Here I wrote one page in Turkish. I talked a little bit about my life, then about exams that I will have next week. I am really happy with this artifact because I used so many grammar tenses that me and my teaching assistant covered this semester. I am happy that I am actually able to use all the tenses that we have covered. Now I know that I actually understood and can apply the rules by forming sentences. I probably did make some mistakes but overall I think that any Turkish person would be able to understand what I wrote, and that is why I believe I did a great job here with this artifact.
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Language is a significant part of a culture. There are several aspects of the language which are reflected on the culture such as in levels of formality in Korean language is a representation of the hierarchy in the Korean society. It is scary to think that some languages are on the verge of extinction as it would risk the death of a vital part of the culture.
During this period of globalization, there is a growing demand and popularity of certain languages such as English, Spanish and Mandarin as they are spoken in the greater part of the world. As a result it is very easy to overshadow the languages spoken by the minorities. An example of such as language is Siletz Dee-ni.
The article talks about the revival of the tribal language Siletz Dee-ni and the different methods used to serve its purpose. Technology played a big role in the revitalization of Siletz Dee-ni. The article relates how Bud Lane, a member of the tribe who speaks this language, created an online Siletz Dee-ni Talking Dictionary which have gained large popularity after being made public. The dictionary also revealed the parts of the world where languages similar to Siletz Dee-ni are spoken. Another approach taken was the introduction of this language in schools.
In my opinion, we can take advantage of globalization to promote these languages as well. The language can be advertised through social media such as Facebook and Youtube. Writing books in these languages, making movies or songs are all ways to make people know about these languages and at the same time appeal to the young people.
Whenever I tell someone that I am learning Turkish they ask me if I have ever visited Turkey and if I have ever tried famous Turkish tea. And my answers to those questions are always YES and YES. First time I tried Turkish tea I burned my fingers, because tea (also known as cay in Turkish) is served in a glass and not in a cup, and I thought that the glass was made of some special kind that does not transfer the heat but I was wrong. Turkish people like to drink hot tea but the proper way of holding the glass is to hold the upper edge of the glass where tea does not reach and thus the glass is not hot in that part. I bought some Turkish tea in Turkey and tried to prepare it home but when I prepared it, it tasted really awful, because I prepared it just like regular tea, I did not know that Turkish tea is supposed to be prepared in a special way. Turkish tea is usually black and is mostly cultivated on the Black Sea coast. I was however surprised to find out that Turkish tea tasted different at different places, I tried it at one place in Istanbul and at several places in Bursa, and every time I tried it, it tasted different. Every restaurant/place has its own flavors and tricks that make tea taste different. To prepare Turkish tea, Turks use caydanlik which is a two stacked kettle, the bottom part is filled with hot, boiling water whereas the upper part is for the tea brew. It usually takes about 30 minutes to prepare this tea, which is really surprising considering that in the US culture or in Bosnian culture we just put a tea bag in boiling water and drink it. To get the full taste of Turkish tea, you have to use leaves and not tea bags. You first wash tea leaves with cold water to remove any dust and place them in the upper kettle. Then you put water in the bottom kettle to boil, and once it boils you put some of that boiling water in the upper kettle to brew the leaves. Leave this for about 20 minutes to brew. Once the time is up, the tea is ready to be served. It is usually served with 2 sugar cubes.
It is also important to know how to serve Turkish tea, for example if you put too little tea leaves it is called acik which is “weak tea”, and if you put too many leaves it becomes koyu which means “dark, strong tea”. Both are extremes and are considered bad. That is why it is important to emphasize your preference when ordering Turkish tea. Drinking tea in Turkey is as important (if not even more) as it is in England. You drink tea in the morning, afternoon, but mostly you drink it in the evenings when you meet with your friends and have long conversations. Personally, I am not a big fan of Turkish tea, I do not like the taste of it very much. I think that you just have to get used to it. But it is interesting how Turkish people drink glasses and glasses of tea every day, whereas in Bosnia we rarely ever drink tea. In Bosnia when we gather with friends we drink coffee, whereas in Turkey they either drink coffee or tea. I am glad that I have tried Turkish tea in Turkey and got this experience. Even though I am not a big fan of Turkish tea, I am planning to drink it again the next time I go to Turkey.
http://www.deliciousistanbul.com/blog/2011/02/04/turkish-tea/
When I first started learning French, I was very surprised by the fact that there is a gender for every noun. To me it hardly made sense to call computer male and table female. Initially, I kept on asking the question, "why?" I tried to look for a reason for the assignment of gender to objects and concepts. However, all the teachers told me that there is no reason and to simply get used to it. That is when I realized that learning about the history of a language can be of great benefit to learning that language as it provides a justification for each rule that is encountered.
As a result, when learning Korean, I decided to learn about the history and origin of Korean language alongside learning the language itself. When I was familiarizing myself with the alphabet, I was intrigued by the use of lines and dots in vowels. However, researching the history led me to the explanation behind the shapes of vowels. I learned that the vertical line represented humans, the horizontal line represented the earth and the dot represented the sun. In fact, the sun, the earth and human beings are the three Confucian realms. Prior to that, I did not realize the presence Confucianism in Korean social infrastructure.
I learned that hierarchy is a big part of Confucianism as it exists in society, family, work etc. This also explained the several levels of formality used in speech and writing. This is also one of the first things that I learned from my language partner. Even something as simple as "Thank you" has several different forms according to the context. If we are thanking an elder/ parents/ boss/ teacher we use khamsahamnida/ komapseumnida. If we are thanking someone a few years older than us but who we know very well, we usually use kumowoyo/ khamsahaeyo. But when thanking someone of the same age/ close friends/ those who are younger than us we use kumawo. When I tried to learn the different forms without knowing the historical context, I often got frustrated over the complicated system and ended up memorizing the various forms. However, after learning the history, I can use my reasoning and judgement to decide which form to use.
The way that the reading was structured, it was a little hard to understand or analyze the text completely. The author talks a lot of what second language learners should do and not do, but there isn't enough evidence or examples to back up this point. Therefore, it makes it difficult for someone to read it and actually know what he/she should do in these situations. I would have preferred to have some examples for the things that the author says so that I would be able to see what should not be done and what should. Examples are definitely key when it comes to learning. The reading didn't seem to be for language learners but more for teachers on how they can teach language learners. And so, I had trouble connecting with the reading. All throughout the reading, the author uses so much citations. Every other sentence there is a citation. This makes me wonder if the author wrote any original stuff. How much of the reading is the author's own words and how much is from other authors?
Reading itself is very information based, it's not a simple thing to read. Honestly though, is knowing how sentences are broken down and what they represent really helpful in learning a language for language learners? I don't think so. Even if we know this information, there's no way that we would remember it and apply it to everyday conversations. Often times, conversations are done on a whim and randomly. Therefore I really think this reading is more as a guide for teachers on what their students should know when learning instead of for students themselves. Without someone actually putting the information in a form that we would understand clearly, this information is useless for students.
I agree conversation is much easier to learn than learning the structures first. Most children today start off by talking with their families first and learning from these interactions before learning how to write sentences. But I kind of don't understand what the author meant by syntactic structures. Does it mean how the sentences are structured?
Reading the regulatory function section, I still don't really get it. What does regulation of encounters mean? Is it something that determines how people behave when they're around other people? I think the author does a poor job at explaining the difference between instrumental function and regulatory function. It needs to be explained at a more simple level.
In reading the examples about pragmatics and sociopragmatics, we have to consider the fact that English is an extremely complex language than most languages. Therefore sometimes there are more simple languages than English. And so I think the reading is more tailored to language learners learning English than for English language learners particularly. The reading talks a lot about the difficulties and misunderstandings that foreign language learners have when they're speaking and learning English. Thus, it makes it difficult for me as a English language learner to relate most of the reading to my own studies and learning.
It was interesting to learn about the different competences. Usually, when we are learning a language, we either focus on the grammar or the vocabulary without thinking about what skill it is actually teaching us besides telling us how to say something in the target language. However, after completing the reading, I realized that everything that are taught has an objective. For instance, when doing a simple exercise of writing a few sentences about myself, I discovered that it involved grammatical competence as the verbs needed to be conjugated properly, discourse competence as the sentences needed to be cohesive, sociolinguistic competence due to the need to use the words which are suitable for my context. Moreover, at times I would look for an objective for learning everything as it made the learning experience more meaningful.
The article also discusses the functions of a language. Although language has the universal purpose of communication, there are many functions of a language. It can be used to cause certain events to happen, it can serve to control events, to convey facts, express feelings and emotions, inquire, give form to our imaginations. Even though I use language for all the functions mentioned all the time, reading about the functions made me appreciate the significance of having a language.
I also found the discussion on pragmatics very intriguing. Growing up in one culture and learning a single language, it is very easy to overlook the implicit communication made in conversations depending on the context. One of the examples mentioned in the reading is the question "Would you like to read?" could have different meanings in different language mainly because of the difference of culture.
This reading has made me aware of the importance of learning about a culture along with the language because of their interdependence.
I made this video by recording my voice, and using special effects to make it sound as if Ms. Hanife was talking with me in the video. I am happy with this final artifact because I have used a lot of grammar in this video that me and Miss Hanife covered this semester. Also, I included English subtitle so that our "conversation" can be understood by people who cannot understand Turkish. Overall I am happy with this artifact and I hope you find it entertaining!
Link is provided here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LGvnK6brf0&feature=youtu.be
So for my last cultural post I am going to talk about 20 things to know before you move to Sweden. Now now don't get too excited, I wasn't saying I am moving to Sweden, but it maybe on the mind and I think it would be interesting to see what Swedes think other people need to know before moving there. So let it begin
1: Swedes love their coffee
2: Waiting in line is a big deal
3: Speaking Swedish helps (No duh)
4: Get your shopping done before 5pm because many stores close early
5: Condiments tend to come in things that resemble toothpaste tubes
6: Its not uncommon for a man to be a stay at home dad
7: They love the outdoors
8: A lot of business shut down in July ( that's when many people take their vacation)
9: Lagom is best ( not too much not too little)
10: Melodifestivalen is a big deal (a contest in which Sweden's representative at the Eurovision song contest is decided)
11: Swedes love Ikea
12: Take off your shoes when entering a home
13: winters are dark and cold
14: be on time
15: all liquor stores are state run
16: Charge for plastic bags
17: Swedes have fun food days like waffle day or cinnamon bun day
18: It's okay to drink from the tap water
19: business casual means jeans
20:Not all education and healthcare is free, for routine doctor's visits the maximum you must pay out of pocket for an entire year is SEK 1,100 (166 dollars)
So if you ever plan to live in Sweden keep these fun facts in mind!
So it was our last week today and it felt really weird. We had a large session of almost two hours due to schedule difficulties but it actually turned out to be quite good. We spoke for a long time in Swedish about anything and everything we could think of. I think my language ability is at this frustrating point that it is more advanced than numbers and colors but not advanced enough to speak how I would in English. So I am stuck in this awkward place where I either speak Swenglish (Swedish and English) a lot or my sentences are very basic. I think that this semester we spent a lot of time focuses on grammar and such which was very helpful but I forgot to continue learning new words. I think what I might due this summer is just learn a ton of vocab and then when fall comes around hopefully everything should have improved.
For my last artifact, I thought it would be fun to make a comic of me attempting to order from a Pakistanti restaurant in Urdu:
In this artifact I demonstrate my ability to say the following identity statements:
I am Krystin.
I am from Michigan.
I am 23 years old.
I have two brothers and no sisters.
I like Thai food and I like to play golf.
I don't like to study.
I want to go to India.
Well... this is embarrassing. I just went back and re-watched my first artifact post which was a video of myself demonstrating that I knew the proper why to greet someone, introduce myself, ask someone their name, count to 10, and list the days of the week. After recording the video and watching it before I submitted it, I remember thinking I had done a pretty decent job, but looking back I realized that in my short 2 minute video about Hindi "basics", I made at least 3 mistakes. The first mistake I made was in regards with asking someone "what is your name?" In the video, I said "App Kia naam hai"- which would translate to, "what is you name" Instead, I was supposed to say, "Appka nam kia hai". The second mistake I made, was with regard to asking "How are you" in a formal manner. I said "app kasi ho", when ho only goes with "tum" (the informal way of saying "you") Instead, the proper way to formally ask how someone is, is by asking "Aap kaise hai?" The third mistake I made was with the days of the week, I switched Friday and Saturday, Friday is "Shukrivar" and Saturday is "Shanivaar". The only comforting thing about re-watching my first artifact is that I am learning, because my mistakes were glaringly obvious to me!
I used several resources throughout the semester to better learn Hindi. The first resource I used was the following website: http://www.learning-hindi.com/ This website was really helpful in understanding the different sounds of the language and basic words/phrases. While I relied heavily on this resource in the beginning of my language learning, I drifted away from it as it is more geared for learners who want to learn to read and write Hindi as well. Another resource I used was the book, Hindi a Complete Course for Beginners by the company Living Languages. I read the first chapter, and it was very easy to follow, but again it is geared for beginners who aspire to read and write Hindi, so it was not one of my primary resources. While this semester I found these resources to be mostly ineffective for achieving my language goals this semester, as I continue to learn Hindi, I am planning on expanding my knowledge into reading and writing, and I anticipate that these resources will then be very useful in later stages of my language learning., which I thought as both helpful and conducive to actually applying the words I was learning into application. I also recently opened an account on Mango languages, which I am excited to incorporate into my learning strategies moving forward.
Resources that I used frequently and found very helpful included the following:flashcard app, Pandora radio station, google translate, of course my Hindi Tutor Niyati, and the following website- http://www.hindilearner.com/hindi_tutorials/ConversationInHindi/conversation_in_hindi.php
The resources I listed above were used in a combination of ways to facilitate my daily learning. I often would meet with Niyati, ask her how to say I variety of words/phrases that I wanted to learn for that day. Then I would transcribe the words/phrases into my flashcard app and review the words/phrases on frequent basis- adding to the list as my learning progressed. I listed to a Bollywood Pandora station frequently, which helped me to learn the sounds and rhythm of Hindi. Google translate was used on days I didn't meet with Niyati, but wanted to learn how to say a particular word/phrase that day. As the semester progressed, Niyati and I started to focus more on having dialogue conversations, rather than learning new vocabulary.
I did try to watch one children's video in Hindi, as well as one Bollywood movie, but they were mostly beyond my comprehension level, so I stopped watching both of them close to half way through. I want to add to my own personal learning goals the ability to someday watch a full Hindi movie (even if it's just a children's movie) and understand it.
My interest in Turkish culture and Turkey in general began when I visited Turkey prior to coming to the United States for school. I went to visit my Turkish friend who I went to high school with. I spent 10 days in Turkey and spent most of my time in Istanbul and Bursa. There are so many things about Turkish culture that I wanted to do my presentation on such as Turkish coffee, tea, cuisine, holidays etc, however I decided to do a research on bachelorette party in Turkey. My Turkish friends always joke how I will marry a Turkish guy and that I should learn more about all the procedures and events that happen prior and during the wedding. There are 3 parts of traditional Turkish wedding customs, but I have decided to talk about part 2 only as I find it very interesting and much more different from what bachelorette party is in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Henna is a dye that you use to make temporary tattoos on your body. From my research I found out that Henna is used to show that something is being sacrificed. In the past it was considered to put henna on an object that you are going to sacrifice, for example in the Ottoman time, soldiers would put henna somewhere on their body to demonstrate that they are sacrificing themselves for their people and country. Another example is more religious, during a religious holiday when Muslims sacrifice an animal usually a sheep or a cow in the name of God, they usually put henna on the animal and this represents sacrificing. When it comes to weddings in Turkey, henna is put on a bride to demonstrate that her body and being is sacrificed to her husband that she is going to live with. Basically it represents a sacrificing bride. In the past, the bride to be would be covered in henna from head to toe and somewhere on her body, the henna artist would include the initials of her husband and the husbands task on the wedding night was to find those initials.
The Henna night is held one day before the wedding. It generally takes place at the girls home or a bride rents a place. Since this night is like bachelorette party, only girls are invited. In the past, the bride’s mother would stop by each guest’s house the night before the henna night and personally invite the family members and friends, only female members. However, today bride usually just gives a phone call in advance to her friends and tell them where the party will be held.
These days, brides prepare so much more in advance, for example they prepare for henna night 3 months earlier. The party usually ends at 1am, and because brides have to get up early for the wedding that is the next day some brides have a day off between henna and the wedding.
Usually, the bride wears everything red, she wears red dress, red veil and her friends can also wear red if they want but they don’t have to. When all female friends and relatives come to the place, bride usually comes with her groom and sometimes groom brings some of his close friends. Bride and groom dance to a romantic song for a bit and then groom and his male relatives leave. Sometimes, groom actually stays, it just depends on how they agree. So once guys leave, girls who are veiled can remove their veil, girls wear short dresses etc.
Basi butun or “whose head is complete” is a lady whose life is basically perfect. She has a perfect, happy marriage, kids, and parents and she is the one who brings henna on a silver bowl into the room. After they dance for a bit, then the traditional part starts when the bride to be sits in the middle and other girls around her surround her. Girls hold henna and candles in their hands. Then, girls start walking around the bride and sing very emotional songs to make her cry. The songs are usually about how the bride is going to leave her house and family, how mothers are losing their daughters, and daughters becoming wives. This is usually the first time that the bride is going away from home, so they generally cry when they hear such songs. But the bride does not have to cry, it is not a rule. While the girls are singing they want the bride to open her palm so that they can put henna on her palm as a way to sacrifice her, but bride does not open the palm. Then, her mother in law comes up to the bride and puts a golden coin on her closed palm and that is when she opens her palm and then girls put henna in her hands. Bride usually starts crying then, and once the bride starts crying party starts.
Apart from getting that one gold coin in her palm, bride usually gets a lot of god at henna night from her own family and grooms family. In the past, girls would put henna all over brides hands, but these days they don’t put that much henna anymore.
There are several important dances, but the most important dance is called HALAY (dugun halay),
One of the important parts of the henna night is called ISTEKLER- and this is when people call on others to dance together. For example bride can call on her sister to dance with groom’s sister. What always happens is that brides mother and mother in law are always called to dance together.
Then there is TAKI part which is when grooms mother puts so much jewelry on bride. Usually the bride and mother in law agree on what bride wants to get from mother in law and then she buys it for her. For example, she can ask for 5 golden braces and 1 set when you get earrings, necklace and braces etc. After taki, ladies dance halay for an hour and then leave.
Henna night usually ends around 1am and then what happens around 3 am is called CEREZ TOPLAMA. Family and friends who live close by take a small drum called darbuka or they could also have a car that plays music and in the middle of the night they knock on close relatives’ doors and ask for nuts and fruits, usually for something sweet. Relatives know that they will be coming late at night, so they always prepare sweet things. They can also knock on anyone’s door, everyone wakes up because of that small drum that is very loud and because they are all loud, they are singing and laughing.
At the end of CEREZ TOPLAMA, it is tradition to go to grooms house and take some clothes from mother in law and burn it in front of their house. This is like a superstition saying that if you burn her clothes, the bride and mother in law will get along in future.
Also attending other students presentations, I learned a lot about other cultures. I learned that Swedes are not very open, they do not flirt, and do not show emotions very much. When a couple goes out they usually split for the meal, because if they did not, a girl would be offended if a guy insists. They usually value commitment and not paper. Also, they are not a big fan of engagement rings.
In Korea, Koreans think homosexuality is a disease and that it can be cured, their biggest problem is ignorance and that topic is usually taboo and they do not like to talk about homosexualtiy. It is also important to arrive on time for the meetings, but if you arrive too early, that is disruptive, and being late is only for people in power. I found it interesting that when you get a business card you do not put it in your pocket immediately, but you have to take a look at it for a while and only then you can put it in your pocket.
Overall, I learned some interesting facts about other cultures and I always enjoy learning about other culture, but I truly believe that Turkey has the most interesting culture and that is why I find learning about Turkish culture most entertaining.
I have decided to talk about “the bachelorette party in Turkey” for my final presentation. Miss Hanife gave me actually this idea when she told me that her sister is getting married this year and that she is already preparing the bachelorette party. I asked her what the bachelorette party looks like, she told me several things that I found very surprising but interesting. For example this night is called “Henna night”. When I heard that, I decided to do some research, and I found out that henna means “protection, happiness” and that it is an integral part of the wedding process and that if the bride to be does not have it during the bachelorette party or the official wedding, she is not going to be accepted to heaven. Then, during my research I found out that there are 3 parts of the wedding; the engagement, the henna night and the official wedding. I also found out that girls prepare for this night so much in advance, several months in advance actually.
Also, the most important dance during the henna night is called halay dance, which when I watched some YouTube videos, I realized that we in Bosnia have a similar dance which is actually traditional dance. That is when people hold each other’s hands and dance in a circle. For my final presentation I will include a YouTube video of this dance so the audience can see what the dance looks like. Also, this time is when the bride to be gets a lot of jewelry, especially gold. In my research I also found that there is a traditional part called ISTEKLER and that is when people call each other to dance together. This is especially common thing to do at the official wedding, for example the bride can call her sister to dance and then somebody else can call the groom’s brother to dance together, and this is how people can actually meet up, dance together. I find this part interesting and I am looking forward to researching more about this part. There are a lot of important and interesting parts of this Henna night that I am excited to research and share with the audience. First of all, I want to know the real meaning of using henna at the bachelorette party, its importance and learning more about all the steps and events that happen prior to the actual wedding.
I was impressed when I realized how much me and Ms. Hanife covered this semester. I have been taking Turkish for 3 semesters and even though I have always been an overachiever, I never thought we could actually cover this much in such a short period of time. It may seem that we only covered a lot of material, but I actually understood everything that we covered and I am pretty much confident that I can use it in my daily conversation with my Turkish friends. Not only does my language partner says that I have improved but my Turkish friends are very much impressed and when they see me they hardly ever speak to me in English, they keep speaking to me in Turkish. This is very motivational because I feel that they believe I have enough Turkish knowledge to be able to understand whatever they are telling me, and I do indeed, I do understand most of what they speak but I find it much harder to actually express myself in Turkish. I believe that it is like that for any language, it is much easier to understand the language that is being spoken to you, than actually speak it and form sentences using the right grammar and vocabulary. I find it especially hard with Turkish language, considering the fact that there are just so many tenses, and rules, and exceptions that you have to be careful and pay attention to. Looking back at how little I actually knew, I basically knew only present continuous and now I am able to use some advanced grammar/tense in Turkish such as reporting tense, then some tenses that do not even exist in English. I found it particularly difficult to understand rules and tenses that do not exist in English or Bosnian. Me and Miss Hanife would spend much more time on such tenses than on some rules that are more less similar to the languages that I speak. At the beginning of this semester when my language partner told me that we should finish the book we were using last semester (which is really intense and detailed) I did not believe that it could happen, especially because the material in following chapters was getting tougher and harder. But we were determined and we worked hard on accomplishing our goal, and last week when we actually finished the book, I was just so impressed and happy that I just could not believe it. I just wish I could take Turkish language next semester as well, but since I am graduating in May that may seem impossible. I wish I had taken Turkish from my freshmen year. If I had been taking Turkish language from my freshman year, I wonder how much I would have known now. I am pretty sure that I would be pretty much fluent, considering that in only 3 semesters I have accomplished this much. My language partner said that the book we used is for intermediate students and definitely not for the beginners. I like how me and Miss Hanife focused a lot on communication which helped me become more confident speaking in Turkish. Before, I used to not speak up in Turkish because I thought I would not be able to form sentences correctly, or that I would make some huge, silly mistakes, but working with Miss Hanife really helped me boost my Turkish confidence and I do not have this fear anymore. That is what my Turkish friends also realized and pointed it out to me. Even though our biggest source of learning Turkish was the intermediate book, I have also used other sources, mostly Turkish TV shows, music, news. Biggest help was definitely my language partner who would correct my mistakes, explain the material whenever I found it confusing and hard, practiced with me, and communicated in Turkish with me. The most rewarding achievement for me is my satisfaction that I have improved my Turkish, that I became more confident speaking it and being able to understand my Turkish friends and talk to them. Even though I know that I do make mistakes when I speak in Turkish, I am sure that I make less mistakes now compared how much I made last semester. I am a kinesthetic learner, I learn the best through hands on experience. So basically, when I learn vocabulary, the easiest way and most efficient way for me to memorize the words is by writing them down, repeating them and rewriting them again. When it comes to learning how to pronounce Turkish words/letters, the best way for me is watching Turkish TV shows and listening to songs. One of my goals was also to learn more about Turkish culture and I sure have accomplished this. I did a lot of research on Turkish culture just to find out the most interesting topic for my Turkish presentation, and when I found out the topic that I wanted to research further, I spent a lot of time learning about it, preparing the presentation which gave me a better insight into Turkish culture.
Overall, I believe that this was a very beneficial class for me, and working with my language partner Miss Hanife was very helpful and enjoyable. Everything was going smoothly and scheduled right at my pace. Whenever I thought we were going too fast or when I did not understand something, I would always spend more time on that particular material until I understand it completely, and this was really helpful for me. Thus, we were not rushing to cover all the material just to go over it, but we made sure that everything we cover I understand. By working hard every week, and by being motivated and determined we were able to finish the entire book.
I only wish I could continue taking Turkish and working with Miss Hanife. However, I am graduating so it seems impossible. I will have to work on my own now. I believe I have a really strong base, I can continue building strong vocabulary, learning new grammar/tenses and of course keep communicating with my Turkish friends and visit Turkey in the near future.
Overall, I am really happy with how much I improved, and I believe that this class was extremely helpful for me not only that it helped me learn Turkish language, but learn more about Turkey in general, learn about its tradition, culture and people.
I am proud to say that Ms. Hanife and I accomplished our goal. Our goal was to finish the rest of the book that we used last semester and during these two weeks we managed to finish it off. I simply cannot believe that we have covered so much material in such a short time, but everything was going smoothly and just at right pace.
These last two weeks we worked a little bit on grammar, and mostly we were revising the material we covered throughout this semester and focused on conversation. I was surprised that I was able to lead conversation in Turkish using more advanced grammar, vocabulary and even some idioms. We spent one session listening to Turkish songs, reading poems, and talking about Turkish culture. After talking to Ms. Hanife about Turkish culture and traditions I finally figured out what I want to deliver my presentation on. I have decided to talk about Turkish bachelorette party. Ms. Hanife’s sister is getting married and she told me how the entire family is already preparing for the wedding that will be held in June. Miss Hanife gave me this idea and now my task is to do a lot of research and be ready to present it. Even though I was initially planning to talk about hookah, I have realized that it will be much more interesting to talk about the bachelorette party, especially because it is much more different from what bachelorette parties look like in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States.
These last two weeks, I was revising with Miss Hanife all the material that we have covered this semester. We covered the entire book, and my language partner said that I improved a lot. Going back to the first chapter, I realized how easy that material is compared to the material in the last chapters. Revising present continuous, past simple, future tense all the way to reporting tense and learning how to say that you are doing two actions at the same time, I came to realized that we have covered more material than I thought we ever could in such a short period of time. There are of course some tenses that when I looked at back were a bit blurry and I could not remember exactly how to use them but when I revised them, I remembered. I also wrote my “I can statement” and me and Ms. Hanife went over it again. My final exam is in a few days but my Turkish learning will definitely not stop there. I am determined to learn Turkish and I am really motivated to learn it and I will continue learning it, watching Turkish TV shows, and listening to Turkish songs and most importantly keep communicating in Turkish with my Turkish friends. I am looking forward to improving even more and one day speaking Turkish fluently.
