Blogs

• Reflect on your experiences as a language teacher and learning in this latest speed-dating workshop. What difficulties did you encounter? How did you successfully relay concepts that were foreign to your classmates as your students? If you were eventually granted the opportunity to teach a full semester-long course on the target language, what strategies would you adopt?

As Turkish is an agglutinative language, I considered the use of affixes and suffixes as one of the key concepts of the language. I found it is difficult that as my classmates don’t understand the meaning of Turkish, it is hard for them to find the pattern of how affixes and suffixes can change the meaning of the words. However, as some of the English words also have this kind of formation, I believe them got the idea of how many words were created in Turkish.

If I could teach Turkish, I would help them building up vocabulary by teaching them core vocabularies first. Lots of Turkish words were built by adding affixes and suffixes to the core vocabularies. In this way, I believe the students would be able to learn a large amount of vocabularies in the most effective and efficient way.

• Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language. Are you bilingual? If so, would you agree with the arguments made in the two readings on bilingualism?

I would not consider myself as true bilingual. I went to an international kindergarten where all the teachers and students speak English. I might be bilingual at that time. As I spent more time in the kindergarten  than home, I must feel more comfortable in speaking English than Chinese. My parents told me that after several months going to the kindergarten, I would also speak English to them even if they speak Chinese to me. However, as I moved to another city, I transferred into a traditional Chinese school, where everything was taught in Chinese. So as I really start to learn knowledge, I have been in the Chinese environment, until I went to Canada. When I speak English, I don’t translate them into Chinese with normal conversations. However, when it comes to more complicated things such as writing essays, I would always organize my thoughts in Chinese.

There is an interesting thing. I learned French with English, thus when I write French essays, I would actually think in English. But those essays does not require much critical thinkings, and it is more like what your favorite thing etc.

• 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?

I have learnt several sets of basic vocabulary of several categories, such as school, time, greetings, and food topics. Gokhan has prepared textbook for us to study and each unit of the textbook focuses on a different topic. Gokhan would go over and explain each one to us first, and then we do some practices with the questions in the textbook. Gokhan has also made several lists on Quizlet for us to have more practice after classes. I believe that repetition is the most effective way to learn new words, so I go over them again and again for many times. I have realistic goals regarding the acquisition of vocabulary. As I first want to learn Turkish because I want to travel there, I would focus more on learning tourism, food and greeting vocabularies. By the end of the semester, I want myself to be able to order foods and tickets, and being able to have simple conversations with people.  

• How do languages go extinct? 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?

Languages go extinct when there is no people speak or use the language. Languages dies when the descendants of that group does not use, study or pass the language down to the future generations, and there is not enough documentations for others to study. Linguists can help preserving a language by keeping and organizing documentation. I personally believe that with the globalization trend, it is inevitable that the descendants of some of marginalized groups would choose to live or study other popular languages so that they have more opportunities and can be able to compete in the world. However, with enough documentations, they would be able to keep their own languages and study the language.

• 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?

According to research, Turkish belongs to the Altay branch of the Ural-Altaic linguistic family, same as Finnish and Hungarian. It is the westernmost of the Turkic languages spoken across Central Asia and is generally classified as a member of the South-West group, also known as the Oguz group. Turkey is on two continents- Asia and Europe, surrounded by Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Aegean Sea. Considering its location, its language is also influenced by many other cultures. As I studied French before, I saw lots of similar spellings. Gokhan said that French people had a huge influence on Turkish. Many Turkish words and phrases are originated from French. Three languages were used during the Ottoman Empire, which are Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and they all based on Arabic script. Thus, Turkish also borrow heavily from Arabic and Persian. Before the letter reforms introducing the standardized Turkish, people from different parts of Turkey spoke different Turkish, and they might find difficulties understanding each other. At that time, with arabic Turkish, people need to understand Persian and Arabic to be able interpret others well and write well.

• 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?

• **This journal post may be used as foundational preparation for your final presentation.

I am most interested in the reforms in the earlier 20 centuries. Those were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, which all pushed Turkey’s development. Among the reforms, there were abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate(1922), abolition of caliphate (1924), separation of the state and the religion, new capital Ankara (1923), multi-party system (1930), women’s right to vote (1930) and the weekend act (1924). Those reforms were mainly led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He was very well respected by Turkish people. His surname Ataturk was given by the Turkish people, which means the father of Turkey. Without the president and those reforms, Turkey won’t achieve its position today.

He is also the most important people in pushing the letter reform, changing the Arabic alphabet into Latin alphabet. There were so many obstacles, but he still did it. And time proved he was right, helping Turkey’s modernization. The literacy rate rose from 14% to 99%, which is a tremendous improvement. Although the future generations may not be able to read, or lose connection to the rich inheritage of the literatures from the Ottoman Empire, still the advancement of Turkey thanks to the letter reform cannot be measured.

• 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.

• 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?

There are sounds in Turkish that don’t exist in English. Regarding the structure of Turkish, the word order of Turkish is different from English. It follows Subject-Object-Verb structure. For example, Ahmet yumurta-yi(egg) yedi(ate) (Ahmet eggs ate).

I learn Turkish with the textbook Gokhan has provided us. Each class we focus on one topic. Gokhan sometimes assign homework, but not much. Those homeworks are helpful for us to practice what we learned. I also watch Youtube videos, which people explain the grammar and verb forms of Turkish.

Turkish is an Agglutinative Language with lots of affixes and suffixes. The majority of Turkish words originate from the application of derivative suffixes to a relatively small set of core vocabulary. Affixes and suffixes can create long words and new words. They also serve grammatical functions.

• How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? 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. Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.

Turkey is located where Europe meets Asia. To my belief and observations, the culture of Turkey is more incline to Asian cultures. I saw lots of similarities between Turkish culture and Chinese culture. My language partner Gokhan has shared some cultural facts with me. And there was one thing I was totally shocked- Turkish greeting style. Gokhan told us that in Turkey he had to leave half an hour early to go to the bus station when he lived in the place where he knew lots of neighbours, because he had to stop and talk with them. Each conversation would be long. In Turkey, even if two person both has work to do or is one the way to some place, they would stop and talk to each other for a while before going, once they meet on the road. And this is what they do every time, even if they are late for the next thing.  This is quite opposite from the greeting style in America and China. For example, when I see my friends on my way to class, I would talk to them one sentence or two if time permitted. However, I would never to go depth in talking, if we all have classes to go.

• How have you organized your self-directed learning plan, and what have you learned so far? How will your studies allow you investigate your target language and culture more deeply? What first prompted your interest, and motivated you to start learning?

• After receiving feedback from your classmates and Dr. Marsh-Soloway, what changes do you anticipate making?

• **This journal post will become the foundational basis of your first five-minute presentation.

During my first week of study, our language partner Gokhan taught us the Turkish alphabet. Turkish alphabet has 29 letters. I found an interesting phenomenon that some of the letters have the same pronunciation as Chinese Pinyin and French alphabet. In the second week, we learned number and time. The way Turkish people express number and time is very long and complicated. We also learned some greeting sentences this week. I practiced them by doing mock conversation with Gokhan and Adam.

I like traveling a lot and on my flight home from America to China before the winter break, I saw a traveling promotion video of Turkey. I was fascinated by the history, culture and the beautiful landscapes there. As I want to do in-depth traveling there, I chose to learn the language to have a connection with Turkey. I believe that language removes barriers.

After meeting with Dr. Marsh-Soloway, I have decided to fill my learning plan with more detailed schedules. In this way, I can be more organized and learn the language more efficiently. Also, I would be more clear of what to do each week. 

• Reflect on the readings. What parts of the brain are most important for the production and comprehension of speech? How do you conceptualize or process meaning? Do these readings bring to mind any questions or motivations that could help promote your foreign-language abilities, retention, and recollection?

In D. Crystal’s article, she introduces the functions of each area of our brains and how brain works. According to her, “the left brain hemisphere is the dominant in most right-handed people”. As I use right hand to write and do complex works much more than using my left hand, I would consider my left brain hemisphere as the dominant area for language learning. Before reading the article, I have never thought about how do I interpret things and understand meaning. Now I know that the Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area are responsible for conceptualization and speech production. Reading the investigate language structure part, I also better understand how we interpret and organize our speakings, writings and signings.

Knowing how the brain works regarding understanding meanings and producing speeches, I would design better learning activities to better stimulate my brain and learn the language in a more effective and efficient way.

     I have finally been able to write a few types of written correspondence with my roommate and one of my language partners, Bo. To be frank, it is still very basic Indonesian. I am still only writing basic sentences that mostly consist of me asking questions and introducing myself and giving basic facts about myself. Needless to say, I have learned so much considering how difficult it was for me in the beginning. I think trying to learn different foods and how to order has been my favorite part about learning Indonesian. The toughest part, and the part where I still lots of practice in, should be grammar.

Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying.

As I admitted in my first cultural post for this semester, I did not really have as an in depth understanding about Turkish culture as I could have. Most of the aspects of culture that I learned was pretty broad and non-specific to different regions of Turkey (but, at the same time, I think that that was fair considering that I was simultaneously learning a lot of words and grammatical structures that were completely foreign to me). This semester, I believe that I did a fairly good job focusing on different regions of the country. I had several lessons with Gökhan, in which he would tell me some history about different regions of the country in Turkish. He had to speak really slow and repeat a lot of new words for me but I think it worked out for the most part haha.

Of all the cultural topics that we learned, I think my favorite was finding out that there is apparently this honey called deli bal made in northeastern Turkey that can make you high if you take a really small amount!!! It can kill you if you take too much. Isn’t that crazy?! The Turks actually gave some of this honey to some Greeks to stop an invasion at one point. It’s kind of scary but really cool at the same time.

I did not want to bore you with the science behind it, but here is a link for more information about this if you are interested! https://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/strange-history-hallucinogenic-mad-honey/

All in all, it has been a fun semester! Hopefully, I can go to Turkey soon!

Let’s talk about sports!! Okay, I am going to preface this post stating that I have very little interest in sports but Gökhan says that soccer is a big part of the culture so I can’t not learn about it. There are three big teams in Turkey that are based in Istanbul: Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, and Beşiktaş. According to Gökhan, they are not that good compared to other teams like FC Barcelona or Real Madrid, but people go CRAZY in Turkey when these teams play. They even shut down a lot of stores early sometimes for the games.

While learning about the different sports teams, Gökhan and I actually read this random article in Turkish. http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/spor/963233/Fenerbahce_taraftarindan_Senol_Gunes_e_kufurlu_tepki.html. (It was the first thing that popped up. Thankfully it was really short haha). It is about a rivalry match between Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş and in which Fenerbahçe fans were cheering “Şenol Güneş Ölmedi Kalbimizde Yaşıyor” (“Şenol Güneş did not die, he lives in our hearts”). Şenol Güneş is the coach for the opposing team, Beşiktaş, so they were basically making fun of him because he apparently faked that he was hit by something from the tribunes. (Very dramatic, right? haha!) I found this lesson and article especially helpful because it gave me some insight to another part of the culture in a fun way and I learned a lot of new words like tezahürat yapmak (cheer), ruh (spirit, soul), aleyhine (against), tribün (tribune, bleachers), stat (stadium), and more. Oh! And I also got an idea about Turkish humor because “XXX ölmedi kalbimizde yaşıyor” is a common phrase that people use a lot jokingly.

This week was really fun because I focused on food, one of my favorite things, ever! I learned the words for different tastes like spicy, sour, salty, sweet, etc. I also learned phrases that express being content with the food, and phrases that describe the quality of the food. Next I focused on describing the textures of different foods. Then I learned phrases for complimenting the cook, criticizing the food, and for explaining that I am full, but would like to keep eating. Lastly, I learned some expressions about asking a cook or waiter to make my food a certain way. I find that these phrases will be extremely useful when I study abroad in Korea and go out to eat, or even if I just want to practice. I documented all of this in my notebook, and I learned over 20 phrases. I used a Youtube video by SweetandTastyTV (which has become one of my favorites). I am really happy with my progress this week! (: 

This week I focused on language task #6 and my language goal for week 9, which were numbers and dates. I first started by learning numbers 1-25, 30, 40, 50, etc. in both the Sino-korean system and the native Korean system. Then I began learning the months, then the days or the week, and then the numbers of days in a month. Afterwards I moved onto the structure of the dates, like where the number, day, and month are positioned. Lastly, I learned phrases such as "what day is it today?" and "what day is it [today]?" This concept was slightly harder than telling time, but it wasn't too bad. I took very detailed notes, so whenever I kept getting confused, I looked back and was able to correct myself. I found that I really liked learning through YouTube videos. They are more entertaining than just reading a text on how to do something. For this concept I used a SweetandTastyTV video. 

This week I focused on telling time and asking questions about time. This was by far one of the most detailed lessons I went through in order to understand how to express time in Korean. I started by learning the words for minutes, hours, etc. Then I learned which number systems to use for the different units of time (minutes and hours). After that I learned the expression for things like "in the morning," "in the afternoon," "midnight," etc. I also learned what hours of the day are considered morning, afternoon, evening, and dawn. It was interesting to see the contexts in which certain phrases about time could be used. Furthermore, after understanding how to tell time, I learned phrases such as "what time shall we meet?" and "What time do you wake up?" I documented all of this in my notebook and throughout the week I practiced telling the time in Korean whenever I spotted a clock or looked at my phone. I was feeling little discouraged when I first started with this concept because it was pretty difficult for me to get the hang of, but I want to keep working to get better. Luckily I found a youtube video by SweetandTastyTV, which broke down all the steps, and made my learning a lot more dynamic, fun, and easier. 

I have been having so much fun learning Korean so far! I really feel like I have found a strategy that works well for me and every time I learn something new, I become excited to keep learning more. I don't think that I would change anything in my learning plan, but perhaps I could try to spend more time weekly to keep practicing what I have learned so far. I plan to keep writing in my journal and practicing both my writing and verbal skills. I really like supplementing my language learning with my cultural learning—one cannot go without the other. Overall, I feel as though I am making good progress and I am being as elaborate as possible. 

This week I focused on language task #3 and my language goal for week 6, which was conversation starter questions and introduction questions. I learned how to ask questions about identity and overall wellness, as well as learned how to answer these types of questions. I learned 15 phrases and responses and I documented them in my notebook in Hangul, as well as in romanizations, to make sure that my pronunciation is correct. I got most of my information from Koreanclass101.com. Some of my favorite phrases were: 어떻게지내세요? (How are you?) and 이름이뭐예요? (What is your name?) Overall I am very happy with the progress that I am making and I think my strategies for language learning have been working so far. I am excited to keep moving forward! 

I think my first artifact went fairly well! Even though I was pretty direct with my phrases, and there wasn't much creativity put into my execution, I think it was a good first attempt at displaying some of what I have been doing in my studies. I am  confident in these phrases, and I am pretty sure that my spelling and pronunciation was correct. I am happy with the progress I am making when it comes to writing in Hangul. Originally my handwriting was really big and sloppy looking, but I have been working really hard to make it look as nice as possible without taking too long. My tasks for week 4 and 5, I think, were fine. I learned a lot and I will continue to practice what I have learned. 

This week I was working on learning common phrases. My goal was to learn at least 15 common phrases that I could use on a daily basis. This week's task slightly overlaps with my second language task, but I tried to be a little bit more elaborate this time around. I wrote my phrases on index cards and I ran through them a couple times per day and I practiced writing them down in my notebook as well. I used NAVER for many of my phrases, and I also found a few phrases on Omniglot.com that I thought would be useful. It felt really nice to be able to pronounce the phrases correctly and to be able to write them without constantly having to check myself for accuracy. I feel as though my strategy for learning these phrases was efficient, but I hope to find better ways as I go along this process. I think this week's task will help me to eventually become more comfortable with longer and more complex phrases/sentences. I also focused on week 5's task of learning pronouns. Instead of writing what I learned on flashcards, I decided to write in a notebook because some of the pronouns needed extra explanation of when to use them, and formal in informality information. I think I will begin writing more in notebooks instead of on flashcards. This way I will be able to highlight important information, and everything will be condensed in one place. This task was slightly more difficult for me because of differences in first person, second person, and possessives. I will get it eventually though! Overall, it was a good week.