One of my objectives this year was to have a causal conversation in Indonesian with my roommate this year. It finally happened!
All Posts (9261)
Sort by
First Week Studying
First week we met our Turkish language partner Gokhan. In the first class, he told us where he is from, a small town close to Istanbul. And he brought us Turkish traditional candies. Then he asked about why we want to learn Turkish in the first place. My initial to learn Turkish is that I plan to visit Turkey one day, and if I can speak their language, I am able to experience more local lives and I enjoy talking to people. Moreover, tracing back to ancient history, China and Turkey has a lot communications. Thus nowadays, we can find many similarities in Turkish and Chinese. We use different complete different alphabets. But we share some similar language habits. My goal for the first week is to learn Turkish alphabets. Our language partner told us, once we learn how to pronounce the alphabets, we can read nearly all the Turkish words.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Sixth Cultural Post: Attitudes about Time in the Target Culture
Portuguese and English have very similar forms of talking about time. Their concept of time, however, varies slightly. English, or at least American culture, places a greater emphasis on punctuality. For English, time is set. Meanwhile, for Portuguese, time is more flexible. Exactitude regarding time is not necessary and it is acceptable to be a little late for informal gatherings. In formal environments like work, attitudes towards time vary a little since some continue to use this flexible attitude towards time and others change their attitude to be closer to the one we experience in the US to emphasize time efficiency.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Fifth Cultural Post: Identify a topic for your culture project and your learning goals for your topic.
I would like to explore the topic of language development for my cultural project. Throughout my study of Portuguese I have noticed differences across the portuguese used in Portugal and Brazil. I would like to conduct some research regarding the different influences that led to these differences. I would also like to explore the different uses of words as well as the different levels of formality used by the two. My learning goals for this topic would be to gain a more holistic understanding of the underlying cultural differences that have influenced language development in the different continents. Lastly, I would like to learn more the motivations behind the Portuguese Orthographic Agreement of 1990. I am interested in the investigation regarding the implications to have a more/ less unified formal language system.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Fourth Cultural Post: Target Language's Writing System
The Portuguese writing system uses the latin alphabet and so it has been easier to learn. Before the 1990s, Portuguese did not have the letters K, W, and Y but after the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement, these letter have been added to the Portuguese alphabet making it the same as the English alphabet. The main remaining difference between the English and the Portuguese writing system is the use of grammatical accents. I have had some prior exposure to grammatical accents but Portuguese is the Romance language with the most grammatical accents. It has been pretty difficult for me to learn when a word should have an accent and when it should not, especially as the Orthographic Agreement also changed the rules for determining when to use accents. Currently Portuguese continues to work towards the full implementation of the new rules established by the agreement, but many of the old rules continue to be used.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Third Cultural Post: Cultural Topic of Your Choice
An interesting aspect about Romance languages is their use of gender. These languages assign gender to objects. Normally, I can anticipate what gender is normally used for certain nouns, although there are a few times when I expect a word to be considered feminine when it is actually considered masculine in Portuguese, or vice versa. Recently I have encountered that Portuguese also assigns gender to countries. Phrases like the one used to express ‘I live in…” varies depending on the gender of assigned to the place where you live.
I live in Brazil Eu moro no Brasil
I live in Portugal Eu moro em Portugal
I live in France Eu moro na França
In the phrase ‘I live in Brazil’ the proposition ‘no’ (Em (in) + o (masculine definite article)) is used as Brazil is considered a male country. Meanwhile in the phrase ‘I live in France’ the proposition ‘na’ (em (in) +a (feminine definite article)) is used as France is considered a female country. Interestingly, in the phrase ‘I live in Portugal’ the proposition ‘em’ is used without the need of a definite article since there is no need to specify a gender for this country. Overall, determining the gender of countries is somewhat similar to determining the gender of nouns. Yet, determining when there is a need for the use of a gendered definite article for a country is more difficult as there is no rule for it.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Second Cultural Post: Formality and Informality in Target Language
Formality in Portuguese varies depending on which Portuguese you are learning. In European Portuguese- which is the formal language of instruction in other Portuguese-speaking countries (with the exception of Brazil)- there are two forms of the second person. Informal second person uses ‘tu’ while formal second person uses ‘voce’. When using European Portuguese one has to be to decide which form of the second person is most appropriate to use. I, however, been mostly learning Brazilian Portuguese which only uses ‘voce’. Thanks to this I do not have to worry as much about deciding which form of the second person is most appropriate for what scenarios. In Brazilian Portuguese, you can express extra formality by using phrases like ‘o senhor’ to address the individual.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
First Cultural Post: What is your interest in 'your' language and what do you hope to accomplish this semester?
My interest in Portuguese comes from my interest in Latin American Politics. I am a political science major and I would like to lean more about Brazil’s language and culture given the increasingly important role the country now plays in Latin American politics. In past years, many of my courses have focused on the unique attributes of Brazil as a country, its culture, and its growing influence in the world. Currently, Portuguese is one of the most spoken languages in the world (over 200 million speakers). I think that learning some basic Portuguese will be very helpful in my field of study.
This semester I hope to be able to gain basic language skills (both oral and written). I want to be able to understand simple sources in Portuguese without having to look up every other word. Most importantly I want to be able to communicate basic ideas in Portuguese and learn strategies to work with a limited vocabulary and language skills.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Response Paper 2
Language carries more than just a direct meaning of words but also a sense of what is appropriate for certain scenarios. Different forms of speech are acceptable (or expected) under different circumstances. There are many social informal rules that dictate how one should address certain people or what constitutes formal and informal language. In the case of Portuguese, there are different norms that dictate what is appropriate for different scenarios across different cultures. For example, in Brazil there is no use of the informal second person (you) but instead only the formal form of ‘you’ is used. Meanwhile, in Portugal both the informal second person and the formal second person are used and so you have to be able to distinguish when each of them is used. Furthermore, there are certain words that carry underlying meanings that are not evident to language learners who are not familiar with the culture of the target language and it is very easy to offend someone or come across as rude simply because one is not familiar with cultural practices and expectations in the language. It is important for language learners to keep in mind that cultural practices and expectations of what is acceptable do not always translate across cultures and languages. In other words, it is important to become informed about the culture in countries where the target language is spoken in order to be able to determine the appropriate way of using the language. Language learning includes not only learning grammatical rules but the cultural meanings behind expressions and the ability to understand and adapt to a different cultural standard of evaluation for meaning.
According to H.D. Brown, Communicative competence refers to competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts. CC is not so much an interpersonal construct but rather a dynamic, interpersonal construct that can be examined only by means of the overt of two or more individuals in the process of communication. Communicative competence then can be improved through the study of functional meaning of expressions during communication with others rather than the simple knowledge about different language forms and patterns.
Other kinds of competences from the readings by H.D. Brown that I need to consider to make tangible advances in my linguistic abilities include grammatical competence. This competence includes knowledge of lexical items, rules of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics, and phonology. Grammatical competence can improve the proper use of formal speech and aid by providing rules that serve as language guidelines. Another important competence is discourse competence, which enables us to connect sentences in a meaningful way to create significant utterances. Moreover, as discussed in the first part of this paper, sociolinguistic competence is also very important since it provides the knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and discourse. Lastly, strategic competence is a useful competence for language learners as it provides strategies to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules.
I already talked about this in one of my learning journals but I figured that it works as an artifact as well. I found this YouTube channel of this Spanish person who speaks Turkish really well. I felt really proud of myself watching this because I could understand most of what he was saying. I had to slow the speed of the video down to 0.5, but I still consider it as an accomplishment haha. Watching his video actually inspired me to post videos of myself speaking Turkish on YouTube. I am just going to wait another year (I think) so that I can improve my spontaneous speech. I am perfectionist haha.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Final Response Paper
Reflect on your learning experiences this semester.
(a) What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer? What did you find difficult? What have you enjoyed? How will you continue your learning?
(b) Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful? What would you like to learn more about?
As a cultural learner I have been able to learn more about my style of learning. Creating my own study plan, gave me the opportunity to truly question which methods worked best for me and what type of language exercises were most effective to achieve my language goals. As a self-directed learner, I was also able to experience learning and studying simply because I genuinely wanted to learn that topic and not because I was trying to memorize it for an exam. Through this experience I was able to question what aspects of language learning were most important for me. While having the opportunity to chose what language aspects were most important for me, I learned more about the complexity of language and what aspects are the valuable in short term study.
Furthermore, something unique about self-directed language learning was that class activities motivated me to learn not only grammar but culture. Through research for my cultural final presentation I learned more about the influences culture can have in language development as well as how interactions between cultures can change the direction of language development. I learned that language is a form of expression of deeper social constructs and even a political tool for the advancement of societies.
Learning Portuguese has given a further comparison point to put my own language and culture into perspective. Learning a new language is a process to through which you acquire knowledge about a new language while you also learn to question your own and learn about the aspects that make your language unique or different from your new target language. Learning a language teaches you relativism.
The greatest difficulty I encounter through my language-learning journey was the lack of exposure. Although I had a language partner to practice Portuguese with as well as technology to find media sources like music and TV shows, I would have like to be able to have further and more natural exposure. Another challenge was that towards the end I began to have a hard time separating Portuguese from other Romance language. There were times when I could not remember whether a certain words was Portuguese, Italian, French, or Spanish. These four language are close enough that they sometimes share words that are pretty much the same but have a one-letter variation. Given the big similarities and the small differences, sometimes it was hard to keep track of the small differences. I believe, however, that this problem should go away through exposure. After this semester I do not think I will be able to continue learning Portuguese in a formal setting. Nonetheless, I plan to continue using media as a form of exposure so I can continue to become familiar with the language and do not lose it completely.
My favorite class activities was learning phonetic transcriptions and the second class presentations. I liked how through phonetic transcriptions you can find a common ground in writing for languages with different writing systems. Moreover, regarding the second presentations, I truly enjoyed being able to learn a little about the work my classmates have been doing as well as some of the characteristics of their target language. I would have liked to learn more about the strategies that other students were using for their language-learning plan. I feel like this would have given us the chance to learn more about other creative ways to achieve language acquisition.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 10
Reflect on your experiences as a language teacher and learning in this latest speed-dating workshop. What difficulties did you encounter?
` It was difficult to find a topic that was simple enough to teach in five minutes without any prior exposure to the language. It made me aware of the fact that I have never studied a language completely from scratch but that every time I have tried to learn a new language I start with some background knowledge either direct or indirect about the language.
How did you successfully relay concepts that were foreign to your classmates as your students?
One of the learning strategies I have employed throughout my study of Portuguese is to try to find connection between new things that I am learning and things I already know or that are easier to understand or remember. For that reason, I decided to use historical background as well as word origins to provide some familiar ground for my classmates to understand new concepts and be able to remember them.
If you were eventually granted the opportunity to teach a full semester-long course on the target language, what strategies would you adopt?
I am a Spanish TA and a strategy that the program uses to help students learn new concepts is to use activities and games to help students practice new concepts in low-stress environments. If I had the opportunity to teach a full semester-long cause on Portuguese I would employ a similar strategy of using creative activities that would get students to practice through conversation and quick reviewing activities.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 9
Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.
Reading in Portuguese has become easier with practice. There are some sounds that remain difficult to pronounce but overall, I have been able to pick up pronunciation patterns in Portuguese (wether I can successfully pronounce certain words is another question). When it comes to writing, I have been struggling with Portuguese accents as the rules are very obscure following the Portuguese Language Reforms from the 1990s. Furthermore, I sometimes mix spellings of similar words in Spanish and Portuguese. Overall, I have experienced greater improvements in reading than writing.
Are you bilingual? If so, would you agree with the arguments made in the two readings on bilingualism?
I am bilingual and I agree with many of the arguments made in the readings. It is true that there are certain cognitive processes that I find to be easier for me than some of my monolingual friends like ignoring distractions (it is very easy for me to tune out my second language). Furthermore, I have found that knowing more languages can facilitate learning new languages as you have a more extensive background to make connections to other grammatical systems.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 8
How many new words have you learned in your target language? How did you learn them? Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary?
It is difficult to keep track of how many new words I have learned since I am learning a language that is so closely related to my native language. Spanish and Portuguese have a lexical similarity of 89%; therefore, even when I had never studied a word in Portuguese, there were times when I could guess the word using Spanish and the patterns I had observed between the two. There are so many words I never formally studied as part of my learning plan but that I would hear in a song or in a TV show and know what they meant. Formally I would say I learned about 500 words through topic subjects that I would study every week and from where I would pick up a few vocabulary words to study. Additionally, there were other words that I was able to pick up through exposure to their constant use and Spanish cognates. I believe my vocabulary goals were realistic although I eventually realized that I was incorporating too much memorization of translations rather than spending more time studying the meaning of words under a cultural lens. I eventually decided to reduce the number of words I was studying every week so I could study them more in depth.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 7
How do languages go extinct?
There is more than one way in which a language can go extinct. I would say languages go extinct when speakers are absorbed by a dominant language or cultural group. This would be the case for Irish, whose speakers decreased as a result of English becoming the dominant language spoken in Ireland. Another reason for language extinction would be language oppression. This can be seen with many of the native languages of tribes in the Americas, which were oppressed by colonial powers. A number of countries in Latin America use language as a tool of oppression towards indigenous groups forcing them to leave their language and adopt Spanish.
Respond to the reading, reflecting on what happens when a language dies. How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a language ever be brought back to life?
Linguists can help preserve a language through cultural initiatives that promote the study of the language as well by documenting the language to be used for study. Creating dictionaries and documenting grammatical rules can help preserve a language. Even when languages die, they can be brought back to life as long as we have some kind of documentation and sample from the language. Hebrew is an example of a language that was revived.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 6
Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. To what family does your language belong? What sounds, words, or structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures?
My language belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European family. Meaning my language has a very prominent Latin influence. Latin roots as well as Roman mythology and Catholic practices and beliefs have had a big influence in the development of Portuguese. Being familiar with Latin roots as well as Romance practices and expressions has helped me learn Portuguese as I have a rational background to help me make sense of words. For example, I knew months in Portuguese are based on names of Roman mythological gods and practices and so I can use my knowledge of Roman mythology as well as the Latin roots and suffixes to remember the names of months.
There are a number of sounds, words, and structures hat exemplify period of contact with other cultures that vary between Portuguese-Speaking countries. For example, in countries like Angola there is a great influence from African languages spoken in the country prior to the introduction of Portuguese. Meanwhile, these same African languages have also influenced other Portuguese-speaking countries through migration from Angola to countries like Portugal and Brazil during critical periods like the Angolan de-colonization and the Angolan civil war. This migration has spread cultural practices as well as new words and expressions normally associated with Angolan culture.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 5
Do some preliminary research on what most interests you about the target culture, and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic?
A cultural topic that has interested me throughout my study of Portuguese is the development of the language from Latin, its separation from other Romance languages, and the current language differences in the different countries in which the language is spoken. Throughout my study I have been relying on similarities between Portuguese and other Romance languages to understand new concepts that differ from English but are found in other Romance languages. Furthermore, I have made an effort to keep track of words that are used differently in different Portuguese-speaking countries. I would like to lean more about how these differences came to be and how Portuguese has evolved differently in different countries as well as the cultural factors that have led to these differences. Something my language partner often mentions is the Portuguese agreement from the 1990s in which all Portuguese-speaking countries agreed on language reforms to unify the different forms of Portuguese spoken in different countries. This is another aspect of my target language that I would like to investigate for my cultural presentation.
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 4
Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don't exist in English? Provide several phonetic transcriptions of important words.
There are sounds that in Portuguese that do not exist in English. Luckily, prior study of Romance languages has helped me with some of these sounds. For example Portuguese uses rolled ‘r’ sounds like the ones used in Spanish (e.g. the word for interesting: interesante- ĩteɾezˈɐ̃tʃi) along with ‘r’ sounds similar to the ones used in French (e.g. the word real (Brazilian currency) is pronounced ‘xiˈaw’) On the other hand, there are still many other sounds for which I have no background. The best example of this is the use of nasal sounds, which have been very challenging for me. Although French incorporates some nasal sounds in some words like ‘Printemps’ (spring), nasal sounds like the ones commonly used in Portuguese are not commonly used in any other Romance language. The word não (no), for example is pronounced ‘nˈɐ̃w̃’.
What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need? Have you identified resources and textbooks to promote your task-based objectives? Why or why not?
The grammatical structure of Portuguese is very similar to the grammatical structure used in Spanish which has really facilitated my understanding of structure by giving me a better starting point. Nonetheless, I have been completing exercises from a textbook called Pois não as well as using exercises from Babble to reenforce my study of Portuguese sentence structure.
This artifact is a small conversation that I had with Gökhan practicing my spontaneous speech walking home from a class that we had in the library. At the end, I got mad because Gökhan did not correct my mistake because we were recording haha!
Jocelyne Rodriguez
Journal Entry 3
How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture?
My target language is spoken in multiple countries. I have been learning a little about both Portuguese and Brazilian culture, although I have been emphasizing Brazilian culture even more. It is a little difficult to qualify different aspects of Brazilian culture since it shares many aspects of Latin or Iberean culture shared by many other countries in Latin America that I was already familiar with. Therefore, it is difficult to point at differences because in a way I can still identify with them because they reflect my own based on my personal ethnic background.
Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc.
When it comes to time, the Brazilian concept of time is more fluid. While in American culture punctuality is more emphasize in Brazilian culture, time is more flexible. Furthermore, like many Romance languages, Brazilian culture incorporates many hand gestures with language. Many of these gestures are present within more than one Romance languages and so I am somewhat familiar with them based on my prior knowledge of Spanish, French, and Italian. This provides useful clues regarding meaning (especially when I am watching a show and the characters start speaking really fast but I do not want to read the subtitles).
Another thing I have notice is that even though many times I cannot hear certain differences in sound in my target language, I can distinguish different face movements and expressions that normally accompany certain sounds.
Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.
I would not say I have experienced culture shock but there have been times when I am working on excersices for Portuguese or listening to Portuguese music and people interrupt me to talk to me and I have answered using Portuguese words. Also, there was a time when a friend used the Italian expression ‘Ciao’ (goodbye) and I thought he had said ‘Tchau’ in Portuguese which also means goodbye. I was confused for a minute that he had used Portuguese until I realize he had used an Italian expression instead.
