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Turkish coffee

After we are done with the simple conversations learning. Gohkan invited us to enjoy authentic Turkish coffee. He told us it is impossible to find a “kahvhane”, a Turkish coffee in Richmond. So he asked his girlfriend who travelled to American to him bring some Turkish coffee powder and a set of traditional Turkish coffee maker. For that class we reviewed what we learned last week, and then he started to make us Turkish coffee! The way Turkish coffee is made is so different from Startbucks. I watched as he made it. He first put the powder into the coffee pot with hot water then boil it for approximately 10 mins. Then he poured the coffee into a small cup. As we drink, Gohkan taught us some Turkish words and history stories about coffee. Coffee is an important part of Turkish culture. In China, when some close friends gather together, they would probably drink to celebrate their friendship. While in Turkey, coffee is the choice! He also taught us that coffee was sort of a symbol of freedom in Turkey, because in the old times, Turkish people usually gathered in a coffee shop and talk about politics. Because they are not quite satisfied with the current ruler, most of their discussions are complaints. Then the ruler was not happy about it, so he made policies to forbid coffee drinking within the nation. Turkish people did not compromise, they went to the street and protest. Eventually they got their rights to drink coffee back. In a deeper meaning, their rights to talk freely back. I really enjoyed this class because I think learning the culture of a language is equally important as learning the alphabets and grammars.

It was so strong that I stayed up till 2 a.m.

Simple Conversations 1

This week we are not doing merely memorizing stuff. Our language partner Gohkan started the class by greeting us in Turkish. “Merhaba, Nasilsin? ”, Which means “Hello, how are you doing.”. This week’s task for us is to learn the basic greeting conversations. My objection is to learn them well to a level that I can conduct a simple greeting conversations. Gohkan told us greeting is a very important topic to cover because in Turkey, people take greetings very serious. He told us when if a person who’s gonna be late for his work saw someone he knows in the street. He would choose to stop and greet him/her, otherwise he would be considered very arrogant. We began learning greetings by first read through the basic sentences. “Benim adim Adam, senin adin ne? ” It means “My name is Adam, what is your name.” After we are familiar with how to pronounce the sentences. Gokhan asked us to practice. So Joyce and I practiced the greetings with Gokhan respectively. I think this strategy is especially useful. Because as for the last two classes, basically what we did is to merely memorize stuff. This practice provides us more interaction. Thus we are able to actively learn the knowledge instead of passively receiving all of the contents.

Counting numbers

After done with alphabets, Gokhan introduced us to counting numbers this week. He told us counting numbers will be a big part of this semester’s studying. Because the way Turkish people count numbers is hard to memorize. Even for local Turkish people, they prefer the Arabic numbers over their way of expressing numbers. My object is to be able to translate numbers in Arabic form into the Turkish form without the help of a dictionary.  We start to learn how to count numbers by learning the Turkish words for 1 to 10. The most difficult part is to memorize each word. It is not like in English, words have the similar post-fixes. For example, “fourth” and “sixth” both have the post-fix “th”. While in Turkish, it is a completely different story. Thus we started to use Quizlet. We created a vocabulary lists, and Gokhan told us to review the words at least a week to make sure we don’t forget. This strategy is effective. Because as I mentioned, the hardest part is to memorize the words for numbers. Because when it comes to expressing a complex or very big number, the mechanism is similar to English. After we are familiar with the words. We can translate the numbers into Turkish very quickly.

Turkish Alphabets

In class we touched on alphabets, which is the very basic of the language. Different from English, there are 29 alphabets in Turkish, the weird thing about Turkish alphabets is that there is an particular alphabet that does not have a sound, which is ğ. The point of this alphabet is that is prolongs the sound of the alphabet preceding it. My goal is to master how to pronounce all the alphabets. Gokhan first read us all of them, some of them are the same as English alphabets so we learn it easily. But there are ones we cannot pronounce, so for those ones, I ask our language partner to record it. And I will listen to them twice every day, it does not require a lot time but it is really efficient. Besides, I will review the whole alphabets before every class. The learning of Turkish alphabets is the fundamental. After we learned the alphabets, Gokhan showed us some simple words, and we can pronounce them nearly precise. The learning of Turkish alphabets enables us to pronounce simple word. And this little accomplishment really boosts my interest.

Attached is my learning plan with evaluations for the semester. 

SDLC%20Learning%20Plan%20-%20Zach%20Stewart.docx

Artifact 4: Translate a song

Song: Era uma vez

Portuguese Lyrics

O dia em que todo dia era bom
Delicioso gosto e o bom gosto das nuvens
Serem feitas de algodão
Dava pra ser herói no mesmo dia
Em que escolhia ser vilão
E acabava tudo em lanche
Um banho quente e talvez um arranhão
Dava pra ver, a ingenuidade a inocência
Cantando no tom
Milhões de mundos e os universos tão reais
Quanto a nossa imaginação
Bastava um colo, um carinho
E o remédio era beijo e proteção
Tudo voltava a ser novo no outro dia
Sem muita preocupação
 
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
 
Dá pra viver
Mesmo depois de descobrir que o mundo ficou mau
É só não permitir que a maldade do mundo
Te pareça normal
Pra não perder a magia de acreditar na felicidade real
E entender que ela mora no caminho e não no final
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido

English Lyrics

Once Upon a time/There was once
The day when everyday/ the whole day (not sure which) was good
Delicious taste and the good taste of the clouds
Being made of cotton
Would work being a hero on the same day
That I would chose to be a villain
And it ended it all up for lunch
A hot bath and maybe a scratch
You would see, the ingenuousness of innocence
Singing in the tone
Millions of worlds and universes so real
As for our imagination
Just a lap, a caress
And the medicine was a kiss and protection
Everything would turn to be new again the next day
Without much concern
 
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning
Because a grated knee
Hurts much less than a broken heart
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning.
Because a grated knee
Hurts much less than a broken heart
 
Come to live
Even after finding out that the world turned bad
Just do not let the wickedness of the world
Seem normal to you
To not lose the magic of believing in real happiness
And to understand that she lives on the way and not at end
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning.
Because a grated knee
Hurts much less than a broken heart
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning.
Because a grated knee
It hurts much less than a broken heart.

Third Artifact:  Introducing myself and my family

Meu nome é Jocelyne. Eu sou do Texas mas estudo na Virgínia. Eu frequento a Universidade de Richmond e eu estudo ciência política. Eu gosto de pizza e ouvir música.

O nome da minha mãe é Diana. Ela gosta de ler e assistir filmes.
Ela não gosta de cozinhar, mas gosta de ir a restaurantes comigo

O nome do meu pai é Oscar. Ele é muito engraçado e gosta de fazer piadas. Ele acha que o português parece engraçado.

O nome do meu irmão é Armando. Ele tem 15 anos. Ele gosta de desenhar e jogar futebol. Nosso passatempo favorito é assistir filmes

Second Artifact:  Show that you can ask and answer questions about identity

Elevator Pitch in Portuguese

Ola, meu nome é Jocelyne Rodriguez. Eu sou um estudante na Universidade de Richmond. Eu estudo ciência política e antropologia. Estou interessada em pesquisas políticas e culturais sobre a América Latina. Eu tomei várias aulas sobre este tema. Além disso, falo espanhol e estou estudando português. Você pode entrar em contato comigo se souber de algum estágio de pesquisa?

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Eighth Cultural Post:  Reflect upon what you have learned from the cultural projects presented in class.

There were four main points I learned from my cultural presentation. First, I learned that languages evolve and there can be more than one culture influencing this evolution. Through my presentation I explored the evolution of Portuguese from Latin to Galician-Portuguese to the current Portuguese spoken in the different Portuguese-speaking countries. Furthermore, I learned that there can be more than one perspective reflected in a language. For example, Portuguese reflects the perspectives of African, South American, and European perspectives. Third, I learned that learning a language requires cultural awareness. Cultural awareness is essential in determining the proper use of words and the context in which the different words are normally used. Understanding the culture behind a language can strengthen your knowledge about the language itself. Lastly, I learned that languages are more than just a form of communication but also a form of expression and even a political medium as seen with the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement to improve international standing of the language and Galicia’s decision not to join.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Seventh Cultural Post:  Attitudes about Family in the Target Culture

The main difference in attitudes about family between English and Portuguese is found in the way people speak of their in-laws. For example, Portuguese has uses words like ‘cunhada’ (sister in law), ‘genro’ (son-in-law), sogra (mother-in-law). You do not find the ‘in-law’ clause within the words used in Portuguese, meaning they are used even when there is no formal ‘in-law’ relation. For example I can refer to my brother’s girlfriend as ‘cunhada’ (sister in law) even if they are not married.
Another difference is found within the gender of the words used to describe relatives. For example, while in English there is one word to describe both female and male cousins, in Portuguese there are different words for ‘cousin’ that specify gender. The word for a male cousin is ‘primo’, while the word to describe a female cousin is ‘prima’.

One of my objectives this year was to have a causal conversation in Indonesian with my roommate this year. It finally happened!

First Week Studying 

First week we met our Turkish language partner Gokhan. In the first class, he told us where he is from, a small town close to Istanbul. And he brought us Turkish traditional candies. Then he asked about why we want to learn Turkish in the first place. My initial to learn Turkish is that I plan to visit Turkey one day, and if I can speak their language, I am able to experience more local lives and I enjoy talking to people. Moreover, tracing back to ancient history, China and Turkey has a lot communications. Thus nowadays, we can find many similarities in Turkish and Chinese. We use different complete different alphabets. But we share some similar language habits. My goal for the first week is to learn Turkish alphabets. Our language partner told us, once we learn how to pronounce the alphabets, we can read nearly all the Turkish words.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Sixth Cultural Post:  Attitudes about Time in the Target Culture

Portuguese and English have very similar forms of talking about time. Their concept of time, however, varies slightly. English, or at least American culture, places a greater emphasis on punctuality. For English, time is set. Meanwhile, for Portuguese, time is more flexible. Exactitude regarding time is not necessary and it is acceptable to be a little late for informal gatherings. In formal environments like work, attitudes towards time vary a little since some continue to use this flexible attitude towards time and others change their attitude to be closer to the one we experience in the US to emphasize time efficiency.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Fifth Cultural Post:  Identify a topic for your culture project and your learning goals for your topic.

I would like to explore the topic of language development for my cultural project. Throughout my study of Portuguese I have noticed differences across the portuguese used in Portugal and Brazil. I would like to conduct some research regarding the different influences that led to these differences. I would also like to explore the different uses of words as well as the different levels of formality used by the two. My learning goals for this topic would be to gain a more holistic understanding of the underlying cultural differences that have influenced language development in the different continents. Lastly, I would like to learn more the motivations behind the Portuguese Orthographic Agreement of 1990. I am interested in the investigation regarding the implications to have a more/ less unified formal language system.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Fourth Cultural Post: Target Language's Writing System

The Portuguese writing system uses the latin alphabet and so it has been easier to learn. Before the 1990s, Portuguese did not have the letters K, W, and Y but after the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement, these letter have been added to the Portuguese alphabet making it the same as the English alphabet. The main remaining difference between the English and the Portuguese writing system is the use of grammatical accents. I have had some prior exposure to grammatical accents but Portuguese is the Romance language with the most grammatical accents. It has been pretty difficult for me to learn when a word should have an accent and when it should not, especially as the Orthographic Agreement also changed the rules for determining when to use accents. Currently Portuguese continues to work towards the full implementation of the new rules established by the agreement, but many of the old rules continue to be used.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Third Cultural Post:  Cultural Topic of Your Choice

An interesting aspect about Romance languages is their use of gender. These languages assign gender to objects. Normally, I can anticipate what gender is normally used for certain nouns, although there are a few times when I expect a word to be considered feminine when it is actually considered masculine in Portuguese, or vice versa. Recently I have encountered that Portuguese also assigns gender to countries. Phrases like the one used to express ‘I live in…” varies depending on the gender of assigned to the place where you live.

I live in Brazil Eu moro no Brasil
I live in Portugal Eu moro em Portugal
I live in France Eu moro na França

In the phrase ‘I live in Brazil’ the proposition ‘no’ (Em (in) + o (masculine definite article)) is used as Brazil is considered a male country. Meanwhile in the phrase ‘I live in France’ the proposition ‘na’ (em (in) +a (feminine definite article)) is used as France is considered a female country. Interestingly, in the phrase ‘I live in Portugal’ the proposition ‘em’ is used without the need of a definite article since there is no need to specify a gender for this country. Overall, determining the gender of countries is somewhat similar to determining the gender of nouns. Yet, determining when there is a need for the use of a gendered definite article for a country is more difficult as there is no rule for it.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

Second Cultural Post:  Formality and Informality in Target Language

Formality in Portuguese varies depending on which Portuguese you are learning. In European Portuguese- which is the formal language of instruction in other Portuguese-speaking countries (with the exception of Brazil)- there are two forms of the second person. Informal second person uses ‘tu’ while formal second person uses ‘voce’. When using European Portuguese one has to be to decide which form of the second person is most appropriate to use. I, however, been mostly learning Brazilian Portuguese which only uses ‘voce’. Thanks to this I do not have to worry as much about deciding which form of the second person is most appropriate for what scenarios. In Brazilian Portuguese, you can express extra formality by using phrases like ‘o senhor’ to address the individual.

Jocelyne Rodriguez

First Cultural Post:  What is your interest in 'your' language and what do you hope to accomplish this semester?

My interest in Portuguese comes from my interest in Latin American Politics. I am a political science major and I would like to lean more about Brazil’s language and culture given the increasingly important role the country now plays in Latin American politics. In past years, many of my courses have focused on the unique attributes of Brazil as a country, its culture, and its growing influence in the world. Currently, Portuguese is one of the most spoken languages in the world (over 200 million speakers). I think that learning some basic Portuguese will be very helpful in my field of study.
This semester I hope to be able to gain basic language skills (both oral and written). I want to be able to understand simple sources in Portuguese without having to look up every other word. Most importantly I want to be able to communicate basic ideas in Portuguese and learn strategies to work with a limited vocabulary and language skills.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Response Paper 2

Language carries more than just a direct meaning of words but also a sense of what is appropriate for certain scenarios. Different forms of speech are acceptable (or expected) under different circumstances. There are many social informal rules that dictate how one should address certain people or what constitutes formal and informal language. In the case of Portuguese, there are different norms that dictate what is appropriate for different scenarios across different cultures. For example, in Brazil there is no use of the informal second person (you) but instead only the formal form of ‘you’ is used. Meanwhile, in Portugal both the informal second person and the formal second person are used and so you have to be able to distinguish when each of them is used. Furthermore, there are certain words that carry underlying meanings that are not evident to language learners who are not familiar with the culture of the target language and it is very easy to offend someone or come across as rude simply because one is not familiar with cultural practices and expectations in the language. It is important for language learners to keep in mind that cultural practices and expectations of what is acceptable do not always translate across cultures and languages. In other words, it is important to become informed about the culture in countries where the target language is spoken in order to be able to determine the appropriate way of using the language. Language learning includes not only learning grammatical rules but the cultural meanings behind expressions and the ability to understand and adapt to a different cultural standard of evaluation for meaning.
According to H.D. Brown, Communicative competence refers to competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts. CC is not so much an interpersonal construct but rather a dynamic, interpersonal construct that can be examined only by means of the overt of two or more individuals in the process of communication. Communicative competence then can be improved through the study of functional meaning of expressions during communication with others rather than the simple knowledge about different language forms and patterns.
Other kinds of competences from the readings by H.D. Brown that I need to consider to make tangible advances in my linguistic abilities include grammatical competence. This competence includes knowledge of lexical items, rules of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics, and phonology. Grammatical competence can improve the proper use of formal speech and aid by providing rules that serve as language guidelines. Another important competence is discourse competence, which enables us to connect sentences in a meaningful way to create significant utterances. Moreover, as discussed in the first part of this paper, sociolinguistic competence is also very important since it provides the knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and discourse. Lastly, strategic competence is a useful competence for language learners as it provides strategies to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules.

I already talked about this in one of my learning journals but I figured that it works as an artifact as well. I found this YouTube channel of this Spanish person who speaks Turkish really well. I felt really proud of myself watching this because I could understand most of what he was saying. I had to slow the speed of the video down to 0.5, but I still consider it as an accomplishment haha. Watching his video actually inspired me to post videos of myself speaking Turkish on YouTube. I am just going to wait another year (I think) so that I can improve my spontaneous speech. I am perfectionist haha. 

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