Blogs

For my third artifact I decided to document how to give the date in Korean.

Every day and every month end with the same term which makes it easier to learn.

Fionna Poon

SDLC 105

Final Reflection

In reflecting on my experience with Korean class this semester, there are things that I definitely should have done better and others that should not have been done. Therefore this paper reflects these things. Like I said earlier, SDLC 105 and 110 were supposed to be my easy classes as I finish off my senior year. However this wasn't the case as classes went under way. Learning a language by yourself is really difficult and not exactly an easy task. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is not enough time in a day to do everything that I wanted to do this semester. While learning Korean was hard, if I got the chance to go back and choose to not do it again, I would still do it. I don't regret that I took it. The experience was great in building my vocabulary and gaining practice in speaking Korean. It was great to have the experience in learning by myself. This shows me that after I graduate, I don't need to take a formal class in order to continue my learning. I, myself, can learn on my own. Also compared to other classes, I can't really complain about SDLC.

Looking at my first and updated learning plan, they were both definitely too ambitious for just one semester of learning. For example, I wanted to be good at listening and understanding Korean when someone speaks to me and when it's spoken near me. This means that I need to accumulate a ton of vocabulary and phrases on a variety of topics in order to even be considered an amateur. Honestly when I was making the goals though, I didn't really think much about whether I could achieve them this semester. Instead I focused more on goals that I wanted to achieve in general and as time goes on. This of course was a mistake. I should have focused more on goals that were reachable in the next few weeks than in the next 8 months. For me to achieve all my goals, it would take roughly 3-7 years of learning extensively. As a result, I didn't necessarily achieve any of my goals. Most of my goals centered on being fluent or at least proficient in the topic associated with the goal, which is extremely hard to do since I am just learning the topic. Therefore there is no way that I would be as proficient as a Korean speaker, unless I practice 24/7 and only speak and hear in Korean. Accumulating enough interpersonal skills, phrases, and words was definitely a stretch in my opinion with no chance of being achieved this semester or 2 years from now. While I'm a little disappointed that I'm not at the level that I want to be at right now, I realized that I do have big hopes and dreams for what I want to learn in Korean in the future.

In learning this semester, I would have liked to have a formal teacher when it comes to learning Korean grammar and to answer all the questions that I may have. While having a language partner is great and makes it more comfortable and less structured like a classroom, a formal teacher is more equipped in teaching the basics of grammar and sentence structure. This is something that students can't really teach onto others as efficiently. For example, I'm still a little confused as to how you make original sentences. What is the sentence structure?

As assignments started to pile up, I couldn't give Korean as much of my attention as I would have liked to. At some point, it became really difficult to keep up with assignments and everything. As a result, it was difficult finding the motivation to go to meetings with my language partner when I was so overwhelmed with everything else that is going on, like readings, assignments, tests, projects, and lab reports. Based on my experience, I think that motivation is a key component in any self learning of a language. If you're not motivated to learn, you won't and will try to find excuses to not. For me, I was unmotivated but I didn't try to find excuses to skip my meetings. It was more along the lines, I have been so busy with doing homework that I have sacrificed sleep for it. Thus, sometimes it came down to choosing Korean meetings versus catching up on necessary sleep, which is an extremely difficult decision for a college student. Additionally as the semester got closer to the end, my language partner and I found ourselves becoming busy with projects, assignments, tests, and lab reports. Therefore this sort of played a role in missing a meeting here and there. Although we didn't get to meet twice a week as I would have liked, we did try to meet at least once.

In terms of what I learned this semester, I did learn a decent amount of vocabulary and phrases from both my language partner and my Korean friends. But I do wish that I learned just a little bit more, which goes back to the motivation and meetings. I would have liked to learn a few more topics that aren't what beginner speakers would learn normally. For example, I would have liked to learn phrases and vocabulary that are related to travelling. I enjoyed speaking with my friends and surprising some of them when they found out I was learning Korean. Through my Korean learning, I felt like I was able to connect more with my friends and the culture that they are a part of. I got to understand where they come from culturally by researching and learning about their culture as shown from the various presentations and posts that I have done.

Like I said before, I don't regret taking this class. I learned so much when I otherwise wouldn't if I didn't take it. I enjoyed learning about other cultures as well. Both SDLC classes provide a worldly touch to them that is lacking in most classes at the University of Richmond. Not only am I learning about Korean culture, but I get to experience other cultures from the eyes of people learning it. I will most definitely continue learning Korean and hope one day that I get the opportunity to visit Korea and actually test out my skills. As I finish this semester, I look forward to the future and my continuation of Korean.

For a possible learning activity I will be focusing on the number system

• I will first write out the words of both number systems for the person
• Have the person read the words out slowly, making sure to pronounce everything correctly as I say them as well. So they repeat after me
• Then I will have them say it by themselves for 3-4 times.
• The person will then have to take a quiz
  • a series of cards with a number each will be shown one at a time
  • person would have to read each number on the card in Korea
  • First we'll start off with one number system, a card will be shown one at a time in random order, and the person will have to say the corresponding Korean word.
  • We do this for 2-3 times
  • Then we will switch to the next number system and doing the same process 2-3 times
  • Then the person will have to say both numbers at the same time for another 2-3 times
• After that's over, I will create a bingo for the person to do. Instead of words though, it will be numbers. I will be speaking a number in Korean and the person has to match the word with the number.
  • To be done with this, the person has to get at Bingo in at least 2 ways.
• Then I will teach the person a cute Korean children song having to do with numbers

Evaluation:

Well the person didn't like how much work she had to do. I have to say it was kind of tedious. It might have been better to cut back on the quiz or change it up in the middle. She wasn't that interested about the numbers or learning about them in a manner that wasn't that fun. I could tell that she was bored after all and was a little reluctant to continue on. Though she did say that if she was actually learning this or taking a quiz on this, she would be into it and actually want to learn. Overall while my learning activity does help people learn, it's a little too much for people to take on. Therefore I think there must be another activity that is better and efficient.

Goal of the activity: How to greet in Korean 

-How to say Hello

-How to say Bye

-How to say Good Morning

-How to say Good Night

-How to say How are you?

-How to say Thank you

-How to say Welcome

-How to say each of the above in formal, semi-formal and informal context

The first part of the activity will be showing the pictorial depictions, in the form of comics, the greetings. There will be different pictures for each word and also separate pictures for the formal, semi-formal and informal. I would first ask my friend to say what they are saying and which level of formality of each picture, deducing from the setting of the picture. Next I would verify the answers and then say what each person is saying. I would then ask him to read the words in each picture. I would read the words from each picture, explaining their meanings and then tell him to repeat after me. The repeating of the words will be done several times so that it helps him to retain the words.

The last step would be to show him the a different set of pictures of people greeting each other and tell him to make up a dialogue for each picture.

At the beginning of the semester I was extremely excited about this class because Korean was a language I have always wanted to learn. However, the lack of a class which taught Korean was always a problem. Therefore I was overjoyed when I learned about this class from Gargi. However, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the learning experience. 

The last day that I met with Sun, we made a list of the things that we have learned during the semester. Comparing the list with the learning plan that I created at the beginning of the semester, I realized only half of my goals have been accomplished. At this point, I can safely say that I can recognize all the letters of the alphabet but I still have problems remembering the different combinations of vowels. Although I will be able to write the letters and write down words, I do not have the confidence to say that they will be totally correct. The same goes for reading. I know the pronunciation of the consonants and vowels but when I encounter a word which uses a double consonants or a combination of vowels, I get stuck.

This is because most of the books and online resources that I have used include the romanization of the Korean words right beside their Korean counterparts. Hence I would always tend to read the romanization whenever I got stuck reading the Korean characters. As a result, I had hardly challenged myself with reading difficult Korean words. 

Apart from that, I have learned how introduce myself and ask questions like name, age, nationality, greet people, order food at a restaurant and tell the Sino-Korean numbers from 1 to 10. Among the things that was not able to accomplish this semester but which I mentioned in my Learning Plan are telling time, shopping, ask for directions and describe people. Moreover, I had mentioned that I would like to know the gist of a short conversation, even if I do not understand what they are talking about in great detail and to hold a small exchange with a person in Korean.

As far as understanding the core of a conversation in Korean, I think I have developed a sufficiently big list of Korean words which are used on a daily basis from watching Korean dramas to have a basic idea of what is going on in conversation. I have also developed a list of expressions and fillers that can be used to keep a small conversation going with minimal contribution from my part. However, I am still very weak at reading a short text and understanding its overall idea. 

The reason for my failure to meet all of my goals can be attributed to the fact that I was not aware of the risks of autonomous learning. Since learning Korean mostly depended on my drive to learn the language and my ability to dedicate some time to Korean on a daily basis, I often found myself pushing it back to the end of my list of priorities. Also, I was confused for some time by the language itself. The several different ways of saying one single thing was a major hindrance as I would try to learn all the different forms. Thus, at first, my focus was perfection and details. However, I took me a while to realize that perfection can only be aspired at the intermediate stage of language learning. As a beginner, I should only focus on the basics. 

I definitely plan on continuing to self-teach myself Korean over the summer, as I would have more to dedicate towards it. However, I have learned the techniques of self-directed learning which I will be able to apply in my future studies.

105%20final%20reflection.docx

I do not think I had realistic expectations of what I could accomplish through self-directed Hebrew at the beginning, and it took some time and some readjustment of goals to create a lesson plan that was achievable. My prior experiences in language classes led me to believe that I would be able to master more words, tenses, and overall grammar than I ended up being able to. I think that not having a teacher leading the pace and setting the agenda made it a lot more challenging. After working with Dr. Scinarello to adjust my lesson plan though, I can honestly say that I think I met a lot of my goals. I have learned the vocabulary for several different content areas including family and weather. While these words I have not memorized, I can recognize them in books and if someone were to say them. I know how to say greetings and question words orally.  I have also become a much more efficient reader and can recognize words rather quickly after being exposed to them.

I think the biggest challenge I encountered was motivating myself. It was hard to set aside time each day to practice Hebrew especially amidst the other time commitments of senior year.  It was also challenging to coordinate schedules with Emily and find regular times when we could all meet.

What I liked most about the self-directed program was being able to set my own pace and trying to adapt the content so that it was meaningful for me. I think this was unique from other language classes where teachers dictate what vocabulary you are going to learn and often it seems useless. In this class, we were able to choose what types of vocabulary we wanted to learn and what would be beneficial for our own studies of Hebrew.  

Final Reflection

Fionna Poon

SDLC 105

Reflection #2

Before my learning began, I was very excited to learn Korean as a way to further connect with my Korean friends. Hanging around them obviously made me interested in learning Korean. It also doesn't hurt to not feel left out when they speak Korean among themselves. And so that was my motivation to learn Korean. I learned Latin in college for my language requirement for 2 years. But since Latin is a "dead language", I wanted to learn a language that was more current and one that I could use after college. Hence I chose Korean. I saw SDLC 105 and 110 as my easy classes as well so it would be a good way to finish off my college career.

My experience with Korean wasn't completely new when I first started. I was familiar with the Korean alphabet and already knew a few words, but they were a smatter of random words. For example I knew hello, thank you, sorry, i'm sleepy, i'm hungry, and are you okay? Therefore by learning Korean, it would help me create sentences and phrases with these words as well as create a sort of meaning and structure to the words.

Now that I have gotten into the swing of self learning, I realize that learning by myself isn’t as easy as I had originally thought. It's definitely hard being a language learner when you have other important things to do as well. For example, learning a language at the same time as doing work for other classes. I kind of felt like I wasn't paying as much attention to learning Korean as much as I was trying to finish homework for other classes. The reasons were because of a lack of time in a day and my inability to finish work quickly. There were times when I would have to decide whether I should forego learning Korean or forego sleep. One of the difficulties that comes with learning any new language in my opinion is that the language isn't being taught like a regular class. This makes it difficult for people to keep up and there is no feeling of responsibility to keep up. For example in a class, teachers require homework to be passed in, tests and quizzes, and participation. On the other hand, a language partner won't hold you accountable for the work that you do, you don't need to pass anything in for a grade, and you don't need to take tests and quizzes. For myself, I didn't really consider my meetings with my language partner as a class that I was required to attend like a regular class does. Attendance wasn’t mandatory and so that made it difficult for me to find the motivation to go to class after or before a busy week. In my opinion, this was a prominent obstacle in my learning process.

A difficulty though that I experienced with my language partner is his lack of knowledge. As a non-Korean speaker, I had many questions since I wasn't familiar with the language. Most of my questions centered around grammar confusions and why certain words were written a certain way. For example, in Korean there are two ways to write  the "ae" sound. Therefore, naturally I asked what the difference was between the two and in which situations would I use each one. While he did try his best to answer my questions, I could tell that he didn't know what the difference was between the 2 besides how they're written. When I asked him how I would know when to use which spelling of "ae" for each word, he didn't know either and told me to just memorize how they're written.

Grammar was an issue as well since my partner couldn't transfer the same information that his teachers taught him onto me. He couldn't provide me with more in-depth knowledge on Korean grammar. Therefore I was a bit confused about certain words, phrases, and grammar as well as why they are the way they are. Although, I am grateful that he did try his best to eliminate some of the confusion. Consequently, learning not in a classroom setting is really difficult when you can't rely on a teacher, who is very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the Korean language, to explain certain things that are confusing. As a result, clarity is not completely present in my learning.

Creating a learning plan for the semester was definitely a first for me. I didn't really know what to say or write for it. I had trouble coming up with tasks that didn't overlap onto my goals. The learning plan definitely made me think of what I should focus on learning during the semester and tailor what I want to learn within 15 weeks of classes. I think it helped to provide guidance in my learning.

In regards to my learning, Korean in the beginning was not too hard since I was reviewing with my partner on what I know and don't know. But as the weeks progressed, it definitely got more challenging as I acquired more vocabulary and phrases. Overall though I think my learning of Korean is worth it

At the end of this semester I look back with great honor at my achievement in the Hindi self-learning class. I am confident engaging in small talk with people, buying food at the local market, and being able to understand basic and daily conversations. On the other side, I have to admit, that asking the way around and  telling small stories are still some issues which challenge me. I plan to overcome those by practicing on the web and watching videoclips on youtube which address this topic. 

It was kind of difficult to actually sit down and reserve time for Hind learning as I thought it was easy. Well, now I knw that I might have underestimated the effort one has to put into learning a foreign language in the beginnig. However, as the semester proceeded, I read the article Prof. Grove sent us and I found the advices really helpful. For instance, I made my own place just for learning Hindi. This was in the TLC in the library. I think it really helps to approach a language learning project systematically and document the progress. Even, if you do it for fun. I liked using youtube and the internet as sources to get inspiration and found many useful websites offering help for Hindi students.

As a next step, I would love to maintain my acquired level and even improve myself learning more vocabs and getting more familiar with the grammar. Thus, I think it is essential to keep up the oral practice and be exposed to Hindi. I want to achieve my goal of being fluent in Hindi and am thererfore considering spending one to twor months in India. 

Also, I would like to stay in touch with my Indian friends here on campus and establish regular Skype conferences in order to keep in touch and to practice my skills. 

Learning Korean has been a challenging, but memorable experience this semester. I originally chose to learn Korean because the Korean culture, as well as other cultures of minority, surrounded me as I grew up. I listened to all kinds of music from other languages – Bollywood, Korean, Japanese, and of course, Chinese. However, it was the Korean language that sustained my interest; its language and flow of words always intrigued me. The words sounded so beautiful in Korean ballads, but could also sound ugly when one was expressing anger. Its expressive nature interested me, and I often found myself using Korean music as accompaniment when studying for school. I had no idea what the singer was saying, and yet, I kept listening.

The self-directed learning program at the University of Richmond greatly helped me learn Korean. At the start of the semester, the FIRE model and other surveys helped me determine myself as a factual and visual learner. It is impossible to learn everything Korean in one semester: its alphabet, its words, grammar, and ever-expanding culture. With that in mind, the learning plan in addition to Sun Yoon, my Korean tutor, helped me structure my progress. It would be foolish to try to learn everything; I narrowed down the topics of focus. This was important because for the first time in a course, I was learning what I wanted to learn and I was guiding the direction. I was able to choose words and topics that applied to myself. Not only did this make learning Korean more personal, but it also allowed me to retain more information.

I would like to thank Sun Yoon for being there as a private tutor this semester. Without her help, I would have difficulty learning the language, especially in terms of speaking the language. I wanted to learn the foundations of writing, but speaking was my focus. She nit-picked at my pronunciation and made sure that I said every word correctly. It has been a good feeling this semester when I received compliments from other Korean speakers on campus, saying that I had a good pronunciation and sounded like a native Korean. I would not like it if I walked away this semester knowing that I had a Westernized-style of speaking Korean. From the learning the basics of the alphabet and how to say greetings and farewells, I am now able to have simple conversations. I can order food from a restaurant and even ask someone out on a date in Korean! It may not sound like much, but the Korean language is complex. I have been given countless messages from other peers, telling me to avoid Korean. They said things along the lines of “there are a million ways to say every word in Korean, why would you want to learn it?” Yes, learning Korean was hard; there are multiple ways to express feelings along with several tiers of informalities and formalities in its language. Thankfully, Sun was there to help me. It would be terrible for me to be caught in a situation using the wrong formal tense, and Sun helped me learn the depths of Korean culture.

One of the most interesting parts of learning Korean this semester was learning the culture behind the language. Korean is a contextual language, and therefore if the lines are literally taken out of context, they would not make sense. The phrases would be vague and the wrong message would be given. When speaking Korean, it is important to know the field: boundaries, hierarchy of speakers, formal/informal tenses, the speaking environment, and relationship with the other speaker. “Yes” does not always mean “yes” and “no” does not always mean no. With the help of the SDL program and Sun, I learned the social cues that were native to the language.

This semester, I knew and confirmed that it did not work to simply learn words from a list. The process seemed random and intangible. Diagrams, videos, and dialogues helped me the most. To supplement my Korean speak, I listened to YouTube videos, watched Korean television shows, and listened to the applications I downloaded onto my phone. For each, I carefully listened to their pronunciation of words and how those words were used in different contexts. It is still difficult for me to remember all the words, but for now, I use formal tenses most of the time just to be safe.

I believe that this semester has given me the tools required to continue my self-directed learning post-graduation. It is, no doubt, difficult to learn a new language; as a student, it is easy to forget new words learned because there are so many other classes to keep up with. I plan to take a gap year to recover, re-orient, and reset my priorities before I continue schooling. During that time, I hope to continue learning Korean with consistent practice.

Hindi%20dabbawalla.pptx

Summary:

The famous Mumbai dabbawallas are an essential part of Mumbai' s culture since 1890. They provide delivery service in Mumbai, India, picking up the home- made, fresh food, which the wife cooked, from the client' s house and delivering it to the downtown offices where the husbands work. The concept of the dabbawallas work only because of the mentality Indians have, valuing home made food. Also, the prevailing environment makes their services very valueable. As traffic and public transport in Mumbai is always very dense and it is a headache to transport something, the dabbawallas remain unchallenged in their field of expertize. They use a color code in order to deal with the illiteracy of the dabbawallas which make them so special. Moreover, it is mind-boggling that their error rate literally is zero and that this great accomplishment is achieved by illiteral people increasing their reputation dramatically. 

sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N25inoCea24

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

http://mumbaidabbawala.in/

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-10-09/news/42864162_1_dabbawalas-siemens-india-medium

http://www.economist.com/node/11707779

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/sports/181274-what-harvard-is-learning-from-the-mumbai-dabbawalas.html

art%234.band.zipThis artifact is about telling to a friend what happened today.

Goals:

-) Speak in past tense

-) Speak fluently

-) Talk about different activities

-) Say what happened at what time

Tasks:

-) Revise past tense

-) Prepare phrases to say

-) Revise vocabulary for activities

-) Revise how to express time

Evaluation:

The recording went really well. I had to look at my notes though. However, I hot a better understanding for Hindi. For instance, as I went through the phrases and asked my friends how to translate it, they let me guess first and then corrected me. As for the main parts I was fine, there were a few grammatical errors. In the end, I am happy to speak Hindi at a higher level than when I arrived on campus.

How well did you achieve your goals?

Looking through my learning plan, I didn't necessarily achieve my goals too effectively. I'm not good at listening and understanding Korean. This is because I haven't acquired enough vocabulary and phrases that allow me to be good. What I was learning during the semester was different to what my Korean friends would say among themselves. The specific topics that I chose to focus on in the language limited my ability to learn about other topics that were more relate-able and current to situations that I face everyday. But based on the phrases and vocabulary that I do know, I could understand them when spoken to or not to a certain extent though. When Korean is spoken in a fast tone, I can only pick out certain words that I am familiar with and have difficulty understanding the sentences. When spoken in a slow tone, I can pick out familiar words, sometimes recognize and understand the sentence if it's a familiar phrase. Overall my pronunciation is decent on the first try, but it takes me a few tries to get the pronunciation sounding perfect for a non-Korean. I still kind of have trouble with making certain sounds. I can speak clearly enough that Koreans can understand me. But for certain phrases that require more effort to remember, I tend to speak in a slower tone than I would for phrases that I can recall immediately.

I haven't tested my restaurant knowledge at a Korean restaurant yet. So I don't know if I actually accomplished my goal in being good at understanding and ordering at restaurants. One potential problem that I see with this is the potential that the waitresses will speak in a tone that makes it difficult for me to pick out words and phrases that I am familiar with. And so it would be more effective if they speak in a slower tone.

I haven't accumulated enough interpersonal skills due to a lack of time and the need to acquire certain topics in order to fulfill beginner requirements. But I think with more time, practice, accumulation of vocabulary/phrases, and experience, I should be able to accomplish this goal.

In general, I think my goals were too ambitious for the time that was available to me. But I think they're a good first start.

What were the stumbling blocks you encountered?

The stumbling blocks I encountered were a lack of time, need to meet certain beginner requirements, fast tone of speech, insufficient vocabulary and phrases, impulsive pronunciations, and the amount of practice should have been greater.

How were you able to overcome them?

I haven't really overcome these obstacles yet. Since the semester is over, some of these obstacles would have been helpful if they were overcome during the semester. However now, they're irrelevant. For the rest of the obstacles, it would require more work after the semester in order to accomplish them. It would take months to overcome these obstacles and get to a level that is comparable to a Korean speaker. I was able to overcome one obstacle though, impulsive pronunciation. I knew what sound I had to make but when it comes down to it, I impulsively say another sound. This however only occurred to one particular word in a phrase. To overcome this, I wrote out the romanticized translation of the Korean words in the phrase. Then I changed the translation of the word that I was having the most trouble with into a translation that correlates with how I should say the word actually. So for example the actual translation is meog eoss but I would change this into meog oss to make it easier for my brain to recognize what sound I needed to make. 

What was most/least interesting to you?

My most favorite part about my semester is that I was broadening my knowledge of Korean. I think of it as one step closer to being able to get around in Korea on my own by speaking and reading Korean when I one day go there. It was also interesting to hear and learn about other cultures when I normally wouldn't. It was interesting to learn new vocabulary that correlate with what a normal conversation would be like in certain situations. I learned so much about Korea itself and it's culture that would definitely be useful to know one day. I also enjoyed the Korean children song about numbers. I read a couple articles about the elderly committing suicide which I thought was really interesting. Normally I wouldn't expect this to happen since most Asian cultures value family. And so I would be interested in learning more about this and following along with it.

My least favorite part about the semester is the amount of work that I needed to pass in for SDLC 110. Like everyone else, I did not follow the syllabus and so I was a bit shocked when a list of materials was due. I definitely wished that I payed attention to the syllabus and had progressively completed the work throughout the semester than in the course of 2 days. But then again, I can't complain since it was my fault. The least interesting part about Korean is Korea's pop music industry. I honestly am not interested in Korean music and so this part of the culture which comprises a significant portion does not interest me at all. Korean dramas don't interest me either.

 What would you like to do next?

I am going to practice more with the vocabulary that I know. Maybe take a few Korean classes if there is any at the location where I end up at. One day, I'm going to live in Korea or at least visit it. It's on my bucket list. I'm also considering teaching English as a way to expand my knowledge. Though I'm not too keen with Korean dramas, I do see them as a way to build vocabulary. And so I will watch them when I have time. While I'm going to keep in contact with my Korean friends, I will use them to build my vocabulary (this sounds bad). I don't necessarily trust the internet in acquiring vocabulary but I will use my friends as a way to confirm whether the vocabulary is correct and spelled correctly.

Assessment.docx

How well did you achieve your goals?

• I think I did really well achieving my goals this semester. I wanted to become more comfortable speaking and understanding Swedish and I think that through practicing with Louise and listening to a lot of Swedish outside of class time I was able to accomplish that. I'm also getting more comfortable with reading. At the beginning of last semester any attempt I made to read an article or book in Swedish was thwarted by the fact that I had to look up every other word. Now that I know basic verbs and tenses, prepositions, pronouns, etc. I'm able to attribute meaning to sentences without having to look up words. I'm also getting much better in my reading and listening comprehension at getting to the gist of what is being said/written and not getting bogged down by every single word. I'm getting very comfortable talking about myself and just situations around me and my feelings on a daily basis which is important as I plan on using my Swedish to converse about normal day-to-day things with Freddie's family.

What were the stumbling blocks you encountered?

• At the beginning of the semester I think all three of us were feeling like we had reached a plateau. It was challenging because we had learned so many of the basics and had covered most of the basic topics/areas of vocabulary by the time we hit the start of this semester. So we kind of had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what exactly we wanted to achieve and how we thought we could get there. We ended up ditching the "learn a long list of vocab words in one category, take quizzes on the words, and turn the words into sentences" and instead focused more on conversations, with the assumption that we would continue to pick up vocabulary on our own.

How were you able to overcome them?

• I think this new strategy we adopted was really good because we combined reading/summarizing/translating with listening to Swedish in songs and videos and then conversing naturally in Swedish about these things. We even practiced interviewing each other and Louise's brother Freddie when he was in town. While we were still picking up new vocab words left and right, it felt like we were putting more of a focus on conversations and speaking/listening comprehension and I think this helped us with going in the right direction for our goals.

What was most/least interesting to you?

• I'm starting to really like the way Swedish sounds and just absorbing it so much more. When I first started learning I could understand so little when I heard the Anderssons speak or attempted to translate an interview/conversation in Swedish. Now when I listen to songs in Swedish or hear Swedish spoken I can pick up on so much of it and it only encourages me to absorb more! A few weeks ago Freddie was on the phone with his mom speaking Swedish while my mom and I sat and listened. He was telling a really funny story and I was giggling beside him and my mom was just looking at me like 'how are you getting this and why is this so funny?'. It was a cool moment for Freddie and me because I could see how proud he was that I was understanding so much-- and maybe wary of speaking Swedish around me in the future...? :) I guess the least interesting part is still when grammar-related issues come up and don't get resolved. For instance Malory or I will say something and Louise will correct us but then won't be able to explain why (which is totally understandable-- it would be impossible for me to explain the particulars of English grammar to someone and I would probably just say that it "sounded right" which is very unhelpful!). So then Malory and I will look up the rule and find nothing conclusive or understandable about that particular phenomenon... I think it will just take more practice for us to get to the point where things just "sound right" because we've heard them said that way for long enough.

What would you like to do next?

• It's going to be tricky for me in the coming year to continue my Swedish education simply because I won't have Louise nearby or the structure of SDLAP. I think I want to sign up for some sort of Swedish education class while I'm working and living in DC. I will definitely continue to read and listen to as much Swedish as possible while I'm there but I think speaking Swedish will be more challenging while I'm there on my own. I think maybe at some point in the future I should start talking to Freddie and Louise exclusively in Swedish-- I know it will be very hard and Freddie won't love it but I think it will be good for my language acquisition and practice! I also think that while I'm starting my new job in a new city it will be nice to have a special project/passion that I can focus on when the workday is over. I'm very open to suggestions about goals for the next year and resources I can use if you have any input. I am pretty anti-Rosetta Stone but would be willing to pay for classes. I definitely think I should come up with a goal system and be making sure every month that I'm meeting those goals.

Still need to work on?

• Pronunciation, fluency, speed of comprehension, Swedish tonality, rhythm.

For my progress up to week 8, I just started learning phrases associated with restaurants and ordering. So I haven't exactly accomplished my restaurant task yet. So far I have accomplished majority of the tasks that I had set for myself for the semester. I'm still kind of having trouble saying certain words. I definitely have not accumulated enough vocabulary or knowledge of phrases that are useful in keeping a conversation going. I'm not too good at listening to Koreans speak since I neither know the words and they talk at a faster rate than what I can comprehend. For the phrases that I do know, my speaking though is overall pretty good. To finish the semester, I should definitely practice more to prepare for the final. I should sound better than I am now, but it's been a very busy semester and so I haven't given as much time to Korean as I should be. My learning plan so far is fine as is.

The first artifact is about how Indians greet.

Goals:

-) Know how to greet in Hindi

Tasks:

-) Learn used phrase

Evaluation:

To evaluate, I would simply greet someone in Hindi and see whether he replies appropriately.

After the artifact:

Greeting people in Hindi is quite easy. However, one also has to consider the cultural aspect and actually bow one' s head. This is what "Namaste" means, "I bow my head to you".

Artifact 3: Translating text from "Aaj Himur Biye" (Today is Himu's Wedding)

TRANSLATION:

(This is when Himu is talking to Renu, the girl that his aunt wants him to get married to).

(Himu) "I am talking sweetly to you with my honeyed voice and you got mad like this? Renu sweetheart, come around in a gentle sweet way. What's your favorite color? What's your horoscope?"

Renu said, "Bastard, you face me and come in front of me right now and I'll bite off your ear and if I don't then my name isn't Renu, but my name is Renu and I will do it! You bastard's son bastard, you."

"Renu, you replied with an argument. Your brother-in-law's son (*the word for bastard/jerk is the same as brother-in-law)  isn't your brother-in-law. You can say brother-in-law's son is the nephew. 

"Shut up!"

"Why are you threatening me, Renu? Talk to me with gentleness and kindness. Husband-wife arguments will happen after the wedding, not before the marriage.

"After these words, there was a sudden noise and the mobile phone turned off.  Because of me, Renu threw the phone. The phone is supposed to have gotten broken. But no. It must be an expensive phone. Because some people's only phone breaks. The phone makes "foosh foosh" noises. Others makes "fere fere" noises." (This is Himu speaking to his aunt).

"Himu, did you see the girl's temper? Bengali girls' tempers weren't like this before!"

Translating this text as I read is helpful since I can struggle through it on my own and see what words make sense or not which alerts me to whether or not I'm reading it right or wrong. Translating and writing it down helps me keep up with the story rather than forgetting what happened in the line or paragraph before it. It's very productive in trying to figure out the meaning of words I don't know, too, especially if they have conjuncts. I found out that if I don't know the word and know what the sentence might be trying to say and a couple of the letters in the word, I can figure out the conjunct if I know the word in speech, but not in writing. If I don't know the word, I just look it up in the dictionary. 

Artifact 4: 

CONVERSATION WITH COUSIN IN BENGALI SCRIPT

This is my conversation with another cousin who messaged me on Facebook. My other cousins keep trying to talk to me in romanized Bangla and the conversations never quite go anywhere because of how circular they are, as I mentioned before in another post. This cousin seems to be more talkative or at least better at talking about other things rather than saying one or two words and then expecting me to say a bunch. However, I have noticed he asks how I am a lot, which is something every one of my cousin has been doing. I'm curious about why that is- another cultural thing that I don't know about, maybe? Anyway, it's exciting to keep this conversation going in Bangla script. Though I can't tell if I have any spelling mistakes, I think my choice for the letters are correct because as I type in the online Bangla keyboard, I catch mistakes that the keyboard makes with certain letters, for example the different "t's" and "d's". This is a good way to practice self awareness in language writing.

The last artifact is a dialogue and is also in collaboration with Gargi. This artifact is a dialogue about a girl asking a guy out. This dialogue was not created by us but our language partner, Sun, during one of sessions. Although the intention of the dialogue is pretty useless, its contents were very important and were easily applicable to different situations in daily life. 

Goals:

1. How to catch someone's attention

2. What to say when thinking of an answer / hesitating

3. How to ask someone to have dinner with 

4. How to say that someone is busy

5. How to ask "why"

6. Use of different pronouns 

Since Sun wrote the dialogue, she made sure that it was neither too easy nor too hard. We also practiced saying the dialogue with her so that we were not lost when doing the artifact by ourselves.

When I listened to the recording, I was happy to see that we sounded much better than when we started off. Our pronunciations have improved as our speech no longer sounded strained. Moreover, when recording, we struggled less than the time we recorded our second artifact. Moreover, it also took us less time to complete the recording the dialogue.