere near that level of confidence.

I think the way I ended up learning as much as I could to complete my learning goals is sufficient for learning survival conversation topics for a short trip to Korea. I ended up just using online sources like Talk to me in Korean and Korean word/phrase lists to learn the basic vocabulary for each topic I listed and I liked those sources the best. The last 2 weeks of class the IOS version of egg bun came out and I started trying it. I think it would have been better if I was able to access it at the beginning of the semester, but the format was interactive, where you learn vocabulary words and phrases by chatting in the app. I think when I created my learning goals, I had it in the back of my mind that I would go more in-depth than what I ended up learning for each goal, but in the end I just wanted to learn at least something in each topic. For most of the semester, I was learning more of the grammar rules and how to construct sentences using the Korean from Zero book and I was getting stuck and frustrated.

I ended up learning half of my learning goals going through that book, but it was a much longer route because of the detailed grammar. If I was stuck on a topic I would google it, but unlike in a class if I could not find the answer myself there was not really anyone to ask. I was getting confused because the book would say a phrase in one way and then another source would say it differently. In the end I realized there are multiple ways to say a sentence in terms of the formal/informal endings and I think I have heard enough of the different ways to be able to piece out sentences I want to say. Another frustrating part I encountered was just feeling like I could not really ever have a conversation. For each learning goal I learned the essential phrases and vocabulary, but if you asked me to have a full conversation on food, I could say I like this dish, and not be able to elaborate further. I think phrase by phrase learning is definitely helpful for survival learning, but eventually I would have to focus on learning how to construct sentences with ease. I definitely did not realize how much I really learned till the assessment. I felt like I was able to say a lot of different words and phrases but when I did the language assessment, having to actually use it my mind went blank. If I continue Korean, I would like to learn past and future tenses so I can be able to expand the range of conversation to talk about future plans and my past experiences. 

This week my learning goal has been improved comprehension trough interpretation of speaking. I first watched news reports in Greek with my language partner at my side. I then interpreted the meaning of the report, basically summarizing the video. Then we re-watched the video  and I attempted to instantly translate the report as the video ran. This second part was far more challenging. The video I used was from a joint conference between the Greek Prime Minister and EU Representative Giani Pitela. I worked with only Tsipras' parts of the video, but despite this the translation was definitely the most challenging activity I have done thus far. Link to video below:

http://www.ert.gr/a-tsipras-se-nevriki-krisi-i-evropi-tz-pitela-den-bori-i-ellada-na-afethi-moni-tis-vid/

I also decided to listen to some Greek rap music again on my own time since I was focusing on listening this week. Trying to rap with the song came easier this week from previous times and the pronunciation of flow of my speech was greatly improved.

Vocaroo_s0budsitM55W.mp3

The recording is an introduction of me and my family. I start by introducing myself and explaining that I am from Greece and have lived in America for the last decade of my life. I then introduce my mother Dionisia/Denise, my father Lefteris, and my two cousins who are close to me. I then explain that I am attending the University of Richmond and that I am living in the dorms of the university.

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