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This artifact demonstrates newer vocabulary. Last semester I focused a LOT on Gujarati family structure. Not only am I able to incorporate additional family members into my vocabulary here, but I can write the phonetic pronunciation with the alphabet that I have learned :)
This is me learning to write the script on my own, and remember sounds without help with the pronunciation. Something that I did this semester was repeatedly write out the letters. My language partners encouraged me to do this so that I would become more comfortable with the script. On the bottom of the page you can see a direct line of the Gujarati alphabet. This is how they would test me. They would say a letter and I would have to write it down. The letters weren't given in a particular order.
This artifact shows me learning the basic Gujarati script as well as numbers. Pooja and Prachi "sound out" the beginning of the alphabet and I am able to connect these sounds with actual Gujarati vocab that I have learned colloquially both this semester and last semester. I have the "English sound equivalents" directly beside the Gujarati script.
Korea is a proudly health-conscious society; it's no coincidence that the Korean word for seasonings, 양념 yangnyom, comes from the Chinese word for "remedy." There is a long-standing understanding of the close relationship between food and health in Korea. Old sayings such as ‘Food is medicine’ reflect a strong consciousness that our health is intimately related with what we eat. Consequently, within Korean food culture, numerous foods and drinks are associated with various medicinal properties, such as ginseng, honey, cinnamon, ginger.
Korean meals tend to emphasize a harmony between flavors, colors, textures and temperatures. Grains like rice have much more delicate flavors than heavily seasoned vegetables or stews, and this provides a balance in flavor. Colors of vegetables, meats and grains are also important in considering a properly set table. Diversity in texture is found in the different side-dishes, dried and fresh foods and even in rice mixed with other grains. Temperature contrast is found in cool foods such as kimchi and hot foods such as soups and cooked rice. More than a single flavor or texture, the success of a Korean meal is determined by the overall harmony of divergent sensations found in it.
Sources:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/students/hwang/character1.htm
http://www.trifood.com/intro.asp
http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/CU/CU_EN_8_1_5.jsp
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?gotoPage=1&cid=259613
http://greentea--mochi.blogspot.com/2011/04/korean-aesthetic-eui-shik-ju.html
Michael J. Pettid, Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History
While I have definitely increased my knowledge of Persian over the semester by ten fold, I feel as though I could have put a lot more energy and effort into having better command of the language. I wonder how far I would have gotten if I didn't have Mirwais as my tutor since he was really organized and had set plans for each session. AS far as being a self-directed learner, I have found that when I am presented with an agenda from someone else more experienced, I fall back and let them do what they want for the most part. I'm not particularly fond of that but it is what it is and the first step to changing anything is to acknowledge it. I found that I did not speak up as much when I felt like things were moving too fast and as a result, I fell behind due to frustration. This led to me just coasting through the rest of the semester and putting more energy into other courses and my campus employment.
Reflecting upon it now I can see how similar my situation is to that of a student that I mentor at Henderson middle school. Since he has trouble reading and comprehension of what he's read, he gets frustrated with trying and gives up, distracting himself with other things. My experience in trying to learning Persian has helped me to empathize better with my student in regard to his work, this in turn has helped me to get less internally frustrated with him and thus has made me a better mentor because I can better understand where he's coming from.
All of that being said, there is more work to be done and hopefully I will be able to better accomplish my goals of reading Iranian poetry and translating it in the future as I intend to pursue my self-directed learning after graduation. With less things going on, I think I will be able to have more discipline with my Persian studies.
To have just started learning Persian a few weeks ago, I feel like I'm doing pretty well with learning how to write and speak. Watching the television show, The Secrets of this House, has helped me pick up words that I am familiar with orally. It's also good to see the interactions between men and women within the family. I'm not doing as much outside learning as I probably should and as a result, I haven't retained as many vocabulary words as I should have. I do know how to say my favorite color in persian though, zard is yellow. I don't know what the rest of the semester will turn out to be like as work in my other classes is about to really pick up.
For the 105 class, Jensen and I taught the class how to greet someone in Persian. We opened the lesson with an example of how it was done in skit form. Then we broke down the literal translation of the words. I doubt that anyone remembers it now but in the moment, people caught on to it.
The book is used in tutor sessions which is nice as it is a reference. I'll be honest and say that I haven't spent nearly as much time with the book considering how far I am in it. Since my tutor assigns us work to do in it, I do that work for the most part, but it is last minute and in an effort to be "prepared" for the next session. I know I need to spend more time with it on my own.
My main resource was the Dari As a Second Language book that Mirwais had us purchase. It is chock full of exercises and new words and conversation scenarios. Aside from the occasional typo, it's really good. I can definitely use this in the future to return to and advance in my knowledge of persian as it has whole paragraphs that I can try to read and translate.
I never studied a language the way I did this semester. When I learned English and French, I only focused on learning the grammar, pronunciation, and punctuation of the target language. I understand that language defines the culture of a certain country or region. However, I never studied the culture of a target language. To be completely honest, I was skeptical about how studying the culture of Israel, as well as other student’s target cultures, can help my learn Hebrew. By the end of the semester, I understand why it is important to incorporate the culture into language learning.
I always understood the connection between language and culture is very important. Each country has certain words and phrases that are unique to it and differentiates it even from other countries where the same language is spoken. That is only one out of many reasons why it is important to study the culture of the target language.
In addition to learning several tasks in my learning plan, I learned a lot about the Israeli culture through my research and presentations; that is why I encourage continuing the student presentations in SDLC 105. As a sixty year old country, Israel continues its rapid population growth based on immigration. The immigrants continue to arrive to Israel from all over the world, bringing with them values and traditions that together make up the Israeli culture. In addition, the immigrants also brought with them food culture and different accents and mother tongues. Many Israeli citizens speak Hebrew as a second language, including many second generation Israelis.
Immigration also reflects on the language. As spoken Hebrew ceased to exist several centuries ago, the revival of the language in the nineteenth century included the adoption of several words and phrases from other languages, especially Arabic, English, and Russian. I learned through my research that much of the Hebrew grammar is adopted from Arabic, while the letters are adopted from the ancient Aramaic Assyrian.
As far as the language, I started the semester learning how to read and write, in addition to learning important grammar such as verb tenses and possession. I then started with my language tasks on my learning plan. I did not have those tasks planned out well in the beginning. I decided to change the order of my tasks and I removed certain ones that I did not find very useful for my learning purposes. For example, one of my tasks was to learn about soccer. I did not find that task very useful and documenting it would have been difficult too.
I enjoyed making video artifacts using iMovies to document my learning. I found it a good way to show my ability to speak the language as well as learning vocabulary. In addition, I had picture artifacts that I planned to make into movies too, but I was not able to since I did not have enough time. I wish I spent more time on learning Hebrew this semester, especially by going over what I learned before. In languages, it is always important to go over what was learned frequently. However, I only focused on the new learning tasks, which made me forget older things that I learned.
During the second half of the semester, I focused on reading from a children book with my language partner. This enhanced my pronunciation and I am able to recognize verbs based on the conjugation. If I continue learning Hebrew beyond college, I will make sure to study previous tasks and go over words to memorize them. I will also focus more on reading instead of speaking, since I learn faster when I can see the words and sentences written down.
Overall, I think I made great progress in Hebrew, and I look forward to applying what I learned this semester towards language learning in the future.
Lesson Plan
- Write and understand the alphabet
- Learning basic sentences.
- Learn to write in Persian
- Write about myself and others
Goals
- Actually be able speak Persian
- Actually be able to write Persian
- Read Iranian poetry
- Write poetry in Persian.
From top to bottom:
Salam. Shoma chetor hasted? Hello. How are you?
Man khob astam. Wa shoma? I am good. And you?
Man khob astam. Tashakor. I am good thank you.
Culture Post #4
Holidays.
India celebrates numerous holidays majority of which have religious affiliations. These holidays are officially recognized by the Indian government and schools are off on these days.
In my earlier post, I mentioned that Hinduism is the largest religion in India. Christianity and Islam are the minority religions in India. However, in a country of over a billion people, a rather large part of the population follow the minority religions.I would like to focus my attention on the conflict between the people who follow the Hindu tradition and the people who follow the Islam tradition.
From my observations, I have learned that people do not pitch the religions against each other. Instead, people put the name of religion on the conflict. It is people fighting one another. Yes both religions have their share of dissimilarities. However, in India, actions of the past still dominate the relationships between people. The political/social history of the conflict is long and rigorous. Therefore, I would like to emphasize my focus on how people seek to find common ground while have differences. Hindi, as a language, play a large role in the conflict because the language is embedded with the cultural respect that is practiced by the Indian society!
In this artifact, I am having a casual conversation about food with my language partner. We discuss our likes and our dislikes!
