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This week I worked a surprising lot with Rosetta Stone, attempting to learn the different names of rooms of houses.  Rosetta Stone had a few very good activities on this.  It did not include any information about furniture, so I have not learned those words, but I can identify the different rooms. For my cultural project, I have decided to research housing in Afghanistan.  For this reason, I spent my weekly meeting with Wadia discussing housing.  Typically, Wadia and I work on grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation; so I usually have a lot to report back here about my progress.  This week, however, was more culture-related and so my language progress during my practice session wasn't as great as it's been in other weeks. 

I did come out of the meeting feeling like I'd learned a lot about living in Afghanistan, which to me seems more valuable than learning some new vocab words.  First, Wadia told me a lot about how different social classes live, and she got on google to look up some different styles of houses for me.  She also taught me about decorations around houses and made a point to teach me the difference between the public and private life.  She also showed me pictures of curtains and explained that they're typically very thick and heavy so that they can truly separate the private inside life from the public view.  She also explained the influence that Western culture has had on Afghanistan and told me about how her house has a very Western style.  What I found most interesting though, was that despite the Western influence, appliances are still very different.  Traditional homes do not have refrigerators, dish washers, dining tables, or even western-style beds.  She did explain that her house does have separate rooms for separate family members and that they have western style beds.  Refrigerators, however, are a strange commodity and even rich people do not necessarily have them.  Freezers are a sign of wealth.  They show that someone is able to have cold drinks, which is a luxury in Afghanistan. 

Conversations about homes gradually led to conversations about family.  Wadia got on Facebook and showed me pictures of her siblings and cousins.  Back when I was learning vocabulary about family members, I was a bit thrown off by the 8 words for "cousin".  However, when Wadia was showing me pictures of her cousins and siblings hanging out together, it made sense to me why their culture has more words for our one word.  In Afghanistan, families are much more close-knit than I'm used to here in the US.  Cousins will often live under one roof and so it is necessary to have 8 words in order to differentiate between father's sister's sons and mother's brother's daughters. 

The reading for this week acknowledges the plethora of languages that exist in the world and how they can be related and categorized to and with each other. The reading highlights different language "Families" and how these families form the languages and, where the languages are used today.

Recognizing language families is very important because it gives us a greater understanding of History, and in many cases can help you better learn and understand words and grammar for a language based on other languages in that family. Basically what a language family is, is a collection of languages that can all be traced back to a common ancestor from which, in some way, all the languages in the family were formed. These daughter languages that are formed can be found to have similar language tools. In many instances words are very similar to each other, which i think is apparent as an English speaking person when studying Spanish or French. especially because they use the same alphabet. However even some languages that do not use the same alphabet can be similar which I have noticed when studying Hebrew. It is amazing how other languages and cultures have so much influence over each other, such as English and Hebrew whose modern calenders sound very similar.

As someone who loves and appreciates the value that History has in the world this section I found to be very interesting. I believe it is very important to know where you come from, and language is a very big part of that history. For all i know even certain families may have individual speaking nuances that are unique to them and that can be traced back for generations. I think it is important to recognize that even though something, in this case languages, may appear to be so very different, they can in fact be discovered to be more similar than anyone thought possible.

Jerusalem, the capital of Israel and a holy city for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, has a long and complex history. The Old City in Jerusalem is thought to have been inhabited, consistently, for 5000 years! Its history is marred with painful conflict and tensions. The Old City is sectioned into various segregated quarters: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Armenian. The sovereignty of Jerusulem, that is, under which country it belongs, has long been a controversial debate. Israel claims it as its capital, and it is recognized as such now, but it was not always this way. East Jerusalem and the Old City used to be part of Jordan, until the 6 day war in 1967. As a result of that war, Israel gained territory from Jordan, among other countries, and this territory (the West Bank) included East Jerusalem and the Old City. Israel treated the West Bank as an occupied territory, but treated East Jerusalem and the Old City as an extension of Israel's border. This was condemned by the UN. The UN had originally proposed that Jerusalem be an "international city" split between Israel and a Palestinian state. Of course, this was not implemented. Supporters of a Palestinian state, however, maintain their desire for Jerusalem to be their capital.

The city has a very unique character, being both ancient, with ancient structures, and metropolitan/urban. It is multi-linguistic with Hebrew, Arabic, English and various other languages spoken.

Since our class has decided to stray away from the syllabus, there isn't a reading for me to comment on this week.  The syllabus does mention cross-cultural experiences, so I can talk about a few of the experiences that I have had.  I've had a few cross-cultural experiences throughout my life, most of them occurring in the past four years while at the University of Richmond.  The largest of these experiences definitely occurred in my time studying abroad in Rennes, France.  Not only was I immersed in a completely new culture, but I was also surrounded by people who were also foreign to France.  When I first decided to study abroad in France, I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be going somewhere exotic like some of my other friends and classmates.  I'd already traveled to France before, and thought that European cultures weren't that different from the culture here in the United States.  This underestimation of differences, however, proved to make transitioning even more difficult.  It was the small differences that I hadn't even considered that actually were the most drastic changes.  Meals were different sizes and eaten at different times of the day.  Breakfast usually consisted of a cup of coffee and a piece of baguette, lunch was the largest and longest meal, usually including a type of meat, and dinner was eaten very late (sometimes not until 1030 at night) and was a small meal, either a type of salad, a dinner crepe, or quiche.  Something that seemed so small (the reordering and resizing of meals) made a huge impact on my day to day life, in that it affected my mood, my level of energy, and even my daily planning.  For instance, I didn't have as much energy after lunch because I'd just eaten a huge meal and wanted to relax, or there was the fact that I had to make my night plans much later because I had to take family dinner into consideration.

What I really learned from that experience was not just that meals take place at different times and in different orders in different cultures, but that ever difference (no matter how small) must be considered.  The experience in France also made an impact on me in that when meeting with Wadia and Maroof, I asked them more questions about the cultural associations that come with different vocabulary.

This week, I was working on learning the different names for food items and on how to order in a restaurant.  Keeping in mind the question of how culture impacts these words, I asked many questions about restaurant etiquette and what types of foods are associated with which meals.  First, because Iran and Afghanistan are Muslim countries, pork is not eaten and so I did not learn the word for pork.  Also, tips are not left at restaurants, and restaurants are typically much more casual than in the US.  I was trying to gain the right vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant, but Maroof constantly told me that all you do is point on the menu and say the name of the thing that you want.  Wadia also showed me some menus and we had a good laugh at certain items...like "French Fries" written out in persian letters, but pronounced the exact same way.  It is very easy in this way to see the influence that the West has had on Persian-speaking countries.  I didn't do too much this week as I spent some time searching for phrases for ordering, and then learned that they don't really exist in a cultural context.  So mainly, this week was spent on food vocabulary, which mostly meant practicing pronunciation as many types of foods are specific plates with made with chicken, lamb, or beef.  All in all, I learned that the most important thing to know for ordering is the different names for types of meet, as the rest of the menu doesn't really have direct translations into English anyways.   

The world is a unique and fascinating place. What makes this so is the abundant amount of cultures one can find when travelling the globe. This reading was about how the various languages of the world keep the diverse range of cultures that exist, and that if these languages are not preserved all will be lost. This, however i believe to be very untrue.

I do agree that differences in culture are fantastic and keep the world interesting, however being fearful of losing languages is a little absurd. All current languages that exist now must come from somewhere; usually they are hybrids of previously existing languages.  Some of these previous languages may have died out. For example there is a definite Latin influence on the English language, however Latin is no longer used as a conversational language. Is this detrimental to the world? Not at all, because like an organ donor, Latin was able to give parts of itself to various other languages. So no latin no longer exists, but pieces of it live on in other languages.

What it seems is that the author is afraid of change. This i believe is a very common thing for humans to experience. Humans like patterns and consistency and things out of the ordinary tend to be intimidating or scary. However if it wasn't for change nothing would have ever progressed and the world would go from being fascinating to being pretty mundane and boring. It is important to recognize that all languages the author is talking about preserving did in fact come from somewhere else, and one day millions of years from now new languages will exist and they will have the old languages like English that are no longer in existence to thank for their birth.

Over 80 percent of Indians practice Hinduism.  The idea of reincarnation is one of the central beliefs of this religion.  As described in the Bhagavad gita, "Just as man discards worn out clothes and puts on new clothes, the soul discards worn out bodies and wears new ones."  According to Hinduism, a soul reincarnates again and again until it becomes perfect.  People may also be liberated from the cycle of reincarnation by dying or being cremated in Varanasi.  Varanasi, also called Benares, or Kashi, "city of light", is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.  The genesis of the universe is believed to have occurred here at the beginning of time.  Many people come to Varanasi to die and have their ashes scattered into the holy Ganges River.  The first born son of the deceased traditionally has his head shaved along the banks of the river.  The body of the deceased is submerged in the Ganges to purify it.  Logs are assembled for the cremation fire along the river by members of the Untouchable caste.  The first born son circles the pyre and lights the cremation fire in the mouth of the deceased from an eternally lit flame.  He must walk away without looking back.   The body burns for several hours.  When cremation is completed, ashes and remaining bones may be scattered in the river.

There are five groups of people who cannot be cremated and scattered in the Ganges.  These are Holy Men, pregnant women, children under the age of five, all believed to be pure already, as well as lepers and people bitten by snakes, for fear of infection.  These people are, instead, weighted down with stones and placed in the Ganges.  

The cremation rituals take place in the middle of the bustle of everyday life along the ghats.  When I was in Varanasi, children were flying kites, women selling jewelry, holy men praying, and people washing clothes just around the burning ghat.  I was encouraged to watch a cremation; as one of the cremation workers told me, "Burning is learning about the life."  There was no great sense of sadness surrounding the ceremony, rather an acceptance that death is simply a part of life which all of us will face.  Though it at first seemed strange, after some time I actually began to wonder what was more strange, the Hindu culture's way of publicly embracing death, or the way we distance ourselves from death.

Israel is a democratic republic with a parliamentary system modeled after the UK. The "Basic Laws of Israel" serve as a constitution, although uncodified. Because it is uncodified the relationship between the Basic Laws and other legislation is not concrete, and the judicial system makes those decisions which then may become precedents. The judicial system is three-tiered (magistrate, district, and Supreme court respectively and in that order lowest to highest). Israeli law comes from English common law, civil law, and Jewish law traditions.

I would need to do more research to know for sure, but I suspect, based on observations and study of the UK legal system, states with uncodified constitutions tend to create different legal cultures. The "spirit of the law" is put above the letter of the law, where as in the U.S. the "letter of the law" is usually held higher.

The beginning of this reading talked a lot about dialects and accents.  I had always noticed that there was a difference in the two words' definitions, but had never really stopped to think about what this difference was.  As I learned from the reading, accent refers to distinct pronunciation whereas dialect refers to spoken grammar and vocabulary.  Additionally, people of the same dialect can have different accents.  What I found to be interesting from this part of the reading was the part about the chain of dialects.  In studying different languages, I have noticed the similarities that exist between them, and have often wondered if people who spoke similar languages would be able to understand one another.  As the reading pointed out, people who live in adjacent areas will usually speak dialects of the same language or different languages, so, someone who lives on the border of Spain and Portugal may speak a dialect of Spanish that is similar to a dialect of Portuguese spoken by a neighbor so that, although the two speak different languages, they would be able to verbally communicate.   

This reading also talked about the connections because nationalism, ethnicity, and language.  In particular it discussed the case of the Basque language and its role in forming a national identity. 

This week I worked on learning different parts of the body and names of family members, as well as some simple verb conjugations.  With this new vocabulary and grammar I am able to form some simple sentences, such as saying "I have a brother" or "My father's name is Jeff".  I am still finding that my language learning has slowed a bit, and this has been very frustrating for me.  In the beginning of the semester, it was easier to go to the global studio and spend a few hours on Rosetta Stone, but I've found that as the semester has progressed, my other classes have become more consuming and so it's harder to actually find the time to go to the studio.  I really wish that I would have been able to use Rosetta Stone from my own laptop in my room (I know this isn't possible because of licensing) because I know that I would have used it a lot more.  This way I could have used it everyday for an hour, but somehow needing to go to the Global Studio (especially as a senior who doesn't take many scheduled classes and has other commitments) has proven more difficult than I would have thought. 

Work has continued to progress with my language partners.  Typically we'll go over what I've been practicing each week and then they help me with pronunciation and spelling.  I was initially very excited about having two different language partners, but it's actually been more difficult having two than one.  Since my partners are from different areas, they pronounce letters differently and sometimes use different words.  Also, it does take up more time because I must explain my progress to each partner and they like to work the sessions in different ways.  For this reason, I'd suggest that in the future, students only have one language partner.  I believe that there should still be a group meeting and then an individual meeting each week, but that each student should have the same partner for both meetings to keep consistency and lessen confusion. 

This week with Maya I reviewed information from the previous week and expanded upon the knowledge that i gained the week before. I completed my ability to relate the date and time to people learning the numbers up to 30 and general numbers for telling time, such as "quarter to" half past" and "quarter of". Phrases like these seem to be translingual. When i was studying spanish there were words that could be translated for those same phrases as well. My goal is to be able to use this information as one of my Artifacts. This information is crucial to being able to communicate with someone who speaks Hebrew. My Spanish teacher always used to say that he wanted us to be able to be dropped in the middle of a Spanish speaking country and be able to communicate and be able to get out of the situation. This is also what I would like for Hebrew.

In class this week we read and discussed how important the written word is to a language, and studying Hebrew this is especially apparent. This is because I am accustomed to reading english from left to right and top to bottom. However Hebrew is different. Even though you still read top to bottom, the language is actually read right to left which in order to read the language needs some adjusting to and training. Also the reading addressed the actual writing of a person. The individual characteristics of each individuals writing is fascinating. You would think that since everyone is taught how to write the same way, all people would learn to write the same. But just like each individuals personality is different so is each individuals handwriting.

Also what I find fascinating is the influence certain language's writing has over another languages characters. It can be seen though even in languages that dont look very similar. Personally i have always found the similarities between the Greek alphabet which is over 3,000 years old can be so similar to the English one. Although the difference is apparent the characters are very very similar in some cases.

Although it is very hard and confusing, I am starting to have a sense for word order in Hebrew. For example when talking about possession "to have" is added after the object. So "my house" is "bait sheli". Also, the lack of "to be" connecting verbs such as "This is my house" "Ze bait sheli".

It takes a while to internalize hebrew syntax and even basic pronouns. In fact, in Hebrew, "she" is he, "he" is who, "who" is me (מי), and "me" is li (לי). So switching from English to Hebrew can be a little rough.

In researching the history of Hebrew I came upon a language known as Judaeo-Spanish (Djudeo Espanyol) or Spanyolit (in Hebrew). 

Spanyolit is a Romance language and is derived from Old Spanish. Its other major influences are Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Turkish. It has kept fossils, as is common with dialects because they are more conservative, from Old Castillian such as the /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ alveolar sounds (which moved backwards to velar in modern Spanish). Hebrew gave it the /x/ sound. It is written traditionally with Hebrew characters although in cursive it uses Solitreo which differs from the Ashkenazi cursive.

Its origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages when Castilian was developing into a "prestige" language. Spanyolit was spoken throughout the Middle East and the Balkans after 1492 when Jewish refugees were expelled from what is now modern day Spain.

Spanyolit is in danger of extinction, which means that the last native speakers are elderly, many not transmitting the language to their children. 

This week in our tutoring session we discussed months of the year days of the week and numbers from 1-10. We were able to use this information to partially tell the date, however not learning numbers above 10 we cannot tell the entire date yet. There are two sets of months in the Hebrew language. The first set of months is the ancient one that consists of over 12 months. We chose not to focus on this as it does not seem relevant to our goal of developing conversational language skills. We focused more on the ability to pronounce the modern 12 months. These are very similar to the English pronunciations of the words so it was fairly easy to learn these.

The reading for this week Figuring Foreigners Out was very informational, however things I believe are able to be noticed just by living and paying attention to others. Simply the way people carry themselves and their facial expressions can be a strong indicator of people's country or general area of their origin. One thing I found especially interesting was hand signals and the subtle differences from culture to culture. Also hand motions that can be friendly in America can, as it turns out, can be offensive in other cultures, and vice versa. Miscommunications like this can result in events that can be very negative for all involved. Information about other cultures is imperative to learn when traveling abroad, as to not accidentally cause an international incident.

I am taking Intro to Linguistics and I thought it would be appropriate to research the history and influences of Hebrew. Hebrew is a Afro-Asiatic, Central-Northwest Semitic, Canaanite language. It is the only Canaanite language still spoken. Hebrew and Aramaic coexisted within Israel in ancient times.

Hebrew is said to have died out as a spoken language in the 6th century, the end of the Roman Period. Hebrew began to be revived in the mid 19th century in Germany, but its revival was not fully set in motion until Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda began trying to bring spoken Hebrew back. It is surprising that the revival of the language is owed primarily to one man! In the Second Aliyah, Hebrew started replacing various Jewish dialects such as Spanyolit, Yiddish and Judeo-Arabic.

Hebrew vowels in IPA:

During the conquest of Palestine following the Balfour Declaration, the Jewish Legion, mostly volunteers, assisted the British. The subsequent Palestine riots (1920) led to the formation of Haganah (The Defense). Haganah was preceded by Hashomer (The Watchmen) which was a Jewish defense organization of the Second Aliyah.

There were protests, riots, and paramilitary opposition to the British conquest of Palestine by its Palestinian Arab inhabitants. At the time Jews accounted for only 11% of Palestine. The Palestinian Arab riots (1920) included attacks on Jewish communities, and so Jewish leadership, believing that the British would not defend them, formed Haganah (The Defense), a Jewish paramilitary organization charged with defending Jewish communities. Up until the 1929 Palestine riots, Haganah was segmented and poorly armed. After 1929 Haganah grew drastically and became an underground army, with extremely high membership in Jewish settlements. Haganah, influenced by its predecessor Hashomer, had a policy of "havlagah" (restraint). This restraint meant the preclusion of revenge-taking or counter-attacks. A sect of Haganah known as Irgun Tsva'i-Leumi (National Military Organization better known as simply Irgun) split off from Haganah and became its own separate entity.

 In 1939 the British imposed the White Paper, a limiting quota for Jewish immigration to Palestine. This angered the Zionists and the Haganah. Haganah protested the immigration quotas and facilitated Jewish immigration illegally. During WWII the Haganah created Palmach, an elite commando military group, which received highly specialized training. The Jewish Resistance Movement was later formed (1945) the goal of which was to force the British out of Palestine and create a Jewish state. After the realization of Israeli statehood and independence, the Haganah was succeeded by the Israeli Defense Forces.

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The Formation of Israel

In 1948 Israel (known formally as Medinat Yisrael "The State of Israel") became a state. The name "Israel" originated in biblical times; in the Torah, God promises the "Land of Israel" to the Jewish people. After being ruled by many different groups, Modern day Israel was conquered by the Ottoman Empire which maintained its rule until its fall in the 20th century. The First Aliyah (immigration of Jews from the diaspora to Israel) came to escape the pograms in Eastern Europe in the late 1800's, although there was immigration of Jews before this, notably after the Spanish inquisition. The Second Aliyah (1904-1914) came from the pograms in the Russian empire (it was in this movement that kibbutzim were established). During WWI the British issued the Balfour Declaration (1917) which stated:

"His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-birth-of-modern-israel-a-scrap-of-paper-that-changed-history-492084.html

In 1922 the UK was granted a mandate over Palestine. The Third and Fourth Aliyahs (1919-1923 and 1924-1929 respectively) brought 100,000 Jews to Palestine. The Fifth Aliyah, caused by Nazism and the Holocaust which brought 250,000 more Jews to Palestine. The Arab revolt of 1936-1939 followed which caused the British to instate the White Paper of 1939 which capped immigration. Aliya Bet (an underground organization to bring Jews fleeing the Holocaust to Palestine) was formed as a response to this law and many countries' refusal to accept Jewish refugees. In 1947, unable to solve the Arab-Jewish conflict, the British ended their Mandate of Palestine. The UN put forth a plan called "Partition Plan for Palestine, in which Palestine would divide into two countries (one Arab and one Jewish). This plan was not accepted. Civil war broke out after Palestinian Arabs began attacking Palestinian Jews in protest of the occupation. However, their economy collapsed and many fled or were forced out. May 14th,1948 the Jewish Agency declared Israeli independence.