Hindi Artifact #4: Document a learning task that you have completed that meets a personal goal.

For my fourth Hindi artifact, I chose to make a VoiceThread that demonstrated the different parts of the body.  I had never made a VoiceThread before for an artifact, so I really wanted to learn how to utilize VoiceThread.  It was extremely helpful in providing the structure for me to record in Hindi the names of the different body parts.    I learned the words for:

(Parts of the body) - शरीर के अंग

1.  Head - सिर

2.  Hair - बाल

3.  Eye - आंख

4.  Ear - कान

5.  Mouth - मुंह

6.  Tooth (teeth) --दांत

7.  Arm -बांह

8.  Hand - हाथ

9.  Elbow -कोहनी

10.  Fingers - उंगलियों

11.  Belly - पेट

12.  Back -पीठ

13.  Leg - टांग

14.  Foot - पैर

I also learned vocabulary relating to diseases, but I included most of them in the post about my cultural presentation (caste and health in India).

Here is Hindi Artifact #4 below: (Please make sure your volume is turned up)

(link in case you do not see the artifact below: Link to Hindi Artifact #4)

Hello!

During this past week (technically 9 days), I have been working on a variety of different topics.  First, I finished up working on vocabulary related to caste and health with my language partner.  We discussed whether she finds the topic still relevant today, and we reviewed some vocabulary related to caste.  In working on my Cultural Project, however, I did a lot of research on my own to learn more about the vocabulary words and Hindi expressions that are related to caste and health (please see blog entry about my Cultural Presentation).

On my own, I watched a great Hindi video about the reality of Dalits in India, and it was in Hindi with some subtitles.  I paused the video whenever there was a sign so that I could read it (since I memorized the Hindi script at the beginning of the semester).  I am really glad that I learned the script!  Even though there are some letters that I still have trouble recognizing because they look SO similar to another letter or to a totally distinct Punjabi letter, I love being able to read Hindi signs -- it opens up a whole new level of understanding for me. 

(left: sign that says: "Religion can be changed, why not caste? Abandon caste -- unite India." - from Flickr)

During this week's meetings with my language partner, we reviewed vocabulary related to nature and weather.  It's really interesting because in English, we have many different words for rain (drizzling, pouring, raining, etc), but in Hindi, it's mainly just "monsoon" and two words for "rain."  Some of the words related to weather were a bit tricky to pronounce, so we also studied a segment of "A Door Into Hindi," in which the main characters go to Murree, a town in the mountains.  Thus, I was able to learn some more vocab related to natural features of India, like "lake," "mountain," "winds," etc.  This also gave me some listening practice related to these weather/nature words!

I met again with with my language partner today and we did some pronunciation/listening practice by listening to a GLOSS segment on matrimonial ads.  These words were really hard to understand, even though one of my projects in MLC 105 was about colorism and utilized some of the main words (fair-skinned, colorism, etc).  Thus, after doing one activity, I switched to doing something a little more suited toward my level.  I wrote out a variety of words related to animals, since I had not studied them yet, and we then watched a Hindi story for kids on youtube about a stray dog who got a bone...and then saw his reflection in a river and dropped the bone because he thought it was another dog.  This story utilized some of the nature/weather words (river, water, etc) and then the animal words as well, so that was helpful!  I still need to re-write and memorize many of the words I learned in this story, however, because they were a bit tough!  This is a link to the Hindi story on YouTube: Hindi Aesop's Fables

It is quite interesting to examine attitudes about family in Indian culture.  In India, many young people live in multigenerational families, because the sense of respect towards the elderly is manifested by having the elderly live with their children/grandchildren as time passes.  There is also a very strong sense of reverence for the elderly -- often, children will make a gesture similar to touching the elderly's feet as a sign of respect.  Some Indian families in the US have kept these traditions, but others do not continue with these traditions.

Linguistically, when you greet a relative that is older than you, you must use the formal pronoun -- "aap" in Hindi, and the formal version of the verbs as well. 

There is also a large emphasis placed on having close family ties with relatives.  Unlike English, where "aunt" or "uncle" can mean any one of your aunts or uncles, Hindi has specific words denoting which aunt or which uncle.  It's interesting because it is definitely a lot to remember (like the words for dad's older brother and dad's younger brother are different...despite the fact that they are both your uncles!). 

In Hindi, the word bhaiya means older brother, and if a woman uses this while bargaining to purchase something or  when talking to a rickshaw driver about the price, it can help in the negotiations -- because it is basically like saying, "How dare you overcharge me when I see you as a big-brother type figure?"  However, the pronunciation is a little tricky, but it is definitely a word that could be helpful when trying to negotiate for a better price!! :) 

Here is my third Hindi artifact!  Since I had already described my family in Artifact #2, I decided to instead describe a photo I took with my friend while in India at the Golden Temple.  I utilized present tense, past tense, present progressive, post-positions (in front of, in, of, but, but still, on, etc), colors, and vocabulary related to sightseeing and the weather.  My Hindi description is below the photo, and the English translation is below the description in Hindi. 

Please note: Another way to write "Golden Temple" in Hindi is to utilize "half-consonant" sounds, so the phrase would be गोल्डन टेम्पल.  Just wanted to make sure both ways were included in my artifact! : )

Since this is towards the end of the semester, it is really amazing for me to look back at the past few months and think about how at the beginning of the semester, I had no knowledge of the Hindi alphabet or script at all!

Here is the photo I am describing:

Description in Hindi:

 English translation:

"Amritsar and the Golden Temple"

      In this photo, my friend Terren and I are in front of the Golden Temple.  It is a religious building that is in the city of Amritsar.  The Golden Temple is very old (ancient) but still it is very beautiful.  When we were there, the weather was really hot.  However, in the mornings, the weather is really nice.

    In this photo, Terren and I are wearing salwar kameez (a type of Indian dress).  The color of my salwar kameez was blue and white and the color of Terren's salwar kameez was purple.  The color of Terren's scarf (dupatta) was black.

    In the Golden Temple, we ate langar (where everyone eats together - communally - as equals...**a cultural experience that is difficult to translate into English).  On weekends/holidays, many people come to the Golden Temple (there are a lot of crowds). 

    In the city of Amritsar, we did some shopping.  We bought Punjabi shoes!  Punjabi shoes are beautiful but they cause pain in the feet.  The colors of my Punjabi shoes were red and black. 

   Seeing the Golden Temple was a lot of fun for both Terren and me!

Topic: Reflection on "How Immersion Helps to  Learn a Language" (NY Times Article)

I found the article "How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language" to be very fascinating!  Since I am majoring in biology, it is interesting to me to think about how scientific techniques, like electroencephalography (EEG), can provide us with an increased grasp of how we learn and remember language.  It was amazing that the immersion group displayed the full brain patterns of native speakers, and I think this might be in part because of the role of the brain in processing information like a native speaker would.  For instance, in German, when I would use the past perfect tense, the most important "action" verb would be at the end, so when I would listen to someone talk about their day, for instance, I would have to wait until the end of the sentence to actually understand what she was doing that day.  For instance, if I were to say: "Today at school I ate a sandwich," in German, the word order would be "Today at school [aux verb - in the form of "to have"] I a sandwich [main verb: ate]."  Thus, my brain would process the whole idea of the past differently, because I would wait a little longer, expectantly, to hear the crux of the sentence -- the verb.   With Hindi, I'm not so sure I have been learning through immersion.  I have been utilizing a variety of mediums, but towards the beginning, I really focused on "book" learning -- learning grammar, vocab, etc, through textbooks and some online resources.  However, now I feel that those aren't the parts of Hindi that I most remember.  I most remember what I supplemented with audio or video resources that were very culturally authentic, such as a public service announcement using health vocab or a Bollywood clip about family.  Thus, it is interesting how the brain really does utilize different mediums to learn, especially when you consider the role of neuroscience in assessing the brain's capabilities in language learning.

One of my friends who is interested in issues relating to gender and human rights is studying abroad in India, where she is studying Hindi as one of her courses. She told me that she dislikes studying Hindi because of its emphasis on gender-distinctive pronouns and verbs (The verb form for "he goes" would be different from the verb used in "she goes").  I never really thought about that before, and I think that these small details may influence the way we view gender relationships as well in society -- as a way to consider how linguistics influences the way our brain may process other details.  For instance, Sweden just brought about a new gender-neutral pronoun (Hen) to show sensitivity to people who do not identify themselves as either male or female.  "Hen" would be a gender-neutral pronoun instead of he (han in Swedish) and she (hon in Swedish).  It's interesting, but in light of the NY times article, do you think that linguistic interventions like these would actually change the way our brain processes societal relationships as well??  Here's a link to the article about Sweden's "linguistic intervention" --  Sweden's new gender-neutral pronoun

Reflection on "A Picture of Language" (NY Times article)

I found this NY Times article to be very interesting, as I have not read a lot about the history of teaching English grammar.  I thought S. W. Clark's idea of "analyzing sentences by turning them into pictures" was fascinating, because it was a completely different perspective on grammar -- specifically, parsing, which at the time, seemed to be characterized as very much rooted in memorization and recitation. I have never tried sentence diagramming in Hindi, but in the process of putting sentences together, I often have to consider the different word order and sentence structure in Hindi -- for instance, if I were to say "I am eating in my house," the word order in Hindi would be: "I in my house eating am."  It's difficult to remember the order of prepositions as well, especially when the sentences become more complex.  Thus, it might be a good idea to attempt sentence diagramming to think of word order in Hindi as more graphical, with the lines, bubbles, extensions, etc.  It seems to allow language learners a visual representation of the sentence structure, which would be helpful because (as we have studied) learning a language best occurs through a variety of mediums, such as visual  representation, auditory help, and more.  Although I never became very interested in sentence diagramming from previous experience in elementary/middle school, I think it might be a good idea to give it a try for learning Hindi.

There's another interesting blog about the history/background of sentence diagramming available here: A short personal and intellectual history of sentence diagramming

I also watched a really interesting TED talk about the relationship between language and humanity -- it was fascinating! I've also pasted it below.

Available here: http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_pagel_how_language_transformed_humanity.html

TED Talk by Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity

Artifact 3

I asked my mom to write down a short phrase so I can practice reading it... She wrote the following:

반짝반짝 작은별
아름답게 빛이네
동쪽 하늘에서도
서쪽 하늘에서도
반짝반짝 작은별
아름답게 빛이네

Afterwards, I practiced reading it. She told me it translates to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMzQ2OTc1OTg2MjImcHQ9MTMzNDY5NzYxODg5NSZwPTk3NTA3MiZkPTAwMCUyMC*lMjBWb2tpJTIwV2lkZ2V*Jmc9/MSZvPTE3OWRmYjA3OWVlMTRkOWRhOTI*MjIzMjdmMGFkYzMwJm9mPTA=.gif" />

Topic:  Reflection about the "Sociocultural Factors" reading

I really enjoyed the article "Sociocultural Factors," because it further emphasized to me the intricacies of learning about a culture while learning a language, as demonstrated in the quote: "The two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture" (189).  Although I agree with the author that it is critical to learn more about the worldviews associated with the culture that one is studying, it is just as important to note that language learners should take caution not to think in terms of stereotypes or overgeneralizing people from the culture they are studying.  One way to learn more about this would be for MLC 105 students to perhaps consider stereotypes associated with people from the culture they are studying, and then talk to people from the culture that disagree (or perhaps agree) with what the stereotypes represent. 

I really liked learning about anomie, which the author describes as "feelings of social uncertainty or dissatisfaction..a feeling of homelessness, where one feels neither bound firmly to one's native culture nor fully adapted to the second culture."  Interestingly, when I studied abroad in Germany, I felt a stronger sense of culture shock and anomie than when I studied abroad in India, where I did not know the language as well as I know German.  My experience can also be supported by the author's statement on p. 196: "Lambert's research supported the view that the strongest dose of anomie is experienced when linguistically, a person begins to master the foreign language."  Thus, just because a person can speak the second language at an advanced level, it does not always mean that they consider themselves as firmly rooted in the second culture -- it really is a transition.

   I also found it interesting to learn about how sociocultural factors influence language policy and the "English only" debate in the US.  These debates seem, on the surface, to only be about learning a language, but on a deeper level, not learning other languages often results in the "ultimate devaluing of minority languages and cultures" (208).  I also found the topic of framing to be interesting because of the way language is even framed in political debate!

The topic for my cultural project was "Caste and Health in India."  Specifically, I studied the role of caste in influencing the health of Dalit communities in India.  I became interested in this topic because of my experiences in India and seeing first-hand the ways in which caste continues to shape access to quality healthcare, particularly for women in Dalit communities -- who must not only overcome obstacles presented by caste and class, but also obstacles related to gender.  It is astounding to me that a system like this continues to persist, even after it has officially been abolished-- but it is still present and is still strongly influenced by culture (and the effects of the system continue to affect Indian culture as well by further reinforcing the "cycle" of the caste system).  Thus, by doing this project, I began to see culture as very multidimensional and ever-changing, as we have discussed in MLC 105. 

I started out by first connecting caste & health to my learning goals.  Since I am interested in global health & human rights and specifically hope to practice medicine in some context in India, I wanted to learn Hindi as a tool to communicate in a medical/public health setting.  Maternal health in particular would be interesting because it involves the sensitive topics of gender, caste, and class, and it also provided me with the opportunity to learn very multifaceted vocabulary.  I then spoke about the importance of this topic and put caste into a more personal context (imagine your life being defined by 1 word -  the caste into which you were born).  I then provided more background information about the religious context of caste and what the 4 castes + "outcasts" were.

I then transitioned into discussing perspectives of caste in contemporary Indian culture.  Although caste was abolished in 1950, there are still MANY incidents in which Dalits are ignored, insulted, banned, or shunned, etc.  I then used case studies (news articles from Feb/March 2012) and photographs to discuss this issue.  I then spoke about Dalit women, who face a triple burden of caste, class, and gender.  In this context, I spoke about how health is shaped by sociocultural and socioeconomic influences -- which can be seen through MMR (maternal mortality ratios) statistics in different countries.  In US, the MMR = 13 (13/100,000 women die in childbirth).  But in India, the MMR = 254, and for Dalit women, the MMR = 560 (560/100,000 women die in childbirth), which is extremely high. I then talked about the cultural reasons relating to health that could account for these high MMR statistics.  I also included a Public Service Announcement relating to maternal health that students could watch on their own time -- available here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FotGYKjHw50 .  I ended by reflecting on what I had learned from this cultural presentation, and also includeda list of vocab that I learned while creating this cultural presentation.

Here is my cultural presentation (I had to convert the PowerPoint file into a PDF):  PDF version of Cultural Presentation

Here is a great video (in Hindi) related to Dalit inequality that I watched to learn more about these issues: Dalit Reality - Health in Bihar

Here is the vocabulary I learned and utilized to further my knowledge about the issues of caste and health in India:

The people of Korea have great respect for the family and hierarchy. It is still common to see extended families where parents are living with their middle-aged married children and grandchildren. However, this is rapidly changing. It is also more common to see families having double incomes because of changing social norms. To the older generation, the father is the main wage earner and the mother stays home. Unfortunately, women do not have a presence in more professional fields; they stick mostly to receptionist, accounting or educational careers.

The other aspect I mentioned was hierarchy. Koreans have great respect for anyone senior in age, especially in the family. Normally, the father is the head of the family. I've also read that during meals, the rest of the family must wait for the eldest to begin eating before the others. This is typically common during meals at home.

Normally, the oldest son in the family is expected to carry on the traditions of the family. 

This hierarchical ethic of relationships is based on Confucian traditions that Koreans adopted a long time ago.

Koreans work extremely hard, but savor family and friends. They like to sing, show emotion and laugh a lot when they are with their family and friends, but are more careful with strangers.

Main topics covered:

• Henna as an art form
• Henna as a cultural expression of celebrations (marriages, holidays, etc)
• Social activity for women (of all ages) (normally women only)
• Henna as a symbol of fertility
• Origin of henna, practical applications of usage
• Hair usage in both men and women
• Storying with henna - telling stories with art

Cultural Presentation

God made us to be with him. Devaroo numagay awaru  jo-tey-gay   e-ra-kay  maude_throo

                                                   God         us                  him       with                       to be      made

 Our sin separated us             Numma  kay-tu  nummagay  awaru  jo-tey-gay   e-ra-kay  kord-allah

From him                                       Our       badness  us             him      with         to be   impossible

We deserved death                  Numma  kay-tu  solagay na-voo  sigh  beck(bake)  agittu

because of our badness                Our          badness   for         us          die    should   have

But God so loved the us         Adthre  devaroo  numagay  asht  pree-tee maude-troo  awaru 

That he gave is only                   But          God           us                 so     loved        did        him

Son to die for our sins                     

                                               numagay avaroo One-day  Maga Isu  numa kay-tu  solagay  sigh-a-

                                                    us                 his          only      Son   Jesus      our       badness  for      to die

                                                kay  madthe  jee-vanta  aga-kay  kortrue

                                                  and         alive           to become   gave

And came back to life, that        Isu    nal-ley nummbekee itta      ourgay  more-sha     sigate

Whosoever believes in him         Jesus   in       belief           have  the one  immortality  will get

Should not perish but have

Everlasting life                                                       

Sources:

Websites:

Henna:   http://www.puja.com/mehndi/

Storying: http://www.go2southasia.org/resource/evangelism/henna/

Interviews:

Melody Harper (teacher of henna storying)

Rebecca Peters (married to an Indian man)

Kawther (origin Saudi Arabia)

Mary Linggapa (Indian resident and married to an Indian man)

After reading The Times article about diagramming sentences, I had to wonder how many of my fellow classmates had diagrammed sentences as a part of their grammar and language learning in middle and high school. Probably not many.  However, I went to a small, private Christian school that did not have money for computers in the classroom or new digital methods. Thus, I wrote essays by hand, and I took notes by hand, and I learned by hand.  It has been interesting to me to see how my collegiate peers can type faster than they can write, while I am exactly the opposite. One of the things I am so glad that I learned from my time at Grove school was diagramming sentences. I absolutely LOVED it. I was the whiz kid in grammar because there was not a sentence I could not break down into the bits and pieces and make it a piece of art. 

   The author of the article asks what the benefits are of diagramming sentences. Well, let me tell you. If you grow up diagramming sentences, you understand the parts of the sentence within the whole, and the difference between a dependent clause and an independent one by visualizing it in your head.  For example, the sentence - I really liked learning a new language - is broken down into:

    I  / liked    /    learning

                \really      \a language

                                          \new

In this way, when a student is asked whether "learning a language" is an independent or dependent clause, it is easy to see that it lacks a subject, thus it is dependent. The whole structure would be different if it were independent. 

How does this benefit students? I love learning languages, and I have found my knowledge of diagramming invaluable.  When I began learning Spanish, it helped me with adjective placement after the noun instead of before it. When I learned French, it helped me with the odd "Qui, que, dont" prepositions which all mean different forms of "that." Qui is always diagrammed as the subject, que as the direct object, and dont as an object of preposition.  Learning Kannada, when the verb has to come at the end of the entire sentence, it has helped me rethink the phrases in the context of how a native speaker would diagram the sentence.  Thus, I would hope that future generations would learn diagramming; its not yet a dead language.

Week 12

This week's learning task was to learn the weather. I first researched what the common seasonly weather is in Korea. It has four seasons involving a wet monsoon season around the middle of the year. The winters are very cold from November to March. Around September and November, the weather is the warm and sunny making it an attractive time to visit. The spring is also a beautiful time with blooming plants and trees. 

I found a blog that I made into index cards to study some basic common weather vocabulary. http://learn-korean.livejournal.com/228350.html 

I wasn't positive if I was pronouncing all the words correctly so I found a youtube video of weather expressions to aid in my language learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K_hp_6ascM

Week 13

Since there was no assigned learning task this week, I decided to use this time as a review period. I went back through my old journals to find the resources I used for each language learning task. This was a helpful time to remember things from the beginning of the semester that I began to get a little blurry about. I also looked up additional resources through youtube so I could become more confident with my pronunciations. I've also taken this week to work on my fourth artifact that I will be posting soon. I am having trouble downloading my third artifact, but I am asking for help from a friend. 

Week 14

I managed to post my 3rd artifact of writing that my mom sent me to try to read. I did not know the literal translation until she later told me it was the Korean version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She said I pronounced it pretty well, but I have to work on the flow of words better. I think this will come with time and practice as I recognize characters and how they combine quicker. My 4th artifact is what I have been finalizing this week. I will be introducing myself, saying what I like to do, and what I'm going to do today.

I spent this week also reflecting on the past 14 weeks and the work I've put into learning Korean. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to practice the self-discipline of making myself learn Korean. The guidelines for language tasks were a big factor in helping me stay on track. I am still far from perfect in the language learning, but I have learned so much about the culture and ways of life in Korea. In some ways, I think this is almost more helpful then just memorizing words so that when I depart for Korea on May 8th, I will be prepared for the new customs and have less of a culture shock. I am also prepared to continue to teach myself Korean beyond this semester. I realized the amount of resources that are readily available for me to practice learning on my own. I hope that I can master the language in the next few years after college.

For my fourth artifact, I will introduce longer and more complex conversations with a native speaker.

For Modern Hebrew, I have recorded myself performing a scene with my language partner Shir. The scene revolves around two dysfunctional adults attempting to get read for an event.

Artifact Four

For Persian, I have recorded a three-person group conversation between me, Pamir and Sulsan, our language partner and native Dari speaker. During the recording we discuss recent activities and activities around the school. Non-Persian speakers can take note of two important words:

1. emroz= today

2. dirouz= yesterday

Artifact Four--Persian

When mentioning Hebrew as a language, for many non-Israelis the Bible would be the first thing that comes to mind.  However, Modern Hebrew, while only around for a bleep in the history of oral language, has shown a great deal of transformation. Through youth cultures, large immigrant populations and mandatory military service, a myriad of slang terms have come in and out of the national conscience. Below I provide some humorous examples with the Romanization of the Hebrew in italics.

zeh zeh= he or she is ‘the one’

-literally translating as ‘this this’, the expression is used in a romantic sense to indicate one has found their soul-mate.

Sof ha’olam smola= end of the world

The English equivalent would be something like using “the middle of nowhere” to describe a place one considers desolate and out of the way.

Karahana=wild partying

ex. After my MLC 110 culture presentation the karahan will start.

Not only will mastering these slang phrases introduce learners to new linguistic concepts, but they will duly impress the native speakers one is communicating with. 

Source:

http://info.jpost.com/C005/Supplements/CafeOleh/hebslang.html

     During this past week, I focused on learning how to tell time, utilizing expressions like half an hour after __, etc.  I also learned the numbers (up to 25), months, and days of the week. 

     In my meetings with my language partner, she helped me correct and review my vocab/sentence-making drills from one of the textbooks I am utilizing "Elementary Hindi Grammar" (by Dr Usha Jain).  This was helpful in providing me with reading practice and with some more grammar practice, since I have been focusing a lot on vocabulary, listening, and pronunciation. 

     I also did another major activity from the GLOSS website's Foreign Language Center.  This activity was called "The Trip," and it provided me with practice in listening and reading words related to time and numbers, as well as modes of transportation within India.  This was helpful because as someone who wants to travel to India, I definitely need to be able to know words for "taxi," "car," "bus," etc.  Many of the Hindi words are similar to what would be used in English -- "auto = car," etc, but there are also "pure Hindi" words for each of them.

     In my meeting with my language partner, we also did a major content activity from "A Door Into Hindi."  Since each activity has a video segment, followed by a grammar and vocab review, and then with exercises and a final quiz, it provides a lot of ways for me to check my progress on a certain topic.  This time, we listened to the episode called "Delhi," which was about a man visiting one of his friends in New Delhi, and they go sight-seeing, utilizing expressions related to travel, tourism, and time expressions (here is the link: http://taj.chass.ncsu.edu/Hindi.Less.05/index.html).  Since this website's exercises are in actual Hindi script, it helps me to practice the letters once again. It is still difficult to remember certain letters that look extremely similar, but I am working on it.  When I meet with my language partner and we go over vocab, she will say the word aloud, and I have to spell it out in my notebook, so it forces me to remember the distinctions between certain sounds and letters. 

For my third artifact I will use both languages to engage in conversation.

Using Modern Hebrew I will discuss my family with Alex.

https://sdlapur.ning.com/video/movie-on-2012-02-28-at-21

(If you can't connect, you can view the same video on Alex's Modern Hebrew page)

---------------------------

Communication with Sulsan, my instructor and a native-Dari speaker, we will reenact what a typically introduction of two people may sound like.

Artifact Three--Dari

How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language

NY TIMES article

This study on immersion compared to classroom learning was great to know. The article's comparison highlighted how both groups remembered words, but the brain functions of the immersed learner were more similar to the Native speakers. It goes to show that learning a language goes far beyond memorizing words and dives into a deeper cultural setting. I am excited to learn this because hopefully when I go to Korea, I will learn even more much faster than I am now. The research for this must have been very extensive and I would love to learn more about the actual methods of the electroencephalography measuring brain processing. This shows the increase in technology and research advances that will hopefully help us in the future to comprehend what the best ways to learn are. I believe I remember Dr. Grove teaching us that after a certain age it is hard to develop certain muscles for speaking a different language. I wonder if research can be done to teach muscle memory for language dialect as well.

The article "How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language" cites how language immersion can allow adults to process a new language with native proficiency. I always agreed with the sentiment that language immersion is the easiest to learn and improve one's ability in any language. For example, my grasp of Dari is significantly better when I visit family members in Europe since in such instances the only language being spoken is Dari. Therefore, to interact with my family I have to rely on my ability to speak Dari. Usually, when I return home from Europe I notice that my Dari abilities tend to regress because I am not speaking or hearing the language as often. However, I never read into any scientific studies backing language immersion until reading this article. Sindya N. Bhanoo, the article's writer, notes a study that used electroencephalography--a test to measure brain processing--to determine that those who learn a language through immersion use the brain patterns of a native speaker; these brain patterns are not present in those who learn a language in a formal setting. Considering the outcome of the study, I feel more confident in belief that language immersion is the best method for me to learn a language. 

The article "A Picture of Language" discussed an aspect of language learning that I had never heard about before. Kitty Burns Florey, the article's author, discusses what is now a relatively archaic method of language learning--diagramming. Diagramming was introduced S.W. Clark to make it easier to understand the structure of language; as opposed to parsing, the method used at the time which Clark found too tedious. Through my reading of the article, I could not see the effectiveness of using diagramming. The concept seems very outdated, as the author suggests, and I believe there are better methods understanding the structure of a language. However, some do claim that diagramming creates a visual interpretation of language, which adds a greater dimension to knowledge of a language. Although, my experience with diagramming is non-existent, and I cannot personally attest to any added benefits.