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The following things are topics that dropped out of my learning plan:

• How to count in Bangla past what I already know (I can only count up to 20 and the 10s)
• Memorize the days of the week. 

Halfway through the course I realized that I felt it was more important to me to learn how to read and write in Bangla more than it was to learn the little things that I did not know. I know that because I am already familiar in the language the only thing that I'd have to do in order to learn the things that I skipped in my learning plan is to memorize them so they fell pretty low in my priorities. 

I am happy with the fact that I can recognize Bengali letters and that I know their sounds and can pronounce them together. Aside from conjuncts and some errors in differentiating certain letters from others because of how identical they look, I can read Bengali fairly well now, though at a slow stumbling pace. 

I learned how to write and I'm very excited about that! I find writing much easier than reading, ironically. I can speak the language, yet I have difficulty reading and am better at writing. I recognize the letters well enough to write them, but when it comes to reading somehow I manage to mix the letters up and read what I don't mean. I think this has to do with the fact that I give myself more time to deliberate what I'm about to write than when I read. I cannot write or identify most conjuncts, but that's something I plan on working towards in the future. 

As for comprehension, I still don't know shuddo bangla as well as I wanted to, but I know that I understand Bangla more than I gave myself credit for in the beginning. The reason for this lies solely in the pronunciation and I'm not sure if I want to do more in developing an ear for that on my own as opposed to hearing others and being exposed to it and getting used to it. Different pronunciations throw me off. I'm going to Bangladesh this summer for a month so I'm going to have the perfect opportunity to work on that!

I signed up for SDLC 111 for the upcoming fall and my plans are more succinct because I know which aspects I want to focus on. I definitely know that I need to work on my reading; that will have to be practice and reading more on my own. There won't be a better way than that to learn the conjuncts that I'm not familiar with (and good lord are there tons!!!) and get used to them. I want to read a book in Bangla for children so that I can transition to a higher level. I also need to pick up a good English to Bangla dictionary during my stay in Bangladesh. As for writing, I just need to learn the technical things like grammar rules for writing and such. I thought I would need to learn Bangla grammar, but turns out I already know it from speaking it- who would've known? 

My ultimate goal for Spring 2014 (a whole year from now) is to be able to either read Bangla literature or write fluently. 

For this assignment, I chose to teach a friend that helps me study Arabic vocabulary though she has no relation to Arabic whatsoever. I tell her how to pronounce the words and she quizzes me on its definition. Helping me study, she would learn some words as well. Thus, I figured she would have a propensity for picking up language. 

Bengali is difficult to follow if one does not hear the sounds correctly since there are unique sounds that are nonexistent to English. For that reason, I wanted to teach her some of the Bengali alphabet letters. 

We began with me pronouncing the sounds the letters make. We did all the vowels (the first 11) and then the next two rows of letters. I wasn't concentrating on recognizing the letters because that would have taken more time and practice, but more than anything I wanted her to be aware of the sounds. For her amusement, however, she wrote the letters on a white board as she pronounced them. 

I predicted the difficulty she would face when trying to pronounce the vowels ও (o) ঔ (au) because of how similar they sound. The second is more stressed while the first is an abrupt "o" sound. 

She also had difficulties with words that had aspirations after them, such as the following: ঘ (gh)  খ (kh)  ছ (ch)   ঝ (jh). She had done the preceding letters well because they exist in English. She also had trouble with other letters that came after for the same reason. What I did in these cases was teach her where to place her tongue and how to position her mouth when pronouncing it. Fortunately, these methods worked. For instance, for ত (Ṭô) I told her to move her tongue forward behind her front teeth and then make a hard "t" sound without moving her tongue back to the roof of her mouth.   

After teaching her how to pronounce the letters, I had her learn a few words in Bengali that had the sounds we just learned in them. Some of the words were "bhalo" (good) "kharap" (bad) "bhoi" (scary/fear). It was a good lesson, but of course I would need to spend more time on teaching her and having her study it in order for her to retain it. However, I learned a very helpful tactic to help people pronounce Bengali sounds. 

Artifact%206.pdf

Verb conjugation (Past, present, and future) with example sentences.

In the article Why Bilinguals Are Smarter, the author stated that although the two language systems may obstruct each other in brain, the inference can also strengthen brain’s cognitive muscles through resolving the internal conflict. As a bilingual, I strongly agree with his idea. I am a Chinese speaker living in an English speaking country which means I speak, read, write and listen to my second language all the time. My brain has to translate both languages all the time. And I can feel that my brain runs fast while my I am speaking English. However, I do not think that children should begin learning second-languages before a certain age, especially before they know well about their first language. When I was five, my mom sent me to a cram school to learn English, and it turned out too difficult for me as five years old kid. I felt so frustrated and I began to hate English since then. So, I believe children should have interests to language before learning it. However, young kids usually are not interested in second languages.

After reading the article Tribe Revives Language on the Verge of Extinction, I began to think a question—that whether the languages we are speaking now will die out someday. Because a lot of major language had vanished and even the language we are using now had changed a lot and is quite different from what it was originally like. For example, just 100 years ago, we used to use classical Chinese, which, now, not many Chinese people can still understand it well without looking up dictionary. Classical Chinese is very obscure, and hard to understand. Although classical Chinese was a good reflection a Chinese culture and history, it actually not worked well and obstructed the transmission of knowledge since it was too difficult to learn and only well educated people could understand it at that time. After the adoption of modern language, illiteracy rate decreased dramatically. In this way, change made the language work better for us. So, if a language die out or changed so much that people barely understand the original text, that probably because of development.   

Final%20Reflection.docx

Culture Reflection

Culture shock is a feeling one experiences when living in a social environment which is different from familiar home culture. It is usually associated with going from a country to another country. It was the second time I watched the “culture shock” movie and it is quite interesting to watch it again. The first time I watched it was at the beginning of my first semester, and during these three years I experienced almost everything mentioned in the movie. I found lots of resonance when watch this movie and as an international student, I know exactly how culture shock feels like.

When I first came to America, I felt very exciting and fresh during the first couple weeks. However, not long after the semester began, I became to feel overwhelming. The language issue, the food, tons of homework and the way people made friend here, all of these made me feel homesick and isolated. Many people said that international students tend to group together. It is quite understandable because we usually feel more comfortable with international students since we share a lot of common ground. It was a kind of the comfort zone for us.  

It was very interesting when a Chinese student mentioned the “what’s up” greeting, because I had experienced the same situation and it took me a while to realize that there is no need to actually answer it, it is just a common greeting. Every country has its own way of greeting, so does China; in both mainland China and Hong Kong, we ask “Have you eaten yet?” instead of “How are you?” in here. However, what is different in mainland China is that, we do care about the answers, and the phrase is usually what we use to start a conversation. In China, people like to chat while eating, thus, if your answer is “No, I have not eaten yet”, we may invite you to have a lunch together, then we can have a talk!

The movie also talked about the “role of silence” which Americans usually feel very uncomfortable with. Professor Grove told us that in Turkey silence is a way to indicate “yes”. What a coincidence, in China, silence is agreement. For example, when you are buying coffee and the café assistant asks if you would like to add sugar? If you do not say anything, that will be considered “yes” and she will add sugar for your coffee.  Chinese people are usually very comfortable with silence and many people actually enjoy it very much.

Another interesting difference I have found between the US and China is the way people eat, including shape of dining table. Most of Chinese restaurants only have round table which allowing everyone engage equally in a conversation. Chinese people like to talk and share food while eating together. All the food dishes are placed in the center of the table and everyone can get as much as they want of each. In China, individuals do not order entrees for themselves; usually the host orders all the entrees and pay for them. Only in fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s individual orders and pays by him or herself.  Food is a good reflection of Chinese culture, and it can be divided into eight different cuisines by areas. Each cuisine well represents its area and is quite different with other areas. I lived in China for 18 years and was not very used to food other than Chinese food. So, during the first year my experience was opposite of “freshmen fifteen” which I dropped 15 pounds. 

Byambaa Khurelbaatar

Spring '13

SDLC 111

Korean

My Learning Plan

Ultimate/semester goal: I would like to understand the structuring of sentences better so that way I can actually construct sentences together. This would consist of learning grammar so this semester will be focused on grammar lessons and new vocabulary. 

Task 1: Review last semester's work

What do I need to learn to complete task? Use notes and lessons from previous semester.

How will I learn? Practice and converse with partner to revive learned tasks. Ask any relevant questions.

How will I document what I have learned?

How well can I accomplish this task? This task was done fairly easily. There were a few things that needed reiteration but overall, remembering old skills seemed to be helpful and successful.

Task 2: Beginning Grammar 

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn the Verb'이다' : to be and topic marker '-은/는'

How will I learn? Use "http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/" this website as a resource and follow the lessons provided. Go over objectives, key expressions, vocabulary, and also complete reading and listening lessons.

How will I document what I have learned? I can record myself reading dialogues.

How well can I accomplish this task? I learned the two forms of the verb to be which coordinates with a noun ending with a vowel/consonant. I learned the same thing for the topic marker. This lesson went smoothly.

Task 3: Grammar = Subjective Marker

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn what the subjective marker '-이/가' is used for and when.

How will I learn? Use the website and read the lesson on it and practice it by speaking with my partner.

How will I document what I have learned? Write out sentences using the subjective marker.

How well can I accomplish this task? I learned that this is used to indicate that the preceding noun phase is the subject of the sentence. Ka is after a word ending with a vowel, and "e" is used after a consonant.  I had trouble choosing when to use the subj marker versus the topic marker. I still need some practice with these two tasks.

Task 4: Grammar = 이,그,저 (demonstrative)+NOUN

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn how to say this/that/that over there

How will I learn? Use online lesson and point at objects to indicate if it is "this/that/ or that over there".

How will I document what I have learned? Make a drawing of objects and write if it's this, that or that over there.

How well can I accomplish this task? It was a little tricky at first but I just need to practice it more with more vocabularies.

Task 5: Grammar = Negation

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn the lesson for Verb '아니다' : not to be and Verb '있다/없다' : to be/not to be. 

How will I learn? Use the lesson and read aloud the example sentences to understand how possession/nonpossession is indicated.

How will I document what I have learned? Write out sentences that change the positive to negatives.

How well can I accomplish this task? As the grammar lessons progress, it is getting a bit more difficult but this lesson seemed straightforward but I still need to practice everything all together more. Haven't quite yet mastered this skill yet.

Task 6: Grammar = destination and the marker for also/too

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn the marker  '-에' indicating destination and marker 도: also/too.

How will I learn? Go over the lesson the Sogang university website. Read the dialogues and complete the practice session provided by this lesson on the website.

How will I document what I have learned? Make sentences using the markers.

How well can I accomplish this task? Indicating destination wasn't too hard to grasp, I just need to remember to indicate it before the verb. The marker for "also" can replace the objective/subjective marker, so I need to remember that this can change in sentences when saying I also did something.

Task 7: Grammar = Location

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn the pattern '옆/ 앞 / 뒤 / 위 / 아래 + 에' : beside/in front of/behind/on/under

How will I learn? Practice filling the blanks with the appropriate words for beside, in front of, behind, on, and and under.

How will I document what I have learned? Draw pictures and label locations by writing out sentences. 

How well can I accomplish this task? Learning the structure of the whole sentence was challenging but with more practice this can be accomplished.

Task 8: Grammar = Adverb '안' : do not and the marker '-에서' : at/in,from

What do I need to learn to complete task? Practice using "an" to express the negative by placing it before the verb. I should also use "eso" to indicate where an action takes place. It can also mean "from" so in this way I can say where I am from. 

How will I learn? Read the dialogues and do the listening lesson the hear the grammars being used. Also, the practice session provided with the lesson.

How will I document what I have learned? Create sentences. 

How well can I accomplish this task? I can do this task well.

Task 9: Grammar = The marker '-보다' : more than and 제일/가장 : the most

What do I need to learn to complete task? Read over the explanation of these grammar lessons and practice.

How will I learn? Read the example sentences and listen to dialogues and practice. 

How will I document what I have learned? Complete worksheet Brigid created for me.

How well can I accomplish this task? Comparison seemed to go well as long as I knew to incorporate all the previous lessons along with it.

Task 10: Colors

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn the most common colors used to describe objects.

How will I learn? Write down and listen to pronunciations using the app on my iPad. 

How will I document what I have learned? Match colors with the correct words on paper.

How well can I accomplish this task? Very well.

Task 11: Grammar = Verb "to buy"

What do I need to learn to complete task? Learn how to say I want to buy ____. Learn the verb for "to buy".

How will I learn? Use the lesson provided online.

How will I document what I have learned? Speak and express what I would like to buy.

How well can I accomplish this task? Sufficient enough that someone will understand what I am trying to say.

Task 12: Grammar = The sentence ending '-아(어/여)요'

What do I need to learn to complete task? I need to learn when to use each form and after what verb stem each form is used. 

How will I learn? Look over the lesson carefully and memorize the rules in order to decide which form and when to use them.

How will I document what I have learned? Make up different sentence endings to show the differences. 

How well can I accomplish this task? This was the hardest task of all because the endings of sentences are important and there are many different forms to learn. This is definitely one lesson that needs more reiteration and practice. 

I can statements:

- Ask "What is this/that/that over there?"

- Use subject markers/topic markers in sentences

- Say this is a pencil or that is a desk.

- I can make negatives using the negative verb "anida"

- I can indicate that someone or something is stationary in a place using the marker  "eh"

- Ask "Where are you going?"

- I can indication "also"

- change "There are chairs --> There are chairs also."

- I can indicate location

- "The library is next to the hospital."

- The chair is under the desk."

- I can indicate where I am from using the word "eso".

- I can express negatives using "an" before verbs

- I can ask "How much is this?"

- I can say "I want to buy____"

- I can indicate colors

- I can indicate sentence endings according to different verb stems that are used.

In the beggining I had a learning plan that was largely based on the picture dictionary in the language lab.  I

found that I had to memorize words without knowing the letters, so I had to learn the alphabet first.  When the

instructor introduced a book I finally learned the alphabet.  I still have trouble with the jeem, chay.  I had my

learning plan but didn't use it since I stopped going to the language lab but continued to use texas.edu.  The

family was something we later did in class and on my own.  My focus was primarily on listening but our

instructor sought to incorporate the book for reading and gave us periodic writing assignments.  My focus then

shifted onto food since the book had so much emphasis on food and the kitchen as well as our homework

assignment on food.  This had distracted me from shopping.  So I dropped shopping.  We learned days in class.  

We talked about the weather on numerous occasions.  Then we learned colors and prepositions which weren't

in the book we are assigned.  I focused on professions and nationalities even though the book had very little.

The culture class had forced me to do a project at the end on something that I thought would be medicine.  

After research, I thought the easiest way to find pretty pictures with persian words was tourism, so I learned 

religious and architectural words.  

1: alphabet, greetings and ask questions

2: family

3: numbers

4: nationalities and languages

5: food: fruits, vegetables

6: time and weather

7: colors and prepositions/ prepositional phrases

8: majors and school situations

9:  in the house: kitchen/ dinner table

10: professions and hobbies

After I got the hang of reading and writing, I thought it would be nice to watch a movie in order to work on my comprehension of Bangla because I have trouble understanding Bengali movies/dramas. From Sabrina's suggestion, we watched Monpura.

It was about a poor servant, Shunai, who took the blame for a woman's murder for the sake of his master's mentally ill son. The master isolates the man on an island and gives him resources to survive on. This was so that the police couldn't find him. Back in the village, the master told the police that Shunai murdered the woman and ran away, thus hiding the actual culprit, his son. The master often visited Shunai and take crops and cattle from him; from this we saw that not only did the master use Shunai as a scapegoat, but as free labor. The master-servant relationship was interesting and very common in Bangladesh- servants often have a familial tie to the family they serve to the point where they will do anything to protect them. This is because they usually don't have a family of their own and the family that they serve has taken care of them for a long time. There is a saying, "namak kaisee" literally meaning "I ate salt", which translates to having a loyalty for someone because they fed and took care of them for a long time. It was for this reason that Shunai obligingly went through everything, feeling only loneliness, but not anger towards his master for putting him in that situation. He later encountered a woman and her father fishing near his island. He was thrilled that he had people to talk to. They fished there every few days and Shunai and the woman, Pari, eventually fall in love. Trouble arose, however, one day when the master visited and saw Shunai with the beautiful woman. At this point, the master had been looking for a wife for his mental son because a mystic doctor had told him that marriage would be the only cure for his insanity. 

When we started the movie we paused the starting credits to read them and for me to translate it or for Sabrina to tell me what they were saying if I didn't understand it. When we began the movie, there were a few things I did not understand and this had to do with the speech and why they said certain things. Sabrina told me that they were village speech habits and that I didn't have to worry about it as long I understand what they said. Throughout the movie I only had a few problems in understanding words, at which points I would pause and Sabrina would explain them to me. Other than that, I understood the language, and got to enjoy a wonderful, but sad movie. 

Language aside, I loved the cinematography of the film, especially for a Bangladeshi movie. Bangladesh's film industry is usually not highly rated in terms of their techniques and filming strategies so this movie was quite refreshing and hopefully a good sign for the film industry's future! 

How well did you achieve your goals?  What were the stumbling blocks you encountered?  How were you able to overcome them?  What was most/least interesting to you?  What would you like to do next? 

To the question, “How well did you achieve your goals?” I would say that I haven’t achieved them very well. But that depends on what my ‘goals’ were to begin with, because at the beginning of the semester I had wildly ambitious goals and I hadn’t tamed them enough. The learning plan I started with—like all plans—didn’t take into account the kind of language learner I was or the times when my attention would be led astray. I was sort of able to reorient myself by reformulating my learning plan with consideration to the external factors.

However, there was another main roadblock: despite having a language learning partner, we met on set two-hour blocks once a week and I wish I had instead made the structure less rigid. I say that because I felt that I hadn’t utilized my language partner effectively. The times when we would meet still felt like a ‘classroom’ setting when it shouldn’t be. What I should’ve done was keep it informal, so whenever we chanced to meet throughout the week, passing by the library or in dhall for example, we could greet each other in Korean, ask questions about each other’s day in Korean, etc. Just something that would incorporate the Korean into my daily life because the lack of Korean students on campus (my own lack of knowledge about the few who are on campus) impeded my motivation to learn the language because I was using it daily.

In fact, meeting with a language partner was probably the least interesting thing to me. If I ever came across something I didn’t know, my immediate reaction was to go online because there is a plethora of sources, be it online curriculums, formal and informal blogs, video lessons, or forums. My language partner couldn’t really explain certain concepts to me in a way I found satisfactory so in the end I would search for answers myself anyway.

Exploring the Talk to Me in Korean site I found midway through the semester was easily the most interesting thing. They have a curriculum with accompanying podcasts and pdf files and at the end of each ‘Level’ there would be multiple dialogues entirely in Korean utilizing the topics covered in the lessons within the levels. I found the website to be very organized and incredibly accessible to students no matter what they’re proficiency level was, something perfect for me since I am in the elementary level in most areas but in the intermediate level in terms of listening. The site also has a K-drama and K-Pop section where they would identify words or grammar points in an episode or a song.

I would like to continue studying Korean over the summer in preparation for a trip to Korea in the Fall, where I will be teaching English for a year. I have a friend who will also be teaching English in Korea so having a study partner will keep both of us on track. 

When I first met with my language partner, Sabrina, she assessed my Bengali speaking skills. She asked me what my goals were and how I wanted to approach them; I told her that I was interested in learning how to speak in "shuddo bangla" (formal) among my other goals. When we met the second time, we used the session to get me to become familiar with speaking more formally- this meant changing the ways I pronounced my sounds, for example instead of saying "kisu" I would have to say "kichu". Most of my "s" sounds would change to "ch" sounds. By the end of the session I realized that I did not like speaking in shuddo bangla and that by trying to change my speech entirely I would have made it more difficult for me to learn what my ultimate goals were- reading and writing in Bengali script. We dropped that idea, but kept it in the back of our minds when we met other times because Bengali is written in shuddo bangla, not in colloquial speech, like most written language systems. 

After this, we began the alphabet. I have to say that I underestimated the Bengali alphabets. I soon learned that the vowels transform into signs when written with the actual alphabets which meant that I had to memorize the vowels, their shortened forms, and the rest of the alphabets. There are 11 vowels, but of the 11 only 10 have vowel signs. Then, the alphabet has 38 letters- many of which look identical, yet their sounds are completely different. This part threw me off a lot and still does from time to time. 

The writing system did not end there, however, there are special forms for the alphabet (which are exceptions to writing things simply the phonetic way with the basic letters; these have to be memorized) and there are conjuncts for many letters. These conjuncts are letters that are written together as though they're one letter because of the sound that they make together. I don't know why the conjuncts exist- perhaps for calligraphic purposes, similar to Arabic. For example, if there is a double letter used in a word then the second letter that is repeating would be written beneath the first, intertwined with it. The repeat ones are easy because they are recognizable, but other ones are more complicated. For this reason, I decided not to learn the conjuncts until I really become proficient at writing and reading. 

Instead of simply memorizing the vowels and letters, me and Sabrina applied the letters/vowels to words that I know. This was great practice because it let me know whether or not I recognized the sounds. We would look at them and then I'd begin listing words with the letter or vowel and then she'd give me a word and I'd try to recognize the letter or vowel that was in it. We did this for at least two sessions before beginning writing. 

Writing was confusing at first because I kept getting things wrong and it was disheartening. The mistakes, however, helped me remember how to do things right more than if I did it right from the start because I would remember it better next time. We began with putting letters together to create sounds like "ma", "ba", "ta", etc. We tried doing this by combining letters with vowels so that I got the hang of creating them and seeing what they looked like. 

This was all before Spring break. I did not meet the goals that I had set for myself in the beginning of the course, but I think that it was for the better. What I really did not meet was mastering the alphabet within two weeks in both reading and writing them. Once delving into the course I realized that it was okay to take more time to learning how to read and write because I was better at speaking and understanding Bengali than I gave myself credit for. While I knew more, the writing system was more complex than I thought it was going to be. Regardless of that, before Spring break we were taking more time on the individual letters instead of jumping into reading and writing on my own so that was a big change that we did. The first week that we met again after break, I struggled through reading and incorporating what I remembered of the alphabets and really putting that knowledge to use. I also wrote phonetically and wrote my first sentences in the weeks that followed. We also gave some time to comprehension of shuddo bangla by watching a few clips from the news and trying to place that into a writing scheme. Not only that, but we watched one episode of a Bengali drama (they're called natoks) and I listened to a different dialect of Bangla that I am not used to (rural speech, basically) and made sense of it. 

Reflect on “Communicative competence”: the author stated that have a good understanding of the culture background is the same important as learning the grammatical concepts, because the communication is not only about the language but also the culture behind it. It was the same as what we discussed in class and I got the same feeling from my Cantonese learning experience. There is a lot of interesting two-part allegorical sayings Cantonese. For example, when a girl couldn't find a boyfriend, Cantonese speakers usually say “Yama’s daughter is getting married”. People living in Cantonese-speaking areas are usually strong believers of Buddhism. Yama is the King of the Hell in Buddhism, so Yama’s daughter can only marry a ghost since she is not a human being. Thus the next sentence of “Yama’s daughter is getting married” is “only ghosts want to marry her”, which means no one wants to marry her. As you can see, if you know nothing about Cantonese culture, it is hard to understand this. 

My self-directed language learning experience this semester has been an interesting road because by the end of it (the semester, not the language learning experience), I have had to re-evaluate my view of myself as a learner.

Whereas before I had disliked the rigidity of language courses, the overt attention on grammar concepts first, fun and speaking practice hardly ever, I have decided that I appreciate the tight schedule of language courses I have taken at the University. I still think the pacing of typical classroom-language courses are too fast to fully appreciate the nuances of the target language, and that they emphasize memorization above other language-learning techniques. But the challenge of self-directed language learning is in making a learning plan for myself and, more importantly, to actually stick with it.

When I first set out to create a learning plan on the sheets we were given in class, I was too ambitious and had high expectations for myself and the semester. During the semester I was distracted easily, or mainly employed the more passive forms of learning (listening but then not practicing what I’ve listened). Sometimes my motivation would stray, as it is wont to do, because I am the type of learner who likes to have a finger on the pulse of multiple languages, all at once. (Which means I am better at multitasking then I am at sticking with it to the end!)

What I did not do when I first wrote my learning plan is not look at myself with a critical eye and examine my tendencies as a learner. If I had done this earlier, my learning plan would have probably been more useful. In the future I would make clearer learning goals. I would also follow along with a grammar book but I would not use it as a crutch. The grammar book would provide a visual outline, the steps of language learning, while I would find supplementary materials to make it fun. For example, if a chapter dealt with basic verb constructions, I would find songs that have those verb constructions. That way it would reinforce what I’ve learned in a different setting and the learning would take place with clear ‘real-world’ applicability. 

The Talk to Me in Korean site that I found in the latter half of the semester was an invaluable resource, one I will continue to refer to in the future. I can admit now that I am a learner who needs a schedule to follow, otherwise my learning will be messy, sparse, and the bulk of the learning will be done in disorganized snatches when I remember to do it. Having a blog on the SDLAP Ning site was more useful towards the end of the semester than in the beginning, when the blog felt more like burden than what it does now: a visual map of my learning experience, an virtual notebook, something that is mine. I was more motivated to fill it up with my evidence of my experiences. 

Looking back, I probably would have learned more Korean if I knew then what I knew now. Therefore I do not see the semester as entirely wasted, because through this experience I have a clearer view of what kind of learner I am, what my strengths and weaknesses are, so to speak, and what I can do to combat my weaknesses. The lessons learned here will benefit my future learning endeavors, especially when I go to teach English in Korea later this fall. It would be interesting to apply this semester's experiences as a teacher, and student, in Korea. 

1. Greetings & Farewells

2. Simple present tense sentences ("It's me," "It's water")

3. This, That, It - constructions

4. Topic and Subject marking particles

5. "Please give me.." request constructions

6. Common expressions used when eating meals

7. Desire expressions: "I want to.." and "What do you want to do?"

8. Sino-Korean numbers and Native Korean Numbers

9. Some basic present tense verbs (to go, to buy, to do, to see, to eat, etc)

10. Location-marking particles

I can...

- say hello and thank you

- numbers (both kinds, Sino-Korean and Native Korean)

- express disagreement/agreement, denials

- say "I'm sorry" and "Excuse me"

- ask "What is this?" and respond "This is..."

- say "have, don't have, there is, there isn't.."

- ask "Who? What? How?"

- ask the location of something

- basic verb constructions

Beginning of the semester: When I stated my goals in the beginning of the semester, I was a complete beginner in Hebrew. I only knew a few sentences that I learned from my Israeli friends. My goals for the semester were to learn the alphabet, and to comfortably talk about my learning tasks. My ultimate goal is to read and speak Hebrew.

I started learning the alphabet on my own before I met with my language partner. I used several websites to learn the alphabet and their pronunciation. When I met with my language partner, we went over the alphabet together and she sent me a list of words which I had to match based on the first letter. This helped me learn writing quickly.

I tried using the software available at the global studio and BYKI, but I only found random lists of words and phrases in those resources. I am a systematic learner and I like to learn things in order. That is why I did not use these resources this semester. When I tried to learn the numbers, I search on Google until I found a good website to use. As with other tasks, after I learned the numbers I showed them to my language partner for assessment.

In addition to my tasks, my language partner gave me homework that included translating sentences to Hebrew. She only provided me with the correct verb conjugation, while I had to translate the other words by myself. This became part of my learning. I performed my own research and translation to fulfill my learning tasks, while my language partner gave me sentences to translate based on our sessions. She gave me question words and verb tenses that I had to incorporate into the sentences. These verbs where challenging since there are several conjugations and there are many exceptions to the rules.

Middle of the Semester: I borrowed a children book from the global studio to improve my reading. This became a big part of my learning in the second half of the semester. I translated a page or two of the book, and I would then read it to my language partner to work on pronunciation. I also worked on some of my favorite learning tasks during this part of the semester, such as talking about the family and telling time. As part of my homework, I prepared over 10 sentences for these two tasks, and I used some of them in my artifact. At the same time, I was reading from the book and progressing slowly. I wish I spent more time this semester memorizing all the words I translated from the book. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time this semester applying for jobs and organizing my post graduate plans. If I had put the time into memorizing those words, I am certain I would have been able to converse at a beginner level.

End of the Semester: I have the full assessment of my learning plan in a separate post called “SDLC 110. Learning Tasks Self Assessment”.

Towards the end of the semester, I started to have longer meetings with my language partner, and several times I met with her and David. We read the books together, and David and I helped each other with translation. This was a good technique to change things and make learning more interesting. During this time, I continued with my learning tasks such as the weather, answering the phone, and talking about sports and hobbies. Fulfilling the tasks towards the end of the semester was not interesting at all. I was only interested in reading and translating words.

One of my favorite resources this semester is a dictionary application for the iPhone that was recommended by my language partner. The dictionary is called (morfeqes). Unlike Google Translate, this dictionary gives several meanings for each word, in addition to the different pronunciations.

A recording of Milica and I talking about our wonderful weekends. Mine was full of thesis sending, revising, and writing. Hence, my obvious fatigue. I also talk about how I went to a pricey, but nice restaurant I would recommend to anyone. Milica went to a concert to see a band I'd never heard of (she thought it was decent), and ate ice cream,

http://youtu.be/WM3sIJ8S3vE

*It's set as private, so I will need to "allow" global studio to watch it...

I decided to do my last artifact on something related to Rabindranath since I had just completed a presentation on him. I asked Sabrina if it was feasible for me to read a simple poem by him- luckily we found a perfect one! It was short and the script barely had conjuncts; the ones that were there I was already familiar with. 

Anyway, the poem is "Chini go Chini" and I thought it was wonderful because he had written this song/poem for a woman he met in South America. I can't recall her name, however I remember when I was doing research on him, I came across a relationship he had with a woman after his wife had died. This was not a typical relationship, however, which is what makes it extraordinary. I think it was clear that they were both in love with each other, but Rabindranath, a conservative man who valued their actual friendship and connection, never crossed any boundary with her or advanced their romantic relationship. Although she had expressed a desire to be something more than just friends, they forever remained platonic and it never furthered. Learning about that I was amazed and found it extremely touching- made me admire him even more! And this poem is very sweet; it's now one of my favorites by him. 

Here's a song version of it: 

Rabindranath Tagore

I decided to do my cultural project on Rabindranath Thakur (westernized version is Tagore) because one of my interests in Bengali is exploring the literature the language has. Sabrina had suggested that I explore Rabindranath because he is one of her favorites. I kept him in mind and then one day I decided to do a little research on him; I was blown away and decided that he'd be perfect to do my project on. One of the reasons why he was so interesting to me was because of his dual relationship with India and Bangladesh and how that impacted the countries' cultural association with him. Rabindranath was born in Calcutta, but had close ties to Bangladesh- living there for a while at one point in his life. 

His literature influenced the writings in both India and Bangladesh as he's considered a classic today. His poetry was mystic and his novels, dramas, and essays displayed his political/social views (anti-nationalistic and modernistic).He wrote and composed the songs that are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India. His influence still lingers and all of South Asia still celebrate his birth anniversary every year. 

Chinese character is one of the most ancient written languages, and is the only one that still being used continually. It plays an important role in development of Chinese culture. According to the Chinese legend, the first Chinese character was created by Cangjie in 2650 BC. And the earliest evidence can be traced back to 1200 BC in an oracle bone. Chinese character was developed from hieroglyphic. Here is a image illustrated the development of written Chinese.

The top row are the characters “horse” from the most original writing to the one we are now using, second row are “fish” and the bottom are “vehicle”. From the image, we can see that the most original “vehicle” had three wheels. The development of Chinese characters is a well reflection of  how our life had changed.