Hebrew first presentation Hebrew - McDonalds
All Posts (9261)
Sort by
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vj2Mx87s9DnnlxNy7gC0iT0QXmxV7tRyEvZi0RCVE4s/edit#slide=id.p
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cLjX8cZJJncTSFHiMgZhSDPKP9_hTt7T0VRqCdbQoSE/edit#slide=id.p
The opportunity given to me to advance my knowledge of my mother-tongue has been incredibly fulfilling despite the challenges I faced during the semester. Although I cannot say that I have reached my goal of being able to write an academic paper in Greek, I can say that I am well on my way of achieving this goal. I have definitely improved my speaking and reading skills through the assistance of my language partner and various learning activities. My reading of advanced Greek comes far more naturally than it did at the beginning of the semester and I have begun to see patterns and similarities in words that are found in common, modern Greek which helps a lot in deciphering the meaning of words and even entire texts. As for speaking, my language partner has noted a dramatic improvement in the clarity of my speech and the quick use of vocabulary. This was important for me because I used to often find myself stuck in the middle of conversations trying to remember Greek words for certain things or actions, which in my perspective was embarrassing when Greek is technically my mother-tongue. I decided to stop my writing lessons relatively early on in the course for two reasons. First, because my writing abilities are far behind my speaking and reading skills it would be hard to try to learn advanced Greek and then have to revert to simpler, everyday Greek for the sole purpose of practicing spelling, writing styles, and grammatical rules. Second, I found that learning to read, understand, and speak academic level Greek was a major task and adding writing to that list would be overwhelming and discouraging due to the sheer amount of work I would have to invest. Outside of the actual results of my Greek learning experience, I was able to gain great insight on the type of learning activities that help me learn. After viewing movies in Greek, watching the news, and reading historical books I found that the latter method was the most effective. This is because I was able to see the spelling of words which helped me in pronunciation and also in deciphering meaning from related or root words. Furthermore, seeing the words and sounding them out in my head or out loud helped me memorize a great deal of vocabulary. Lastly, I found the books very enjoyable which motivated me to continue reading, as well as, immensely educational since they taught me a great deal about Greek modern diplomatic and military history. As a result, as I continue my study of Greek I plan on continuing to read historical books. Thankfully, I am studying abroad in Greece next semester and I am taking several advanced Greek language courses which will allow me to further develop my language skills along with the readings. All this exposure to the language will hopefully one day translate to the privilege of having to decide whether to write my research papers in Greek or English. What an incredible conundrum that will be!
I have learned that understanding culture and language are two completely different problems. As a native Greek I am well aware of Greek culture and the ‘Greek mindset ‘despite the fact that I have lived in the United States since the age of eleven. I keep in contact with all my family, visit my birth city of Athens in the summer, and keep up with Greek news networks enough so that I can say I know what it means to be Greek. Fully understanding the language is a different task altogether, and one that I have found difficult. The Greek language is complicated due to the differences between ancient Greek, old or “clean” Greek, and modern Greek. Advanced Greek speakers utilize vocabulary from all three language groups, although an emphasis is placed on “clean” Greek. Due to the fact that I am only accustomed to modern Greek, I have made it a goal to become more accustomed to “clean” Greek due to its prevalent use. I have also decided to avoid ancient Greek due to its difficulty and its weak resemblance to modern Greek – it would be as if I’m learning another language. I have sought out this goal through the reading of academic ad historical books that utilize college level vocabulary or “clean” Greek and slowly have built a small vocabulary of advanced Greek. The book I read on the Greek decision to invade Asia Minor in order to include the large Greek population of the region in the kingdom in the year 1919 has been incredibly helpful. The constant use of diplomatic and military terminology was often challenging to grasp but through the use of dictionaries and the help of my language partner I was able to decipher the frustratingly difficult sections of the book.
My goal of learning academic Greek is not as heavily connected to culture as other language learners’ goals. “Clean” Greek is confined in academia and politics and if spoken to a common man or woman anywhere in the country they will be most probably confused as to why you are speaking to them in such an official manner. The communicative everyday Greek or modern Greek is a language skill that I am fluent in but the ability to write or read advanced Greek is a skill in progress. A greater utilization of online media could be useful since Greek news networks often show politicians speaking in beautifully orchestrated “clean” Greek when they are in formal settings such as the ‘Bouli’ or the Greek Parliament. Thankfully I can access the ERT Greek state news network since it is streamed live online, which makes it an incredibly useful resource. In the end, the only way I will reach my goal is through hard work and continued daily practice and watching the news everyday can be the 24/7 ‘language partner’ that will teach me.
Greek is a language that contains a massive vocabulary and grammatical rules that can discourage experienced linguists. Part of this is due to the fact that Greek is a language that has existed for thousands of years and through the centuries has been influenced by the changing environment of the regions the ancient language was spoken in and the surrounding cultures that have impacted the language with their own. This has made it difficult for me to master advanced writing skills and I still struggle with spelling, although simple writing (like writing messages or letters to family) remains an easy task. My reading has progressed dramatically and I have noticed a great improvement in my comprehension which will be useful in my courses in advanced Greek that I will be taking at the American College of Greece. I read several historical books on modern Greek diplomatic and military history, which exposed me to college level vocabulary for the first time in my life and has inspired me to continue my progress this coming fall and beyond so that one day I can write research papers in both Greek and English.
I believe both writings make the case that bilinguals are more intelligent. Although, the second reading by Alexandra Ossola makes the case that bilinguals are not necessarily at a great advantage early in their lives due to the lack of vocabulary in a single language compared to monolinguals - despite the fact that if you combine the known vocabularies of both languages of bilinguals it would exceed the vocabulary bank of monolinguals - later in life bilinguals are at a great advantage. The lack of vocabulary in a single language is mended through education and the greater executive function of brains of bilinguals provides evidence for the case that bilinguals are more intelligent. Ossola argues that intelligence is a broad term, but if brain capabilities are increased due to bilingualism or multilingualism then does that not qualify as greater intelligence? Furthermore, it is important to note that the argument does not exclude late language learners and so everyone can attain the benefits of knowing more than one language.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1qQWAkZaObUdHdMeFJHRDdraVE0ZGRlVWlTdGItRndaT2M0
The PowerPoint slides Korean%20Superstitions.pptx
As a language learner I have learned that it is not as easy as I thought it would be to learn a language, especially a language that is absolutely not related to the language I speak. I found it most difficult to understand the sentence structure in Korean and understand how words come together to make a sentence because words are not in the order I am used to. I also found pronunciation very hard because Koreans pronounce words not as they look.
Although pronunciation was hard for me, I still really enjoyed trying to pronounce words. I enjoyed it as much as learning how to say new things in Korean. I loved watching K-pop videos on Youtube and being able to record myself on vocaroo as a way to practice my pronunciation. I also really liked BYKI app because it had a lot of good resources for beginners like me. It broke things down simply enough that I could understand it and be able to learn the language. The mango languages app was very useful in the beginning, but it only had so much free Korean stuff, that towards the rest of my learning process, I was not able to use the app unless I paid for it, but I think that what I learned from that app was very useful.
I also really enjoyed the cultural presentations, especially the ones that were also about Korea because I was able to learn more things about the culture that I had not learned before. For example, I had no idea that Korean’s were very into plastic surgery and looking more like Americans. It shocks me that a culture could want to be like another culture in that physical aspect. I was wondering, why isn’t it that they embrace their physical features, as much as other aspects of their culture? I also liked the presentations we had on the origin of the language because it gave me a good sense of how Koreans speak and how they think of language. Some words in the Korean language are said various ways according to who it is being said to. I think it is fascinating that to there are different ways of saying the most basic word “hello” in various ways because of the fact that they highly respect their elders, and they believe their elders deserve a much more respectful word than “hello.”
Furthermore, I will continue my language learning by making another learning plan with different learning goals. I plan on doing this in the summer so I can continue with my Korean learning, and someday be able to go to Korea and be able to get around easily. The activities I found most interesting were, like I mentioned before, the cultural projects. The readings I liked the most was one how the brain processes languages because I think that it’s fascinating to know how so much information can be processed in different sections of the brain. I also like the reading about bilinguals because I am a bilingual myself, but I don’t know if being bilingual actually means you are smarter, I just think it makes you process things differently.
Finally, I would like to learn more about the how to read and write in Korean, and I think that could be possible once I learn a few more basic words and especially once I begin to learn the Korean alphabet. Overall, I had an amazing experience learning this language, and I plan to one day become somewhat fluent.
It is pretty cool how many deaf organizations exist. There are a lot of organizations that help support the deaf in multiple ways.
The National Association of the Deaf: An organization that deals with civil rights of deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Deaflympics: This is pretty self-explanatory, but these are international Olympic games for the deaf. Deaflympics is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
ADARA: “Professionals Networking for Excellence in Service Delivery with Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.” ADARA allows people who work with the deaf to come together and exchange ideas to enhance the quality of life of the deaf.
American Association of the Deaf-Blind: A nonprofit national consumer organization that has deaf and blind members and also family members, professionals, interpreters, and other interested people. They provide information, services, conferences, advocacy projects, and much more.
There are many, many more, but this is just a few examples of national and international organizations that want to do what they can to help those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The first time when I was going to write the Korean language, it was so difficult to remember the shape of characters. The all looked similar in my eyes and I had no idea how to memorize them. Later, I found the online resources and knew there are Korean word structure and basic letters.
The following are the first set of Korean consonants that you need to get into your brain. There is no easy way to explain them, you just need to memorize them:
ㄱ= k
ㄴ= n
ㄷ= d
ㄹ=r/l*
ㅁ= m
ㅂ= b
ㅅ= s
ㅈ= j
ㅎ= h
Later I learned that there is no perfect way to represent Korean characters using English letters (or sounds). The English letters presented above are the letters that we will commonly find being used to represent their respective Korean letters. While it is helpful (at first) to memorize the general sound of a Korean letter by using the English letter.
I am not too worry about the grammar and sentence structure in Korean. My purpose of learning Korean is not for academic use, but just for fun and using if for travel purpose. Moreover, as a beginner, it would be more suitable to start with conversational phrase and words. So far, I have learnt most of Korean by watching drama and YouTube video. I do understand that there are formal and informal way of speaking in Korean, which are even essential to beginners, since otherwise speaking without noticing it would cause great offense to others. Though I do not plan to learn systematically about grammar this semester, I do plan to learn some grammars in Korean next year. It would also be helpful if I can make some connection between the grammars in Japanese, Chinese with the grammar in Korean.
The body language differs according to culture. In Korea, people bow a lot-for instance, when greeting someone with안녕하세요?” people bow their heads a bit to indicate respect. There are also ways in which you may indicate respect using your hands.
When giving or taking something from a stranger, someone older, someone of higher status, or someone with whom you have a formal relationship (such as a co-worker) use not one hand but two. If it is difficult to use both hands, you can take the object with your right hand as your left hand holds your right forearm. Koreans also shake hands like this- with the left arm holding on to the right forearm.
Drinking has its own rich body language. When pouring for someone, or having a drink poured for you, you should always hold the glass or bottle with two hands, arms extended. In the old days, the sleeves of traditional men’s Korean clothing were very long so one had to extend one’s arms out to receive a glass. Also, when drinking in front of a superior, turn your head a bit so that you are not facing him when you take a sip. This is another way of showing respect.
Koreans have become accustomed to this culture of paying respect to others through these various actions and postures.
I think the readings are very helpful to my learning of Korean. At the same time, the third document reminds of how I learn my mother language, Chinese, when I was a kid and the learning process of Japanese. As a language beginner, I started with a fixed sentence and played with it by changing each part of it with different words. I checked my work by saying it to my parents. And from their action, I gradually build an understanding of each word and structure of the sentence. I did the same thing with Japanese, with some alternation. Since I did not formally take a Japanese class before, I watched lots of Japanese drama and animation as my language source. I closed the subtitle and observed the reaction of the characters to get an understanding of the language. I think those are really helpful tool for me to study Korean.
Another thing that I have always believed in is that “isolated words do have meanings”. I remembered that before I come to the U.S., my English teacher encouraged me to speak English more and don’t be too worry about that I cannot speak a complete sentence. People can understand the words with body language. And this is the starting point of every language learning.
Lunar%20New%20Year%20Vivian.pptx
Notes:
설날 is one of the biggest holidays for Koreans. This holiday seasons typically last three days; 설날 eve, 설날, and the day after 설날. For 2016, it is from February 7th to 9th. At this time, family members get together and spend time together at 큰집 (keunjip) – the house where the eldest brother lives.
The morning of 설날 begins with an ancestral rite, called 차례. A great deal of food is prepared and set in specific places on the table. Once set, family members gather in front of the ritual table and the ceremony begins with deep bows as greetings to the ancestor spirits. The purpose of this ritual is to express gratitude to ancestors and pay for the family’s well-being throughout the year.
세배 is the deep traditional bow of respect to one’s seniors. It consists of deep bows, in which a person kneels to the floor and extends his or her arms outward. It’s slightly different for males and females. Men place their left hand over their right hand, but women put their right hand over their left hand.
After children perform the 세배 to family elders wishing them health and good fortune, they receive some money called 세뱃돈, as well as words of wisdom from the elders.
Every new year’s day, Koreans make the traditional rice cake soup called 떡국 and share it with their family. Interestingly, it is commonly said that one must eat a bowl of 떡국 to become one year older.
New Year Activities in Korea:
Yuttnori, Yeonnalligi, Jegichagi, Tuho, Neoltwwigi, Pengichigi
