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SDLAP 105 Entry #4

SDLAP 105 Entry #4

Presentations Last Week:

I thought Pooja’s focus on the Hindi tradition of touching feet as a sign of respect was particularly interesting for two reasons. First, in the Chinese/Laotian/Malaysian cultural household I’ve grown up in, the feet are considered dirty. Setting one’s foot on an eating surface or at an individual’s head level is considered extraordinarily rude. The foot has a connection with the dirty ground, bacteria, and overall poor sanitary conditions. To touch or kiss another’s feet would be considered not as a sign of respect, but one that signifies either humiliation or the imposition of power over another. So when heard Pooja’s presentation of touching feet as one of the highest signs of respect and exaltation, I was intrigued. Second, this drastically different cultural practiced led me to think about greetings in Bosnia. I recently learned that Bosnians engage in 2-3 cheek touches/kisses to greet one another. In contrast to a comparatively conservative Asian culture, I found this very interesting. While Bosnians are considered social, they are also considered sexually and socially conservative. They tend to trust only close friends and family and have a very conservative attitude towards sexual practices, especially foreplay and the romance involved. But they kiss! Interestingly, mainstream Americans seem to possess opposite traits: socially and sexually liberal. Perhaps this is why Americans find kissing or cheek touching inappropriate or uncomfortable? Precisely because kissing is sexually or romantically connected whereas in Bosnian culture sex is quite literally and exclusively, sex (I’ve yet to see BCS movie sex scenes, but this is the impression given to me by my language partner)?

How many new words have you learned? Do you have realistic goals?

I’ve probably learned between 500 and 700 words. I would really love to double or triple this count by the time the semester is up. Some might consider my goals too high. I acknowledge the dangers of doing so. One might feel disappointed or underestimate one’s accomplishments. One might even overestimate one’s accomplishments in an effort to “save face” and meet those goals.

For me however, it is precisely these high-bar goals that keep me motivated. The prospect of reading, writing, and speaking fluently in the target language is really exciting. To keep medium and long range goals in sight, for me, is incredibly important. If anything, friends and mentors should encourage or help you understand how “realistic” goals are by helping you verbalize, quantify, or conceptualize exactly what it is going to take to reach that place you want to be. Having knowledgeable, pragmatic, yet supportive and encouraging friends and mentors have been incredibly important to my progress thus far. They’ve either lifted me in times of doubt, or motivated me with their pessimism! To believe that it is possible to read a novella by the end of the semester, realistic or not provides me with an opportunity to plan steps that, at the very least, provides a chance that the goal might be reached.

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SDLAP 110 Entry #5

SDLAP 110 Entry #5

Goal for the Week:

Learn 50 Vocab Words

Begin to learn Noun Cases

Result:

Learned ~50 Vocab Words

Learned two of seven noun cases (nominative and genitive)

Method:

For the next couple weeks, my language partner and I decided to meet three times per week for longer periods of time. This would give her more time to prepare lessons for noun cases, apparently the most challenging grammatical aspect of BCS. It should also allow me much needed time to review, practice, consolidate, and master the material I’ve learned. After noun cases, I’ll likely request a week of “midterm” exams where my partner will test me for a week on all the material we’ve covered so far before moving on to anything new. I think this midterm period will give me a perfect opportunity to complete a few artifacts and cultural postings as well.

 

I now officially have a Bosnian penpal! Though I have to use my dictionary extensively, my grammar is terrible, and letters are going to take a very long time to compose, I am very excited.

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Learning Plan

This will be a combined reflection for week four and five (as we talked about).

Week 4 post:

My goals for these two weeks are to learn 40 new vocabulary words, the numbers, family members, and also to identify a few words in the ever so popular song "Gangnam Style" to get a sense of what the song is actually about. I plan on watching more youtube videos that help with these topics and also to listen to the song repeatedly. At the end of week 5, I will evaluate my success by testing myself to see how many words I actually remember. I will also create a worksheet for myself with pictures of family members such as mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, and etc to see if I can write the words in English letters how it is sounded. I will also test myself to see if I can count from 1-10 out loud. As for the song, I will listen to it once more and write down as many words I can identify.

Week 5 post:

I've mostly been using the online book under resources to learn new vocabulary, numbers, and family members. Also, I watched many different youtube videos that helped with pronunciation of the new words/phrases I've been teaching myself. I met with my new language partner for two hours today and she helped ALOT with this week's learning. She was able to re-explain the alphabet system to me and even went over my introduction with me to check my process. Then we discussed the formal/informal aspect of the language and went on to learn the numbers and family members. Because it was our first time meeting, we made sure that everything was clear and she answered any question I had and helped me understand everything better. I learned that the number system is a little complicated because there's a different way for counting and for telling age. I now know how to count from 1-10. I reached majority of my goals for these two weeks because I successfully learned 40 new vocabulary including the numbers and family members. I was not able to complete the last part of my goal about the song but this will be done with my next week's goal. 

Artifact evaluation:

I think my first artifact was a success. I was able to record myself using Voki which was a fun process. Before I recorded it, my language partner listened me for the linguistic accuracy. In the beginning I had trouble pronouncing words with the letter "L" in it because it's a much softer sound than how it is said in the English language. With practice, I was able to say it the correct way. In my introduction, I said the basic facts of my name, age, origin, what school I attend, and my major. In addition, I added fun facts like my favorite color and food. I ended the introduction with a "it's very nice to meet you". Everything was spoken in the formal language. 

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SDLAP 110 Language Partner Meeting #2

Language Partner Meeting #2

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 9/17/12 – 9/23/12

Date: September 22, 2012

Goal for the day: Get familiar with the Hindi alphabets and use them to learn days of the week and numbers

My meeting with Sanya started with writing and pronouncing the Hindi alphabet. We orally went over the vowels, consonants and matras multiple times. This form of repetition helped me get comfortable with pronunciation of letters and it also helped me remember the letters.  As we continued on with this for about fifteen minutes, Sanya helped me put vowels and consonants with matras in order to form proper words.  

Doing so directly led us to Hindi vocabulary. Hindi language is based on phonetics. Sanya recited numerous words for me, to evaluate if I could recall Hindi. I was surprised at how much I remembered. After we established this, I started spelling the basic words in Hindi. I spelled nineteen words.

After this we moved on to days of the week. First Sanya introduced me to the words and I found them closely related with Gujarati. I tired spelling these words on my own and I succeeded with the exception of a few words.

Then we moved on to numbers. The numbers in Hindi are written differently than the English numbers.  I learned how to write them first followed by spelling them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this session. I was able to focus on the alphabet and yet simultaneously learn days of the week and the Hindi numbers.

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Assessing Level of Competence and Lesson Plan

Assessing myself did not take very long, because it made me realize how much I do NOT know.   As of right now I am a Low Novice in all of the categories.   My goal for this semester is to increase my abilities in Listening and Speaking.  I would like to be a Mid Novice - High Novice at the end of this semester. Shir and I are working on getting a taste of a variety of topics and now we are starting to work on becoming familiar with particular basic subjects.  Next semester I would like to work on my reading comprehension and writing.   

  Lesson Plan:   At the beginning of this semester I had virtually no vocabulary other than the basic hello and goodbye. My lesson is as follows:

    1.  Learn about Food:   how to order food, how to make food, cooking in Hebrew, how to buy ingredients, and about Israeli foods (goal:  Make Shakshuka with Shir, Amit and Alex).

    2.  Learn about Nature:  How to talk about the weather, the woods, learn my colors, learn names of animals,  (Bonus: talk about camping in Hebrew).  Culture:  Learn more about the importance of water and learn Israeli conservation methods for water.

    3.  Misc:  Learn Hebrew cursive script, become proficient at reading Hebrew script and recognizing vocabulary words.  Be able to conjugate a verb for I, you (m) and you (f).   

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Summary of Week 4

This week my language partner and I met and we talked about our weekend, what we did, and what we are going to do.  This brought me to learning the days of the week, the months, and how ask someone their birthday.  My Homework was to talk to Alex and Amit and ask them for their birthdays.   This led to a funny conversation between us, where I did not ask them when their birthday was, but "What is your birth?"   I am still learning to pronounce my words correctly, but I am definitely progressing in my ability to speak and my vocabulary.   If someone asks me a question in Hebrew, I can usually answer it.   I am also starting to grasp the difference between male and female verb tenses.  

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Goal: Master telling time and incorporating numbers 11-12 for this purpose


This week, my language partners and I met twice. We focused heavily on understanding time in Gujarati. 

This week I focused heavily on telling time. Gujarat and greater India operate as a polychronic society.  To a polychron, time is continuous, with no particular structure. Polychrons see time as a never-ending river, flowing from the infinite past, through the present, into the infinite future.  Although this is very true, I figured that time is still an important aspect, as people do ask each other for the time during the work day. So I learned that (Ketla Vagya Che) means wha time is it? I respond with # vagya che. So if it is 2pm then I say, be vagya che.

These were the most important aspect of my learning process this week.

Numbers:  (1-12)

1: ek

2. be

3. thrun

4. charr

5. pach

6. cho

7. sathh

8. at

9. now

10. das

11. ugyar

12. byar

and phrases of course: I had to incorporate half, quarter, and three quarters time
sadah: 1/2

suhva: 1/4

pona: 3/4

Gujarati differs from English time in that there are two exceptions

thord: 1:30

uhdhi: 2:30

Pooja drew up a large clock for me. So I have been practicing on the clock.

When I incorporate the additional phrases, I add only one component, the phrase at the beginning.

For example:

It is 3:30, Sadah thrun vagya che

It is 1:30: Thord vagya che

It is 7:45: Pona sathh vagya che

This was an incredible learning experience this week. Time is so essential and can be a great conversation starter. I'm eager to learn it to the point where I don't have to look at a clock and think about it.

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This week, I researched the culture of Iran and how it made sense with the linguistic aspects of the Persian language I had determined last week. It made sense to me how intertwined the two were. 

For example, I determined that Iranian culture was collectivist and family-oriented, which was reflected in the language's many words for family members. This week, I learned about how important family really is in Iranian culture. For example, grandparents in Iranian society are not sent to nursing homes but are taken care of by their children. Family is the basis of the social structure in Iran and nepotism is widely practiced -- it is seen as being able to hire people who are trusted and not strangers. Family loyalty is very strong in Iran. 

Iranian society is quite polychronic. There is always an abundance of time. For example, when people meet on the street in Iran, they will stop to chat for as long as they like -- there is no rush to be anywhere. Trust is necessary in Iranian culture, so taking the time to get to know someone well is vital, and looking hurried or being concerned about wasting time can make one look untrustworthy. 

Respect is also very important in Iranian culture, reflected in having the second-person formal pronoun in the language. One must always remove his or her shoes when entering a place of worship (typically a mosque) or someone's home. 

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SDLC: 105 Journal 3

Food is very important to Israeli culture.   Because Israeli culture is a mixture of eastern and western cultures, many "israeli" foods are actually the same as other Mediterranean countries.  In addition, some of the most well-known "Israeli" foods are actually foods customary for Jewish holidays such as: Latkes, Matzah Ball Soup and Hamatashin.  

       The strong integration between customary Jewish foods and Israeli food can be seen in the end of the following video.  The Israeli is trying to explain why Jelly Donuts are special to Jews and he mixes up all of the various special Jewish events trying to tell the story of Jelly Donuts (which, are customary in Israeli during Hannukah, the festival of Lights).  I remember at the end of EVERY holiday service or special event at synagogue we would say "They tried to kill us, they didn't, now let's eat!".   To me this symbolizes that no matter what happens, Israelis and Jews always think with their stomach :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoILVn43Lnw

     A customary dish to make with friends in Israel is Shakshookah.   This dish is a breakfast dish and "is not mean to be bought at a store, but to be experienced and made with friends." said my Israeli tour guide, Nadav.   The dish itself is not the most amazing, but it is the experience of making it with friends that makes this food so important to Israeli culture.  The experience of cooking together brings people together.    

The following link gives some amazing recipes to some of these dishes.  

http://www.foodbycountry.com/Germany-to-Japan/Israel.html#b

This link is great,  even though the lady is not home making Shakshookah, it gives some insight as in to how it is made and a little bit about eating in Israel.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGFaAvv69PY

   A major difference from American culture when talking about food, is that Breakfast and Lunch are the most important meals of the day.  Dinner is customarily a small meal and consists of hummus and a vegetable salad.   

     The following link is about making Israeli Salad:

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

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Summary of Week 3

This week Shir and I met at dhall and then went for a walk around the lake.   We talked about the various types of foods that we were eating, what we had for breakfast that morning, and a little bit about buying food.   We also talked about the colors of trees and of nature around us.   During our conversation I was able to master a few of my colors, certain vegetables and some vocabulary about nature and use them in a multitude of sentences.  I truly have seen a real increase in my vocabulary every time we meet. 

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SDLC 105 Journal Entry #3

One of the most primary gestures of the Indian culture is saying Namaste, also referred to as, namaskar. To say Namaste: place your hands together, raise them up to your chest and bow your head. Namaste is a gesture used to greet everyone, the people you know and the people you don’t know. This gesture is also used while praying in Hinduism. The Hindu religion is closely related to the Indian culture. Saying Namaste requires no physical contact with others. Namaste is used both to greet someone and to say goodbye; it means “hello” and “good day”.

Another very important Indian gesture is touching elders’ feet. Like Namaste, this idea is derived from Hinduism as well. Gods and Goddess are thought to reside in elders and, therefore, touching elders’ feet is like touch Gods’ and Goddess’ feet. In the act of doing so, one is paying respect to an elder and asking for their blessings. Whose feet do you really touch? Usually people touch the feet of saints and elders: grandparents, parents, uncles, and aunts. Sometimes people also touch their older siblings’ feet. The idea of touching elders’ feet, especially your older siblings, proves how vital respect is to the Indian culture. When do you touch elders’ feet? People touch elders’ feet on special occasions such as, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, long-term leave from home, the Indian New Year etc.

Indian culture is a result of the combination of the Hindi language and Hinduism. Indian culture, as a whole, is more collective and much more polychornic. Family is plays a pivotal role in an individual’s life. There is always time for family, one can never be “too busy” to spend time with his/her family. Family and family’s honor comes before all. This notion largely affects the linguistic aspects of the Hindi. 

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SDLAP 110 Entry #4

Goal for the Week:

Learn 50 Vocab Words

Learn Past Tense

Learn To Tell Time

Result:

Learned ~90 Vocab Words

Learned to Tell Time

Learned Past Tense

Learned Future Tense

Learned Commands

Learned Ordinal Numbers

Learned a Couple of lines from the song “Eh Draga Draga”

Watched Gori Vatra

Method:

Most of the vocabulary was learned on my own and will need to be drilled with my language partner next week. This last week’s session was focused on recognizing and speaking in the past and future tenses. We also went over commands. Next week’s sessions will drill these skills, build vocabulary, and begin noun cases!

I’ve decided to try and start memorizing songs for fun in large part because Jamaica and Dr. Grove have shown such enthusiasm towards music as language-learning medium. Though I was skeptical at first, it’s been quite fun!

The movie was a dark, satirical comedy. I had trouble with remembering “house”, but the movie said that, and dropped the f-bombs so many times that I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. The movie got me thinking a lot about how misunderstood, yet good-willed and humorous the Bosnian people are despite their heavy trials, tribulations, limited resources, and really unfortunate turn of events they’ve been through. They seek to present themselves and their people in the best possible light.

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SDLAP 105 Entry #3

The evidence for my “research” here has been compiled from my experience with Bosnian international students, Bosnian films, and an interview with a Bosnian Serb from Trebinje. For fun, I decided to guess at whether or not Bosnians tended to be more individualist/collectivist, monochronic/polychromic, internal forces/external forces determine destiny, and direct/indirect communication before the interview. I am pleased to report that my hunches were all correct.

Individualist vs. Collectivist

Bosnians place extraordinary importance on the family and the value of friendship and teamwork. One of the very first things my mentor told me was that family was very, very, very important to Bosnians. The “why” question is harder to answer. While this is just a guess from what I’ve learned and observed, family is the one guaranteed trustworthy and safe environment there is. In a country destroyed by war, by their own countrymen, by neighbors, and by external forces, it is no wonder there is a fundamental distrust towards individuals outside the family unit. While this can limit meaningful interactions with the outside world, the love that is displayed within Bosnian families I’ve interacted with and spoken to is unlike familial relationships I’ve seen anywhere else. They tend to be highly passionate, emotional, and loyal talking about one another and in action towards one another. There is also a fierce care and defensiveness towards family members. I’ve never heard serious complaints about Bosnian family members without at least two positive comments to follow up. There seems to be sacred bonds within the Bosnian family.

This collectivist mentality is also on display in team-oriented projects. Two Bosnian friends of mine in fact, had a quarrel about an incident during a business activity. Individual A decided that the group was slacking, and that victory could only be achieved if they took charge for their perceivably incompetent and apathetic members. Individual B was taken aback by such behavior and was appalled that Individual A would do such a thing. For Individual B, you must bring the group up and include the group in all major decisions before engaging in activities. To leave the group and do one’s own thing was seen as selfish.

Monochronic v. Polychronic

Bosnians appreciate timeliness. In my experience, if you ask a Bosnian to meet at five o’clock, you will meet them at five o’clock.

Internal Forces v. External Forces

From my observations, knowing the religiosity and reasoning behind events that either end favorably or unfavorably, Bosnians believe that fortune, luck, and God play the largest role in determining one’s destiny. In the movies I watched especially, one can pick up on the sardonic “damnit this sucks” and that’s it humor. It’s a hysterical form of dark, fatalist humor. To give a more graphic and crude example, Americans will say “fuck, I suck”, or something to that effect. They blame and get angry at themselves as if they’re in control of circumstances. When something goes wrong, a Bosnian will likely say something to the effect of “I might as well let a duck fuck me”. In contrast to the other phrase, this phrase shows that the individual has done all they can, yet fate has decided to be unfavorable towards them. It’s as if nothing they do can make a difference. Americans in sum, will say I deserve this for better or worse. Bosnians are more likely to thank or surrender to higher powers, “i to je to”, and that’s that.

Direct Communication v. Indirect Communication

Bosnians can be incredibly intense in your face people. They are very direct and passionate in conversation. Small talk does not make them more comfortable. In fact, small talk makes them more uncomfortable. They want to deal with issues, especially emotional and social ones, as quickly as possible so that everyone can embrace, increase their understanding, and move on with their lives together in war or peace.

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Goal: Master immediate family members


This week, I meet with my language partners twice. We intensely covered family members. One partner drew up the family tree for me and the other orally went over pronunciation.  I'll admit, this was a difficult task to master, as in the western language, for example, all aunts are aunts. In the Gujarati language, there are four different aunts! Mom's sister (masi), mom's brother's wife (mami), dad's sister (foi), and dad's brother's wife (kaki).  This was the same for uncles, and grandparents. During the week, I was finally able to master these by making a digital album of my immediate family members on my laptop and pointing to them, and instead of calling them by their names (John), or English designation (uncle), I called them their specific Gujarati familial designation. This was extremely helpful and effective.

In addition to working on family members, we talked about culture in Gujarat. We talked mostly about the impact on women from arranged marriage, to how women and men are treated differently. I was really interested in this aspect since both of my language partners are women. As a transgender guy, I am intrigued to know that I would experience culture differently had I grown up in Gujarat where Pooja grew up. Here in the US, I was able to be myself, with few limitations from society. I most definitely wouldn't be pressured to marry anyone that I don't want. I am eager to understand more of the traditions of Gujarat such as dowries and the inner-workings of families, such as the fact that when a woman is married, she moves into the home of her husband's family and takes care of them. There are just a few examples of the rich cultural differences. This week was an exciting week and I am eager to learn more.

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Summary of Week 2

My language partner and I met twice last week.   During our first meeting, we explored the use of Hebrew children's songs.  To do this, we went to Youtube and in Hebrew wrote in names of various songs.  This was an adventure because the Israeli keyboard is very different from the English keyboard.   Additionally, we wrote out verbs on the board and began to initially conjugate the verbs for the various pronouns in the Hebrew Language.  The more I review the conjugations and speak the conjugations, the better I will become.  

Also last week, my language partner and I met at Mozaic's at had lunch together.  Here we talked about the food on the menu and the weather.    We are still working on the various vocabulary, but I was feeling more confident using my sentence structure this week. 

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