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Learning plan

(I think I misunderstood the "self-assessment" section as meaning whether I think it was a realistic goal/how to assess myself instead of being used at the end of the semester for actually assessing myself. I have left it as is, and have done my self assessment in my last reflection paper.) LearningPlanPravaas.docx

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Cultural Presentation

Sources are at the end of the presentation.

Ahmadiyya%20in%20Pakistan.pptx

Summary (what is not on the slides)

Slide 1- 

When he was 14 years old he scored the highest ever recorded marks for the matriculation exam at the Punjab University (matriculation exam is exam taken as a sort of placement test for movement into tertiary education.) He received his first Bachelors in Mathematics at age 18 and master’s degree at age 20. Three years later he completed his second Bachelor’s at Cambridge with double first-class distinction in Math and Physics. He completed his doctorate by age 25, with his thesis earning him the Adams Prize. 

Slide 2-

The broad estimates of numbers are due to the difficulty discerning just how many Ahmadi there are because of the sect's discriminated status in Islamic countries.

Distinct beliefs include the interpretation of "Jihad" and some Ahmadi's belief that Mirza Ahmad (the founder of the sect) was a prophet.

Slide 3-

Bhutto passed the bill in 1974, even though he resisted for a while, those non-Ahmadi Muslim who were disenchanted became more and more violent until he had to cede to their wishes.

There are currently laws against Ahmadiyya claiming to be Muslims, for them to call their places of worhship “mosques”, to use the common greeting of “Asalamu alaikum”, publicly quote the Quran or disseminate their beliefs. 

Slide 8-

Being a part of a religious group seems to play a larger part for being the categories through which one might primarily identify themselves (as compared to nationality, social class etc.)

Though general feeling towards Ahmadi remain negative in Pakistan, there is evidence of a movement towards acceptance (or at least non-discrimination/oppression).

 There is an interesting number of words that appear in Urdu that have religious meaning that is of specific importance to Islam, while at the same time there are some words with religious meaning in English that are not found in Urdu, like "cult". 

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Final Reflection Paper and Assessment

Throughout this semester I have learned important things about how I learn in general, as well as methods and balances important to the language learning process. Regarding general learning, I have found that writing down and orally repeating what I write (both while and after) helps me remember information faster. The oral aspect, I have found, has less to do with audial learning, but rather, I believe it has to do with the act of saying the word(s) and becoming familiar and comfortable with saying those words. More specifically to language learning, writing out conjugation tables or tables with the many variants of possessive and reflective pronouns has helped me understand the structure of the language. Because structure and conceptual coherency is important for my ability to understand, writing out these tables help me become familiar with the process used to determine the use of which words, when and how to manipulate them for sentences. Though listening does very little for me in regard to memorization, I have found that listening to native speakers (in person or in video) has been very helpful in my confidence while speaking; by listening to others I can begin to “feel” the flow of the language and thus produce my own sentences with less insecurity. Further, listening to my Pakistani friends throughout the semester has been a great way to assess my progress and as encouragement when I see the progress.

In regard to learning about culture, I have found that although I appreciate and enjoy learning about new cultures, the way this is most effective for me in through means like our cultural project. The cultural project did not simply ask us to find out emblematic features of the culture, but instead look at products and practices to understand cultural perspectives and their significances. I am a person who does not simply want to be told this and that are aspects of the culture; I want to see why these cultural phenomena occur so that I can more deeply enjoy and appreciate whatever new insights I gain into a culture. Besides the cultural projects, I found the articles by Crystal assigned for the second week very interesting and insightful (when one applies it to one’s own experiences with language). These articles, though perhaps a little dry, brought to mind important ways that one should look at the process of deriving and applying meaning when studying a new language. Finally, I found the articles on bilingualism very interesting. I personally would place myself somewhere in between a monolingual and a bilingual, and found it interesting to compare the information in the readings to myself and see if, how and where I might spot distinctions between myself and both monolinguals and bilinguals.

I felt that I was moderately successful in achieving the goals I set for myself this semester. As a very general goal, I wanted to establish a strong foundation for myself in Urdu. I wanted to do this in order to feel comfortable as I continue to learn Urdu informally (for the time being it seems doubtful that I can take more Urdu classes in college) because I will be able to apply the rules of the language to things that I hear (and infer the meaning of things that are different to the basic rules I have learned). Though I find that I still make mistakes quite often when speaking, I find that I can quite quickly realize the mistakes and correct myself - to me this indicates and good understanding of basic sentence structure, grammar etc., even though I definitely need to practice these basics more.

In regard to the specific goals I set for myself: 
I can give basic information about myself and family - yes. 

Use vocabulary for eating at a restaurant - yes.

Talk about my hobbies and studies/ask about others' - yes, but not in great detail.

Talk about where I grew up - pretty much none (I sort of left this when I started pursuing other goals that I did not initially set for myself)

Understand Bollywood movies better (i.e. rely on subtitles less) - I cannot say, I have not had time to re-assess myself yet. However, I have found that I can understand my friends' conversations better.

Goals I did not initially set, but ended up doing:


Tell time

learn to recognize (and occasionally use) future tense

distinguish between the variety of pronouns for each way of addressing people and myself (i.e. me, mine, to me, from me. etc.)

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Pravaas - I Can.....

I can:

greetings/farewells/introductions

Talk about my family/friends and myself, (age, nationality, etc.)

Use vocabulary when going to a restaurant

Talk about my major and my hobbies/interests

Ask for/tell time

Talk about basic daily routines (sleep at ..., eat food, go to work.... etc.)

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Learning journal week 1 - 110 Pravaas

When I wrote my learning plan I was lay between novice 0 and 1 for all the categories (or n/a because I cannot read nor write Urdu). The only reason I was able to lie a bit higher than someone who knows nothing about a language is because there are some similar vocabulary words in Nepali and Urdu (my Nepali competence overall only lies at a low intermediate level so I do not even have a very large Nepali vocabulary.)

My first goal was to introduce myself and my family, including the ability to talk about age, relationship to me (i.e. dad, older brother, etc.) and where I or someone else is from. Next, I want to be able to order food in a restaurant. I want to be able to talk about my major and talk about my interests, and finally I want to improve my ability to understand Bollywood movies. Overall, I want to learn vocabulary used commonly, verb conjugations and sentence structure to create a solid foundation for my Urdu. Having many Pakistani friends and enjoying Bollywood movies, I want to be able to add on to this foundation through informal and formal learning after this course as well.

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Learning journal week 8 - 110 Pravaas

I have been quite satisfied with the amount I have learned throughout the semester. I have definitely learned lots of important vocabulary, confident with the present tense verb conjugations (though while speaking I slip up fairly often still, due to the small differences in verb endings like the "eh" and nasal "eh"), and improvement in listening competence.
What I found most difficult with the learning process has definitely been finding a balance between learning new things at a pace where I can retain them while still making progress by adding on to those things I learned. At first I dived too fast into learning important vocabulary words but struggled with knowing how to use them in sentences. Once I began learning sentence structure and verb conjugations the vocabulary became useful, but I had to spend quite a bit of time going back over the vocabulary because I had lost much of it because I was unable to use it until I learned those other things first.

Felicia and I worked together on a learning activity. We decided to teach a few useful verbs such as walk/go to and sit down. We first went through how to pronounce the words with the class before beginning to "quiz them" on the words. Then we played Simon Says, where the class had to perform the action that the verb referred to while also saying the verb. Though Simon Says uses the imperative forms, the base of the verb remains unchanged for those words, and knowing the base is most useful when learning how to conjugate verbs in other tenses. I believe using games like Simon Says while also saying the word out loud helps quite a bit (I remember doing this in Spanish class nearly 10 years ago) because the person is challenged to quickly, confidently access their memory and act on that (that is, if they want to win the candy I was handing out!)

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a) My first artifact covered basic greetings, asking how someone is, saying my name and asking for someone else's, giving my age and asking about their age, saying it was nice to meet you and a farewell. I am happy with how my progress with pronunciation is going, though I can still hear distinctly the Nepali and American influence.

b)I do not remember exactly what I was learning during week 4, but around that time I was focusing on learning some essential verbs and their conjugations. I intended to learn verbs that were used in common conversations, common either because they are often used in sentences (to have, to be) or because they are about common topics of conversation for me (to study, to eat, to sleep). I wrote out the conjugations in verb conjugations tables and then practiced speaking with my language partner and while talking with my Pakistani friends in normal conversations. 

I find structural patterns and methods quite useful in my learning, so writing out the present tense verb conjugations helped me to remember the conjugation endings and to learn the different ways to attach those endings to the base of the verbs. Though I focused on the present tense, I did spend a little time on future and past tense. However, the rules for which past or future tenses to use in Urdu are more complicated. I did not focus on learning to actually use these tenses, but I wanted to be able to at least understand which tenses were being used when listening. Doing this has helped me quite a bit for listening comprehension. 

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Learning journal 8 - 105 Pravaas

I am not sure how many words I have learned, but I would guess somewhere around 40. However, my goals for this semester have not centered around memorizing lots of words because I already know some words that transfer over from Nepali. I have learned many words through conversation with my language partner and through the two cultural presentations. For the cultural presentations I learned words by talking with my Pakistani friends, several English-(romanized)Urdu translation/dictionary websites and in articles I used for my presentations. I have also picked up a few words from Bollywood movies, however I did not have much time to watch any movies this semester. I believe the goals I have are realistic because they include a lot of general words that are used often and in many types of situations (such as common verbs and prepositions).

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Learning journal week 2 - 110 Pravaas

Throughout my language learning process I have used mostly relied on in internet (besides my language partner) for information regarding Urdu and Pakistani culture. The websites (hamariweb, ijunoon, urduword) I posted on diigo have been very useful for my learning words and their meanings. Because they also have romanized Urdu translations, I have been able to learn words on my own despite not learning the Urdu script. On top of this, hamariweb gives several definitions of Urdu words, not just translations into English. This allows me to understand how certain Urdu words can be used in different contexts, and thus know which meaning is intended when watching Bollywood movies or listening to songs. I do not use my phone for anything more than texting, music and calling so mobile apps like mango languages are not particularly useful for me, but that is only because I rarely use my phone.

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Learning journal 9 - 105 Pravaas

Whether or not bilinguals are actually smarter or not, the cognitive differences between bilinguals and monolinguals are interesting. Without large sample sizes etc. it would be hard for me to use my personal experiences as evidence supporting these theories, but I do find that they match my experiences. Though I would not classify myself as bilingual in  regard to fluency, I have grown up hearing two languages constantly (I stopped speaking Nepali at the age of 3 when my family moved to the US for my father's last year of his master's) and I speak several languages (particularly, for both Spanish and Nepali, if I know the vocabulary necessary then I can fluidly and easily say what I am thinking). According to the articles, bilinguals have a better capacity for blocking out distractions and solving mental puzzles. I have been told, and have noticed myself, that when I begin focusing on schoolwork I become very hard to distract (even though I do get distracted easily when not intentionally focusing on something). Throughout grade school my math teachers were always telling me to show all the work I did to reach the answer to a question, but I constantly reverted back to doing large portions of the mathematics in my head because I found it easier and less time consuming than writing out all the numbers and calculations. Even in college I find that I enjoy and understand mental puzzles quite well - we do many thought experiments, formulating predicate logic etc. in philosophy, which is the concentration of my major.

Further, the articles stated that bilinguals often have reduced vocabulary in each of their languages, despite a larger total vocabulary. I find that my own English vocabulary is more limited than most native speakers despite speaking English at home and at school (and there are many words from Nepali that I use when thinking in English because I either do not know the word in English or I find that the Nepali word conveys what I want to say better). This smaller vocabulary has been evident to me from everything between my SAT scores (my reading score substantially higher than my writing score because I could infer the meanings of words in sentences, but words like those were not actually a part of my "vocabulary") to the amount of time and difficulty I face when struggling to find the word that properly conveys the meaning I intend while writing papers or even speaking in English.

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Learning journal 7 - 105 Pravaas

When languages die out there are significant losses to culture in two ways, one general and one specific. In a more general sense, language is often understood as one of the major aspects of culture. The flow, intonations, use of words, etc.all can reflect aspects important and emblematic to a culture. When a language is lost those emblematic aspects of the culture are no longer reflected, and the reflection in language can often be more than just a reflection of cultural aspects, but actually help sustain those very aspects they reflect.

In a more specific way, the loss of language means that the words and their meanings have been lost. Each culture places significance on different things, and we can find throughout cultures that there are words with meanings that do not exist in other languages. The fact that such words exist for every language is an indication of the emphasis that each culture places on whatever those words refer to. So when a language is lost, we lose another insight into the culture; the very fact that there are words for unique and nuanced cultural understandings/interpretations of life and the world.

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Learning journal 6 - 105 Pravaas

Knowing the history of India/Pakistan and the Islamic influence in the indian subcontinent has helped me learn Urdu in two major ways. First, because I already speak some Nepali, there are many words similar to the Hindi and Urdu words. Urdu developed out of the Hindi spoken in north west India, which is both geographically close to Nepal, as well as having shared roots in "classical sanskrit". At times I am able to discover the correct word for something in Urdu is quite similar or the same as in Nepali in discussion; when I do not explicitly know the word in Urdu I attempt the Nepali (or a Urdu-ized version of it) word, and many times my language partner has not realized that I did this (i.e. they just thought I already knew the word in Urdu). However, more helpfully, I am able to recognize many words that share similarities with Nepali when others are speaking.

Second, knowing how Islam influenced the north-western Hindi to transform into Urdu has been helpful particularly in regard to religious or religiously related words. For example the word for bad - "haram" and sin - "gunnah" were borrowed or derived from arabic, even though there already existed words with those meanings in Hindi. Further, because I discuss religion with my Pakistani friends often, I recognize the importance of words with specific meanings that do not exist in English as any single word. These words come about from their importance specifically for Islam, so languages like English with strong Christian backgrounds simply do not have them. For example, there are three words for pilgrimage in Urdu. First, "ziarat" is a general term for pilgrimage or a long and tiresome/wearisome time. Then "haj" refers to the annual pilgrimage to Mecca at the end of the last Muslim month, while "umra" is a shortened pilgrimage to Mecca at anytime.

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Learning journal 5 - 105 Pravaas

While watching the culture shock video I resonated the most with international students when they discussed the difference in education standards and expectations. Besides spending 5 months in an American high school, the rest of my high school experience was in the British IGCSE and A level system. This system places the emphasis on final exams and the final amount one has learned over each of the 2 year periods (IGCSE for 9th and 10th grade, A levels for 11th and 12th.) I was used to less workloads throughout the school year, as classes focused on covering the material and thus building up to the final "big picture". Then for the last few months before the final exams we would review all the material, with the whole "big picture" in mind. In the United States students are assessed more frequently on smaller portions of a syllabus, so one's progress throughout the school year is highly weighted as well.

The way I learned in the British system taught me to pay less attention to details and attempt to grasp the big picture before delving into the specifics at the end. Then at the end I would work at high intensity for a short period of time and take the final exams which accounted for my final grade. When I came to the US for college I did very poorly during the first semester because I was not used to having a more constant workload throughout the semester. I was not used to this "endurance" system where one must constantly be putting in effort. I was quite successful in the British system for the exact reason that I am able to work effectively at high intensity for shorter periods of time, but begin to feel burnt out with a more constant and long running workload (though it is meant to be less stressful that way). Since freshman year I have begun to adapt to the system used in the United States, but still find myself sliding back towards the low then high intensity way of approaching academic work. 

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Learning journal 1 - 105 Pravaas

While going through the readings two points stood out the most for me. First, the author discusses how the brain does not process each phonetic sound as individual steps, but preemptively causes the formations in the mouth to work towards pronouncing the next sound fluidly after the current sound. While learning Urdu I have found that trying to pronounce each sound individually makes it difficult to actually pronounce the word in the way it is meant to be pronounced. For the Urdu word "rubri" the second "r" is actually a different letter (just romanized the same). I found it very difficult to pronounce the word rubri correctly when attempting to individually pronounce that second "r". However, when I attempted to imitate the flow of the whole word I found it easier to pronounce the second "r".
Second, the readings discussed multiple meanings for a single word. There are many examples of this in Urdu, but one of the most important for my comprehension of Urdu was the meaning of the word "kal". "Kal" both refers to yesterday or tomorrow, and one must pay attention to the conjugation of verbs and context to infer whether kal is referring to something in the past or future. 

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SDLC 111: Artifact 4 Korean Song

koreansong.mp4

Even If I Die, I Can’t Let You Go

Hangul

어려도 아픈 건 똑같아
세상을 잘 모른다고 아픈걸 모르진 않아

괜찮아 질 거라고 왜 거짓말을 해
이렇게 아픈 가슴이 어떻게 쉽게 낫겠어
너 없이 어떻게 살겠어 그래서 난

죽어도 못 보내 내가 어떻게 널 보내
가려거든 떠나려거든 내 가슴 고쳐내
아프지 않게 나 살아갈 수 라도 있게
안 된다면 어차피 못살 거
죽어도 못 보내

아무리 니가 날 밀쳐도 끝까지 붙잡을 거야
어디도 가지 못하게

정말 갈 거라면 거짓말을 해
내일 다시 만나자고 웃으면서 보자고
헤어지잔 말은 농담이라고 아니면 난

죽어도 못 보내 내가 어떻게 널 보내
가려거든 떠나려거든 내 가슴 고쳐내
아프지 않게 나 살아갈 수 라도 있게
안 된다면 어차피 못살 거
죽어도 못 보내

그 많은 시간을 함께 겪었는데
이제와 어떻게 혼자 살란 거야
그렇겐 못해 난 못해

죽어도 못 보내 정말로 못 보내 내가 어떻게 널 보내
가려거든 떠나려거든 내 가슴 고쳐내
아프지 않게 나 살아갈 수 라도 있게
안 된다면 어차피 못살 거
죽어도 못 보내

Romanization

Eoryeodo apeun geon ttok gata
Sesangeul jal moreundago apeungeol moreujin anha

Gwaenchana jil georago wae geojitmareul hae
Ireohke apeun gaseumi eotteohke shwipge natgesseo
Neo eobshi eotteohke salgesseo geuraeseo nan

Jugeodo mot bonae naega eotteohke neol bonae
Garyeo geodeun tteonaryeo geodeun nae gaseum gochyeo nae
Apeuji anhke na saragal surado itge
Andwindamyeon eochapi ussal geo
Jugeodo mot bonae

Amuri niga nal milchyeodo kkeutkkaji butjabeul geoya
Eodido gaji mothage

Jeongmal gal georamyeon geojitmareul hae
Naeil dashi manna jago useu myeonseo bojago
He eojijan mareul nong damirago animyeon nan

Jugeodo mot bonae naega eotteohke neol bonae
Garyeo geodeun tteonaryeo geodeun nae gaseum gochyeo nae
Apeuji anhke na saragal surado itge
Andwindamyeon eochapi ussal geo
Jugeodo mot bonae

Geu manheun shiganeul hamkke gyeokkeot neunde
Ijewa eotteohke honja sallan geoya
Geureohken mothae nan mothae

Jugeodo mot bonae, jeong mallo mot bonae, naega eotteohke neol bonae
Garyeo geodeun tteonaryeo geodeun nae gaseum gochyeo nae
Apeuji anhke na saragal surado itge
Andwin damyeon eochapi mossal geo
Jugeodo mot bonae

Translation

Even though I’m young, the pain is the same
Just because I don’t know the world very well
Doesn’t mean that I don’t know pain

Why do you lie, saying it’ll be okay?
How will my heart, that hurts this much
Be healed so easily?
How will I live without you?
That’s why I

Can’t let you go, even if I die
How am I suppose to let you go?
Whether you go or leave, fix my heart
If you can’t fix it, so that I won’t be in pain
So that I can at least live
I wouldn’t be able to live anyway
I can’t let you go, even if I die

No matter how much you push me away
I’ll hold onto you until the end
So that you won’t be able to go anywhere

If you’re really going to leave, then lie
That we should meet again tomorrow
That we should meet as we smile
If breaking up wasn’t a joke, then I

Can’t let you go, even if I die
How am I suppose to let you go?
Whether you go or leave, fix my heart
If you can’t fix it, so that I won’t be in pain
So that I can at least live
I wouldn’t be able to live anyway
I can’t let you go, even if I die

We went through so much time together
How are you telling me to live by myself now?
I can’t do that, I can’t

I can’t let you go, even if I die
I really can’t let you go
How am I suppose to let you go?
I can’t let you go
Whether you go or leave, fix my heart
If you can’t fix it, so that I won’t be in pain
So that I can at least live
I wouldn’t be able to live anyway
I can’t let you go, even if I die

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