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My goals at the beginning of the semester were to Improve response time and have more in depth conversations. Through learning the past and future tenses, I have tripled my vocabulary. My response time has improved in conversations. I am getting much better at context clues, which was one of my other goals. I wanted to sharpen my context clue skills through watching Turkish tv. I watched Muhteşem Yüzyıl. I wanted to be able to read short stories and answer comprehension questions about them. I feel confident in my reading capabilities this semester. Even if I don’t know the every word in the excerpt or story, I know enough to get the gist. I also know the structure and vocabulary in the comprehension questions. I wrote more this semester. I wrote for my learning artifacts in Turkish and have written my cultural project presentation in Turkish. I was also able to conduct research for my project in Turkish. I found so many more resources when I used Turkish to Google things rather than googling ‘Turkish funeral customs’ in English.

Another goal was to not translate in my head, but use my Turkish vocabulary to express what I want to say. I did not improve on this skill, as I was not speaking as much Turkish as I should have. It was difficult for me to find people to speak Turkish with outside of class. I wanted to be able to read Turkish news, but this may have been too lofty of a goal. I don’t think my vocabulary is there yet, to be able to read and watch the news.

I have not yet given my cultural presentation, but my goal is to deliver it in Turkish.

Overall, I have learned so much this semester and feel confident in my abilities to communicate and listen. I want to go to Turkey very much and I will continue with this language for a while. Regardless, I have developed language learning skills that I can apply to any language I choose to learn in the future. I have had a wonderful experience with the program and the Turkish language over the past three semesters and I wish I would have started sooner!

Fifth Cultural Post: Reflection

This semester I have learned so much about Turkish culture. I believe it is because I developed a friendship with Sezgi and cultural differences would naturally come up in our conversations. I got to meet some of her friends from Turkey when they came to visit at the beginning of the semester. They taught me a lot about superstitions and they were so nice. I want to go and visit Turkey, now, more than ever. I think I taught Sezgi some things about American culture as well, like Groundhog day. This semester I began watching Turkish television and I began to follow more Turkish YouTube. One day Sezgi presented on Turkey. She talked about the street food and the diversity of the landscape. I would bring questions about Turkish culture to our meetings. I have learned so much more about the culture, beyond Turkish coffee and lokum. I also feel I have a better understanding of Turkey’s position in the world. Here at UofR, we lump Turkey into our Middle Eastern courses, but many Turkish citizens do not believe they belong to that region. People often think I’m studying Turkish because it’s similar to Arabic, some people even think it’s the same language. I have always known the language is completely different, but now I know that the culture is entirely different from any country in the Middle East.

This week I learned body parts, mainly the face. I can now describe my features and the way I look. I can ask questions about others and describe the faces of others. This is a necessary skill in language because we often describe the people we are talking about, especially when we have forgotten their name.

Benim adım Shayna. Ben 21 yaşındayım. Saçım sarı ve gözlerim ela. Yüzüm yuvarlak ve boynum kısa ve omuzlarım geniş, ama burnum ve kulaklarım çok küçük! Ben kısa ve küçük ama güçlü. Ben kısa çünkü annem ve babam kısa.

English translation: My name is Shayna. I am 21 years old. I have blonde hair and hazel eyes. I have a round face and a short neck and wide shoulders, but my nose an dears are very small. I am short and tiny but I am strong. I am short because my mother and father are short. 

Cultural Post 4:

Cenaze gelenekleri

I have now seriously begun my research on funeral traditions in Turkey (cenaze gelenekleri). There are customs that are religious (dini, İslam, kuran okuma) and customs that are pre-Islamic (İslam öncesi). There is specific food prepared (halva) during the time of mourning (yas ve ağlamak). The burial is very elaborate and made of marble (mermer taş ve mezar). 

I am aiming to deliver my presentation in Turkish and then translate into English.

http://dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/kader/article/download/1076000129/1076000146

http://www.jasstudies.com/Makaleler/1497155747_24Onay%20%C4%B0brahim_S-479-490.pdf

Artifact%201.m4a

Evaluation and assessment of Artifact 1:

In my first artifact conversation, Joora and I introduced ourselves, said where we were from, asked how we were doing, and said our farewells. Therefore, I would say that I met my weeks 4 and 5 goals  pretty well. However, I feel that I could work towards making the conversation flow better by practicing my pronunciation and becoming more familiar with the vocabulary.  By doing this, the conversation would sound more natural and less choppy.  In the upcoming weeks, I plan to continue studying greetings and farewells while also beginning to incorporate more vocabulary and cultural knowledge.

Cultural Post 4:

Cenaze gelenekleri

I have now seriously begun my research on funeral traditions in Turkey (cenaze gelenekleri). There are customs that are religious (dini, İslam, kuran okuma) and customs that are pre-Islamic (İslam öncesi). There is specific food prepared (halva) during the time of mourning (yas ve ağlamak). The burial is very elaborate and made of marble (mermer taş ve mezar). 

I am aiming to deliver my presentation in Turkish and then translate into English.

http://dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/kader/article/download/1076000129/1076000146

http://www.jasstudies.com/Makaleler/1497155747_24Onay%20%C4%B0brahim_S-479-490.pdf

I watched the first season of Muhteşem Yüzyıl. It is a Turkish, dramatic tv show about the height of the Ottoman Empire. Muhteşem Yüzyıl means the greatest century. I watch it with English subtitles. I learned a few new words by listening to the Turkish and reading the English translation. What I really enjoy about the show is that there are characters that switch back and forth between Russian and Turkish and I know when they are speaking either with ease. The show also uses some Ottoman Turkish, and I can pick up on this because of my Arabic background. They will use the word with the Arabic origin rather than the latin origin. For example, rakis (arabic influenced word for dance) and dans (the English influenced word for dance). I think being able to pick up on this is a good indicator that I have trained my ears for Turkish. Even though I may not know all the words they are saying in Turkish, I know that they are Turkish words or if they are not. Fun fact: Turkey is the second largest export of TV and movies in the world. I noticed the Turkish tv shows were very popular in the Jordan and Morocco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdeCtflj514 ;

A) My goals and tasks for weeks 4 and 5 are to be able to learn Turkish greetings and farewells, introducing myself, and being able to ask questions like how are you and where are you from.  In this way, I will be able to hold a very basic, brief conversation.

B) In order to achieve these goals, I will first practice pronouncing and memorizing the vocabulary necessary for carrying out these types of conversations.  Then, I will begin practicing with my learning partner and other classmates by having small conversations. I will then continue to study my notes to perfect my pronunciation and to help my responses flow more smoothly.

C) I will evaluate my success by asking my learning partner for feedback and by listening to recordings of my progress.  From there, I will evaluate my accent and accuracy at conveying the correct message.

 Introduce yourself and your family

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The translation is as below:

Hi, how are you? I am Yuchi.wu.

I am Taiwanese.

I am 23 years old and also a senior now.

There are 4 members in my family.

My parents, me, and one elder brother.

My parents are working in a company.

Both of my parents are the owners of the company.

My brother is in his 5th year at his college.

Since he majors in architecture in Taiwan, he has to study for 5 years in total.

I have been here for 4 months now, and I haven't seen my family for a very long time so I miss them very much.

It will be great if I can see them soon.

I really love my family!

Since all the goals for this semester on my learning plan have already been accomplished, so I set a new goal for this week, which is to practice all the materials I have learned during the whole semester for the final evaluation. The teacher in the class really taught us a lot, no matter on the vocabularies, writings, and the conversation. Also, they are all very useful for us! After reading these materials we had learned for this semester, I found out that we really had learned a lot! which I am very grateful. And, about the final evaluation, since it will be based on giving monologues, so I will focus on practicing the conversations we have learned for this semester, and hope that I will do well on the final evaluation. 

Artifact%203%20-%20Family.mp3

Artifact%202%20-%20Identity.mp3

Artifact%201%20-%20Introduction%2C%20Greetings.mp3

I have learned more than 20 new words, and most importantly I have learned how to put those words into sentences. I learned them through constructing sentences that people usually say. Like what I stated on my learning plan, I learned them through having conversation with my language partner and also my Korean friends. I think I do have realistic goals for acquiring new vocabulary. Again, I plan to learn new vocabulary that I will constantly use in day-to-day activities so that I can easily practice them consistently. I don’t want to rush my time in learning new vocab too fast. I think it would be better for me to take it slow, but really use the new vocab over and over again so I remember them.

Learning the history of a language is essential for a language learner. It helps you to understand the context and development of the language. For example, in Korean language, the history of the language emphasizes honorifics, which is still important in Korean language today. For English, learning the origin of the word can help you understand the meaning of certain words. Also, knowing a language’s history can also help to learn about the culture since language and culture are closely linked together. 

Anyeong haseo! Learning Korean has been a mix of fun and challenging experience. The greatest challenge I have found in Korean has been the fact that I am an autonomous learner. Being responsible with my own study plans, conversation topics with my language partner, and self-assessment have been quite difficult for me. Being an autonomous learner requires motivation, consistency, and preparation, which I may occasionally lack. Nonetheless, it has been a fun experience. The fact that I can communicate simple conversations in Korean with my friends and read and write Korean are very satisfying for me, personally, since it proves that my hard work pays off.

Learning the Korean alphabet is a great start to learning Korean language as the alphabet makes up every single word just like English. So far, my progress has been excellent. I have memorized both basic vowels and consonants, which make up most Korean words. However, I have not successfully memorized some of the combinations of the vowels since I rarely use words that require the combinations of the vowels. I have been practicing writing words using the Hanggul (Korean alphabets) over and over and that way I have memorized the consonants and vowels. My language partner would say a Korean word and I would have to write it in Korean, which has been successful for my learning progress. Also, some of the alphabets look similar, hence I use graphical illustration as a reference to remember the pronunciation and the shape. Another method of learning the alphabet is through texting. I have Korean friends that are proficient in Korean, thus I text them in Korean to practice my Korean skills and to communicate at the same time. If I don’t understand what they’re saying, I could just simply ask in English. But the main point of this is for me to master the Korean alphabets, not so for understanding the meaning of each word.

Another great progress for me has been the ability to introduce myself and my family in Korean. I learned a lot of the Korean culture especially when introducing myself. They put a lot of emphasis into the age, so you often mention your age when introducing yourself to others. This is common in the Korean culture because the language has the honorific system. In the western culture, asking for age may seem inappropriate especially during an introduction. Thus, understanding the Korean culture and its honorifics has helped me to better learn the proper introductions in Korean.

Overall, my progress has been on par with my expectations. However, I still need to improve my ability to construct sentences. I know many Korean words, but I haven’t been too successful in combining them to make sentences because I still lack the grammar skills. So, from this point, I plan to improve on my grammar and constructing sentences, so that during my final evaluation I would be prepared to have a conversation. A first step to this would be understanding the general sentence structure in Korean, like where the subject/object goes and where the verb goes in the sentence. On top of practicing with my language partner, I plan to practice with my suitemates as well.

I could relate to the Culture Shock video coming to the US. However, I did not experience any extreme cases, especially about stereotypes. My biggest culture shock is probably living independently, such as doing laundry and my bed alone. Because back home, I never did them. Fortunately, when I met people they actually thought I was American. Almost all of them did not realize that I am an international student. I believe that the distinction point is accent. Many people assume that I am American because I don’t really have an accent. And thus, having an accent could lead to a stereotype that people derive from others.

Byongho’s presentation about the beanie was interesting because it explains such a strong message about the Czech culture just from a beanie. Byongho mentioned that the beanie has a rough surface on the outside and a smooth texture in the inside part of it. The beanie is common in Czech and it helps to explain the personality of Czech people. Byongho pointed out that Czech people can be a little rude on the outside, but they are nice people when you get to know them. Another point that I thought was interesting was the topic of Korean food. Korean food/side dishes are meant to be enjoyed together as a group, not by an individual. This way, Korean food emphasizes on the Korean culture of being together. Dalila mentioned that Koreans have a different dating culture that they go out on dates in groups. All in all, we can learn more about culture from little things that we don’t usually appreciate or pay attention to.

Knowing the structure of Korean will help me in making sentences. Korean language is different from English when putting words in the sentence. The object or subject tends to come first in the sentence and the verb tends to come in last in the sentence. The structure is mostly the same for all sentences, thus it is easy to learn and remember. Reference grammar is very useful to learn when learning a new language because it can simply change the whole meaning to a sentence. However, in Korean people can generally understand what you’re trying to say without having to provide the proper reference grammar, especially when you’re a beginner.

For the next 2 weeks, I plan to practice my final evaluation materials. I will do a simple monologue on introduction and greeting, and I will also be talking about my family and my background. This is one part of my final evaluation. I have done some of the parts for my artifacts, but I will have to make it conversational. So I have to understand each word so I will be able to answer the questions asked correctly. To accomplish these goals, I practiced with my language partner and also my suite mates who are Koreans.