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Here is the PPT of my teaching exercise:Family%20members%20in%20Korean.pptx

I taught Korean Family members through a traditional song called three bears.

The song contains basic family members and expanded the family members according what I've learned in class.

Reflection:

I encouraged students to sing the song with me in class, so it becomes easy to remember the words.

I also asked students to play the family members games by asking questions and put it in a context.

Generally I think I did a good job.

. Season, Time, Date

New Vocabularies:

Today - onul

Tomorrow - nae il

Yesterday - uh jae

The day before yesterday - ut geje

The day after tomorrow - mo le

4 Season - sa gyejul

Spring - bom

Summer - Yeo rum

Autumn - ga ul

Winter - gyo ool

Time - si gan

Clock - shi gae

How old - myutsal

How many - myut gae

na - me

nuh - you

ya - dude, you (friends)

na rang - with me

nuh rang - with you

halle - want to do (informal way); halleyo (polite way)

nolle - want to hang out (informal way); nolleyo (polite way)

nolda - play/hang out

nolja - let’s hang out

bappa - busy (informal way) bappayo (polite way)

Useful phrases:

What are you doing - mohae yo?

Nanen(I am) dokseo hamida (doing).

I’m busy - jeonun bappayo/na bappa (to friends)

Do you have time - Sigan it seoyo?

Tomorrow I have time - naeil sigan it seoyo.

Want to be my date today? - onul narang (with me) date halleyo (want to do?)?

Wanna play today? - onul narang nolle?

dude let’s hang out - ya nolja

What time is it right now?: Jigum (right now) [sigani] myut si ayo (what time is it)?

Right now it’s 10:45: Jigum yul si (hour) sasip o boon (minute)

2. Color

New Vocab:

Color - saek

Red - Bbalgang

Orange - juhwang

Yellow - nolang

Green - chorok

Blue - palang

Purple - bola

Black - kamang

White - hayan

Useful Phrase:

What color do you like? musen (what kind) saek joayo?

Topic Learned:

1. Greetings/Self-Introduction: Learn how to greet people in different period of a day, how to introduce myself when I meet a new person, and what to say when I leave. Learn how to introduce where I am from and what I major in, and ask others where they come from and major in.

Vocabulary: 

yo in the end - polite form

annyonghasaeyo - hello

pangapsepnida - nice to meet you

je/jo - I

Gujjok - You

muoya - what is it

yirum - name

Ottoke - how to do when you are confused

jineshutoyo - asking for well being

jungguk - China

Miguk - America

Hanguk - Korea

aeseo - from

watseoyo - came

haksang - student

jungong - major

yonghua - movie

gua - and

dokseo - reading

yori - cooking

gaseyo - please go

Greeting: annyonghasaeyo (hello) pangapsepnida (nice to meet you). je (my) yirumun (name is) _____ yipnida. Gujjogun (your) yiremi (name) muoyeyo (what is)? Ottoke (how have) jineshutoyo (are you doing?)

Self-Introduction: je (my) yirumun (name is) _____ yipnida. Jonun (I am) semusal (20 years old) yipnida (is/are). Jonun (I am) jungguk (China) eseo (from) watseoyo (came). Jonun haksang (student) ipnida (is). Je jungongun (major is) buziniss (business) ipnida (is).

Je chimi (hobby) nun (is) dokseo (reading) yipnida.

Je chimi nun yonghua (movie) bogi (watching) yipnida.

Je chimi nun shopping gua (and) yori (cooking) yipnida.

Questions:

Yirumyi muoyeyo? (what is your name?)

Chimiga muoyeyo? (what is your hobby?)

Odieso *where* watsoyo? (Where are you from?)

Haksang yiyeyo? (Are you a student?)

Annyonghi gaseyo (good bye)

2. Family: how to introduce family members, and ask others their family members. I will learn vocabularies of sister, brother, parents, grandparents, cousin, aunt, and uncle.

Vocabulary:

gajok - family

umma - mother

omoni - mother (formal)

appa - father

abeoji - father (formal)

halmoni - grandma

halabeoji - grandpa

chin halmoni/halabeoji - dad side grandma/grandpa

wae halmoni/halabeoji - mom side grandma/grandpa

samchon - uncle

imo - aunt

dongsang - younger ones

unni - older sister

yeo dongsang - younger sister

nam dongsang - younger brother

yeoja - female

namja - male

oppa - older brother

sonbae - someone who is older and goes to the same school

hubae - someone who is younger and goes to the same school

sogae - introduce

gurigo - and

yitseo - have

maknae - the youngest one

dae hak yo - university

Introducing

anyonghasaeyo, je (my) gajokul (family) sogae (introduce) hagetsupnida (will do). Jonun oppa, unni, umma, appa, halmoni, halabeoji gurigo (and) samchon yitseoyo (have). Jega (I) maknae yipnida (am). Jonun Richmond dae hak yo (university) ae (from) Cecilia hubaega yitseoyo.

Question:

Q: _______ yitseoyo? - yo should have a high pitch

A: nae (yes)/aniyo (no), _____ yitseoyo.

3. Food, how to order thing:  learn vocabularies of basic vegetables, fruit, dishes, and snacks. I will learn how to order food in the restaurant, what I like to eat, ask what others like to eat, and ask about whether they like their meals.

Vocabulary:

Food name:

bab - meal

gogi - meat

bulgogi - fire meat (popular Korean marinated beef meat)

samgyupsal - pork & soju - Korean vodka 20%

dak gogi - chicken meat & makju - beer

yang nyum chicken - marinated chicken

  nalgae - chicken wings

steake - steak

sam gye tang - chicken soup

sogogi tang - beef soup

guail - fruit

       sagua - apple

       subak - watermelon

       bae - pear

banana - banana

       olangee - orange

       kiwi - kiwi

       boksungah - peach

       podo - grape

jusee - juice

waple - waffle

bbang - bread

ice klim - ice cream

ssal - rice

kimchi - kimchi

gye lan - egg

copee - coffee

hae mul - seafood

       sae wu - shrimp

       su shi - sushi

lobsta - lobster

kim - seaweed

huae - sashimi

ddok - rice cake

guk - soup

dubu tang - toufu soup

guaja - snacks

yachae - vegetables

       to ma to - tomato

gamja - potato

japchae - glass noodles with fried vegitables

guaja - chips

lamyun - instant noodle

bibimbab - hot pot mixed vegi with rice

achim - breakfast

jumsim - lunch

jeo nyuk - dinner

Dialogue at a restaurant

A: oseo osaeyo (welcome=quickly come), yogi anjesaeyo (please sit)

B: nae

A: mu et sul (what) jumun (order) hasigetseoyo (would you like to)?

B: jamsimanyo (please wait)

A: nae

B: jeogiyo/unni/imo (hey, excuse me), jumun (order) halgaeyo (I will do). Bulgogi, bibimbab, samgyetang, yangnyum chicken gurigo makju jusaeyo (please give).

A: minjeng (ID) boyeo (show) jusaeyo (please give).

B: yeogiyo (here it is)

A: nae, gamsahapnida.

B: unni, banchan (side dish) duh (more) jusaeyo (please give)

A: algaetsupnida (okay)

A: ulmayaeyo (how much is it?)

B: sam man won (30,000 Korean currency) yipnida. Gamsahapnida, daum (next) ae ddo (again) osaeyo (come)

A: nae~

4. Hobbies, interests: How to tell others my hobbies, and ask what others hobbies are. I will learn at least ten words on different hobbies.

Vocabulary:

chimi - hobby

jowayo - like

an jowayo - don’t like it that much

xiloyo - don’t like

an xiloyo - I not not like it

nae/aniyo - yes/no

ge nyang ge le yo - it’s whatever

jal hatseoyo - good job

tul lutseoyo - wrong

mult gae - how many

yit da - there are

hada - do

hago sipda - I want to do

an hago sipda - I don’t want to do

jjikda - take (photo)

dokseo - reading

su yong - swimming

yeo hang - travel

yong hua - movie

emak - music

sho ping - shopping

dduida - running

yo li - cooking

com pu ta game - computer game

sa jin - photo

What hobbies do you have? Chimiga moyeyo? Chimi mult gae yitseoyo? (how many hobbies do you have)

Do you like to ____? Yeohang jowa haeyo?

I like doing _____. Nae, yeohang jowa haeyo. sa jin jjik nungirl jowa haeyo.

I don’t like doing _____. Aniyo, xilo haeyo.

5. Numbers, dates, birthday: Learn how count from 1 to 100, tell others my phone numbers and ask their numbers. I will learn how to tell the date and day of the week, as well as months, seasons.  I will learn how to say when is my birthday, and ask others when is their birthday.

Vocabulary:

(Left)Korean Traditional Numbers (age, counting objects)

(Right)Sino-numbers (dates, money, minutes, addresses, phone numbers)

1 - hana               il

2 - dul                  e

3 - sat                  sam

4 - net                  sa

5 - da-sut                     o

6 - yeo-sut           yuk

7 - yil-gop            qil

8 - yeo dul            pal

9 - a-hop                     gu

10 - yul                sip

100 -                   bak

1000 -                  chun

Dates:

Monday -            Wol yoil

Tuesday -            Hwa yoil

Wednesday -       Su yoil

Thursday -           Mok yoil

Friday -                Kem yoil

Saturday -           To yoil

Sunday -              il yoil

day - il

January -             ilol

February -            ewol

March -                samol

April -                  saol

May -                  owol

June -                  uwol

July -                   chilol

August -               palol

September -         guwol

October -             siwol

November -         sip yilol

December -          sip ewol

Year -                  nyun

Born -                 Sang

If I want to say I was born in 92, then I would say gusip yi nyun sang

Sun - June 27th 1992 - uwol, yisip qil il, chun gubak gusip yi nyun

Melody - December 13th 1993 - sip ewol, sip sam il, chun gubak gusip sam nyun

Yuki - February 3rd 1994 - ewol sam il, chun gubak gusip sa nyun

Cecilia - October 10th 1995 - siwol sip il, chun gubak gusip o nyun

When were you born - Myut nyun sang yiyeyo?

What day is it today - onul musun nal yiyeyo?

Artifact3%20-%204_17_15%2C%201.09%20AM.m4a

Phone Call:

MZ: Annyonghasaeyo Cecillia (Hello Cecillia)

XT: Annyonghasaeyo Melody (Hello Melody)

MZ: Onul musun nal yiyeyo? (What day is it today?)

XT: Onul eun Kem yoil-ae-yo (Today is Friday.)

MZ: Mohae yo? (What are you doing?) Sigan it seoyo? ( Do you have time?)

XT: Jeonun bappayo (I am busy). Naeil sigan it seoyo (tomorrow I have time).

MZ:”Nae il narang nolle? (Wanna play tomorrow?)

XT: Nah, ya nolja ( Yes, let’s hang out.)

MZ: Nah, Bye (Ok, bye)

XT: Bye

Birthday:

MZ: Myut nyun sang yiyeyo? (When were you born?)  

XT: Siwol sip il, chun gubak gusip o nyun (October 10th 1995). Myut nyun sang yiyeyo? (When were you born?)  

MZ: sip ewol, sip sam il, chun gubak gusip sam nyun (December 13th 1993).

Artifact%202%20-%203_28_15%2C%201.38%20PM.m4a

Dialogue in a restaurant:

Melody Zhuang (MD): oseo osaeyo (quickly come=welcome), yogi anjesaeyo (please sit)

Cecillian Sun (XT): nae (ok)

MD: mu et sul (what) jumun (order) hasigetseoyo (would you like to)?

XT: jamsimanyo (please wait)

MD: nae

XT: unni, jumun halgaeyo (hey sister= waitress/excuse me, I will order now). Bulgogi, bibimbab, samgyetang, yangnyum chicken gurigo makju jusaeyo (please give marinated beef, hot pot mixed vegetable with rice, chicken soup, marinated chicken, and beer).

MD: minjeng boyeo jusaeyo (please show me your ID).  

XT: yeogiyo (here it is).

MD: nae, gamsahapnida (thank you).

XT: unni, banchan duh jusaeyo (waitress, please give me more Korean side dishes)

MD: algaetsupnida (okay).

XT: ulmayaeyo (how much is it?)

MD: sam man won yipnida (30,000 Korean dollar). Gamsahapnida, daum ae ddo osaeyo (thank you, please come next time again)

XT: nae (ok)

Hobby:

XT: annyonghasaeyo Melody (hello Melody) pangapsepnida (nice to meet you)

MD: Hello, Xiaoting. annyonghasaeyo Xiaoting (hello) pangapsepnida (nice to meet you)

XT: Chimiga moyeyo? (What hobby do you have?)

MD: Je chiminum dokseo yipnida (my hobby is reading). Chimiga moyeyo? (what hobby do you have?)

XT: Sa jin jjik nungirl jowa haeyo (my hobby is to take photos). Sa jin jjik nungirl jowa haeyo? (do you like to take photos)?

MD: Nae, sa jin jjik nungirl jowa haeyo (Yes, I like to take photos). Dekso jowa haeyo (do you like to read)?

XT: Aniyo, dekso xilo haeyo. (No, I do not like reading)

Artifact%201%20-%202_8_15%2C%205.48%20PM.m4a

Cecillian Sun (XT): Annyonghasaeyo (hello) pangapsepnida (nice to meet you). Je yirumun Cecillian yipnida. (My name is Cecillian.) Gujjogun yiremi muoyeyo? (What’s your name?)

Melody Zhuang (MD): Annyonghasaeyo (hello) pangapsepnida (nice to meet you). Je yirumun Melody yipnida. (My name is Melody.) Odieso watsoyo? (Where are you from?)

XT: Jonun jungguk eseo watseoyo. (I am from China.) Odieso watsoyo? (Where are you from?)

MD: Jonun jungguk eseo watseoyo. (I am from China) Chimiga muoyeyo? (What’s your hobby?)

XT: Je chimi nun yonghua bogi yipnida. (My hobby is watching movie). Chimiga muoyeyo? (What’s your hobby?)

MD: Je chimi nun dokseo yipnida. (My hobby is reading ) Haksang yiyeyo? (Are you a student?)

XT: Jonun haksang ipnida. (I am a student.) Je jungongun buziniss ipnida. (My major is business.) Haksang yiyeyo? (Are you a student?)

MD: Jonun haksang ipnida. (I am a student.) Je jungongun buziniss ipnida. (My major is business.)

XT: Annyonghi gaseyo. (Good bye)

MD: Annyonghi gaseyo. (Good bye)

My Can-Do Statement:

I can greet others, introduce myself, and ask others about themselves.

I can ask\introduce family.

I can ask\introduce hobbies.

I can say the days of the week, the month, the year, and count from 1 to 100.

I can ask\say seasons and time.

I can ask about ordering food and the price of things.

I can ask\say about colors.

We have spent more time in food and time-related topic, so that there are a few topics we have not yet explored, such as direction, weather and jobs.  But, I think we have learned some useful communication phrases and I am happy about my progress in learning Korean. I have met my goals of being able to talk with a stranger for three minutes and to write basic alphabet and words.

       At the beginning of the semester, I was identified by the Learning Style Test as a visual learner in which it suggests me to learn language by using symbols, graphs and charts. Thus, I have been using software such as memrise and byki where they have pictures for each vocabulary aside to assist learning. I discovered that it is most useful to learn a language through consistent listening and pronouncing. I have enjoyed learning Korean from the language partner Sun. She is extremely helpful in the way that she makes recording for each lesson so that we can practice and correct our pronunciation after class. Language partner is also a great resource to have when we encounter grammar questions. Sun would clarify our questions in the plainest language in which saves us the trouble to go through grammar book or search online for explanation. This self-study class has also allowed us the freedom to learn what interest us and learn the most useful phrases.

       I have enjoyed watching Korean movies and dramas to learn the language as well as the culture. We watched a Korean criminal film with Sun and it was very helpful to have her pointed out some useful phrases in the movie and explain Korean movies. I also watched a Chinese reality show where three Chinese celebrity couples toured around Korea, which improved my knowledge of some of the Korean places to visit and food to eat. I believe watching television shows and movies can greatly facilitate and boost up interest in the language learning. For the cultural presentation, I was able to choose the topic of Korean drama, where I got to watch the drama “My Love from the Star,” which better helped me understand Korean culture and generate my interest to learn Korean as well as the theme song.

       I have difficulty in pronouncing some Korean characters because my tongue has not been used to pronounce some characters especially with a “r/l” sound. I also have difficulty in memorize sequential words such as numbers. Thus, I need to continue to practice pronunciation and make myself use to the shape of the tongue.

       In my original learning plan, I wrote that I want to focus on oral conversations, along with basic alphabet and reading because I believe oral conversations are the most useful thing to learn. Yet, I believe learning basic characters can help me learn Korean in a more systematic way because when there are overlapping characters for some words, I can remind myself of the character that I’ve learned and only have to learn the unrecognized counterparts. Overall, I think I have succeeded at focusing on my goals. However, there are a few topics I have not yet explored, such as asking directions and discussing weathers.  

       In the future I will continue to learn Korean by using memrise software, listening to Tuneln radio, and watch Korean drama and movies. I would like to explore topics that I have not yet learned, such as direction and weather, and I want to learn more about shopping and ordering food. In addition, I would like to learn more useful phrases, grammar and writing in Korean. This self-study language learning has greatly advanced my ability of self-studying, especially in making feasible plans, writing reflections on the things I learned, exploring culture of the target language. Those skills will benefit me in the future no matter whether I am learning a new language or acquiring a new skill-set. Additionally, the SDLC 105 class has been a wonderful supplement to my language learning because I am more motivated when I am surrounded with other language learners.

Evaluation for Artifact 1

I think both Xiaoting and I did a good job in artifact 1. Xiaoting was able to fluently say each sentence, however, she can work on more on the pronunciation of some words. I think my pronunciation is ok, yet I need more energy in introducing myself to address cultural appropriateness. In addition, we both should work on accent.

Evaluation for Artifact 2

We talked about ordering food in a restaurant for artifact 2. We made background noise to represent the atmosphere in a restaurant. Xiaoting was able to fluently order food in Korean, as well as demonstrating accuracy in word pronunciation and accent. I need to sound more exciting being a waitress and to practice more to boost my fluency in Korean. In addition, we both can work on accent more.

Evaluation for Artifact 3

We again made phone call rings to indicate the artifact 3 is about a phone call.  I sound more excitement in artifact 3 than the previous two artifacts for the appropriateness in hanging out on Saturday night. For telling each other's birthday, Xiaoting again demonstrated her fluency in introducing her birthday in Korean. She can work on more on accuracy to address the subtle differences within Korean pronunciation. I can work more on accuracy and accent for each words.

Here is the PPT of my teaching exercise: Korean%20Character.pptx

Korean characters consist of 24 consonant and vowel letters. I taught 6 basic vowels and 9 basic consonants. Korean characters are written into blocks, thus so long as we memorize the letters, we can pronounce Korean characters just like English words.  

For example:

Basic vowels:

Reflection:

After teaching the pronunciation of 15 vowel and consonant letters, I ask each student to pronounce 7 Korean characters. This teaching exercise is a great way to facilitate my learning. One thing I would add into this exercise is to have each student actually write some of the characters by hand, so that they can gain some experience of writing Korean characters, not simply pronouncing them.

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Brief Intro:

For my culture project I focused on how Pakistan has been affected by Militarization over time. This topic relates to my language learning because it helps me understand a topic that is pertinent to the people of Pakistan. There have been several terrorist attacks that have occurred in Pakistan which has forced the government to make some extreme decisions in terms of government, schooling, and safety. Given that these are topics of extreme importance, I believe that understanding and analyzing these changes will help me understand how both the people and language of Pakistan have been affected. 

Summary:

The Peshawar School attack of December 16, 2014 was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever in Pakistan. The Taliban was in charge of this attack in which 141 people died-- 132 of them being children. This school is an Army public school which was targeted dude to the violent history of the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban) in Pakistan. There has been an ongoing war in North-West Pakistan in which various militant groups in North Waziristan have been causing chaos. Over 2,100 people have been killed there thus far. The Pakistan Armed Forced decided to act on this on June 2014, launching their Military Offensive "Operation Zarb-e-Azb"  in which hundreds of Taliban deaths occurred in North Waziristan. The Taliban thus considered this attack to be a revenge attack for the Army offensive-- thus the school was targeted in response to military operations. Their motto was to "kill them today before they become soldiers tomorrow." In general, the Taliban targets the army and schools-- which are two targets that were achieved by attacking the Army Public School children (many which were children of Pakistani Army officers).The Tehrik-i-Taliban have had a very violent history in Pakistan, many of which includes the September 2013 attack at a church in Peshawar (killing 80 people) and the 2014 Jinnah International Airport attack.

Pakistan's response included removing ban executions in which they revived the death penalty and 18 people were immediately hanged. A 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) has been set in place, one that punishes those deemed to disseminate terrorist propaganda. Also, on January 6, 2015 Pakistan amended its constitution so that it can empower armed forces to execute "religious terrorist groups" without due process and fundamental rights. Schools have also greatly been impacted. 7 Billion rupees ($69 million)  has been spent on enhancing security at government run schools in Pakistan. School security has also increased through the addition of surveillance cameras, and snipers. Teachers are now also allowed to have firearm licenses to keep guns at school and are required to undergo training. In conclusion, living under a Militarized Government is definitely a cultural issue. In Pakistan there are school that are run by the Army where their children attend-- this is a construct that is not present in any of my cultures. Since their government is militarized, they are able to impose laws and regulations at will. They are also able to make unlawful amendments to their constitution-- putting the protection of fundamental rights and liberties in question. However, in general I feel as though the Pakistani government has had to make large sacrifices in order to respond to such horrific acts. The Pakistani people continue to push forward and be positive in spite of all of the tragedy that has occurred.  Many choose to express themselves through Urdu poetry and songs as discussed in my presentation. 

Sources: 

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-peshawar-school-attack-death-toll-stands-at-141-pm-modi-calls-up-nawaz-sharif-to-express-condolence-2044341

First Few Slides are attached. Others will be attached on other file.

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Progress

Up until this point I believe that I have learned so much. I have been able to learn the different sounds and have especially become more sensitive to hearing sound differences in the language (very happy to have accomplished this goal!). This took a lot of time, experience, and especially exposure to the language through watching videos and hearing my friends speak as well as interacting with them. I believe that my learning plan is helpful because I set specific goals that I want to achieve (like learning how to say specific words and express/share specific information). Since my goals are still very focused towards learning conversational skills, it also leaves a lot open for me to learn. This means that when going over material with my language partner we always have a lot to talk about, or many different topics to concentrate on. If I could change anything about my plan it would be to add more about traveling and sharing those kinds of experiences. I think it would be nice to focus on a section in which I get to ask questions about where people have been and be able to understand them when they speak about their general experience. 

March 2015

Outline for teaching exercise

I am pairing up with Pravaas Gurung to do our learning exercise. We decided to do a "Simon Says" exercise in which we will teach the class simple action verbs in Urdu. They will learn how to say these words and then learn their meaning by enacting the actions they represent in a Simon Says game. We will use the following action verbs: 

Sit = Behto

Stand = Khurhe ho

Walk to = chau ho

Jump = Khudo 

We will then conduct a final round which counts as the "test round" in which we will be handing out prizes to those that get the words correct. 

Reflection

After doing the activity, I thought it was pretty effective in creating an association between the words, how to say them, and their meanings. This meant that the participants were able to comprehend/understand and hopefully now learned how to use four urdu words effectively. One thing I would have changed is we should have also translated how to say "Simon Says" for the sake of the exercise to make it more holistic as an activity. In the future, we could have probably included more action words to make the whole exercise more interactive and fun. For the most part, people did well and learned how to say and act out the words effectively. 

March 2015

Goals and Tasks for Weeks 4 and 5

Learn how to speak about myself to another person and ask others about themselves.

Learn how to say and ask the following:

My name is...

I am... years old

I am from ....

My favorite things to do are...

I have .. brothers and ..sisters 

What is your name?

How old are you?

Do you speak English?

What are your hobbies?

Resources and activities

Using the online resource website, I can practice and learn phrases. I can then schedule times with urdu speaking friends to practice and exchange words. 

How I will evaluate myself

After learning period, I will speak with my learning partner and see whether or not I can hold a conversation with him. This will test my listening and comprehension skills as well as my general language skills because I will have to speak about myself, know all of the phrases and words, how to properly say them (grammar) as well as accent and pronunciation. 

February 2015

Assessments and Goals

My goals for this class are to be able to speak conversational Urdu, and to speak enough of it that I am able to hold interesting conversations with my Pakistani friends. My learning plan will therefore consist of goals that surround this topic: Information about myself, my personal interests, my background and nationality, asking questions about other people, where they are from, speaking about my family, asking others about their family etc. I plan to assess myself based on how accurately I am able to achieve this goal-- I will do this by recording conversations I have with friends and by using online materials to aid me on my learning journey. My learning plan is attached in another blog entry. 

January 2015

The most difficult part about this learning experience has definitely been learning how to write. I attempted to write in urdu several times but found that it was far too difficult. Due to this, I decided not to focus on this aspect of language. Urdu script is so different than any of the writing that I know (because I am used to roman characters). Urdu's script looks like a bunch of squiggles and foreign characters to me. At first, it was extremely difficult for me to write the shapes and lines of my name. I looked over the Urdu alphabet and tried to write down all of the characters as well. The most difficult part about this was differentiating between the different "t" sounds as well as the different "d" sounds. In most cases, they all sounded the same. This meant that when it came of learning how to write the alphabet, I had to simply try and remember that the different characters/shapes I was learning truly did produce different sounds-- even if I was not able to differentiate between them. 

As previously mentioned, I will be using my friends as direct resources as well as several online cites in order to help me with my learning journey. I will specifically use the urdu website as a general guideline for stating. Using the exercises, phrases, and memory games I will develop a foundation for the basic urdu topics and sections I want to focus on. From there, I will then go over these with my friends by directly speaking with them. This will help me practice but will also serve as a live and interactive exercise for practicing the phrases I learned from the online tool. This will making sure that I work on pronunciation, accent, tone, as well as listening and response skills. I feel as though the combination of these two resources will greatly help me because first I will focus on building foundational understanding through learning and self practice, and then I get to go out and be interactive and apply what I have learned with other human beings. 

February 3 2015

Our readings for today were very interesting and meaningful to me given that I myself grew up in a bilingual household. After discussing these readings in class further, we talked about the challenges that some people may have when encountering another language as well as keeping with their native tongues. I am not sure of whether or not bilinguals are actually "smarter" but I do believe that bilingualism allows an individual to think in two different perspectives when it comes to language. This allows a person to develop a skill that a person which is only able to communicate in one language will not have. The articles argue that bilinguals are able to function in a more holistic manner and perceive more specific things about their surroundings. The most interesting study they talked about in one of the articles had to do with how children that were bilingual were more easily able to differentiate between shapes/colors etc. That exercise showed how bilingual brains are able to capture more complex concepts in such fascinating ways. 

March 31 2015

1. Season, Time, Date

New Vocabularies:

Today - onul

Tomorrow - nae il

Yesterday - uh jae

The day before yesterday - ut geje

The day after tomorrow - mo le

4 Season - sa gyejul

Spring - bom

Summer - Yeo rum

Autumn - ga ul

Winter - gyo ool

Time - si gan

Clock - shi gae

How old - myutsal

How many - myut gae

na - me

nuh - you

ya - dude, you (friends)

na rang - with me

nuh rang - with you

halle - want to do (informal way); halleyo (polite way)

nolle - want to hang out (informal way); nolleyo (polite way)

nolda - play/hang out

nolja - let’s hang out

bappa - busy (informal way) bappayo (polite way)

Useful phrases:

What are you doing - mohae yo?

Nanen(I am) dokseo hamida (doing).

I’m busy - jeonun bappayo/na bappa (to friends)

Do you have time - Sigan it seoyo?

Tomorrow I have time - naeil sigan it seoyo.

Want to be my date today? - onul narang (with me) date halleyo (want to do?)?

Wanna play today? - onul narang nolle?

dude let’s hang out - ya nolja

What time is it right now?: Jigum (right now) [sigani] myut si ayo (what time is it)?

Right now it’s 10:45: Jigum yul si (hour) sasip o boon (minute)

2. Color

New Vocab:

Color - saek

Red - Bbalgang

Orange - juhwang

Yellow - nolang

Green - chorok

Blue - palang

Purple - bola

Black - kamang

White - hayan

Useful Phrase:

What color do you like? musen (what kind) saek joayo?