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Artifact 2 - a conversation about past activities and hobbies..hobbies.mp3
Artifact 3 - a conversation about future plans.future.amr
Artifact 4 - a list of idioms I learned that have common English counter-parts idioms.amr
(Files work in VLC)
I focused on learning through these activities throughout the semester:
Flashcards
Verb Conjugation charts
Grammar charts
Conversations with Pakistani friends
The topics I covered in my learning activities were:
simple future tense conjugations
informal future tense (going to …)
past participle
Vocabulary: school, work, hobbies
Generally, I prefer learning in a structured setting; it helps for the material to be organized in a structure and method that makes sense to me. This is why I focused on flashcards and grammar/verb conjugation charts for the beginning of each new topic I focused on. Having a set of flashcards with words and their definitions, and charts with the material laid out systematically help me visual what I was learning and made it easier for me to recall things I learned. This was particularly important for when I began a new topic because, for example, I often found myself visualizing a mental picture of the verb-conjugation chart if I was having difficulty recalling how to conjugate a verb. Having activities like these very really helpful for building up my “repository” of vocabulary, grammar and conjugations. While learning languages, I find that if I am able to systematize my learning in these ways, I remember things for much longer.
Even so, having conversations with Pakistani friends was a good way to reinforce and retain the things I learned. However, more important than retaining all the information, having conversations with friends helped in two other significant ways. First, through having conversations with friends and hearing how they would form sentences or how they would choose to convey a message helped my learning process a lot; just because a direct translation from English to Urdu often will make sense, it sounds odd to a native speaker. In my conversations with friends I began to notice details about how a native speaker would convey some idea that was not how an English speaker would convey the same idea. Though learning grammar, vocabulary and idioms all help one’s fluency in a language, I have found that knowing how one pieces together words to convey an idea also makes a huge difference in speaking and understanding the language. So, although there is a lot for me to learn regarding this, there were details I picked up throughout the semester that helped with speaking and listening to Urdu that went beyond just making sure I knew what each verb conjugation and each word in isolation meant.
The second part of having conversations with friends that was very beneficial was getting comfortable actually stringing together the fragments of Urdu I was learning through my charts and flashcards. Being able to hear how friends spoke, pronounced words where they put emphasis as well as myself being able to practice pronouncing words and implementing all the vocabulary, grammar and conjugations helped a lot towards improving my comfortableness speaking the language.
Having done SDLC 105 and 110 already, I felt that overall I picked more effective learning strategies and activities than the previous semester. However, during the semester I did notice that the discrepancy in effectiveness for my learning between some types of learning versus others was much larger than I thought; learning through active means (likes going through flash cards and talking) and systematic/methodical organization of grammar/conjugation charts proved extremely helpful compared to listening activities and especially writing activities (like writing our vocabulary words). One of my goals was to improve my listening comprehension, particularly my ability to understand dialogue in Bollywood movies. So, although it is a goal I still wish to achieve, from what I learned during the semester, I think trying to improve my listening comprehension should not be approached primarily through simply watching Bollywood movies or listening to dialogues (though I did not have time during the semester to actually watch many Bollywood movies). I found that I was able to comprehend much more of what others said through saying things myself than by hearing others speaking; since I learn the language better by doing things myself, I found that the more I used new vocabulary, grammar, etc., understanding what others said came much more easily. For example, when I was learning new verb tenses, just having memorized the conjugations did not help my ability to understand the tenses being used when others spoke, however, as soon as I started to become comfortable speaking in those tenses myself, I found that I was suddenly able to understand others much better than when I had just memorized verb conjugations but was not comfortable using them myself. (Though listening does not seem to be one of my stronger ways of learning, hearing others speak was still essential to improving my speaking because I was able to learn pronunciations and sentence structures from hearing them).
The learning activity I created was a “Concentration game”; I had vocabulary words in English and Urdu written on cards. You flip two cards over at a time, trying to match the English or Urdu word with the appropriate translation in the other language. The vocabulary I focused on were about hobbies and activities I used to have (or still have now): mountain biking (mountains, bike, race), soccer/football (“favorite team”, “win”, “lose”, etc.), singing, videogames, art.
http://www.kpopbehind.com/2014/03/kpop-behind-scenes-kpop-idols-trainee.html
http://www.koreaboo.com/interactive/9-things-trainees-must-go-through-before-they-can-debut/
http://www.spin.com/2012/03/seoul-trained-inside-koreas-pop-factory/
My presentation discussed the auditioning "오디션" and training "연습" background for Korean idols: or "아이돌". Unlike those in the US, people who generally want to become celebrities must audition for an entertainment company or "기획사". The audition process: especially for the big 3 entertainment companies: JYP, SM and YG are extremely competitive. These companies view the trainees as investments and fund these trainees with anything they need both during trainee and after they debut. If you are selected, the trainees or "연습생" (generally students elementary and above) must endure a strict training schedule. Students "학생" often miss school "학교" to attend lessons that can last up to 15 hours a day, going past midnight to dawn "새벽". The training typically can last anywhere from a few months to 10 years. Trainees are constantly very stressed "스트레스" as there are no guarantees of debuting "데뷔" and they can be kicked out anytime. There are also TV shows to pick members of a idol group. They generally consist of these young trainees and are extremely challenging consist of different challenges as its purpose is also to entertain the audience similar to how a normal Korean variety show "예능" would.
Week 14:
Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying:
Since a very young age, I have been taught that Punjab is a monolithic province one a single ethnic group, the Punjabis. However, my view of that has changed greatly since starting to take this course. My eyes have been opened to culture that has had huge impact of the people and history of Pakistan. Since the inception of the country, the Siraiki people have contributed in politics, science and have played a huge part during Pakistan's times of crisis. To add to that, I have had the opportunity to explore the power of peers in the Siraiki community. These individuals whole immense wealth and power and have been known to exploit the poor and illiterate. It has been great learning more about my own country and heritage. It is this knowledge that has allowed me to reconnect with Pakistani and helped me realized what truly means to be a Pakistani.
Self Assessment:
I am fairly confident that I was able to address my learning goals during the course of the semester:
1. Accent: Since the very beginning, Ziad was not pleased the way with which I pronounced words. I have improved enough for Ziad to not bug me too much regarding my accent
2. Vocabulary: The number of Siraiki words in my vocabulary have definitely increased. I am sometimes going through my head trying to remember the words for different objects when I am talking about them in Urdu.
3. I can carryout a conversation in Siraiki. I do have issues articulating sentences but I have lesser difficulty understanding what the other person is saying.
The most interesting part of preparing for Siraiki was writing the scripts. This involved coming up with funny scenarios and translating them to Siraiki. This allowed me to learn new vocabulary and get new grammar tips as well.
The least fun part was try to memorize the words. Because of the mechanical nature of pure memorization, the task was not too appealing.
Siarki Presentation
Week 13:
This was the week of revision. Ziad and I went over all the previous items. This involved us going through all the notes since the very first semester and hammering out my weakness. This was a frustrating task as I did not like the fact that I was making mistakes. We focused mainly on the basics as these were the things that I was more likely to get wrong.
1 hik
2 buh
3 tri
4 chaar
5 panjh
6 che
7 suth
8 ath
9 no
10 duh
11 yaraan
12 barahaan
1.15 savah hik
1.30 did
1.45 ponaen du/buh
2.30 dhai
3.30 sade tri
__ piya thi-de
13 tereen
14 chodaan
15 pandaranan
16 solaan
17 sathraan
18 aithraan
19 unn vi
20 vi
21 iku vi
24 chowi
.
.
.
29 unn tri
30
Days:
Monday Soomar
Tuesday Anghgaro
Wednesday Budhar
Thursday Khamis
Friday Jumoon
Saturday Chanchar
Sunday Aahchar
Week 12:
Culture post:
The death of a peer becomes national news as thousands of his followers can descend on his home to take part in the funeral rites. It would be therefore not wholly unrealistic for these powerful figures to take up politics and a secondary profession. Where does the power of the peer come from? According to his followers, from God himself! A peer is considered a representative and close friend of God. This leads to immense exploitation of the masses. In order to get closer to god one must get closer to the peer. As an example, individuals descend on the peer in times of hardship. They pay him money to make a special prayer to God to ease the individuals suffering. This is a source of major revenue. Though concept of peer is a predominantly Sunni one, one can expect in certain circumstances for both Shia and Sunni Muslims to believe in the same peer.
Week 11:
This week, Ziad and I worked further with wedding vocabulary. We did so writing a script and than translating it into Siraiki. Writing scripts to translate are always interesting for me as grammar comes up that I have not seen before. Therefore, the process adds new nails and bolts to my Siraiki toolkit.
Ziad and I are at his brother's wedding reception:
Hadi: saeein aoa
Ziad: waoa. keh haal heni hain tera
Hadi: thik thaak. tu budha
Ziad: bas yaar ad mera bhai di shadi pithidi hai. oon kamch masroof lagiyaan piyaan
Hadi: Mubarik ho be.
Ziad: ha yaar asa nu bhi kushi hai. bhai 35 salaan da thi gya. aoon shadi napi thivaas
Hadi: Tera kya halaat hain
Ziad: mein ta haali tyaar nahaan akch ta meku chokri golarni hai
Hadi: bhai ki kyun nahin chuki
Ziad: meku apni cousin nal shaadi nahin karni
Hadi: hahaha. Magar teri shaqal he is laiq hai
Ziad: mekun khape hikri gori chitti mai jeka marh likhar hai
Hadi: parhi likhi tumhin chara nahin daale gi
Ziad: chodan to desi na?
Hadi: tu dand jab saal nal hik baar brush karen da hai
Ziad: fiqar na kar, meku chummi nahin deni
Hadi: khana qida mal laksi
Ziad: bas aadh qalak sabr kar. Usi taein mela khandaan di maiyaan di pundi kar
Hadi: khuda da khof kar be. unhaan de moon teh mekan wadeeq waal hin
Ziad: to kithya, teri khatir bleach kar dein gi
Hadi: nahin bhai, mein aadhe kala kan picha asaan
Ziad: chal ok jinab, asa ida aihein
Week 10:
Peers play a very important part in politics. With thousands of followers, millions of rupees and acers upon acers of land at their disposal, these individuals make perfect candidates for broken political system. In my exploration of the topic, I came to know a very interesting fact. PTI, a political party that thrives on middle class vote, which advertises itself as a party of the middle class, for the middle class, also has its fare share of peers. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and currently in the top brass of the PTI is a peer as well. The man who often dresses in fashionable and expensive suits can be hardly be expected to pass as a turban wearing Peer with religious inclinations. What is interesting is that even though PTI less corrupt than most other parties that is why one expects it to have less influence from the Peers.
Learning Plan:
Overall, the plan was successful. Teaching my friend the pattern and helping him realize the similarity with English numerals was immensely useful. When I was teaching the numerals, my friend had no trouble understanding. However, once I shifted to the quiz, he did not do too well. A solid C+. Still, I am proud of him!
Bi-Weekly Post:
Given that it is the time of marriages in Pakistan, Ziad and I decided to go over the vocabulary that one might use when talking about the union. To my distress, there were no words that we went over that had any similarity with words that one uses in Urdu. To add to that, the words that Ziad used contained characters that are not present in the Urdu language. I had to struggle through this task as I wanted to get the pronunciation exactly right. This task proved to be immensely difficult. However, Ziad and I were able to reach a point where he was satisfied with my pronunciation, even if that was done just to keep me from wasting more of his time.
Shadi
Shadi/biya
dulha
ghot
dulhan
kanwari
barat
jann
inlaws
susr
invitation
niyaapa
pre-marital sex
chadi ak naksh thokar
family
khandaan
adultry
zina
husband
murs
wife
zal
pidaaish
dumar
bacha
baal
young one
nandha
bacha/bachi
chokra/chokri
Learning Plan:
numbers
I decided to create a learning plan to teach my American friend numbers and counting in Siraiki. The task involved first writing down all the numbers 0 to 9 and teaching the pattern that exists. While the numerals we use in the English speaking world is based on the Arabic numeral system, the Siraiki numeral system is entirely taken from the Arab world. This means there is significant overlap that allows for faster accumulation of numeral knowledge. Therefore, after teaching the pattern, I would compare the numerals to English numerals to instantly clear up any problems. Then I would quiz the individual on what he or she has learned.
I looked back at my learning goals that I had started off the semester with and reflected on whether I had fulfilled all of my goals.
1. I have definitely improved my reading skills in terms of pronunciation and skills. Although I cannot read as fast as I can in french or english or arabic but I have definitely improved.
2. Although I am able to write simple texts I make a lot spelling mistakes. Learning how to spell words should by my future goals.
3. I have definitely started to using different more connecting words although it takes me some time to come up with them.
4. I have started to use proper endings with words. Although I miss almost 40% of the time but I still try to use the endings.
5. I have gotten practice of conversing on a topic without preparation.
6. I can express my opinion and justify myself to a certain extent.
Throughout the semester I have looked at religions in South Korea, folk village, ettiquette schools and slangs words in korean. In the process of my research I had been able to draw several overarching lines connecting the the topics. Although Christianity is has the largest number of followers in korea, the ideals of Confucianism is still deeply rooted in the society and is the root of most of the social norms and ideals valued by the people. This is partly because Christianity came to korea after Confucianism. Therefore, traditions like respecting the ancestors, social hierarchy, age hierarchy and formality are strictly followed by the koreans. They are very inflexible when it comes to showing proper respect. I have also seen it in korean TV shows where foreigners would talk about properly greeting people being the most difficult getting used to when they first came to korea. The importance parents put in teaching their children proper etiquette is also due to their beliefs. In addition to respecting elders and proper greetings, the children are also taught proper table manners and overall behavior.
The rest of the my tutoring sessions with JI Hae was spent mostly on conversations. We would start talking about how our day went and then we would branch off to other topics about our future plans. Having such conversations has very big advantages. Since we were talking about something more than just our common interests it helped me have a deeper conversation in korean. Compared to having Alvin or Suyeon as my previous language partners, I had a very different experience with Ji Hae. Alvin and I rarely had any conversation other than talking about grammar since we were not really friends. With Suyeon, although we frequently talked about different things other than grammar, the conversations were almost always about our likes and dislikes. But with JI Hae, since she has known me for the longest time, our conversations ranged from our likes and dislikes to future plans, anxiety, stress and many other aspects of life. It really helped me expand on my vocabulary and use different forms of sentences.
I looked into korean phrases and words that are used by contemporary koreans. These are basically short forms of words which are similar to "bff".
1. Namsajin: a male friend
2. Namchin/Yeochin: Boyfriend or girlfriend
3. Coolchaem: interesting thing
4. Nochaem: Something uninteresting
5. Soolkamal: speak honestly
6. Theorepkae: badly
7. Bhumcheolnam: man who just got married
8. Mossol: someone who never had a boyfriend or girlfriend
9. Keukhyeom: extreme disgust
10. Mildang: push and pull in relationships
11. Naega ssolkkae: I will pay/ it is my treat. Actually the last part of the phrase means to shoot.
