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Jocelyne Rodriguez
Final Response Paper

Reflect on your learning experiences this semester. 
(a) What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer?  What did you find difficult?  What have you enjoyed?  How will you continue your learning?
(b) Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful?  What would you like to learn more about?

As a cultural learner I have been able to learn more about my style of learning. Creating my own study plan, gave me the opportunity to truly question which methods worked best for me and what type of language exercises were most effective to achieve my language goals. As a self-directed learner, I was also able to experience learning and studying simply because I genuinely wanted to learn that topic and not because I was trying to memorize it for an exam. Through this experience I was able to question what aspects of language learning were most important for me. While having the opportunity to chose what language aspects were most important for me, I learned more about the complexity of language and what aspects are the valuable in short term study.
Furthermore, something unique about self-directed language learning was that class activities motivated me to learn not only grammar but culture. Through research for my cultural final presentation I learned more about the influences culture can have in language development as well as how interactions between cultures can change the direction of language development. I learned that language is a form of expression of deeper social constructs and even a political tool for the advancement of societies.
Learning Portuguese has given a further comparison point to put my own language and culture into perspective. Learning a new language is a process to through which you acquire knowledge about a new language while you also learn to question your own and learn about the aspects that make your language unique or different from your new target language. Learning a language teaches you relativism.
The greatest difficulty I encounter through my language-learning journey was the lack of exposure. Although I had a language partner to practice Portuguese with as well as technology to find media sources like music and TV shows, I would have like to be able to have further and more natural exposure. Another challenge was that towards the end I began to have a hard time separating Portuguese from other Romance language. There were times when I could not remember whether a certain words was Portuguese, Italian, French, or Spanish. These four language are close enough that they sometimes share words that are pretty much the same but have a one-letter variation. Given the big similarities and the small differences, sometimes it was hard to keep track of the small differences. I believe, however, that this problem should go away through exposure. After this semester I do not think I will be able to continue learning Portuguese in a formal setting. Nonetheless, I plan to continue using media as a form of exposure so I can continue to become familiar with the language and do not lose it completely.
My favorite class activities was learning phonetic transcriptions and the second class presentations. I liked how through phonetic transcriptions you can find a common ground in writing for languages with different writing systems. Moreover, regarding the second presentations, I truly enjoyed being able to learn a little about the work my classmates have been doing as well as some of the characteristics of their target language. I would have liked to learn more about the strategies that other students were using for their language-learning plan. I feel like this would have given us the chance to learn more about other creative ways to achieve language acquisition.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 10

Reflect on your experiences as a language teacher and learning in this latest speed-dating workshop. What difficulties did you encounter?

` It was difficult to find a topic that was simple enough to teach in five minutes without any prior exposure to the language. It made me aware of the fact that I have never studied a language completely from scratch but that every time I have tried to learn a new language I start with some background knowledge either direct or indirect about the language.

How did you successfully relay concepts that were foreign to your classmates as your students?

One of the learning strategies I have employed throughout my study of Portuguese is to try to find connection between new things that I am learning and things I already know or that are easier to understand or remember. For that reason, I decided to use historical background as well as word origins to provide some familiar ground for my classmates to understand new concepts and be able to remember them.

If you were eventually granted the opportunity to teach a full semester-long course on the target language, what strategies would you adopt?

I am a Spanish TA and a strategy that the program uses to help students learn new concepts is to use activities and games to help students practice new concepts in low-stress environments. If I had the opportunity to teach a full semester-long cause on Portuguese I would employ a similar strategy of using creative activities that would get students to practice through conversation and quick reviewing activities.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 9

Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.

Reading in Portuguese has become easier with practice. There are some sounds that remain difficult to pronounce but overall, I have been able to pick up pronunciation patterns in Portuguese (wether I can successfully pronounce certain words is another question). When it comes to writing, I have been struggling with Portuguese accents as the rules are very obscure following the Portuguese Language Reforms from the 1990s. Furthermore, I sometimes mix spellings of similar words in Spanish and Portuguese. Overall, I have experienced greater improvements in reading than writing.

Are you bilingual? If so, would you agree with the arguments made in the two readings on bilingualism?

I am bilingual and I agree with many of the arguments made in the readings. It is true that there are certain cognitive processes that I find to be easier for me than some of my monolingual friends like ignoring distractions (it is very easy for me to tune out my second language). Furthermore, I have found that knowing more languages can facilitate learning new languages as you have a more extensive background to make connections to other grammatical systems.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 8

How many new words have you learned in your target language?  How did you learn them?  Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary? 

It is difficult to keep track of how many new words I have learned since I am learning a language that is so closely related to my native language. Spanish and Portuguese have a lexical similarity of 89%; therefore, even when I had never studied a word in Portuguese, there were times when I could guess the word using Spanish and the patterns I had observed between the two. There are so many words I never formally studied as part of my learning plan but that I would hear in a song or in a TV show and know what they meant. Formally I would say I learned about 500 words through topic subjects that I would study every week and from where I would pick up a few vocabulary words to study. Additionally, there were other words that I was able to pick up through exposure to their constant use and Spanish cognates. I believe my vocabulary goals were realistic although I eventually realized that I was incorporating too much memorization of translations rather than spending more time studying the meaning of words under a cultural lens. I eventually decided to reduce the number of words I was studying every week so I could study them more in depth.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 7

How do languages go extinct?

There is more than one way in which a language can go extinct. I would say languages go extinct when speakers are absorbed by a dominant language or cultural group. This would be the case for Irish, whose speakers decreased as a result of English becoming the dominant language spoken in Ireland. Another reason for language extinction would be language oppression. This can be seen with many of the native languages of tribes in the Americas, which were oppressed by colonial powers. A number of countries in Latin America use language as a tool of oppression towards indigenous groups forcing them to leave their language and adopt Spanish.

Respond to the reading, reflecting on what happens when a language dies. How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a language ever be brought back to life? 

Linguists can help preserve a language through cultural initiatives that promote the study of the language as well by documenting the language to be used for study. Creating dictionaries and documenting grammatical rules can help preserve a language. Even when languages die, they can be brought back to life as long as we have some kind of documentation and sample from the language. Hebrew is an example of a language that was revived.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 6

Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. To what family does your language belong? What sounds, words, or structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures?

My language belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European family. Meaning my language has a very prominent Latin influence. Latin roots as well as Roman mythology and Catholic practices and beliefs have had a big influence in the development of Portuguese. Being familiar with Latin roots as well as Romance practices and expressions has helped me learn Portuguese as I have a rational background to help me make sense of words. For example, I knew months in Portuguese are based on names of Roman mythological gods and practices and so I can use my knowledge of Roman mythology as well as the Latin roots and suffixes to remember the names of months.
There are a number of sounds, words, and structures hat exemplify period of contact with other cultures that vary between Portuguese-Speaking countries. For example, in countries like Angola there is a great influence from African languages spoken in the country prior to the introduction of Portuguese. Meanwhile, these same African languages have also influenced other Portuguese-speaking countries through migration from Angola to countries like Portugal and Brazil during critical periods like the Angolan de-colonization and the Angolan civil war. This migration has spread cultural practices as well as new words and expressions normally associated with Angolan culture.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 5

Do some preliminary research on what most interests you about the target culture, and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic? 

A cultural topic that has interested me throughout my study of Portuguese is the development of the language from Latin, its separation from other Romance languages, and the current language differences in the different countries in which the language is spoken. Throughout my study I have been relying on similarities between Portuguese and other Romance languages to understand new concepts that differ from English but are found in other Romance languages. Furthermore, I have made an effort to keep track of words that are used differently in different Portuguese-speaking countries. I would like to lean more about how these differences came to be and how Portuguese has evolved differently in different countries as well as the cultural factors that have led to these differences. Something my language partner often mentions is the Portuguese agreement from the 1990s in which all Portuguese-speaking countries agreed on language reforms to unify the different forms of Portuguese spoken in different countries. This is another aspect of my target language that I would like to investigate for my cultural presentation.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 4

Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don't exist in English? Provide several phonetic transcriptions of important words. 

There are sounds that in Portuguese that do not exist in English. Luckily, prior study of Romance languages has helped me with some of these sounds. For example Portuguese uses rolled ‘r’ sounds like the ones used in Spanish (e.g. the word for interesting: interesante- ĩteɾezˈɐ̃tʃi) along with ‘r’ sounds similar to the ones used in French (e.g. the word real (Brazilian currency) is pronounced ‘xiˈaw’) On the other hand, there are still many other sounds for which I have no background. The best example of this is the use of nasal sounds, which have been very challenging for me. Although French incorporates some nasal sounds in some words like ‘Printemps’ (spring), nasal sounds like the ones commonly used in Portuguese are not commonly used in any other Romance language. The word não (no), for example is pronounced ‘nˈɐ̃w̃’.

What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need?  Have you identified resources and textbooks to promote your task-based objectives? Why or why not?

The grammatical structure of Portuguese is very similar to the grammatical structure used in Spanish which has really facilitated my understanding of structure by giving me a better starting point. Nonetheless, I have been completing exercises from a textbook called Pois não as well as using exercises from Babble to reenforce my study of Portuguese sentence structure.

This artifact is a small conversation that I had with Gökhan practicing my spontaneous speech walking home from a class that we had in the library. At the end, I got mad because Gökhan did not correct my mistake because we were recording haha!

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Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 3

How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture?
My target language is spoken in multiple countries. I have been learning a little about both Portuguese and Brazilian culture, although I have been emphasizing Brazilian culture even more. It is a little difficult to qualify different aspects of Brazilian culture since it shares many aspects of Latin or Iberean culture shared by many other countries in Latin America that I was already familiar with. Therefore, it is difficult to point at differences because in a way I can still identify with them because they reflect my own based on my personal ethnic background.

Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc.
When it comes to time, the Brazilian concept of time is more fluid. While in American culture punctuality is more emphasize in Brazilian culture, time is more flexible. Furthermore, like many Romance languages, Brazilian culture incorporates many hand gestures with language. Many of these gestures are present within more than one Romance languages and so I am somewhat familiar with them based on my prior knowledge of Spanish, French, and Italian. This provides useful clues regarding meaning (especially when I am watching a show and the characters start speaking really fast but I do not want to read the subtitles).
Another thing I have notice is that even though many times I cannot hear certain differences in sound in my target language, I can distinguish different face movements and expressions that normally accompany certain sounds.

Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.
I would not say I have experienced culture shock but there have been times when I am working on excersices for Portuguese or listening to Portuguese music and people interrupt me to talk to me and I have answered using Portuguese words. Also, there was a time when a friend used the Italian expression ‘Ciao’ (goodbye) and I thought he had said ‘Tchau’ in Portuguese which also means goodbye. I was confused for a minute that he had used Portuguese until I realize he had used an Italian expression instead.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 2

How have you organized your self-directed learning plan, and what have you learned so far? How will your studies allow you investigate your target language and culture more deeply? What first prompted your interest, and motivated you to start learning?

Based on the FIRE model, I am both a factual and rational learner. This means I like to have rules and specific grammatical guidelines to learn languages. I also work a lot with memorization. For this reason, my learning plan emphasizes grammatical learning of rules and patterns in my target language. I am interested in learning how to determine when to use certain words, how to determine when to use specific articles, propositions, etc, and rules for verbal conjugations. Furthermore, I want to be able to build a more extensive word bank for which I plan to rely on exercises that use memorization.
Moreover, I know I am also a rational learner and that learning the reasons behind rules and general fun facts helps me retain information and remember rules. For this reason I want to use some time to learn more about cultural influences in language, language development, and the origin of certain rules and practices.
My language learning is motivated by my interest in Latin American politics (including Brazil). For this reason I do not only want to learn about grammar but I also want to be able to incorporate some cultural learning. So far, I have been learning basic useful phrases like greetings, phrases to express basic personal information like ‘my name is..,’ and ‘I am from…’. Although my study of Portuguese has been very basic so far, I have already encountered differences in communication between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese which highlight cultural differences between the two countries. For example, Portugal uses the informal ‘tu’ (you), while Brazil only uses the formal (voce).

After receiving feedback from your classmates and Dr. Marsh-Soloway, what changes do you anticipate making? 

I plan to review my learning plan once I find the most appropriate learning pace for me and how long it takes me to master certain topics. Furthermore, a big part of my learning plan includes building a word bank. For this I am still looking for a way to organize the new vocabulary words I learn. Currently I am organizing words under topics but I would also like to separate words according to their use. I would like to organize words not only under topics but also under parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives).

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 1

What parts of the brain are most important for the production and comprehension of speech?

According to the article How the Brain Handles Language, The left hemisphere is dominant for language in most right-handed people (estimates are usually over 95%). An interesting concept explored by this reading is thinking of the production of language as a process with different steps that involve different parts of the brain with different functions (e.g. conceptualization of a message, semantics, phonology representation, send signals to muscles, and self-monitoring).

How do you conceptualize or process meaning? Do these readings bring to mind any questions or motivations that could help promote your foreign-language abilities, retention, and recollection?

The article How We Mean, provides a motivation for language learning by arguing that it is crucial to look at different languages because if we restrict our view to just one language-our own- we will never truly understand the distinction between sense and reference, because it is natural to think that ‘our’ way of talking about the world is the only now, or the most natural one.
Another interesting point raised in this reading is that of interpretation of meaning that there is more than one way to explain meaning. One can have a visual representation, a definition, or derive meaning from experience and logical conclusions. Furthermore, it brings into attention the importance of studying the meaning of words in context rather than in isolation.
It is argued that “words by themselves do not actually make sense. only when they are used within sentences do they make sense. Sentences exist to enable us to make sense of words.” This is because isolated words have the potential for conveying too much meaning while words in sentences have more specific meanings that are easier to comprehend. This last point has motivated me to study vocabulary in context. Before, I would only look up the translation of words from my target language in English. Now I am motivated to also find sentences in which the words are used to make sure they are used in the same way that their translation would suggest.

Jocelyne Rodriguez
Response Paper 1
SLDC 105

My experiences as a language learner have been very enriching since they allow me to learn more about the target language but also my own by giving me a point of comparison. My study of Portuguese is my fourth experience as a language learner. My first language is Spanish and so my first experience as a language learner was with English. Then, later in high school I took a couple of French classes. Most recently, I studied abroad in Italy last year so I studied some Italian on my own before leaving and took a course while I was there. Each experience had been different and allowed me to learn more about my learning style. For example, while learning French my classes really emphasized grammar and written exams and compositions and so my French was much better in writing than verbally. On the other hand, while learning Italian I was able to immerse in the language, practice speaking, and listen to it on a regular basis. My classes for Italian were mostly discussion-based and so my speaking became better than my writing. This time I want to find a balance. I want to develop both speaking and writing skills and Portuguese and so I want to incorporate diverse forms of learning. I know now that I have more than one learning style but that depending on the style I choose (visual/ listening), my learning outcome will be different. Therefore, based on my learning goals, I want to incorporate visual learning exercises that emphasize reading and writing at the same time that I incorporate verbal exercises to practice speaking and listening. Listening to music with lyrics and watching shows with subtitles might be very helpful since they incorporate both sound and writing simultaneously and allow me to see the connection between the two.
What I enjoy the most as a language learner is being able to see progress. That moment when you are listening to a song that has been in your playlist for a month and you are finally able to make out some of the words, or when you see a word in a class reading about the country of your target language and you actually know the meaning. Something else I enjoy is the ability to incorporate culture along with your study of language. I am an anthropology minor and so I truly enjoy learning more about new cultures, not only because it is fascinating but also because it helps you put into perspective you own practices and question the things you thought were normal for everyone but were actually characteristics of your own particular culture.
What I do not like about language learning is the time it takes to master a new language. Sometimes I become frustrated when I cannot master simple things from my target language like pronouncing nasal sounds (which are very common in Portuguese). Another thing that I wish I could change is the exposure to the language. Learning a language with limited immersion can be hard as you are not naturally exposed to the language but you actively have to seek this exposure. I wish I had more people around me to practice speaking Portuguese but having a language partner and media resources has been very helpful.
Using the FIRE model, I have discover that I am both a factual and rational learner. I like to know rules and have concrete expectations and guidelines, at the same time that I like to know the explanations behind the rules and exploring intriguing questions I encounter. Factual learning for me is a form of summarizing what I learn, while rational learning is more of a way to form meaningful connections between facts and personal experience that allow me to remember rules and facts.

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Gökhan and I usually message each other in Turkish to organize our class meet times and to talk about what we will cover so here is an example of that where Gokhan asks me what we were going to cover one specific evening.

Because of classes and other commitments for wrapping up the semester, the amount of lessons that I have a week have unfortunately decreased. My sessions with Gökhan have mostly focused on polishing my speaking skills. I believe that I have gotten to a point where I am a familiar with most grammar structures - i.e. I can recognize a lot - but I have problems with producing the structures in timely manner. My biggest challenge is talking about “I said…”, “you said…”, or “he/she said…”, which requires the use of this complex subordinate clause structure. I am able to produce it correctly (...sometimes) but it requires A LOT of thinking. It honestly feels like a math equation. However, in comparison to the beginning of the semester, I believe that I have made a good amount of progress on my timing on responses and also with my listening skills. I intend to practice what I have learned a bit with Turkish people when I go to New York. (Hopefully I can understand them!) I am looking forward to the summer when I am going to have much more time to practice these skills. Gökhan told me that he can set me up with some of his friends so that I could skype them to keep my skills at par. I am also looking forward to seeing my progression in the language in the future.

Ohh! Also, I started watching this show on Netflix called Winter Sun to improve my listening skills. I watch the show with the subtitles in Turkish so that I would be forced to pay attention to what they are saying. I think that it is working out pretty well. I also found this youtube channel of this native Spanish speaker who posts videos helping Turkish people learning Spanish. His videos are also helpful for my listening skills because he speaks a little slower (I think). I think I can also understand him for the most part which makes me happy haha.

Here is a link to one of his videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUFeszBlDQI

I just realized how little time that I have left since the semester is coming to an end. Therefore, I decided to crank my lessons with Gökhan up a notch. Earlier in the semester, we had been meeting twice a week for two hours each but now we have started to meet every day in the week for an hour or so. I figured that this would be better as it would give me more exposure to the language. I believe that it has been working out well from my initial perspective because I am now constantly searching for words to contextualize the world around me. Gökhan also put me in contact with one of his co-workers from Turkey so I have started to practice my writing more with him.

Also, a friend and I just bought tickets to go to New York right before graduation so I decided to revamp my personal Turkish journal entries writing about random things. I want to have as much exposure to the language as possible so that I don’t take forever trying to say a single sentence when I meet people. In my first couple entries, I reviewed writing my self introductions, why I want to learn Turkish, and also about my time in Barcelona. I had Gökhan edit what I wrote to make sure that the sentences were right.

With regards to the lesson, Berhaun reacted fine for the most part. I think that she might have been a little overwhelmed because I covered a lot from “hello” to asking someone how they are. I think the only thing that she really remembered was how to say “hello” and “good bye” because “hello” in Turkish is the same as in Tigrinya and she has heard me say “good bye” to Gokhan a lot in Turkish. I guess I now know not overwhelm my student with too much next time.

A few weeks ago, Gökhan and I covered grocery vocabulary. I really wanted to put what I learned to the test so we decided to go on an excursion to Short Pump and Target with Berhaun (who drove). I did not review as many words as I should have before the trip so Gökhan had to re-teach me a lot of words. However, I believe that everything worked out well because I could actually visualize the vocabulary that I was learning. Many of the words, such as gömlek (shirt), aşkı (hanger), and elbise (dress), stayed in my head after the experience. I was also happy about the experience because I could practice using the -dık suffix that allows me to form subordinate clauses in Turkish. I am looking forward to more learning activities like this to keep the process interesting.

Also, in class, we started reading children’s novels in Turkish. I usually read the sentences in Turkish first and then I try to translate the sentences to make sure that I understand. I have improved with recognizing grammatical structures. Some of the vocabulary has been very specific and not very useful but I have still been able to improve my pronuncation. After reading the small novels, we covered responding to easy questions about the story in Turkish, which I believe helped alot. I am going to keep up with these things and try to do some more stuff to keep practicing.

Also also, I am going to teach my friend, Berhaun, introductions in Turkish using the mind map approach that I covered with Gökhan a couple weeks ago. I am a visual learner so I thought it was an extremely helpful way to learn. I don’t know what kind of learner she is so I think that it would be interesting to see how she would react.

So I guess I should start of this post sharing that I figured out the mystery of the potential tense. It turns out that it’s not as hard as I thought it was. I think that there was mostly a misunderstanding between Gökhan and I so I kinda freaked out and shut down. In that lesson, we had already gone two hours covering other material so I was probably a little stressed. In the event that you are curious how to say them, gelemem (I cannot come), gelmeyebilirim (I may not come), gelemeyebilirim (I may not be able to come) are the forms and they all come from the verm gelmek (to come). I think I am getting to the point where all of these suffixes are starting to look the same so I am going to review them more with Gökhan to make sure that I understand them.

Aside from those, Gökhan and I made a mind map of daily things (e.g. bed, closet, spoon, fork, knife, glasses) and also of the airport (e.g. security, make an anouncement, baggage). I thought that it was a nice and new way to learn vocabulary that I hadn’t considered before. We covered a lot of words so I have a lot of review to do but I am interested in the activity and look forward to doing this with other languages that I study.

Okay! So things were going great for the past few classes until my last class covering the potential suffix! This suffix allows you to form sentences like “I can come”.This is fairly simple to make for positive sentences in the present tense. In my last class, I learned that this can get a little more complicated for negative sentences because a subtle change in entonation and morphology can make that potential statement either “I cannot come”, “I may not come”, or “I may not be able to come”. To be completely honest, I still do not understand it. Thankfully, there is a lesson of this on the podcast that I listen to (Turkish Tea Time). I listened to the episode some time last semester but I thought that it was too advanced for me at the time so I did not pay as much attention. But since I am a Turkish pro now (not really haha), I am going to check it out again and take notes before I ask Gökhan again.

On the bright side of this somber entry, I am getting more used to this really complicated suffix to form subordinate clauses, specifically forming sentences like “I think that …” Unfortunately, it takes me an arm and a leg to finally make the sentences so I will be practicing those sentences a lot for the next couple weeks in order to improve my speed in production.    

We’re back!! Woot woot! I did a lot of studying over winter break so the transition for me getting back to work was not that bad thankfully. I had a lot of time to polish the tenses that I learned. I also made a list of the most important words for communicating in any language. These are words that I believe to occur more frequently in everyday speech. I hope that this will help me be able to communicate with not so long pauses. I also have a list of transition and filler words to help fill in these blanks. I showed the list to Gökhan and he gave me some suggestions for some more words.

For the semester, I want to improve my speaking and listening skills overall so I started writing journal entries. In my first entry, I wrote about what I did over the winter break. After I wrote it, Gökhan edited it and gave me some suggestions. Writing the entry was pretty easy for the most part because I used fairly easy words, but I am going to try use more complex vocabularies and structures in the future to challenge myself.

As far as class, we briefly reviewed all of the tenses and cases that we covered last semester and then went right into learning more vocabulary. I wanted to learn how to talk about movies in Turkish so Gökhan prepared a worksheet for me on movie reviews. From the class, I learned the passive tense saying sentences like “the movie was directed by…”, which was fairly easy compared to other tenses that I had learned before. In the next few classes, I am going to practice this tense more to make sure that I understand it.