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Learning Journal #6

Posted by Alper Daron on April 6, 2010 at 1:57pm

In the sixth week of our classes, we covered "bgadim" - clothes. And I also learned how to say I have, you have, s/he has, we have, you'll have and they have. Grammatically, there are big differences in conjugating verbs.

I have = Yesh lee
You have = Yesh leha/lah (depending on the gender of the person)
He/She has = Yesh lo / la
We have = Yesh lanu
You all have = Yesh lachem
They have = Yesh lahem

I feel like every week I am learning more vocabulary, but I begin to forget the ones that I have learned earlier, so I think the best way to remember all of them is to keep looking at the old notes and reminding myself how to say words in Hebrew.

I also realized that I started to form very short sentences like: I have white shoes ( Yesh lee naalayim levanim) , We have two black coats (Anahnu yesh lanu sney meilim shahorim) or she doesn't have a car (Hi en la mehonit ahat).

Learning Journal #5

Posted by Alper Daron on April 6, 2010 at 1:41pm

In the fifth week of our classes, we covered the numbers after 10. I think the numbers are not as complicated than I thought they would be. It is only important to remember the ones between 11 and 20, and the ones that go 20, 30, 40 ... all the rest is easy because they just say for ex; 40 and 5 for 45 or 70 and 9 for 79. We also covered "zman - time" and how to say for ex: "shaa eser - it's 10 o'clock"

Also, In Rosetta Stone, I learned how to make nouns plural, depending on whether they are masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns usually get -im, and feminines get -ot.

Ex: Apple = Tapuah, Apples = Tapuhim or Car = Mehonit, Cars = Mehoniyot

Also, unlike English apparently the adjectives also become plural.

Ex: One Red Ball = Kadur (Ball) Echad (one) Adum (Red)
Two Green Apples = Sney (Two) Tapuhim (Apples) Yarokim (Greens)

Artifact Number 3

Posted by Andreas Vassilopoulos on April 6, 2010 at 12:57am

Alibabaninbirciftligivar....wav

Great voices. These two guys are really talented!!

Thursday Student Advisor Meeting

Posted by Andreas Vassilopoulos on April 6, 2010 at 12:54am

Last Thursday at my student advisor meeting we learned some grammar and how to conjucate simple verbs and phrases in Turkish, like kick the ball, to run, to attack, to come and other basic things. I learn how to conjucate pretty fast once i knew the ending of each verb, like how it ends if it is me, you, them etc. We are still focusing on the subject that I am most interested in, soccer. I keep on learning new words that are about soccer like caoch, goalkeeper, nets and also phrases.

On Thursday we also did the artifact I posted about all the main fruits. We learned some fruits in former classes but I learned all of them on Thursday and decided to post it as an artifact by writing below the english word and the translation in Turkish.

In the end of our session I showed the video I want to show as an other artifact. It is a video about Ronaldo the Brazilian soccer player, where Eric Cantona the famous French player is describing him and I am going to cut his voice and translate the phrases he says in Turkish.

Artifact Number 2

Posted by Andreas Vassilopoulos on April 6, 2010 at 12:40am

Artifact number two - talking Vokis.

Posted by David Mowry on April 5, 2010 at 12:30pm

Köpek - gazeteci
Köpekbalığı - AKP milletvekili

1: Gazeteci
2: AKP milletvekili

1. Merhaba hoş geldiniz.
2. Selam, hoş bulduk.
1. Şimdi AB üyeliğinden bahsetiyoruz. Ne dersiniz?
2. Türkiye’nin AB’ye ile üye olmasını çok istiyorum. Ekonomi ve askerisiz siyaset için çok önemli bir şey.
1. Size göre AB ve Türk hüviyeti çok farklı mı?
2. Tabi farklıdır, ama Türkiye’nin kimliği değişmeyecek. Daha çok ticaret, hürriyet gelecek.
1. Başka bir sebep var mı? Mesela, şimdi Türkiye’de bina içerinde sigara içmek yasaktır. Aynı zamanda yeni anayasa değişimini değerlendiriyorsunuz. Meclis’te ne tartışma oluyor?
2. Türkiye’de asker ve yargı çok kuvvetli. Parti olarak daha özgür meclis ve partiler istiyoruz. Son zamanlarda Anayasa Mahkemesi DTP’nin kapatılmasının gerekli olduğun karar verdi. Bize göre yargı fazlı kuvvetli, ve AB’ye göre de çok kötü bir şey. Butün ülke siyasal hassasiyetin değişmesini istiyoruz.
1. Diğer partiler ne duşunuyor?
2. Güç istiyorlar. Biz demokrasi istiyoruz. AB’le birlikleşmesi istiyoruz. Başka bir şey yok.
1. İlginç. Teşekkur ederim, güle güle.
2. Ben de teşekkur ederim.

In order to make them talk to each other, the two sets must be played at the same time. Press play on the first one two seconds before pressing play on the second one. After these two finish, the conversation continues. Press play on the fourth one second before pressing play on the third.

The best song ever written. Artifact 3? Olur mu?

Posted by David Mowry on April 1, 2010 at 4:00pm

Ali babanin bir ciftligi var....wav

Ali Babanın bir çiftliği var.
Çiftliğinde .... var.
.... diye bağırır.
Çiftliğinde Ali Babanın.

horoz...üürü üüüüü
kuzu...mee, mee
köpek...havvv, havvv
kedi...miyavv

Başka...
arı... vzzzz, vzz
tavuk... cik cik
karga... gaaak, gaak
eşek... a-iiii, a-iiii
ördek... vak, vak
at... ih-ih-ihaaa

Week #9

Posted by Laura Major on March 31, 2010 at 5:00pm

This week we learned personal pronouns. I had been familiar with a few of these just from learning common greetings so it wasn't too hard to learn. With the pronouns we included the verb "to have" which helped me learn how to conjugate in the present tense. I have taken other languages before and the set up was similar in that the conjugated verb is taken from the root of the main verb and then the ending for the specific pronoun is just added onto the end. We also learned the days of the week which are really easy. The week starts with Saturday as "shanba" and then numbers are added in front of shanba. So Sunday is just "yak shanba" in which yak means one. Next week we will learn human body parts.

Verbs (Simple Past Tense)

Posted by Roman Abdul Satar on March 30, 2010 at 5:30pm

In English there are verbs that irregular (to go) and regular (to clean), however in Persian it's not the verbs that define the regularity or irregularity of the verbs. In Persian the tense is regular or irregular. For example, the verbs in simple past tense are regular while in present simple tense are irregular. All tenses except present can be regular.
In Persian there is not a well-defined rule for grammar.

In simple past tense almost all verbs are regular. For example the word to go رفتن (raftan) and to go the simple past tense we just need to drop the letter n, we will have رفت (raft). So in all verbs ending is N, by just deleting that letter we get simple past tense verb.

My Progress

Posted by Roman Abdul Satar on March 30, 2010 at 4:00pm

When I just started this course (end of January) I just knew the alphabet as doing all this work and meeting with Sofia twice a week improved my abilities significantly.

What I knew before this course
1. Unlike western languages, Persian is written and read from right to left.
2. Persian consists of 32 letters. Some of the letters have small and big form and others have only one form.
3. There non letter characters that are used to make up vowels.

The next step was to be able to recognize the letter from alphabet that I knew.The first exercise that I needed to do before starting reading was to understand how each letter gets combined with the next one. After that I was able to recognize those letter in a word and by combining the sounds of each letter I was able to make up the word. Then to become really good at it I was writing words myself combining them and creating a word.
Having been able to read slowly, Sofia started the reading exercises which were reading children stories. At the beginning it was very hard, not knowing some Persian words made even more harder to make up that word. The important factor for improving my reading was to read over and over again, so I will be able to understand why that words spelled like that, understand the meaning of the story and become faster in my reading.
By following these strategies I have read four stories and improved my reading speed and it made reading itself much more easier and less frustrating.

Grammar: Pronouns

Posted by Roman Abdul Satar on March 30, 2010 at 3:00pm

The first lesson of grammar was on the pronouns. A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. We focused on the subjective pronouns, a pronoun is acting as a noun.
The Subjective Pronouns:
Singular:
I = من pronounces as man
You= تو pronounces as to (torture)
He and She= او pronounces as u (moon) By saying oo you will not distinguish if it's a woman or a man.
It=آن pronounces as an
Plural:
We= ما pronounces as ma
You=شما pronounces as shoma
They=آنها pronounces as a:nha
After learning each pronoun I was then instructed to use them in a sentence.

Reflection on learning experiences so far

Posted by Laura Major on March 25, 2010 at 5:30pm

So far I have found that the Farsi language is not that difficult to learn. It can be kind of similar to English or really any other language to learn in that the conjugations and declensions are similar. I'd say that the only huge difference is the alphabet which takes patience and practice to learn. Now that I have learned the alphabet the only trouble is trying to read and pronounce words without knowing a lot of vocabulary. In order to read a lot of the Farsi language, you need to be able to recognize the word in order to know how to pronounce it. As I don't know a lot of vocabulary, it's difficult to read. I had bought a book on how to learn Farsi and that has been a great help. However I would say that the greatest help I have is from my language partner, Wadia. She helps us with our pronunciation and grammar and we can learn one on one much easier than reading through a book with no idea how to pronounce anything. I feel that everything can be learned for Farsi without too much difficulty as long as they are willing to be patient and practice their language enough.

Reflections on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language

Posted by Elliott Hammer on March 25, 2010 at 12:00am

Usually knowing the root of a language can help you develop some "language logic" while in the process of learning. For example, knowing that Italian or Spanish is based in latin helps because I can recognize latin root words (because they appear in English as well) and then make an educated guess about words I don't know. In Hebrew this is not the way in which history helps to learn the language. (Classical) Hebrew is very old and therefore one can't really point to its roots as a teaching aide.

In this case I don't know if I would say that learning the history of the Hebrew language helped me learn the language. BUT I think that learning the history helped me to understand more about the culture. The point of learning a language is to be able to interact with the people that speak it and that involves being exposed to their culture. Therefore, learning a language and learning the history of that language are interconnected.

Week #8

Posted by Laura Major on March 24, 2010 at 5:00pm

We took our quiz this week on the Farsi alphabet, animals, our name, connecting letters, and greetings. Afterward we learned members of the family in Farsi and we practiced numbers again. We are now learning Farsi vocabulary in just Farsi script rather than using the transcription which is difficult. I have to include the symbols around the consonants so I remember how it is pronounced but I still have a hard time remembering.

Reflection on a cross-cultural experience (Culture Blog 1)

Posted by Elliott Hammer on March 20, 2010 at 9:00pm

When I was in Israel one thing that struck me was that all my little cousins knew they were going to be in the army when they turned 18. When I was there they asked me if I was joining the army here and they were surprised to hear me say no. In Israel everybody serves in the army after highschool (3 years for men, 2 for women). This is understandable to me because Israel is definitely a country that cannot afford to ever have a number drop in their military. It just struck me that I might have grown up thinking differently if I had known that I was going into the army when I hit 18. I suppose that's because the idea is so foreign to me and there it is normal.

Reflections on my learning experience so far

Posted by Elliott Hammer on March 18, 2010 at 7:00pm

Which resources were most helpful?

I found the language learning partner to be the most helpful resource. Haya was always approachable and helpful when I had questions. I tried out the Rosetta Stone once but I don't think I gave it enough of a chance. Next semester I'm going to try and use it more. I think it will be good for practicing.

What difficulties have I encountered?

Keeping myself motivated and organized was my biggest challenge. It is something I will continue to work on next semester. I found speaking every day to be a challenge because I wasn't as organized as a needed to be.

How do I assess my progress?

I assess my progress through my ability level to hold a conversation (even if it is just a greeting conversation), my pronunciation, and my ability to understand videos and Haya when listening.

Week #7

Posted by Laura Major on March 17, 2010 at 5:00pm

Today we prepared for our quiz that we will take on Friday. We practiced forming words again in Farsi which is really fun. The script looks really pretty when the letters are connected together. We also practiced reading in Farsi and trying to sound out what it says. I found this difficult once again but am getting better as I am starting to recognize similarities in pronunciation of connected letters. For example: in English when we write the letters "ie" we pronounce it like "ee." In Farsi I am slowly being able to recognize these kind of vowel sounds that are connected together. However, reading is still mind boggling and frustrating.

Week #6

Posted by Laura Major on March 3, 2010 at 4:30pm

This week my language partner and I practiced forming words in Farsi. Each Farsi letter can be connected which is similar to writing the English alphabet in cursive. Many of the letters change its form completely to connect to the next letter and some letters cannot connect at all. I learned that the Farsi alphabet is mostly composed of consonants and that each consonant has an implied vowel sound of a, e, or o. The Arabic alphabet normally has a symbol around the consonant to imply which vowel sound is going to be used but with Farsi, its mostly a lot of recognition of the word as the symbols are not used. This makes reading Farsi very difficult because I am not familiar with much Farsi vocabulary so I usually do not know how to pronounce the word I am reading. This week we also worked on learning numbers which are also written differently in Farsi. We are preparing ourselves for a quiz the next week we come back after Spring break to see how much we have learned.

My learning goals and objectives for this semester

Posted by Elliott Hammer on February 20, 2010 at 6:00pm

My learning goals and objectives:

increase vocabulary
learn phrases
learn how to make/recognize words masculine/feminine, singular/plural
have a simple conversation (greetings, simple questions and answers, goodbyes)
know and be able to write and recognize the alphabet

These are all reflected in my original learning plan.

Reflections on my experiences as a learner

Posted by Elliott Hammer on February 19, 2010 at 9:00pm

My style of learning is something that I have developed over the years based on my personality and attitudes throughout highschool and college. I tend to pay a lot of attention during lectures, group work, studying, videos, etc. but rarely study outside of that. I usually wait until I have a absorbed a lot of material before I try to look things up and study from a textbook. I do that because by the time I sit down and study or go over material, it already makes sense to me and its just for clarification purposes. I would say my style is to expose myself to a lot of material at the beginning and is a very deductive.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.