Blogs

Learning Journal # 13

One interesting thing I learned this week: Sanskrit doesn't have stress on a syllable/word like English or most European languages have. For example, in English, you will read this sentence with an emphasis on 'you' because it was italicized. But Sanskrit doesn't have that grammatical/linguistic structure. Instead if you want to emphasize something, you must use a separate word, "eva" after the word you want to add emphasis to.

In English, you could use the phrase "that is my horse and "that is my horse" and there would be a different connotation to these sentences. In Sanskrit you have to add additional bits of meaning.

Ex.

naaro viira eva = That man is a hero.

naara eva viira = That man is a hero.

Learning Journal # 12

This journal talks about the tatpurushah, a type of Sanskrit compound. Sanskrit is in love with compound words. We’re familiar with these in English, but Sanskrit takes it way farther, to the point where you basically can have limitlessly long words. There’s some poems that have words that take up dozens of lines because the compound rules were enacted to keep on adding adjective to noun to sound poetic. Anyways, the tatpurushah is basically a rule for creating compounds. An English example is “singer-songwriter”. In Sanskrit, it’s seen in the combination of “krsno hastah” (black hand) into “krshnahastah”. It involves a lot of samdhi changes (shifts in vowels to make a word easier to say). There’s pretty standardized rules though, so all it takes it practice to be able to recognize and form the tatpurushah words.

Ex. “sundaraa ashvaah” (beautiful horse) → sundaraashvaah

“Niilaani phalaani” → nilaaphalani

This week in my meeting with my language partner I learned about the landscape of Brazil. Of course a big part of Brazil's landscape is the Amazon. It is the largest sub region of Brazil, and a big stimulus for its economy. Aside from being the largest river in the world it also funnels the most water into the Atlantic. I also learned about the other subregions of Brazil such as the highlands, which contain the highest point in Brazil. In my opinion from what I have examined the landscape of Brazil has had very little affect on the Brazilian Portuguese language. There has been no isolation that has caused a difference in the ways the language is spoken or influences from the environment that cause an emphasis on any specific vocabulary or grammar structure.

During the Turkish class, I had Turkish coffee and desserts, which Ğökhan brought, with other Turkish learner, Manya. The Turkish desserts looked similar to those of traditional Korean. They were fruits or nuts based. I really enjoyed the taste of them because they were like jello, which is my favorite. Ğökhan told me these are good and common gifts when you visit people's houses in Turkey. They are a bit expensive, but Ğökhan brought the brand with highest quality, because he wanted us to experience the best Turkish desserts. While we are eating the desserts, we had coffee as well. It was really thick and heavy, although the coffee glass was really small. Turkish people drink the same kind of coffee everyday several times. People "must" drink coffee in the morning culturally. It is shown in the ward breakfast (kahvaltı) which means "before coffee (kahve)". It was interesting to see how the language implies the culture and people still follow the tradition of drinking coffee after breakfast. We also tried a fortune telling on our phones by using application called Kaave. I have tried this before with Sezqi, who was my previous Turkish language partner. It was interesting to do it again. I got a good luck for this time and the fortune teller was telling me hopeful messages that everything will go well (attached below). I heard if there are lumps of coffee left in the cup, it means that I have a lots of worries stuck in my mind. I thought it was interesting to study how interpret the coffee stained in the cup. I also remembered that I have to say "Neyse halım, çıksın falım", which means "whatever my destiny is, should it be revealed in my fortune." when you flip the cup. Here are some ways to interpret the coffee cup.

• If a big chunk of grounds falls on the saucer it’s the first positive sign of your reading. “Trouble and worries are leaving you”.
  
• If the fallen ground forms a pile means “Money will come to you”.
  
• If cup-saucer are tight and the reader can lift them up as one unit, it’s a“Prophet’s cup”. (Meaning: You don’t need to proceed with reading. “All your wishes will come true!” Most of the readers though will proceed with the reading regardless of that…).

I learned cases and read some story books today. I read Çağlar’ın Süt Dişi, which was about taking out youth teeth, and another storybook about a proud lion. Reading storybooks made me to increase my ability to understand and break down the words in Turkish. I liked how the books have pictures so that I was able to understand the stories easier. My language partner corrected my pronunciation while I am reading the books. I took turns reading the books with my classmate Manya and the language partner. After reading books, I went over the dative, ablative, locative, and  accusative case. Dative case, which is "e" indicates a direction (to), and ablative case (an) means "from". Locative (de) means "at". Accusative case "i" indicates "the" in English. I also learned how to differentiate if the object belongs to someone or not by using "ne/ye". If I use "ye" at the end of the word, it means that the object does not belong to specific person. But it was a bit confusing because the language partner used an example of a museum, and explained it does not belong to a specific person, when it can always belong to somebody.    

Fourth Artifact: Storybook Reading

My progress to date has been smooth and steady. In the main, I have been on schedule. My learning plan has been effective if a bit too ambitious. (Historically, my learning plans have been too ambitious. I think that I do this intentionally at the beginning of the semester so as to push me throughout the semester.) My learning plan has been quite effective because it is contained. It revolves around completing the level 3 Bahasa Indonesia book. For each chapter, I have completed activities that are tantamount to language artifacts.  It is an excellent source for activities -- be they written, oral, and listening. For this reason, I chose to stick closely with the book and not be adventurous with other sources. However, the volume of the material could be deceiving for someone who is learning independent of a classroom environment. I used the same bock (Level 2) for my studies at the University of Melbourne last semester, and I found the pace of my learning and the volume of the material to be more manageable. 

I have met with my language learning partner consistently every week. In our meetings, we cover reading, speaking, and writing activities. 

I will stay the course for now. I do not anticipate any changes I will make to finish the semester. I look forward to taking SDLC 113 next semester!

I have paid a great deal of attention on Turkish history this semester, therefore this cultural post will be related to some of the famous Turkish archeological sites and monuments. I will speak briefly about Historical Blue Mosque, Underground Basilica Cistern, Gobeklitepe(The Man-mad Landmark of Rocks) and Statue Heads of Mount Nemrut. I will talk more on this topic later on my final cultural presentation, since knowing the touristic attractions and the history of the country whose language one is learning is very important.

"Gobeklitepe is the oldest manmade structure in the world, dating from the Neolithic era and beating Stonehenge by thousands of years." It is said to be around 10.000 years old and is speculated to have been an ancient religious center for locals. 

The Blue Mosque in most famous mosque in Turkey. It dates back to 1616 and still operated daily for muslim prayers. It has 6 minarets and 260 windows and is considered one of the best historical places in capital Istanbul. It also attract a wide number of tourists each year.

James Bond fans will recognize this cistern from the movie "From Russia with Love". Historical texts claim that 7,000 slaves were involved in the construction of the cistern."Designed to service the Great Palace and surrounding buildings, it was able to store up to 80,000 cu metres of water delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea."

The giant statue heads that are featured on many holiday postcards of Turkey is a UNESCO World Heritage site, dating back to the 1st century BC. It was built in honour of Greek, Armenian, and Persian gods but "at some point, the heads fell from the main body structure." The statues attract a vast number of tourists even now.

• Teach someone using the activity you created in Week 9; reflect upon the effectiveness of the activity.

During my 9th week I revised a lot of vocabulary of polite phrases in Turkish in order to be able to order something in the restaurant. I also learnt how to ask where the bathroom is or whether someone speaks English. In order to teach someone some of these phrases, I will use an activity I created for myself. This includes learning a number of expressions and words as well as watching short youtube videos for practice. I believe this activity is effective in terms of developing listening skills and being able to understand Turkish as well as being able to read and speak(and possibly write).

Below is the youtube link of the short video of how to order lunch as well as a fun video of beginners ordering food in a Turkish restaurant. I will also add an artifact of the essential expressions to know and memorize. This activity can be done through Quzlet or through speaking practice between two people, which is more convenient for a beginner. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kupCNl-G6Fs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-DD-xaVeYo

For the past 2 weeks I intended to do a lot of revision of what I have learnt not only this semester but also the past semester. I also aimed to create sentences using transitional words as well as go over the most useful expressions in Turkish(bless you, congratulations etc.) Additionally I would go over some time and date words (tomorrow, today, next summer etc.) and make sentences in different tenses as well as speak about my summer plans and do a throw back to my spring break. 

I thought these strategies would be helpful in wrapping up what I've learnt in Turkish. Creating full sentences and being able to use common phrases would definitely improve my language skills. 

As planned I did a lot of revision and asked lots of questions to my language partner. I revisited a lot of vocabulary these weeks and made a lot of sentences using different grammatical structures. I also learnt some transitional words and common phrases. I did speaking and writing practice about my spring break and summer break, thus also revising the 3 tenses learnt so far. It was a challenging week in terms of the amount of the material. Overall, we managed to revise most of the content and add up some new suffix uses(such as ki) used with times and other cases. 

My past week's goals included creating sentences describing my room and other rooms( how many chairs, tables etc there are); learning how to shop and asking for prices, express opinions and even bargain. Although these sounded extremely hard, I wanted to give it a try, since as a tourist, knowing how to shop and behave at shops is essentially important. I decided to ask questions and figure this out with my language partner along with my online resources. 

With my language partner and classmate we created sentences, described surroundings and completed a few paper exercises. The rest of the time we put an emphasize on how to shop or bargain. Since shopping in Turkey is different from shopping in the US(I talked about this in my cultural posts), there is a lot to learn in terms of price negotiation. I learnt to ask prices, say that something is expensive or cheap or that I don't want it anymore etc. We obviously had to also use food and question vocabulary along with other words. This was an effective exercise in terms of combining what I've learnt so far and getting ready to wrap up the semester. I also liked to learn vocabulary and sentences related to a cultural post that I wrote previously. My language partner was of a great help with his native linguistic and cultural perspectives. Overall, although challenging, this week was very productive!

Throughout the semester I've attempted to learn more about Korean culture by talking to Isla, learning from Youngmin, exposing myself to Korean music and watching Korean television. Overall it was really interesting to look at both the many similarities and differences between the culture I'm used to in the states and Korean culture. Some of the big differences I have found are that people in America tend to be more individualistic, while I would say people in Korea seem to be more community and family centric. In the states it is not uncommon for people to place their elderly relatives in retirement homes and pretty much forget about them, but in Korea people give their elders much more respect. The whole language and culture has an age based hierarchy of formality and customs for honoring and respecting those older than you. Isla's grandmother lives with her parents and she is just the sweetest most amazing woman. She was one of the first female doctors in Korea and she worked in the emergency room for much of her life. Isla's grandfather was an aeronautics engineering professor at Waseda university. Whenever Isla talks about her grandparents she is always so filled with love and respect, and you can tell that she is really proud of their accomplishments. 

As the semester comes to an end I've been taking time to review what we've learned over the semester as we continue to learn new things. Youngmin and I have been reviewing vocabulary from introductions through dining and transportation, and even though I've been forgetting throughout the semester I'm making a real effort to remember the large sino-korean numbers and when to use each number system. While there are still many more things that I can't talk about than things I can, it is very exciting to be able to come up with a sentence or grammatical structure that hasn't been taught to me simply by recombining parts that I have learned. I feel like over the semester I've been learning different pieces of the Korean language but as the Semester comes to and end I'm surprised with how much those parts have come together to form an, albeit patchwork, whole language. From my discussions with Michael I have realized that I'm more of a feeling or sense based language learner, and I feel like I've started to develop a slight intuition about the language. While I still have a long way to go I'm proud of the step forward I've taken this semester. 

This is an email I wrote in Indonesian to my roommate. 

     This week, we did some review of what we have learned thus far. Personally, I did not realize how much Indonesian I have actually learned this past semester. Although I realize that each week we are working little by little to achieve some beginner level in Indonesian, it is remarkable how much I have been able to learn and retain thus far. While I am not by any means fluent in Indonesian, after the review session I felt somewhat surprised by how much I was able to understand, even at a beginner level. So far, I have slightly changed the methods by which I have tried to memorize and retain Indonesian words. 

     An effective method I have found that has helped me the most is trying to have a conversation in Indonesian and reading the dialogues that are found in the text book, with a partner. Using this method has helped me with my pronunciation, grammar and syntax, and my ability to create longer sentences. Having a convention in Indonesian has also helped me feel more comfortable making mistakes all while practicing what I already know. 

.pptx

TAEKWONDO%20Presentation.pptx

My cultural presentation is on the Korean traditional martial arts, Tae Kwon Do. I used to practice Tae Kwon Do when I was younger, so I thought it would be interesting to research on a topic that I am familiar with. Tae Kwon Do is a self defense martial arts that teaches not only how to fight, but how to improve character, self-discipline, and confidence that can be applied to any task. Tae Kwon Do took thousand of years to become what it is known today. It has influences from karate, Chinese martial arts, and indigenous Korean martial arts traditions such as Taekkyeon, Subak, and Gwonbeop. Tae Kwon Do aims to change one's lifestyle because it teaches to have a peaceful mind and synchronize your mind with your movements. This extends to your life and how one contributes to society. The principle of physical movements, mind training, and life become one and the same and it eventually becomes a way of life. 

korean%20reflective%20paper%201.docx

For one of the classes we learned about the corrupt political situation in Korea in 1987. My dad had told me when he was in college he had gone to protests and demonstrations against the corrupt political climate in that era, but I didn't really understand the full scope of this historical event. We learned how Korean citizens basically had no power in electing a president that they desired and this was what caused the spark in protests. Many young generations were fighting the corrupt system and one college student was taken in by the government. He was interrogated and tortured severely enough that he had died. This caused even more outrage and thousands more decided to fight back. The government spread propaganda and stated that the cause of the young student's death was due to shock from one of the officials who was interrogating the student slamming on a desk. This was a ridiculous statement and the Korean public knew that it was all lies and continued pressuring the government to give them their freedom. Eventually, the government gave in and agreed to let the people choose who became president.  

I thought this was a crazy part of Korea's history and I had no idea how corrupt the political system was. When it was recently announced that the Korean president was just a puppet for a powerful cult leader's daughter, I remember being so shocked just as many people were in America. However, what shocked me more was my mom's reaction when I talked to her about this. She wasn't even disturbed and replied that the Korean government has always been corrupt and shrugged it off. By learning about what happened in 1987, I can see how her reaction was rational from her experience of living in Korea for most of her life. 

The past two weeks have been the traditional lectures given by Youngmin using the workbook, textbook, and other speaking/writing activities that Youngmin prepares. For one of the weeks, we learned to about characteristics and how to describe them without saying the specific word in Korean. She first introduced the words by giving each of the students 2 characteristics and we had to describe the word without actually saying them. I thought this was a fun way to do an educational exercise. We continued on the lesson plan by doing reading and writing exercises with these characteristics using the workbook and textbook. The beginning of the lesson was a bit rough because I didn't know more than half of the words she provided, but the practice exercises we did really helped with strengthening my understanding of the words when we applied them to right context. 

We had an assignment where we were assigned Korean historical monuments and had to give a presentation to the class. I thought this assignment perfectly aligned with having to teach someone what we learned about our language, so I decided to write about our presentation. I gave a presentation on the Hanok which is a traditional Korean house. I think I may have incorrectly interpreted some significant things I read online because while I gave the presentation Youngmin looked a bit confused and had some questions to follow up on somethings that I had said. Overall, I thought this was a good learning activity because I had to teach the students about a topic I had researched all in Korean. I had to make sure all the things I was saying were clear and easy to understand. I think it went well because the rest of the class seemed interested in the topic and actually understood what I was saying. I think I need to improve more on articulating my thoughts and what I learned. When the students and Youngmin had questions, I had a hard time trying to translate my English thoughts into Korean on the spot and sometimes just gave up and spoke in English.