Gohkan took us to a Turkish restaurant in downtown. Food was amazing! And I tried to order food in Turkish! The Turkish tea is especially good!
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This attachment is my first reflection paper.
This link is video of Joyce and I doing a conversation in Turkish. In the video we asked each other's names, how are you, where are you from and what is your major. I feel very proud I can conduct some simple daily conversations in Turkish!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HDPPMu8G9RpGNZHwv3cO-aBJ-MgrpQ9P
This link is my video doing a self-introduction in Turkish. It is one of my goals I set for myself in the beginning of the semester. By the end of semester I am glad I can achieve that!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e3T4aFsvVnkQQietwery_TmfZq7-errC
Simple Conversations 2
This class we continued to learn about daily and simple conversations. We touched on self-introduction. And my goal is to be able to introduce myself and write a self-introduction paragraph. The strategy we used is similar to what we’ve been using for the previous classes. First Gokhan read us through the sentences. “Benim adim Adam, Senin adin ne?”, it means “My name is Adam, what is your name”. “Nerelisin? ” “Cinliyim” This means “Where are you from?” And “I am from China”. After a few times of reading the text, we were familiar with the pronunciations of each sentences. Then Gokhan asked us to practice with him, in the form of dialogues. To be honest it was kind of hard to do without the text. It was hard to memorize each sentences. But Gokhan kept giving us hints and encourages us to continue. After few rounds of dialogues practices. Gohkan asked me to do with Joyce. And it turned out well. Then as the last step, he asked us to write down the self-introduction is short paragraph. It was easy because all we do is to translate the dialogues which we are already familiar with, into written text. I really like how the class was taught, because it was not barely memorizing, rather, it consists of reading, spelling, listening and writing. It is a really good combination of work. Besides, this really increased my confidence, because in the beginning of the semester, I thought it would be extremely hard to do a self-introduction, but now I can.
Turkish Movie
This week Gokhan promoted we’ve learned a lot abstract stuff, it is time switch to something new. So he made us a watch Turkish movie, Bablum vs Oglum, in English it is My Father and My son. Gokhan let us to watch the movies with double subtitles, Turkish and English, he said by watching a movie, we can have a better knowledge how the words we covered in class are used in a real life setting.The story is about how a family is torn apart by a Turkish coup in 1980. A really moving movie. To make sure we are learning Turkish rather than merely watching the movie. Gokhan will pause the movie and ask us questions about the plots. And he would write down the words we covered in class which appeared in the movie. It is a great way to review the stuff we learned in class. We did not have enough time to finish the movie in class so I finished watching in my spare time. I was really touched by this movie. And I had a a much better and vivid understanding of modern Turkish history. Peace is precious. And I really hope Turkey can have a peaceful ear ever since.
Turkish History 2
This week our main object is to learn Turkish history. So we picked up from where we left from the last semester. This class Gokhan taught us the modern history of Turkish. And how the Turkish languages changed as a result of the development of history. In modern history, Turkey has always been a place full of warfare. Gokhan introduced Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. His a one of the most influential revolutionaries in the world. His status in Turkish people’s mind is like Chairman Mao in Chinese people’s heart. He was born in Selianik in 1881. He overthrew the Ottoman Empire successfully and founded the Republic of Turkey. He played an important role in the Independence War and the Battle of Gallipoli. And more importantly, after he ruled Turkey, he did not turn into a dictator. Rather, he made a lot of policies to make the people better off. His reforms were followed by a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social and economic policy changes. He separated the state and religion, which is a bold and wise move. And he moved the new capital to Ankara, created the multi-party system to ensure democracy. Besides, in order to increase the literacy rate, he adopted a new alphabet system in 1928, which is what we learn right now. Back then, over a night, everybody became illiterate. But these policies made Turkey more connected to the rest of the world, and as a positive result, the current literacy rate is 94.1%. That is a huge improvement.
Plural Cases:
This week we touched on the plural cases of nouns. My goal is to know how to generate the many variations of different words. In the beginning of the class Gokhan taught us some new words: “Kalem(pen)”, “Masa(desk)”, “Saat(clock)” and “canta(bag)”. They he taught us how each words is transformed into plural cases. The variations of each word depends on the ending vowels. There are five back vowels and five front vowels. The five back vowels are “A, I, O, U’ and the front vowels are “E İ Ö Ü”. When it comes to the plural cases. If word has an ending vowel that is a back vowel, then we add the post-fix “lar” to make the word plural. For example, the word “masa” ’s plural case is “masalar”, which means desks. As for a word with an ending vowel that is a front vowel, such as the word “kalem”, we add the post-fix “ler” to make it plural. In this case, “kalemler” is the plural case of “kalem”, which means pens. Once we know the pattern, it became easy. Then Gohkan gave us some more words that we haven’t learned so far and asked us to transform them into plural cases. After several practices, we are very familiar with plural cases.
Turkish History 1
This week we touched on the history of Turkey. My goal is to have a simple overview of Turkish history. I think the knowledge of Turkish history will absolutely enhances my understanding of my target language. In history, Turkish people are a nomadic race, their history can trace back to Asia. In ancient times, Turkey has some interactions with Ancient China. Gokhan told me that the name “Turkey” is actually given by an ancient Chinese emperor. Turkish people went westwards to expand their territory. As a result, Turkey now a nation on two continents. And it is surrounded by three seas, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea respectively. The economic center of Turkey is in the west part because in the modern era, it is not realistic for Turkish to practice a nomadic life, so they stayed in the most fertile land. Gokhan told us Turkey has a lot of historical spots. Such as the Church of Saint Peter, which is located in Antakya(Antioch), and the first people to call Jesus’s followers “Christians” were Antioch inhabitants. Moreover, Turkey has one of the seven wonders of the world, the Ephesus. It is a theater capable of holding 25000 spectators. It is stunning but now visitors are not allowed due the the preservations reasons. And most interesting spot is Maiden’s Tower, which is built over the sea. As Gokhan told us, an ancient Turkish emperor built this tower to protect his beloved daughter, because a mysterious prophesy said his daughter would be killed by the age of 18. So the emperor build this tower to isolate his daughter from any potential dangers from the lands. But he was not able to change the ending of the prophesy, his daughter died as destiny.
Turkish coffee
After we are done with the simple conversations learning. Gohkan invited us to enjoy authentic Turkish coffee. He told us it is impossible to find a “kahvhane”, a Turkish coffee in Richmond. So he asked his girlfriend who travelled to American to him bring some Turkish coffee powder and a set of traditional Turkish coffee maker. For that class we reviewed what we learned last week, and then he started to make us Turkish coffee! The way Turkish coffee is made is so different from Startbucks. I watched as he made it. He first put the powder into the coffee pot with hot water then boil it for approximately 10 mins. Then he poured the coffee into a small cup. As we drink, Gohkan taught us some Turkish words and history stories about coffee. Coffee is an important part of Turkish culture. In China, when some close friends gather together, they would probably drink to celebrate their friendship. While in Turkey, coffee is the choice! He also taught us that coffee was sort of a symbol of freedom in Turkey, because in the old times, Turkish people usually gathered in a coffee shop and talk about politics. Because they are not quite satisfied with the current ruler, most of their discussions are complaints. Then the ruler was not happy about it, so he made policies to forbid coffee drinking within the nation. Turkish people did not compromise, they went to the street and protest. Eventually they got their rights to drink coffee back. In a deeper meaning, their rights to talk freely back. I really enjoyed this class because I think learning the culture of a language is equally important as learning the alphabets and grammars.
It was so strong that I stayed up till 2 a.m.
Simple Conversations 1
This week we are not doing merely memorizing stuff. Our language partner Gohkan started the class by greeting us in Turkish. “Merhaba, Nasilsin? ”, Which means “Hello, how are you doing.”. This week’s task for us is to learn the basic greeting conversations. My objection is to learn them well to a level that I can conduct a simple greeting conversations. Gohkan told us greeting is a very important topic to cover because in Turkey, people take greetings very serious. He told us when if a person who’s gonna be late for his work saw someone he knows in the street. He would choose to stop and greet him/her, otherwise he would be considered very arrogant. We began learning greetings by first read through the basic sentences. “Benim adim Adam, senin adin ne? ” It means “My name is Adam, what is your name.” After we are familiar with how to pronounce the sentences. Gokhan asked us to practice. So Joyce and I practiced the greetings with Gokhan respectively. I think this strategy is especially useful. Because as for the last two classes, basically what we did is to merely memorize stuff. This practice provides us more interaction. Thus we are able to actively learn the knowledge instead of passively receiving all of the contents.
Counting numbers
After done with alphabets, Gokhan introduced us to counting numbers this week. He told us counting numbers will be a big part of this semester’s studying. Because the way Turkish people count numbers is hard to memorize. Even for local Turkish people, they prefer the Arabic numbers over their way of expressing numbers. My object is to be able to translate numbers in Arabic form into the Turkish form without the help of a dictionary. We start to learn how to count numbers by learning the Turkish words for 1 to 10. The most difficult part is to memorize each word. It is not like in English, words have the similar post-fixes. For example, “fourth” and “sixth” both have the post-fix “th”. While in Turkish, it is a completely different story. Thus we started to use Quizlet. We created a vocabulary lists, and Gokhan told us to review the words at least a week to make sure we don’t forget. This strategy is effective. Because as I mentioned, the hardest part is to memorize the words for numbers. Because when it comes to expressing a complex or very big number, the mechanism is similar to English. After we are familiar with the words. We can translate the numbers into Turkish very quickly.
Turkish Alphabets
In class we touched on alphabets, which is the very basic of the language. Different from English, there are 29 alphabets in Turkish, the weird thing about Turkish alphabets is that there is an particular alphabet that does not have a sound, which is ğ. The point of this alphabet is that is prolongs the sound of the alphabet preceding it. My goal is to master how to pronounce all the alphabets. Gokhan first read us all of them, some of them are the same as English alphabets so we learn it easily. But there are ones we cannot pronounce, so for those ones, I ask our language partner to record it. And I will listen to them twice every day, it does not require a lot time but it is really efficient. Besides, I will review the whole alphabets before every class. The learning of Turkish alphabets is the fundamental. After we learned the alphabets, Gokhan showed us some simple words, and we can pronounce them nearly precise. The learning of Turkish alphabets enables us to pronounce simple word. And this little accomplishment really boosts my interest.
Attached is my learning plan with evaluations for the semester.
Artifact 4: Translate a song
Song: Era uma vez
Portuguese Lyrics
O dia em que todo dia era bom
Delicioso gosto e o bom gosto das nuvens
Serem feitas de algodão
Dava pra ser herói no mesmo dia
Em que escolhia ser vilão
E acabava tudo em lanche
Um banho quente e talvez um arranhão
Dava pra ver, a ingenuidade a inocência
Cantando no tom
Milhões de mundos e os universos tão reais
Quanto a nossa imaginação
Bastava um colo, um carinho
E o remédio era beijo e proteção
Tudo voltava a ser novo no outro dia
Sem muita preocupação
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
Dá pra viver
Mesmo depois de descobrir que o mundo ficou mau
É só não permitir que a maldade do mundo
Te pareça normal
Pra não perder a magia de acreditar na felicidade real
E entender que ela mora no caminho e não no final
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
É que a gente quer crescer
E quando cresce quer voltar do início
Porque um joelho ralado
Dói bem menos que um coração partido
English Lyrics
Once Upon a time/There was once
The day when everyday/ the whole day (not sure which) was good
Delicious taste and the good taste of the clouds
Being made of cotton
Would work being a hero on the same day
That I would chose to be a villain
And it ended it all up for lunch
A hot bath and maybe a scratch
You would see, the ingenuousness of innocence
Singing in the tone
Millions of worlds and universes so real
As for our imagination
Just a lap, a caress
And the medicine was a kiss and protection
Everything would turn to be new again the next day
Without much concern
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning
Because a grated knee
Hurts much less than a broken heart
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning.
Because a grated knee
Hurts much less than a broken heart
Come to live
Even after finding out that the world turned bad
Just do not let the wickedness of the world
Seem normal to you
To not lose the magic of believing in real happiness
And to understand that she lives on the way and not at end
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning.
Because a grated knee
Hurts much less than a broken heart
We just want to grow up
And when you grow up, you want to go from the beginning.
Because a grated knee
It hurts much less than a broken heart.
Third Artifact: Introducing myself and my family
Meu nome é Jocelyne. Eu sou do Texas mas estudo na Virgínia. Eu frequento a Universidade de Richmond e eu estudo ciência política. Eu gosto de pizza e ouvir música.
O nome da minha mãe é Diana. Ela gosta de ler e assistir filmes.
Ela não gosta de cozinhar, mas gosta de ir a restaurantes comigo
O nome do meu pai é Oscar. Ele é muito engraçado e gosta de fazer piadas. Ele acha que o português parece engraçado.
O nome do meu irmão é Armando. Ele tem 15 anos. Ele gosta de desenhar e jogar futebol. Nosso passatempo favorito é assistir filmes
Second Artifact: Show that you can ask and answer questions about identity
Elevator Pitch in Portuguese
Ola, meu nome é Jocelyne Rodriguez. Eu sou um estudante na Universidade de Richmond. Eu estudo ciência política e antropologia. Estou interessada em pesquisas políticas e culturais sobre a América Latina. Eu tomei várias aulas sobre este tema. Além disso, falo espanhol e estou estudando português. Você pode entrar em contato comigo se souber de algum estágio de pesquisa?
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Eighth Cultural Post: Reflect upon what you have learned from the cultural projects presented in class.
There were four main points I learned from my cultural presentation. First, I learned that languages evolve and there can be more than one culture influencing this evolution. Through my presentation I explored the evolution of Portuguese from Latin to Galician-Portuguese to the current Portuguese spoken in the different Portuguese-speaking countries. Furthermore, I learned that there can be more than one perspective reflected in a language. For example, Portuguese reflects the perspectives of African, South American, and European perspectives. Third, I learned that learning a language requires cultural awareness. Cultural awareness is essential in determining the proper use of words and the context in which the different words are normally used. Understanding the culture behind a language can strengthen your knowledge about the language itself. Lastly, I learned that languages are more than just a form of communication but also a form of expression and even a political medium as seen with the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement to improve international standing of the language and Galicia’s decision not to join.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Seventh Cultural Post: Attitudes about Family in the Target Culture
The main difference in attitudes about family between English and Portuguese is found in the way people speak of their in-laws. For example, Portuguese has uses words like ‘cunhada’ (sister in law), ‘genro’ (son-in-law), sogra (mother-in-law). You do not find the ‘in-law’ clause within the words used in Portuguese, meaning they are used even when there is no formal ‘in-law’ relation. For example I can refer to my brother’s girlfriend as ‘cunhada’ (sister in law) even if they are not married.
Another difference is found within the gender of the words used to describe relatives. For example, while in English there is one word to describe both female and male cousins, in Portuguese there are different words for ‘cousin’ that specify gender. The word for a male cousin is ‘primo’, while the word to describe a female cousin is ‘prima’.
