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The "Culture Shock" video was very interesting since I am technically an international student. Even though I was born and raised in Switzerland, I am a dual citizen and travelled to the United States a lot when I was growing up; therefore I have been well exposed to different facets of both the European culture and the American culture. This has made me not suffer to big of a culture chock. 

When I came to the University of Richmond in August of my freshman year, I remember being very concerned about whether or not I was going to make new friends in this new school and country. It was not until we started the General Orientation (for all students - after International Orientation) that I noticed how much more Americanized I was compared to my peers I met during the International Orientation, which enabled me to make new connections a lot more easily. Eventually I drifted away from the international students because I found that their inability to integrate was holding me back from experiencing the “real American experience” that I came to experience in the United States.

Looking back at my experience at the University of Richmond after having watched the movie in class, I think it would have been a good idea for the non-international students to see the movie early on freshman year. This would have allowed Americans to better understand how they can better integrate with the international students and make them feel more comfortable during their time in the United Sates (whether it is for an exchange or for all four years).

The different teaching techniques students are accustomed to and the different grading systems the students are used make the process of adapting to the American lifestyle more difficult; therefore, in order to increase the number of international students wanting to come to the United States to obtain their college education, it is important that Americans work to minimize the impact of the culture chock experienced by international students.

History%20of%20turkish%20language.pptx

The previous link is the powerpoint Mark and I made to present the History of the Turkish language. We did not cover all the aspects of the history of the Turkish language since it dates back from a long time ago and has undergone an enormous amount of changes from the original creation to modern day Turkish; however the powerpoint does give a good overall view of the history for people who just want to be a little more informed on the matter.

The artifacts that I will use to document should all be different to show different creative sides of my learning of Turkish; therefore I plan to incorporate visuals that include videos of speaking, some written work, and perhaps a song or any additional things that be found in daily Turkish pop culture. It is difficult to learn a new language independently if you do not explore different types of learning because you may discover that some techniques are more effective than others, and you do not want to repeatedly do the same thing by fear of getting bored of it. This is why the artifacts should be reflective of the work carried out during time alone - i.e. be original and creative. 

I listened to this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4a5QIKefl8 and decided to highlight all the possessive suffixes found in the lyrics since it is something we spent a lot of time with in class. It was easier for me to understand this song once I highlighted the possessive suffixes since the meaning becomes more clear.

Lyrics:

Kara gözlerinden bir damla yaş düşünce 

Güzel yüzün yanakların ıslanır 

Kara gözlerinden bir damla yaş düşünce 

Hüzün keder yüreğime yaslanır  

Sen ağlama!

Bir damla gözyaşın yeter 

Sen üzülme gülüm  

Gece gökyüzünden bir damla yaş düşünce 

Bahar gelir tüm çiçekler ıslanır 

Kara gözlerinden bir damla yaş düşünce 

Hüzün keder yüreğime yaslanır  

Sen ağlama !

Bir damla gözyaşın yeter 

Sen üzülme gülüm 

Gamzende güllerin biter 

Yollarıma taş koysalar döneceğim 

Gözlerinden yaşlarını sileceğim

Sen ağlama !

Bir damla gözyaşın yeter 

Sen üzülme gülüm 

Gamzende güllerin biter 

Yollarıma taş koysalar döneceğim 

Gözlerinden yaşlarını sileceğim

As part of my progress in presentational speaking, my language partner and I arranged a hypothetical situation where I am interviewed for an internship at the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. In this conversation I practice using formal language in a more formal setting. I was a little nervous at first due to the presence of a camera but I believe it was a very challenging experience that allowed me to prepare in Swedish and practice my overall interviewing skills.

http://youtu.be/J03hHQ7APHs

For my fourth artifact, I'd like discuss the Korean education system. Please refer to links below for more information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMwUwIi8a5s

http://vimeo.com/26833191

http://chronicle.com/article/For-Expat-Professors-in-South/128951/

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-10/asia/world_asia_south-korea-exams_1_students-regular-classes-cram-school-classes?_s=PM:ASIA

The education system in South Korea is no joke. It's very intense, competitive and driven almost solely by academics. The average Korean high school student studies between 16 to 18 hours a day.

Senior year of high school is generally referred to as "the year of hell." Why?

Well, similar to how students in the United States have to take SATs and ACTs to have even a shot at getting accepted at a college, Korean high school students prepare for the CSAT. The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is the most important test in a South Korean student's life. Unlike SATs, this is a sort of make it or break it kind of deal. You only have one chance to score high. This test is called 수능 (Soo-neung) and it tests students on what they've learned over their 12 years of schooling. Usually after the Soo-neung exam, students take a university specific exam called 논술. After school, students normally attend a 학원 (hag-won) or for-profit private institution for learning. It's like an academy or cram school.

(noh-n-sool). College admissions focus on academics more than anything. In the United States, colleges will look at your grades, extracurricular activities, rigor of classes, the essay and recommendations. Korean universities want who are good at studying with top grades. The three top schools in South Korea are Korea University, Seoul University and Yonsei University.  

The amount of pressure on these students is colossal. After doing some research on the education system, my question was, how does this accumulated pressure affect students?

 Korea is a collectivist society, so already encouraging individualism is not common. Usually students focus on studying whereas in the United States, the focus is on critical thinking and leadership. Korean students tend to have less or no meaningful hobbies because they spend more time at school than anything else. Korean students are nurtured to become hard workers rather than leaders. 

South Korea holds the second highest suicidal rate, just recently surpassing Japan. What does that tell you? A lot of students do commit suicide because of the added pressure of doing well in school. 

http://file:///Users/jenniferconnerton/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/Turkish%20Cultural%20Present(T2C5)/Turkish%20Cultural%20Present(T2C5)

Hello Hello,

  Thanks for visiting my blogs. I have attached a link to my presentation. I focused on Media and Entertainment in Afghanistan, I've even included some links for you to explore. Enjoy!

Best wishes,

Laila Zahra Hart

Media and Entertainment in Afghanistan

Below you will find  a summary of my presentation.

1. “Extra !Extra! Read All About It!”

2. In 1919, King Amanullah Khan replaced Siraj-ul-Akhbar with the newspaper Aman-e-Afghan which means “Afghan Peace”

3. There are 13 well-known newspapers in Afghanistan today. This shows how much more they’ve advanced and became independent. Most papers run out of Kabul City. I’ve listed a few of the most popular

4. “On the Radio”

• Radio broadcasting began in 1925 under King Khan

• The first transmitter was a 200 watt one , which is pretty weak, so it was the American equivalent of an AM station---we know how unpopular those are compared to FM stations.
• This transmitter was built in Kabul Palace, thus it was first called “RADIO KABUL”
• In 1929, there was an uprising against King Khan and the transmitter was completely destroyed, which cut off mainstreaming political speeches or any propaganda to a wide audience
• In 1940, a bigger, better transmitter was installed and 1940 is credited as the year that “Radio was born” to some.  As you can see there was a huge gap in radio availability, eleven years to be exact, so imagine that in the United States.

5. These are the languages that Rad

Follow the link to hear two Farsi friends meet (1. Laila Hart/ 2. Susan Jelanizada)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbT42CLQqXw&context=C460da0fADvjVQa1PpcFPjWPXZ58bhCk1AarTCo89S1Q41ihSdYJk=

Turkish%20Presentation%20sheet.docx

As briefly discussed in the Fifth Cultural Post, the importance of learning how to interact with vendors in stores is important, whether you are living in Turkey or simply visiting as a tourist. Knowing how to ask a vendor the price of a certain item of clothing or food item is important because in many places the act of bargaining is expected. Bargaining is engrained in the Turkish culture (except when in malls and such settings); thus not participating when it is expected will reinforce the notion that you are a tourist. With Haktan, I learned the different types of clothing (basic necessities only) and colors, so we can effectively go into a store and ask for specific items of clothing.

An example of a shopping interaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6TIj88j_s&feature=endscreen 

Getting around Turkey without knowing how to say directions can become a little tricky; therefore it is important to develop your vocabulary of directions. I learned the directions through basic enactments of situations in which I would need to go from one place to another. The fact that the Turkish language is very flexible and forgiving of the order of words allows the learner to put nearly every direction together. 

A sample of an interaction between two girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoLjAKiSdus 

Starting from the first third of the semester, Haktan has taught us the present continuous tense. The previously included powerpoint that he created for the class was one of the many tools used to learn the language. It is difficult to learn how to conjugate verbs in a new language because the logic behind the conjugations are not the same when compared to romance languages such as French. In addition, the verbs used to describe certain actions are not the same in English and Turkish. Some verbs that have clear meanings in English, can be translated in Turkish but mean more than one action. For example, "dökmek" in Turkish can mean both to pour and to spill, depending on what context you use it in. Even though it is challenging to perform the translations to obtain clear meanings, there is a certain logic in the Turkish conjugations that we cannot find in English or French. In Turkish, depending on whether it is positive or negative, or other such aspects, you just have to add or remove suffixes from the verbs; however in English you would add other words to create the negation. 

turkish%20present%20continuous%20verbs.ppt

Korean_Artifact_Asking_Answering_Questions_About_Identity.mp3

Basically, my friend are talking about ourselves. We introduce ourselves and then ask questions like "are you a student," "what's your major," "how many people are in your family," "are you American," "which sport do you like," etc. I also asked if she has a younger sibling. She tells me she has an older sister and then I reply, "Oh, I have a younger brother." Then at the very end I ask her if she likes coffee and we "go off" to a Starbucks for coffee. The end :)

Culture shock, the uneasy feeling of disorientation experienced by a person who finds themselves in an unfamiliar culture. The culture video we watched in class was very interesting. I thought that it provided a variety of personal students from the as well as the faculty.

I always thought that culture shock was something that happened initially upon arrival in a different country and culture, but that's not necessarily true.

It was interesting to hear about how different the classroom situation was abroad compared to Richmond for each individual student. There seemed to be several things that most of the exchange student somewhat agreed on. Most of them felt that their school workload had increased and others were surprised by how much students were expected to participate in class. Of course, we can't generalize that classes abroad are easier or require little work compared to Richmond. It's just different, not easier or harder.

Some of the students in the video talked about their first week at the University of Richmond. It was exciting at first when they were in a new country and experiencing new things. I believe the homesickness, or recognizing significant differences with cultures came after. It's funny how you end up missing trivial things about your home the most.

I experienced some culture shock when I went to India during summer 2010. Everyone in America is pretty much accustomed to saying "goodbye" or "see ya" or whatever before hanging up over the phone, correct? Something that really surprised when I was India was that over the phone, people rarely said "goodbye" before hanging up. I was a bit younger before and less culturally aware of things, so I remember when my uncle had "hung up" on me on the phone without saying "goodbye" and I was a little irritated. As an American, I consider it rude to do something like that, but that's pretty normal in India. My Korean friend told me it was also common in Korea.

Also, holding the door open for someone behind you in India is considered odd behavior. I held the door open once at a bowling alley and people just kept walking right on through (I'm guessing they thought I worked there?).

It's interesting that all these small gestures can be interpreted differently among varying cultures. I think the only way to deal with culture shock is to learn as much as you can about the country you want to visit or the culture you want to immerse yourself in beforehand. It doesn't mean you will avoid culture shock, but it can soften the blow.

After reading the article 'A Picture of Language,' I began familiarizing myself with the concept of 'diagramming' which I had never quite encountered before. When I think back at my English grammar classes, there is only very little that I can still remember about the nuances of the Enlighs language besides the major forms and tenses. Conjugation has become second nature for native speakers of their language, and unfortunately it seems many people have lost their grasp ion grammar. I used to think that the grammar exercises were tedious in my elementary and middle school years, but today I wish they would have stayed with more, it really could have simplified the process of learning another language. The point is, that the lost art form of 'diagramming' could potentially see a resurgence in popularity as visual methods of learning are incorporated into teaching methods. Furthermore, as a student currently studying a language I have no former formal instruction in, I have many moments where grammar would serve to enlighten me greatly. However, focusing on speaking, I have relied greatly on my previous auditory memory and readings to deduce potential grammar structures. I like the idea of diagramming, it might help me and other self-learners to become more aware of the language structure and provide a less tedious opportunity for learning.

Bhangra%20within%20the%20past%2040%20years.pptx

My language is Punjabi.

Its been a great semester!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=10c11b8ea6c9bc16e24a525&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url