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Artifact 4

Artifact 3 Reflection of News Articles

Reflection of the Semester

The opportunity to work on my Hebrew written and comprehension skills as well as new and modern Israeli vocabulary has been invaluable to me. I have already gotten so many complements from family and recognition that it is clear that I have benefited from the academic structure of setting a learning plan and working towards goals of bettering my language skills and upgrading my vocabulary according to my academic and social interests. 

I think the institution of a learning plan early on was really beneficial to me. I like the organization and motivation that it has provided me in attaining certain levels of comprehension and it has inspired me to keep up not only with foreign policy news, which I study at UR, but specifically Israeli news, or foreign policy from Israeli perspectives.

I am extremely proud of reading an entire novel, getting to read my grandmother's biography in Hebrew, and reading academic and media related articles. While previously I would skim through such readings and try to get the bigger picture, focusing on looking up vocabulary and then applying it in writing has improved my comprehension and speed in reading only in just a few months. 

In addition, I would like to mention the benefits of participating in MLC 105 along with the independent study. Although I was not focusing on a new language all together, it was so nice to hear from others how they were tackling their study and get some of the cultural discussions based on the great articles we were reading. I learned a lot about the benefits of immersion, the significance of nonverbal communication, etc., which really made me more in tune to those aspects of Israeli culture, which I almost take for granted because it is so familiar. It was extremely supportive in my work towards creating a culture presentation and the cultural blog posts for MLC 110. I will also take away a lot of what I have learned from other people sharing about their cultures and look forward to applying some of the concepts we talked about when learning more Spanish and Arabic.

Thank you and Shalom

Please find attached the culture presentation Powerpoint I've given on Israeli institutions prior to statehood and their role and effect on language in modern day. [notes on what I spoke about are written within the powerpoint below each slide.]

This week I focused on preparation of new words for my cultural presentation, which included industry specific vocabulary for archaeological work and kibbutz life. These were really interesting in terms of their slang-like terminology that directly relates to those activities and way of life.

Also, in my informal interviews with the soldiers that accompanied my birthright trip, I was encouraged to friend a bunch of them on Facebook, as well as the students I went to elementary school with in Israel. This was a great idea! I got so much insight on what people in Israel are talking about, politically and socially. It was also a great source for learning some of the casual lingo that I am not familiar with. An example of this is in the attached conversation below related to the politics of "Remembrance Day" (similar to veterans day in Israel). I found this extremely interesting and informative regarding the tensions that occur among people my age regarding politics. 

[Context:]

Apparently, this wall that records all the names of people who have died in service was desecrated by extreme leftists that are against war, required military service, occupation of the territories, etc. 

Cultural competence deals with the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultural backgrounds. There are four distinguishable qualities of cultural competence: awareness of your own cultural worldview, your attitude towards cultural differences, knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews and cross-cultural skills.Competence is only achieved after you have obtained an ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people of different cultures.

Competence ideally requires only three things: open-mindedness, knowledge and skill. Open-mindedness is extremely important initially and throughout the experience. One cannot settle into a culture successfully without being able to recognize differences, no matter how different, and accept them. Knowledge comprises awareness (understanding that there are differences) and knowing the social norms. Lastly, one must have the skills to incorporate all of this into his or her cultural experience.

I've studied a lot about the Korean culture since I will be studying abroad there in the fall. I'm looking forward to arriving in South Korea, a place I've never visited before, and achieving cultural competence there. Of course, I don't know exactly what to expect, but I've done my fair share of research on everything from cultural phrases among younger generations to acceptable/unacceptable gestures. For example, one shouldn't call over someone with their hand and fingers facing upward. It is considered rude because it is equivalent to calling over a dog. In Korean society, the proper way to call someone over is quite the opposite--keep your palm and fingers downward. It is important to note that even something as small as a gesture or learning a few words like "hello" or "thank you" in the language will make a good impression. A good first impression is all you need to get your foot in the door. 

It was wonderful working with Brigid this semester to learn Korean. Although, this is a self-directed language learning course, having a language partner to meet up with was a great advantage for any language learner, I'm sure. Since I was a little bit more advanced than the average beginner in Korean, Brigid and I focused on learning the language (including vocab, spelling, sentence formation of certain phrases) based on topics we usually decided on together. I think the other Korean group kind of stuck to the textbook to learn, but I really enjoyed being able to choose what I wanted to study. Since I will be studying abroad in Korea in the fall, I think having the freedom to choose what I wanted to learn was beneficial. I wanted to mainly focus on things that would come in handy for me to use when in Korea. My goal was to learn kind of everyday things like ordering food at a restaurant, moods/expressions, weather, shopping/money exchange and basic vocabulary. Brigid did a really great job teaching me. She's very intelligent and we had fun working with each other, I think. Our meetings were casual and the chill atmosphere really let me be less nervous with practicing speech with her. She was always ready to answer my questions and cooperated with my learning pace.

Below is a link to my culture presentation, "The Language of Politics." In it I explore the language and culture of the political systems in Israel and Iran. Enjoy!

The Language of Politics

Throughout the semester I have had two language assistants: Haktan Tursun and Umurcan Solak. With Haktan we focused more on grammar and vocabulary, the different conjugations of different words and the specific words used for family members, food, time of the day, greetings and personal moods. Haktan and I focused primarily on bulding a strong foundation for my knowledge of Turkish, basically I asked him to teach me the essentials of a tourist who would embark on a trip to Turkey this coming summer, therefore with that idea in mind I learned what Haktan considered necessary for a novice tourist in Turkey. With Umurcan we worked more in the cultural sphere of the Turksih language, like knowing what are the unique tradtions, foods, and doings in Turkey, what they are called, how to say them and apply them in a sentence or conversation. Umurcan also helped me on my Culture Presentation, choosing a topic for me that was unique and significant in the every day culture of Turkey. Umurcan taught me the significance of hookah in the Turkish culture and what it meant to the Turkish people, opposed to American people and what were the guidelines of usage and hitory behind it. Both with Haktan and Umurcan we discussed what it is different about America and Turkey in terms of religion, leisure, family values and traditions. I requested for this since i believe it is very important to know the foundations of the country;s culture in order to understand certain aspects of the language and be able to tour the country without going against set taboos. overall it was a great learning experience and I got a lot out of it in terms of culture, grammar, vocabulary and history.

turkish_presentation.pptx

Here is my presentation on Hookah and the sources I used for it. I also discussed the topic with Umurcan Solak, my current language partner, regarding the information included on the presentation.

My learning activity was to teach my roommate the Turkish alphabet first, specifically the letters that were not already present in the English alphabet. As soon as he showed that he knew how to pronounce various letters from the Turkish alphabet I attempted to teach him basic greetings for three different times of the day. I printed out three pictures with the times of the day on them and had him identify the time of the day and what would an appropriate greeting at that period of the day. My roommate wasn't very enthusiastic so therefore I could not make him do any more learning but together we succeeded in pronouncing letters that aren't present in the English alphabet, that are present in the Turkish alphabet, and how to pronounce correctly and know the greetings for three different times of the day and what those periods of the day are called.

1. To learn ten words a week.

2. To know how to identify basic objects and name them.

3. To know the alphabet completely.

4. To know how to read the language well.

5. To know how to pronounce words when reading them or saying them.

6. To know how to greet someone at any time of the day.

7. To know basic etiquette sayings.

8. To be able to tell the time and/or ask for the time.

Immersion does help you learn a language. I'm proof of it. Well, kind of.

Actually, the first language I started speaking was Kannada. The only reason I learned this language is because it was the language my parents spoke to me. Even today, I only speak Kannada with my parents. I'd rather not speak English with them because I'm afraid I'll start to forget Kannada. My point is that I can fluently speak Kannada because I was exposed to it, I was immersed in it even though the level of immersion was low. It's not like I was living in India learning this language, but I was fully immersed in it in my home. So, I do consider it some form of immersion because I learned the language and the culture.

It was interesting to read about the experiment they conducted with the two classes, one studied a language in a classroom setting and the other trained through immersion. I think this article shows that immersion is definitely more beneficial to language learners and I agree. However, I have to comment as someone who learned a language through immersion that classroom learning is also beneficial. I say this because there are holes in my knowledge of Kannada. I know how to speak it, but that doesn't mean I understand the grammatical, structural parts of the language. I think that part is necessary as well.

I'm also very excited about living in Korea for a year so I can learn the language through immersion as well. I'm good at learning languages and I hope to pick it up quickly when I am there. I decided to study Korean through the SDLAP before going abroad because I didn't want to skimp out on the grammatical, structural part of the language and I think it's been very beneficial for me.

Below you will find a link to my updated learning plan. In it I comment on my relative progress in relation to my initial goals.

Updated Learning Plan

SDLAP_learningplan.docx

’allemansrätten’, Norweigian music and Press and Radio History of Iran and Politics of Israel and Iran

Reflection on Cultural Presentations

The cultural presentation covered impressively eclectic pockets of study. The presentations succeded in avoiding repeating common knowledge an gave fresh insight to little covered areas in the American mainstream. Through an evening of presentation and discussion, both the audience members and the presenters left with a increased knowledge of world culture and politics. 

Beginning with my own presentation, I was happy to conclude what was an in-depth and fruitful research into two unfamiliar political systems. While Israel and Iran take up countless news headlines, few venture to engage in the language and look behind the headlines to learn how the government structures operate. While picking up a new language can be a large commitment, it can never hurt to broaden one’s political horizons. In my presentation I hoped to provide a look into those seldom taught, seldom discussed areas of culture and politics.

The other presentations certainly increased my cultural and political spectrum. Between investigating the mentality behind the Nordic notion of public right to access land for recreational purposes, or in Swedish ‘allemansrätten’ and the availability of public radio entertainment in Afghanistan, I walked out of the event with information on topic I never knew existed. 

How well did you achieve your goals? I am satisfied with the things I covered this semester. I feel like I have a much better understanding of Korean culture because of my experience with my language partner. Although my parents attempted to teach us about culture, their idea of Korea is based on their adolescence and time in Korea over 30 years ago, so it was great to learn about more current things. Although I wasn't able to work on reading and writing as much, I'm still happy with the progress I made. It was a long shot to try and not only learn the vocabulary and culture, but to write and read it as well. Hopefully that is something I can tackle abroad!

What were the stumbling blocks you encountered? I was surprised at how many times my language partner would correct parts of my speech that I had no idea were wrong. I realized throughout the semester that I say many things imperfectly, and my parents didn't correct me. Thankfully, she picked up on it and was able to help me work through them. It was difficult because it was so engrained in my speech, but ultimately, we made great progress for the little things and that will be very useful to correct in the future.

How were you able to overcome them? I made sure that I made a conscious effort to fix it whenever those issues arose. For example, I had been saying a word with a s sound rather than a double ss, which made the word change from meaning surgery to liquor. These subtle differences obviously have larger implications, and I think my sheer embarrassment was enough to motivate me to stop making those mistakes!

What was most/least interesting to you?I was least interested in grammar, as I predicted. I had a hard time remembering tenses, which is just a part of language that I am overall uninterested in. However, I was taken by the similarities that Korean had to other Asiatic languages. My language partner also speaks Chinese, and she was able to explain the origin of many words based on their Chinese roots. I learned that even my name is based on Chinese characters, which I did not know. 

What would you like to do next?I definitely am looking forward to going abroad to South Korea and studying through immersion. I would like to see the differences between what I imagine to be Korea, and the reality. In my mind, Korea is very much a cosmopolitan and up-and-coming country, and I would love to be a part of it and experience it firsthand!

      Over this past semester, I have learned a great deal about autonomous language learning by studying Hindi and meeting with a language partner.  Initially, in January, I thought I would be prepared for the challenges of autonomous learning, since I have, in the past, been successful at planning and managing my time for learning on my own.  However, one challenge that I did not account for was balancing my own expectations.  My most recent language learning experience was an immersion program in Punjabi this past summer, and because it was a full-time scholarship program, I picked up the language quickly and was eager to learn more and practice whenever I had time – and I also lived in the country in which the language (as well as Hindi) were both spoken, so I was surrounded by Punjabi and Hindi.  In learning Hindi this semester, I thus expected to progress much more quickly, not taking into account that I had other classes and commitments, like studying for the MCAT exam or planning my med school applications.  Thus, I became a little discouraged initially when I kept confusing Punjabi letters with Hindi letters, or when I was progressing much slower than I expected.  Although this was frustrating, it made me realize how incredibly helpful it is to be surrounded by a context in which the language is spoken continuously – through the media, with interactions with locals, and more.  I tried to pursue resources this semester that would promote a similar type of immersion through the media, and this helped a great deal –- I utilized textual and audiovisual sources that were all quite culturally authentic (Foreign Language Defense Institute's resources and “A Door into Hindi”).

          It is also interesting to consider the time and true commitment involved in learning a language autonomously.  Since I think of myself as someone who is pretty good at time management and learning independently, I assumed that I would not have any problems with the time commitment involved with learning Hindi autonomously.  However, it was actually challenging initially because I was learning the script, and it became repetitive to continually memorize and practice the script in the first week.  It was helpful to have a weekly schedule that I made over the weekend to go over what I hoped to accomplish during the following week, and when EXACTLY I would learn those items and how.  Sometimes, my learning was not as structured – like when I would just listen to Hindi music while walking to class or when I would watch a Hindi movie on a Friday afternoon. It was great to have a balance between different resources and different elements of practice (structured vs. relaxed).  It was also a little difficult sometimes for me to carve out the necessary time to do structured learning because I am in the process of beginning my med school apps and studying for the MCAT, so it was a little hard to balance independently studying for the MCAT and independently studying Hindi.

          I have also noticed a difference in when I learn a language in a classroom (under the guidance of a teacher) versus independently.  I studied German throughout middle and high school, and I LOVED studying German in the classroom.  It forced me to keep up with the vocabulary words that I had to memorize, and my teacher always had the most interesting ideas for implementing and practicing certain concepts, like through skits or games.  It was really hard for me to be the only student studying Hindi on my own.  I really wish other students had participated in the SDLAP for Hindi because we could have done skits or play vocab games – the other students may serve also as motivators.  I really like learning with other students, so it was a little challenging at times.  However, the presence of a language partner made up for this a lot.  I also enjoyed how our cultural/linguistic explorations in MLC 105 also helped me approach my study of Hindi with an open mind -- remembering the articles we read about the role of culture in language learning, the sociocultural factors of language, and more. 

           I really enjoyed meeting with a language partner this semester, and she truly represented quite a helpful resource.  A crucial part of language is composed of the elements that are spoken, and it is quite hard to learn those elements – pronunciation, knowing the usage of certain words, etc  -- without having a language partner.  Additionally, she also kept me motivated because I wanted to show her that I was continuing to try, even if I made mistakes.  Since I was the only student learning Hindi this semester, it was also helpful to have someone with whom to practice.

          In terms of the goals that I accomplished, the most important goal (to me) that I accomplished was learning the script and being able to write in Hindi.  I am really happy with the progress I achieved in that sense, especially considering that I did not know the Hindi/Devanagari script at all in January, when this course began, and when I go back to India, I am happy that I will be able to read signs, menus, and more!  Another goal that I accomplished was learning vocabulary of personal relevance – hobbies, food, family, health, caste, body parts, weather, and likes/dislikes.  These expressions will come in handy if I try to interact with locals in India.  I also accomplished my goal of watching and understanding a public health video or radio message.  It was more helpful to watch a public health PSA because I could also utilize situational clues and body language to understand what was going on.  Additionally, I also watched MANY “Fair and Lovely” ads in Hindi for one of my projects in MLC 105, and they were really helpful to watch to learn more about language use, as well as cultural clues and attitudes about skin color and women.  With regard to grammar, I also learned the different elements of the present tense (simple present, present progressive, and present habitual). I am really happy that I decided not to learn the past tense, because it was already difficult to learn the different parts of the present tense. It was somewhat difficult to find reading material that was aimed at beginners, so I want to practice more reading this summer, when I have more time to obtain reading material for beginners.

      A few days ago, I completed my language assessment for MLC 110.  Part of my assessment was a monologue that I had to remember and speak in front of a videocamera.  I was really nervous before this assessment, and although I personally felt that I had learned a great deal of Hindi this semester, I was nervous that my assessment would not show it.  However, my monologue went fine, and I was surprised that I didn't get too nervous when I was actually saying it -- it also made me aware of how practice and preparation throughout the semester truly does influence one's speaking skills in a new language. I was concerned that I would forget a Hindi word or two during my monologue and would resort to Punjabi, so I practiced the different vocabulary words and expressions that I had studied throughout the semester, and it really did make a difference in my monologue, I believe.  For me, the second part of my assessment was an online test matching Hindi words (in Devanagari script) with pictures.  The problem that I kept having was my slow reading speed.  It still takes me a while to figure out the letters (Punjabi vs. Hindi), then pronounce the words aloud or silently, and to then match it up with the meaning.  This activity demonstrated to me that I still need to practice my Hindi reading skills over the summer.

         In reflecting on this semester in MLC 105 and MLC 110, I have really found my experience as a self-directed language learner of Hindi to be quite meaningful. I’ve progressed a great deal in terms of my independent skills as a language learner -- particularly in being able to speak, write, and read Hindi.  I have also learned a great deal about the complexity of learning about both language and culture -- specifically Indian culture, as it relates to my focus in health and human rights.  If I go back to India in the future, I hope to be able to use what I have learned this semester, in terms of both tangible and intangible language skills, for an even more meaningful experience in India.

My presentation topic was Korean Culture and Cuisine. It was especially near and dear to my heart because my homesickness tugs at me most when I think about the Korean food that my parents make. Both my parents are excellent chefs and I have been spoiled with the best and most authentic Korean food you can find in the Philadelphia region (no contest)! Particularly, my mom specializes in foods that are high in demand for catering, so she actually just started her own catering company for things like kimbap and dumplings, which is fantastic for me, the taste-tester! My dad is also a chef, but he specializes in Japanese sushi. However, he is an awesome Korean chef in his own right. Although I grew up with minimal Korean influence, my parents were sure to keep my siblings and me close to the cuisine. For example, if I go to a Korean restaurant, I can order the most elaborate meal, but I may not be able to ask for it eloquently. 

My presentation touched on different aspects, such as propriety, unique aspects, holiday and ceremonial foods, and the infamous staple, kimchi. I showed my mom and she was quite impressed with the detail put into it. She wasn't so thrilled a few of the pictures I took of her dishes however (she thought the lighting could have been better). 

My sources are listed on the last slide of the Prezi. I used two websites primarily, and referenced my mom and the supermarket that I was able to take pictures from. 

I have completed my self-evaluation blocks in my Learning Plan.  The completed learning plan w/self-evaluation is attached to this entry (see below).  Thanks!

Completed Self-Evaluation Blocks on Learning Plan: SelfEvaluation_on_LearningPlan.pdf