During these two weeks my work focused heavily around medium-length sentences. My language partner would tell me sentences, after which I: wrote the sentences, said them and then translated them back into English. This task was rather effective as it incorporated the following skills: listening comprehension, writing and pronunciation. While I did feel more confident in my abilities heading into weeks three and four, I still had some trouble with certain aspects of the task my language partner had assigned. For instance, I noticed that my pronunciation, when working with new words, was a little different and could use improvement. Also, it occasionally took several attempts to feel really comfortable with my work. Likewise, I also had some trouble with properly writing all of the sentences that I had heard. Hopefully, as I continue working into other weeks , I may be able to write and type short paragraphs a lot more proficiently than I had in weeks three and four; of course, achieving this will require some extra practice.
All Posts (32)
Sort by
I was most interested in the wide variety of topics brought to the table during the presentations last week. The exclusivity of the French dictionary, the quality of consumer goods from Korea, and - my favorite - communal teeth brushing in Korea were all new concepts to me that I would not have known without the insights of our classmates.
One overall theme that struck me during the presentations was the value of consumerism and materialism in Korea. In both presentations on Korean culture, this idea was brought to the forefront in the emphasis on looking one's best at all times and the Korean government's requirement that all stores accept credit cards. I also thought it was interesting that these two presentations resulted in a discussion of the high rate of plastic surgeries done in Korea. I found this especially perplexing because, although my half-Korean step sister had plastic surgery while in Korea, neither she nor the rest of my Korean family seem overly involved in their appearance or material things. I also wondered during Nuan-nuan's presentation whether her description of Korean women "always wanting to look their best while walking down the street" was really all that different from the norm in the US. She mentioned that Korean women look at themselves in the shop windows as they pass by - something that I see all the time in malls in America!
I also enjoyed Wyatt's description of the French tendency to protect and extol their own culture and language because it is something I witnessed while in France. Not only does this play out in the uniquely French nature of their food, art, etc., but I think it also plays a role in the stereotype that the French don't like American tourists and have had trouble accepting immigrants into French culture. I have heard that it is very difficult for immigrants to assimilate into French culture because they are always stigmatized as distinctly non-French, a phenomenon that is eerily similar to Wyatt's description of the council that chooses which foreign words may be accepted into the French dictionary.
Korean grammar is known to be pretty complex. One of the largest differences that I have noticed so far includes how the verb comes at the very of the sentence in Korean when in English it simply follows a noun. Due to this difference, it’s important to listen critically because the tense of the sentence depends on the ending verb. Also, there are many particles used in Korean. There are a total of 20 particles that are attached to words in order to convey the role of the words in a sentence.
I plan to learn more about grammar but first using resources such as Mango and then discussing with my language partner. I like using Rosetta Stone however it simply teaches vocabulary with less emphasis on grammar. I think if I focus on reading and writing, I will be able to perfect Korean grammar. Reference grammar would definitely be useful because it would outline the general structure of a sentence. Keeping this outline in mind would help conceptualize everything.
Manners in a Pakistani Family:
Most people are very collectivist in Pakistani culture. The families very dependent on each other and spend lots of time together. The male attitudes toward female are very different than the West. For instance, the female should obey the male most of the time. They had different rules in the family as well. For instance, the girls are expected to work around the house and do the chores most of the time. They do the cooking in the house and even need to serve the food to their brothers and fathers. The boys are expected to work mostly outside . For example, do the grocery shopping. They need to spend most of the time together while they are in the house. I have found this amazing that expanded my knowledge about the manners of families in Pakistan. I also found the same article in Urdu which i read and it was helpful to the skills of my Urdu language.
This article is about attitudes and families. It was very interesting and thought to share it.
For my Week 4 and 5 tasks about transportation, there are many different language structures that I will need to learn in order to successfully ask for directions, hail a taxi, describe a location, etc.
The first is word order in statements and questions. I know that in Hindi, statements follow a subject-object-verb order. I am unsure about questions, although I know that the question word always begins the sentence. For this, I have been using online Hindi grammar sites and hope to use the grammar reference book in the Global Studio when it is available.
Second, I will need to remember to pluralize sentences when talking about quantities of money, kilometers, etc. Hindi is different than English in that verbs and adjectives must be pluralized when talking about multiple things. I know that this usually means ending each word in "eh", but for exceptions I will need to look them up online or in the reference book. This will be important when I am trying to describe the place I need to go, as addresses and street names are used less often.
Eventually, I will need to learn the prefixes and suffixes involved in changing verb tense. I remember that verb stems generally stay the same in Hindi while new syllables are added to them to change the tense of the verb. It may be important to become familiar with these changes in order to understand the answers given to me in a conversation, even if I can't use them fluently myself.
I think understanding grammar rules will be essential for me to remember phrases and words. I don't have the best memory for vocabulary, so I prefer to know the grammar rules involved in a phrase so I can reconstruct the sentence during a conversation - or deconstruct a phrase that I hear and deduce its meaning.
One difference between english and french is the use of masculine and feminine nouns. In french, every noun has a gender and must be learned this way. Along with this, the adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in gender. Another difference is the endings of verbs for different persons. In english, I run, you run, we run, they all run. In french, cours, cours, courons, courent. These are the most basic grammatical differences between french and english, but since I know spanish fairly well I won’t have much difficulty in picking up on these differences.
I plan on continuing to learn more and more vocabulary and phrases in french and hope that I have the grammar knowledge I need to understand and construct the language. I’ve been using Duolingo, which has grammar notes along with all of the lessons which I have been using as I go along to get a better grasp on the specifics of the language. I don’t think I will need to use a reference grammar for my learning, simply because the grammar differences are slight and few.
My goals for Weeks 4 and 5 are to be able to construct a basic conversation about transportation in Hindi. To do this, I hope to learn key questions and answers about directions, place names or descriptions, bus/train numbers, and verbs about travel. I plan to look on Byki and Mango to find vocabulary and phrase lists of travel vocabulary, then also construct my own list of possible phrases by looking up words on Hindi dictionary sites, then checking them with my language partner.
For questions, I would like to know how to say:
How can I get to ___?
Where is ___?
Should I take a train/bus/auto?
Can you take me to ___?
How much does it cost to go to ___?
How far is ___?
I will also most likely need to know a few descriptor phrases to describe the places I am trying to go to:
Near ___
Next to ___
On ___ road
In ___ city/neighborhood/area
Restaurant, school, hotel, park
I will also need to be able to understand the answers to these questions:
Take ___ bus/train/auto
It is ___ miles away
It costs ___ rupees
To track my progress, I plan to have conversations with my language parter each time we meet to practice asking her directions and listening for her answers. My artifact will probably be an audio recording of a pretend conversation asking for directions and listing potential answers.
1. Purpose
- Learn Korean and Korean Cultures and eventually travel to Korean.
2. Learning Style:
a. Memorization
b. Conversation activities
c. Writing
3. Learning materials
a. Korean Drama: It's Okay, That's Love
b. Mango
c. Bigbang Music/Lyrics
d. Korean Online Menus, shopping websites etc
4. Class Structure:
a. Video- choose 5 mins scenes in drama and learn the daily conversation
b.Vocabulary and Dialogue
c. Q&A
i. Cultural Questions
ii. General Korean-related Questions
5. Goal
a. Hold a basic daily conversation
b. Able to writing some simple words and sentences.
6. Study Calendar
Greeting and Farewell (week 3)
Classroom Survival (week 4)
Introduction (week 5)
Number and currency (week 6)
Date and time (week 7)
Discuss the weather (week 9)
Ask for direction (week 10)
Dining and ordering food (week 11)
Shopping dialogue and review number vocabulary (week 12-13)
Working on artifact (week 14)
Written vowel and consonants and review greeting written Korean(week 15)
Written double vowel and double consonants (week 16)
Working on basic character (week 17-18)
Over the last few years - in part due to taking SDLC 105, 110 and 111 - I have exposed myself to many different parts of Pakistan culture. In past years I have focused on the role of media,wedding and education and city/urban lives in the country. That said, this year I wanted to learn a little more about cultural attitudes in the family, politics, and roles of women. Learning about all these in different cultures is always an interesting thing as each often has its mix of unique ones and others that are played throughout the world. I also want to examine how is the security situations and the government and the opposition groups such as Taliban.
I will also write about topics related to Pakistan and its culture.
Week 1
- Work on the learning plan with my language partner
- Finalize my learning plan
Week 2
- Review the stuff or learning from last semester for the refreshment
- Greetings and introducing myself
- Cultural conversation with my language partner
Week 3
- More revision on the last semester’s material
- Conversation about transportation
- Asking for directions
- Numbers 1-10 for buses, roads, costs, etc.
Week 4
- Work on family/extended family conversation
- Learn family related vocabulary and construct short sentences related to family
Family vocabulary
Ask about others’ families
- Role play conversation about family using phrases and vocabulary I have learned
Week 5
- Begin learning to talk about an itinerary or class/work schedule
◦ Learn the days of the week and how to tell time
◦ Begin learning past and future tenses
Week 6
- Start learning about countries
- Direction/ locations
- Travels
Week 7
- Improve my writing skills
- Quiz on writing
- Write a page about myself and daily activities
Week 8
- Learn how to explain my career plans
- Where do I want to work
- My plans for the future
- Future tense
Week 9
- Interview questions on jobs
- Role play and practice
- Learn the specific words needed for the conversation
Week 10
- Reading comprehension
- Read very short story
- Work with my language partner
Week 11
- Food/ vocabulary/ sentences/ questions
- Go to a store with my language partner
- Practice talking buying food/ colors
Week 12
- Music/ vocabulary/ sentences/ questions
- Listen to music videos
- Reflections – practice talking about music with my language partner
Week 13:
- House – General talks/ questions and answers about furniture’s/ colors/kitchen
- Materials
Week 14
- Revision on half of what we did throughout the semester
Week 15
- Revision on the other half and preparation for my evaluations.
In the past two weeks, i basically had a general review for what i have done through out the semester to just make sure that i have learned them well and didnt forget anything already. I worked with my language partner through some questions that i had and some reviews such as prepositions. In addition, my language partner had sent some great videos for pronunciation which found them very helpful. I have listened to three short videos several times to get the great pronunciation and conversation. It was very helpful both for my listening and pronunciation. I really wish we had more Urdu resources in global studio such as short stories books and professional video lessons. :)
Additionally, i have listened to these Urdu Lessons. They are great and very helpful to the learn Urdu. Here is the link .
One thing that I found out about French people concerning body language is the frequency that people smile. I think it is more true in Paris, but French people are less likely to smile if they don’t actually mean it. They’re not being rude, they’re just being real, but it might come off to tourists as being unfriendly. People in positions of customer service (cashiers, secretaries, receptionists) who would typically be friendly to most people in the US, would not make as much of an effort to smile in France. This is important to know so that you don’t feel as though these people are being unfriendly, and so you can realize that getting smiles out of people is more valuable.
French culture is also much slower-paced than life is in the US. Whereas in the US we live in a more monochronic environment, the French have more polychronic tendencies. For example, meals tend to be longer in France, with less of a focus on fitting your meals around the rest of your schedule, but rather enjoying them as part of your daily routine. Children at school often have a much longer break for lunch during the day then we do in the US. This completely changes the values that people have for time—both how it is spent and how it is wasted.
According to a resource from Depauw University, there is a contrast in Indian culture between the tendency to ask many personal questions (which may be seen as offensive in the US) and the offensiveness of some gestures in India (which may not be offensive at all in the US). For instance, I recall in India that it was very common and even polite for strangers to ask many personal questions at the beginning of a conversation, like whether I am married, what my father does for a living, and how much money my family has. These things are usually not offensive, but there are gestures, such as those of affection or disrespect, that are very offensive in Indian culture that we may not realize. For instance, pointing the soles of your feet to someone is seen as a major sign of disrespect. And in some areas, a woman shaking a man's hand as an introduction may be seen as too forward. It can also be seen as rude not to gesture in some situations, like when greeting an elder or a respected person with a namaste and folding your hands in front of your chest.
The article also explained some interesting gestures that are unique to Indian culture, such as one imitating a woman's bangle around your wrist, signifying that someone else is unmanly or a coward. Another is a gesture of thrusting your hands forward, signifying suicide by jumping off a cliff when you feel embarrassed. I also remember a gesture that signifies being sorry when you bump someone on their shoulder or knee. When this happens, Indians often touch (or nearly touch) the area of the other person that they touched by mistake, then touch the top of their own head, signifying that the part of the other person's body is above or better than even the very top of their own head. Contrastingly, kneeling down to touch someone's feet is a high honor, and we would often do this when greeting the grandparents of our host family.
Another aspect of Indian culture that comes through in language is masculinity. Every noun and adjective has a gender, and the dominance of male words in the language shows how men have historically dominated the social aspects of Indian culture.
The general reviews and practices of this week.
After reading the article regarding time and communication, as well as doing some research, I came to the conclusion that Korean culture exhibits a polychronic, collectivist culture that focuses a lot on direct communication. I believe that the Korean culture is polychronic because I found that there is a non-spoken rule that as long as you are no more than 30 minutes late, the other party will not mind/ be offended. This shows that Korean people do not value their time as much as a culture that provides strict rules on enforcing timeliness. They are also a collectivist culture because there is a huge emphasis on family and family structure. Family is very important and the father is the head of the family and must provide for the rest of the members. There is relatively low emotional distance between family group members. Lastly, Korean culture focuses on direct and a lot on non-verbal communication. There are many examples, however one example includes how the other person of lower status bows first and then the other person acknowledges them by bowing back followed by a handshake. Besides this, there are a lot of dining etiquette that need to be taken. One example of this includes removing one's shoes before entering a house to show respect.
Week 1
- Work on the learning plan with my language partner
- Begin 3 words and 1 Bollywood song a day from my language partner
Week 2
- Learn basic greetings and introducing myself
- Learn “survival” classroom sayings
- Have a basic cultural conversation with my language partner, beginning with an introduction conversation in Hindi
Week 3
- Begin learning basic conversation about transportation
- Asking for directions (Question words)
- Numbers 1-10 for buses, roads, costs, etc.
Week 4
- Continue with transportation vocabulary and basic conversations
- Role play conversation about transportation with Sanya using phrases and vocabulary I have learned
Week 5
- Begin learning to talk about an itinerary or class/work schedule
- Learn the days of the week and how to tell time
- Begin learning past and future tenses
- Will probably include conversation about transportation
Week 6
- Continue learning conversation about itinerary or schedule
- Explain what I want to do, what I will do, what I did, etc.
- Conversation with Sanya about my plans for the day, a schedule for the week, what I did last weekend
Week 7
- Learn family related vocabulary and construct short sentences related to family
- Family vocabulary
- Ask about others’ families
- Basic talk with Sanya about our families
Week 8
- Learn how to explain what I studied in school and what my career plans are
- Explain this to Sanya
By the end of this semester, I want to learn Korean around shopping. I chose shopping as my ultimate goal because it is realistic and practical. It is one of the most important skill that I want to master. Also, this goal covers a lot of essential aspects of language.Following are several specific goals I want to achieve by the end of this semester:
-Greeting and self-introduction
For example: how to greet shopkeepers when I walk into a store.
-Count numbers
For example: how to count the number of products, how to articulate the price of products.
-Recognize colors
For example: how to describe the color of clothes/ cosmetics I want to buy
-Express emotions
For example: how to articulate whether I like something or not/ express my feelings
-Distinguish formal and informal using of Korean
For example: If I talk to shopkeepers, I may use formal Korean. However, when I talk to my friends during shopping, I may use informal words.
-Ask for directions
For example: how to ask others the way to certain places if I have no idea where it is.
In addition to the above targets, I want to:
-Study 3 Korean songs and understand the lyrics
-Watch a Korean drama (It’s okay, that’s love) and learn some daily words
-Role-play. I can try to have some dialogue with my friends in Korean. More specifically, I can pick a scene in Korean drama and try to replay the conversation.
In the reading How the brain handles language, it talks about the left hemisphere of those right-handed people is dominant to do analytical tasks, categorization, calculation, logical organization, information sequencing, complex motor functions etc. The theory of right-handed people matches what survey says about my learning style. I am a 80% logical and mathematical person. Maybe in this semester's self-direct learning, I should apply more categorization to memorize vocabularies. For example, I can divide words into several categories: food, transportation, clothes, greeting, number, date and so on. In this way, it helps me learn words in a group and improve productivity.
Another article that I find informative is How to investigate language structure. At the end of this article, it mentions two approaches to start language learning. I prefer the first traditional method that begins with a phonetic description, proceeding through phonology, morphology, and syntax, and concluding with semantics. I agree that phonetic description set the general understanding and familiarity, which enhances your words or sentences application in later semantic process.
