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Once again, I’ve been spending this month learning new vocabulary. This time, it’s been more focused on greetings, introductions, things I will use in my daily life. I’m a huge cook, so I took to my pantry labelling things in Hebrew, and now have many common cooking ingredients memorized. I might not always remember the word for shirt (חולצה) but I certainly know the word for garlic (שום). It was a good reminder of the effect of immersion, because while I was clearly not completely immersed, that’s some of the vocab I can easiest call to mind because of the number of times I saw it. Another fun fact pertaining to food: I’m deathly allergic to several different foods, so I also made sure they were top of my list to memorize! If I do get to travel to Israel, I’ll most have to worry about nuts (אגוזים eh-go-zEEm) and peanuts (בוטך bot-en) as they’re a super common food group.

I’ve continued to work on vocabulary lists with Maddie, and we’ve now covered the entire Hebrew calendar as well as basic numbers. I went through my Google calendar and customized it to include the Hebrew names and when they start, as well as all Jewish holidays. This is where I got the idea to do my final cultural project about Passover, or Pesach (פסח), as well as the ritual surrounding it. I’ve also started listening to pop music in Hebrew, and while I can’t really understand it, I do feel jolts of excitement when I understand a phrase here and there. It makes for great background music while doing homework, and I’m certain “Israeli Pop” is going to wind up in my Spotify Wrapped. That being said, I do recognize and can sing along to several simple tunes from religious service, and I feel like that has really helped me with my pronunciation for those texts. Music has been a great tool for my learning, and I’m excited to utilize it more when I can.

As for a less successful experience… It was advised to me to watch some children’s programming like Shalom Sesame to gain a good understanding of different basic Hebrew concepts, and I tried, I really did, but I found a lot of the children’s TV grating and slow. While it might’ve been helpful, I found it too annoying, so did not end up using it as a resource.

I’m rather unsure of my next step yet. I want to continue learning vocab, but I feel that I haven’t really learned much about grammar. While I can struggle through simple readings, I’m sure all my writing beyond those same simple sentences would be atrocious. Since Maddie is familiar with the religious text I’d like to learn, I’d also like to review them with her, as I know the sound of the prayer from the repetition of saying them in services, and I know their meaning because I know the English translation, but that’s clearly not the same thing as understanding the actual Hebrew.

So far, I think the first couple weeks of Hebrew learning have been going well! I have been working with my Israeli language partner Pazit over iTalki. We spent the first week going over my goals for the semester as well as all prior knowledge that I have. Unfortunately, the answer to that is not much, just what I know from religious service / have picked up from being around the Jewish community. I can recognize some common phrases, greetings, and holidays, but am overall not educated in the language of Hebrew. Our knowledge bases don’t really match up, as I’m approaching it mostly with a religious background and my tutor is not religious, but I don’t think that’s a barrier; I’ll simply be learning from a different point of view. My focus was originally supposed to be Biblical Hebrew, but upon further conversations with my tutor and my rabbi, it will be easier to focus on Modern Hebrew and put Biblical Hebrew on the backburner until I have better fluency.

So, given where I’m currently at with the language, we’re going to start with the beginning: the alphabet. I purchased a Hebrew writing language book to practice the different letters, which I’m going to supplement by making flashcards, both so I can easier recognize the letters on sight, but so that I also can get practice writing them. I’m admittedly having a bit of memorizing the letters, but I’m also still in the first part of really learning them. I’m going with the philosophy that “a steady base is what I’ll build the rest of the language on”.

As well as this, an English / Hebrew dictionary should be delivered by Amazon later this week, so I’ll be able to use it as a reference when learning new words and phrases, or when I find new words that I’m unfamiliar with.

Reflecting on this past semester, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have started my learning journey with Hebrew at UR. Overall, I think I’ve done a better job at the “cultural exploring” part of that than the language learning, but I have confidence that it’ll come with time. Culturally, I was able to accomplish many things: reading through the entire Torah (in English) and gaining confidence with familiar prayers in Hebrew, attending regular shabbat service, and learning about holidays and traditions. This came with learning many new words, phrases, and customs in Hebrew to be appropriate and respectful. In my language learning specifically, I gained familiarity with the alphabet, basic grammar, months of the year and days of the week in the Hebrew calendar, colors, and numbers, as well as greetings, introductions, and other words I’ll use in my daily life.

My greatest struggle is probably reading. I’m much better at recognizing words in isolation than when combined in proper sentences, and because I only have a keyboard with an English face (and it’s not a 1 to 1 ratio sound-wise on the keyboard) I get little practice typing Hebrew. Since I mainly write it, while I can recognize words in different fonts, it definitely does slow me down, particularly for letters that look similar that I mix up more frequently in words. (Of course, I have the same problem with English, so that’s not surprising!) I haven’t reached the level of fluency to speak beyond practiced phrases, so have the least practice with it, or else I’d consider that my biggest struggle.

One of my favorite things I’ve done is learn through music. The prayer that has been the easiest for me to understand and memorize has all been because of its musical element, and it’s been amazing to listen to modern Israeli music. Even if I can’t often sing along, I truly think it’s made a difference in my pronunciation. Also, it’s just impressive! The skill of someone to be able to wrap the sound of a chet (ח) amazes me. I’ll try to continue to focus my new learning with this in mind, and work with translations of songs to help my vocabulary grow. As I memorize songs, I’ll be able to grow in my everyday vocabulary, as well as grow more familiar with modern usage of words and slang.

Interestingly, I found the article about dead languages the most helpful – since I knew Hebrew had been considered a dead language for a while, I dove into the language’s history and the revival of it as a language, starting with some basic internet articles, then a couple scholarly ones as well as several, several Wikipedia pages.

My interest has been quite piqued by modern Hebrew; originally, I was just planning on learning Biblical Hebrew, and I didn’t even know enough to know that would be a challenging idea. I want to grow my vocabulary and usage so that I can grow in skill with reading and speaking Hebrew; I’ve just expanded the scope. While practically this will likely stay on the religious side of things, my goal is still to be fluent one day.

Reflecting on my experiences this semester, I am very happy with the progress that I have made as a language learner. I enjoyed having the autonomy to create my own learning plan while learning at my own pace. At the same time, I think the most challenging part was following the weekly learning schedule that I planned out for myself at the beginning of the semester. I definitely made changes along the way but I think it was still a good way to organize my goals.

Some of my favorite learning activities included singing Korean karaoke, texting my language partner in Korean, and cooking Korean food with my language partner. All of these activities strengthened my listening, reading, speaking, and writing abilities, in a fun way. I also learned a lot about Korean business culture through my final cultural research project. It was insightful to learn about the differences between what I am accustomed to seeing here in the U.S. compared to Korean business settings. I also really enjoyed hearing the cultural presentations of other language learners in my SDLC class and, overall, it was really great to see the progress each of us made in our own target languages. 

In class, I found our unit on grammar (morphology and syntax) to be very useful. Our discussions on derivational and inflectional affixes helped me learn how to break down Korean words to better understand their meaning. Moving forward, I plan to continue developing my Korean language abilities, with a stronger focus on speaking in case it becomes useful in the workforce. I also look forward to learning new vocabulary as I continue listening to Korean music and watching Korean content on YouTube and Netflix.

https://urcapture.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=7989e98e-ba5e-4478-9905-ae85000a245e

Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken the time to improve my Korean listening skills by watching Korean television shows that are available on Netflix. One that I particularly enjoyed watching was Twenty-Five Twenty-One, starring Nam Joo Hyuk and Kim Tae Ri. I thought that the story was well written and I loved each of the characters’ personalities. The show takes place during the 1990s during the Asian Financial Crisis and follows the story of a teenage girl and a young man who are working to accomplish their dreams during hard times. 

From watching this drama, I learned about the IMF crisis and some of the difficulties that South Koreans faced due to the unprecedented foreign exchange shortage in December 1997. I learned that this was a very painful period in Korea’s history because so many people lost their jobs and their livelihood. I also learned a lot of new Korean vocabulary on topics like fencing and reporting. For example, breaking news or 긴급 속보 (gingeub sogbo) was a word that came up very frequently throughout the episodes as one of main characters becomes a reporter. 

In addition, my language partner and some other SDLC students took a trip to Northern Virginia where we enjoyed our last Korean meal together. We ordered our food in Korean and thoroughly enjoyed the Korean BBQ and the variety of side dishes offered at the restaurant. We also talked about our experiences taking SDLC this semester and how we planned to continue our Korean language learning moving forward.

Something that was very interesting to me is how friendly and tight-knit Turkish people are. Turkish people love Turkish people. They also love Turkey. Nationalism is huge in Turkey. Even to the point that Görkem was keeping up with the World Cup qualifying matches during our class meeting because Turkey was playing. The people of the United States do not share those same nationalistic qualities. These qualities also translate to them supporting local fellow Turks rather than big businesses. Görkem was telling me that when he was a little boy, him and his mom would go to the different farmers markets around the city. Each farmers market had a specific day of the week that they were open. Depending on the day would determine how far they would have to walk to get groceries. These farmers markets were much cheaper than grocery stores, and you were able to get exactly what you needed. For example: if you only needed one egg, you were able to buy one egg rather than having to buy a whole dozen. This also exemplified the gender roles that were in place at that time in Turkey. He talked about how the men were the breadwinners of the family and worked during the day to make all of the money. The women, on the other hand, were in charge of the duties around the house which is why he was always with his mom when she went shopping during the day. He also said that every single person at the farmers markets were also women taking care of the duties around the house. I think it is very interesting to see the shift from these farmers markets to grocery stores over the years. Nowadays it is more common for people to go do their grocery shopping at the grocery stores. My Italian classmate also said that this was the case in Italy. When he was a child, they also had the farmers markets while now they mostly have grocery stores. I guess it is all part of the evolution and industrialization of a nation. Grocery stores probably in bring a lot more money to the government rather than the farmers markets. Over the course of the semester, I have learned so much about Turkish culture. I feel that it has not only given so much insight into Turkish culture, but also a lot of insight about the culture in which I live. To truly know about a culture, you must live for an extended period of time in that culture. I would love to live in Turkey for an extended period of time just to experience the culture and better me Turkish language skills. I would also like to personally express how grateful I am for my language partner Görkem. He has been nothing be the best for me on this Turkish learning journey. I would also like to thank Dr. Soloway for always facilitating my language learning journeys over the past year. Without them, my knowledge would be extremely limited. This has been such a wonderful experience and I look forward to continuing this over the years.

One day in class, we were completing an activity in our textbook that had to do with the different modes of transportation. Görkem asked me questions like about how I get to different places like: “how do I get to the store?” “how do I get to school?” “how do I get home?” “how do I get to class?” “how do I get to work” etc… I actually get to class by walking. But every other question, the answer was “by car / driving”.  Even my roommates consistently want to drive to class or to work even when they are well withing walking distance. Görkem was astounded by how much we drive here in the United States. This is a huge cultural difference between us and Turks. He also told me that he lives over 2 miles away from the University of Richmond’s campus and he walks to the university every day. He also has friends here in the United States that live a little more than a mile away from the grocery store. The consistently drive to the grocery store rather than walking there. I found hilarious how surprised he was about this phenomenon. Apparently, in Turkey, the prefer to walk everywhere. He told me that he typically walks over 10 miles every day in Turkey. He walks to school, he walks to the store, he walks to the café, he walks home, etc… Typically the only time he drives is if he is going somewhere over 10 miles away, or if he is going to different city. Also, the Turkish city infrastructures allow for it to be easy for people not to use motorized vehicles to get to and from places. They have many sidewalks and designated areas for walking and biking. I also do not think that it is a uniquely Turkish practice to mostly walk to and from places. I have many friends from Europe who have also said that they mostly walk to and from places and rarely use cars to get to different areas. Honestly, if they are going somewhere out of walking distance, they prefer to use public transportation rather than their own cars. I honestly believe that we should practice walking more here in the United States. It would be a lot more economically efficient, it would be more environmentally friendly, and it would be healthier to get that form of exercise. This was a very interesting thing to learn about. I feel that I would like to practice that when I am all settled into my career. I do definitely feel that I would get some weird looks though, especially if people saw me walking to and from the grocery store, or if people saw me walking to and from work. I am very sure of myself and do not let what others think affect my actions. I will say that Americans have more of a culture plagued by laziness than Turkey does, which is why it would make sense for these norms to be different.

In one of our sessions with my language partner, he asked us if we liked coffee. My other classmate, who is Italian, loves coffee. Apparently, coffee is a huge part of Italian culture. I am personally not a fan of coffee. I hate the way tastes. My language partner said that he was thinking about doing a session on Turkish coffee culture. Even though I do not like coffee, I was very curious to see what Turkish coffee was really about. Coffee is a huge part of the Turkish culture. It is used as a social outlet. Friends and family spend hours on end at coffee shops just sitting there talking and laughing, and enjoying time together. It is similar to the vibes of a bar in the United States. My language partner also explained how coffee readings are a technique that guys use to pickup girls. Girls like coffee readings and horoscopes. It is a form of fortune telling similar to what palm readers use for palm reading, and what psychics use to tell the future. Turkish people love their coffee black as hell and strong as death. So in our session, Görkem made our coffee and served to us in his authentic Turkish coffee dishes. The dishes were very similar to what is used for espresso shots (though it is not called that in Turkish). I drank it and it was extremely bitter. After drinking it, there were coffee grinds at the bottom of the cup. We would then proceed to turn our cups over onto the saucer and let the coffee grinds make distinct patterns all over the cup and saucer. Then we had to wait a few minutes for it to cool down. After it cooled, we picked the saucer and cup up and rotated it three times counterclockwise. We then flipped the turned the cup over either away from you or towards you. If you turn it away from you, the coffee reader will talk about your future and if you turn it towards you, the coffee reader will talk about your past. I turned mine away from me to see what my future held for me. Görkem looked at the distinct patterns in the cup and said that I would have a celebration of sorts soon and that I will be very stable. For me the celebration could represent me graduating college, and I also have a very stable household. I then proceeded to do a coffee reading for my classmate. I told him that I saw a ladder in his cup which meant that he would metaphorically climb a ladder soon. He said he literally has to climb a ladder to clean his gutters. I also saw a river in his cup which means that he will travel somewhere soon. This is actually how we learned to form the future tense of verbs. Overall, I enjoyed doing the coffee readings with my peers. Hopefully, I will be able to travel to Turkey and actually do one with a Turkish girl.

Turkey has a very fascinating culture. Geographically, Turkey is located on the Mediterranean Sea. It shares borders with Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria to the south; and Bulgaria and Greece to the northwest. Greece and Turkey have a rich history empirical and political conflict dating back to the Ottoman days. Greece used to be a part of the Ottoman Empire until it declared its independence before the fall of the empire. Since those days, there still remains cultural conflict between Turks and Greeks. The sentiments seem to be that Greeks hate Turks and Turks hate Greeks. My language partner used to share those same sentiments until he met Greek people and realized that they are very much similar people. Even to the point to where he could say “Greeks are just Christian Turks and Turks are just Muslim Greeks”. Greeks and Turks do have very similar cultures. A huge part of Turkish culture is the authentic Turkish food. But there are some specific foods that Greeks have tried to market as traditional Greek food, when in reality, it is Turkish. One food that is authentic Turkish food, but around the world is always advertised as Greek, is baklava. Baklava is a pastry made of dough, nuts, and syrup or honey. It is very delicious. The word “baklava” itself is of Mongolian and Turkic origin which shows its Turkish origin. Also, the pastry dish uses pistachios as one of its main ingredients. Turkey is actually one of the world’s largest producers of pistachios, which are cultivated in the southeastern part of the country (very far away from Greece). Another dish that was originally Turkish, but also claimed by the Greeks is dolmades. Dolmades are grape leaves stuffed with various things such as rice, vegetables, and ground meats. The word “dolma” itself is of Turkish origin and means to fill or to stuff, which supports that it is of Turkish origin. Dolmades are actually one of my favorite Turkish dishes. One last thing that is claimed to be Greek, is Greek yogurt (strained yogurt). This type of yogurt has become popular in the western world and is marketed as authentically Greek. The word yogurt comes from the Turkish word “yoğurmak” which means “to knead; to be curdled or coagulated; to thicken. The yogurt food probably is not originally Turkish, but it is definitely not of Greek origin. Also, the most popular brand of “Greek” yogurt, Chobani, was really made by a Turkish man. When my language partner told me these things, I was astounded and very intrigued because I thought that only of these things were authentically Greek because they are always advertised as Greek. But it definitely makes sense that these things have made their way to Greece, due to the historical power of the Ottoman Empire. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that these foods are all of Ottoman origin rather than just Turkish origin. Because the Ottoman Empire was centered around modern-day Turkey, that may be why those dishes are considered Turkish.

Because our class is not an intensive language class, we really chose to focus on the Turkish grammar for the most part. When reading Turkish, I can easily identify the subjects, objects, and verbs. This has come at the expense of learning vocabulary, therefore it is difficult for me to understand what the sentence is actually talking about. My classmate actually provided a great tip for learning the Turkish vocabulary. He has been using Duolingo along with the Turkish grammar we are learning in our classes. For him, Duolingo was used solely for vocabulary. He recommended that I do the same in order to learn some vocabulary. I definitely took his advice, which very much helped me a lot. Also this last month, we learned the proper way of saying what time it is in Turkish. Apparently it is more common for Turks to use phrases like “a quarter til”, “a quarter past”, “half past”, and “10 til”, than it is in English. In English, there is more of a generational gap for these phrases. Older people use these phrases while younger people prefer to tell the exact time. The last major thing we reviewed this semester was the future tense. The future tense was also pretty easy to learn. Over the course of the semester, after I learned that Turkish was based on certain suffixes depending on the tense, I learned the material fairly quickly. The future tense is shown below:

Future verb tense: take root, add “-acak (if preceding vowel is a, ı, o, u,) or -ecek (if preceding vowel is e, i, Ü, Ö)”, add suffix

Olmak = to be

Ben: ol-acağ-ın = olacağın                  Biz: ol-acağ-ız = olacağız

Sen: ol-acak-sın = olacaksın               Siz: ol-acak-sınız = olacaksınız

O: ol-acak = olacak                             Onlar: ol-acak = olacak

It is important to note that in the first person conjugations we do not use “k”. because the consonant “k” is a hard consonant, the Turkish language makes it softer by using “ğ”. The hard consonants that must be substituted in Turkish are “k, p, t, and Ç” and will be substituted with “ğ, b, d, c” respectively. This past month we also learned about the months of the year, the different seasons, and the days of the week. One thing that was very interesting to me was how most Turkish words come from old Ottoman Turkish, while some also come from Arabic and Persian. I feel that Islam has a huge influence in Arabic rooted words in Turkish. One more thing that we have learned this semester was the modes of transportation. I honestly have learned an incredible amount of Turkish this semester. Unfortunately, I am not able to write about all of it because it is so much. I plan to continue learning Turkish following graduation because it is so interesting to me. Hopefully, I will be able to travel to Turkey and really use the language skills I have acquired so far. I am so grateful for my teacher taking the time to really wok with me. This experience has been like no other.

As mentioned in my last journal entry, we have really devoted a lot of focus to forming the present progressive tense in Turkish. We also talked a little bit about the simple present tense, but did not devote much time to it because it is very uncommon to use the simple present tense in Turkish. It is just preferred to use the present progressive tense. Listed below is how the present progressive tense is formed:

Verb: (Pre. Prog) – take the root, add “yor”, then add pronoun

Okumak = study

Ben: Oku-yor-um = okuyorum                       Biz: oku-yor-uz = okuyoruz

Sen: Oku-yor-sun = okuyorsun                       Siz: oku-yor-sunuz = okuyorsunuz

O: Oku-yor = okuyor                                      Onlar: oku-yor = okuyor

It is also important to note that if the root word ends in a consonant, you must add a transition sound after the root word depending on the vowel preceding the consonant.

Transition sounds

If the vowel preceding the consonant is:

“a”, “ı” it will transition to “ı”

“e”, “i” it will transition to “i”

“o”, “u” it will transition to “u”

“Ü”, “Ö” it will transition to “Ü”

Examples:

yazmak = yazıyorum

konuşmak = konuşuyorum

The present progressive is very easy to form. During this month, we also learned how to form the past tense of verbs. The past tense is also very simple to form. It is as follows:

Past tense: take root, add “-di, -dı, -ti, -tı”, then add personal suffix

Sevmek = to like

Ben: sev-di-m = sevdim                      Biz: sev-di-k = sevdik

Sen: sev-di-n = sevdin                        Siz: sev-di-niz = sevdiniz

O: sev-di = sevdi                                 Onlar: sev-di = sevdi

One irregularity to in the past tense is that the first person plural conjugation always ends in “k”. this is specific to the past tense. It does not happen in the present or future tenses. Another thing we learned this month is how to negate verbs. The rule for negating verbs is listed below:

Negative verbs: take root, add “mı, mi, mu, mü”, and the rest is the same depending on tense and personal pronoun

Negative present progressive:

Ben: sev-mi-yor-um = sevmiyorum                Biz: sev-mi-yor-uz = sevmiyoruz      

Sen: sev-mi-yor-sun = sevmiyorsun               Siz: sev-mi-yor-sunuz = sevmiyorsunuz

O: sev-mi-yor = sevmiyor                               Onlar: sev-mi-yor = sevmiyor

Negative past:

Ben: sev-me-dim = sevmedim                        Biz: sev-me-dik = sevmedik

Sen: sev-me-din = sevmedin                          Siz: sev-me-diniz = sevmediniz

O: sev-me-di = sevmedi                                  Onlar: sev-me-di = sevmedi

It is important to note that there are some differences in the negative suffixes for the present progressive tense and past tense. The negative past tense uses the exact same preceding vowel while the negative present progressive uses the paired counterpart vowel. In other words, there are 8 possible vowels for the negative past tense suffix while there are only 4 possible vowels for the negative present progressive tense suffix. In my opinion, learning how to negate verbs in Turkish was one of the easiest grammar rules for me to master. So far I am very content with my language learning journey so far. It really makes me happy to be able to learn a language that is not Latin based.

So far, my language learning journey is going very well. One thing that is very easy about the Turkish alphabet is that each letter makes one, and only one sound. This makes the pronunciations of words extremely easy. After learning the alphabet and basic conversational phrases, we decided to learn about the Turkish pronouns. Pronouns are extremely important in the Turkish language. Almost every word in Turkish sentences receive pronouns in the form of a suffix. Verbs, adjectives, nouns, and adverbs always have pronoun suffixes to clarify who and where these words are being applied to and directed. The pronoun suffixes are as follows:

                                                (ex. Doktor)

1^st person singular: -(vowel)m            1^st person plural: -(vowel)z

(ex. Doktorum)                                   (ex. Doktoruz)

2^nd person singular: -s(vowel)n           2nd person plural: -s(vowel)n(vowel)z

(ex. Doktorsun)                                   (ex. Doktorsunuz)

3rd person singular: -                          3^rd person plural: -

(ex. Doktor)                                        (ex. Doktor)

Another thing that is very important to note is that the Turkish language has a strict rule of vowel harmony. Suffixes have rules about what vowels can be used in them. Based on the vowel sound preceding the first suffix, only one vowel can be used to match that sound. The vowel harmony rules are as follows:

VOWEL HARMONY

A, I > I

E, i > i

O, U > U

Ü, Ö > Ü

If the root word’s last vowel is in one of the vowels to the left of the arrow, the suffixes being applied to the root word will only contain the corresponding vowels to the right of the arrow. For example:

iyi > iyiyim

güzel > güzelim

Üzgün > Üzgünüm

In order for us to master how to use the suffixes, our teacher gave us a list vocabulary words and asked us to study the definitions and do all of the personal conjugations for homework. In addition to this, we also learned the sentence structure for the Turkish language. This is something that I struggled with at first because the structure is the complete opposite of the English sentence structure. English has a subject-verb-object sentence structure while Turkish has a subject-object-verb sentence structure. This sentence structure can sometimes complicate things for me because you must apply the verb to either the subject or object using another suffix. My classmate and I found it to be difficult at first. Unfortunately she dropped the class during this time while we received another student. The new student is a Spanish teacher. This was wonderful for us because we could relate the Turkish teachings back to the Spanish rules since we all studied Spanish. This ended up helping us learn the concepts relatively quickly. During this month, and carrying over to the next month, we really started to focus on speaking and writing in the present/present progressive verb tense. It was fairly easy to learn this verb tense, as it is used the most in Turkish. We also decided that it would be more beneficial if we started meeting twice per week rather than once per week. That way we could gain a lot more practice with each other.

Merhaba (hello). Benim Adım Nile (my name is Nile) and this is my Turkish language learning journey. I really love learning languages. I have been studying languages since I started schooling in kindergarten. English is my first language and I was immersed in Spanish from kindergarten all the way through high school. Once I came to the University of Richmond, I started studying Portuguese. Now I have decided that I wanted to learn a non-Latin based language. I have always wanted to travel to Turkey and learn about the culture and rich history. Before starting to learn the language, I took an Ottoman history class in my freshman year which is what probably sparked my interest in Turkish culture. I have also seen many Turkish people in some of my favorite sources of media. On my first day meeting with my language partner/teacher Görkem, he first asked me about why I wanted to learn Turkish and what knowledge I already have about Turkish culture. He was very surprised about how much I already knew about Turkey. My knowledge included historical facts dating back to the Ottoman times, geographical locations, known politicians, bordering countries, cities within Turkey, ethnic groups, and some authentic foods. He even went on to tell me that a lot of people in Turkey do not even know much of what I had just told him. He then proceeded to give me an overview of basic facts about Turkey. He also asked me about what I wanted to learn about the language. We then came up with a plan of what I wanted learn. My biggest priority was learning the basics to conversational Turkish. The reason I wanted to learn these conversational phrases is so that if I ever have the opportunity to travel Turkey, I will be able to greet people in their language and have general conversation with them. From my traveling experience, people like it way more when you can speak or attempt to speak their language. It makes a lasting impression. After learning those basics, then I would like to progress to more advanced things with the grammar including verb conjugations and tense. In my opinion, it will probably be easiest to start with learning the present tense and then progress to the future and past tenses. So far we have decided to meet once per week for 2 hours. In our first material based meeting we learned  our basic conversational phrases like “hello”, “goodbye”, “where are you from”, “my name is…”, “thank you”, and “me too”. One of Görkem’s friends also decided that she wanted to learn a little bit of Turkish, so she joined us. It was very nice to have someone else who was just beginning. It made me feel less dumb and boosted my confidence a bit. Following our first class, I studied my notes for about 20 minutes per night. I was able to quickly learn and memorize every single phrase that we reviewed in our first class. One thing that was helpful for me, was to practice talking to myself even when I did not have anyone to practice with just to help me master the sounds of the Turkish alphabet. So far, I am very content with my language learning journey.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rmf0Sye2-ivJM1NIJdh3FozRcKryN6Il/view?usp=sharing ;

This semester has actually been a real eye-opening experience for me in terms of learning about myself as a language learner and cultural explorer. My overall goal was to be able to gain a sense of fluency but more realistically become more comfortable and confident in my Korean. I think the most important thing I learned was that I was approaching my language learning incorrectly. One of the most helpful things I learned was that not every sound can be imitated from one language to another. This has helped improve my pronunciations tremendously. I had a tendency to translate or sound out new Korean words that I didn’t know while reading through an English phonetic inventory. Even with the Korean alphabet, I would attempt to match words/letters that sounded the same in the English alphabet. Culturally I was able to translate some of the experiences I had abroad into my language learning which was very interesting. I’ve never viewed culture from an angle like that. I’ve realized how big of an impact culture has had on me, especially as a Korean American.

The most difficult part about my language learning experience this semester was probably trying to get rid of the English translation in my head whenever I heard Korean. This is probably my biggest hurdle in gaining fluency as I’m unable to switch my internal monologue automatically. I attempted to learn how to type in Korean this semester but ultimately failed to do so due to just how difficult it was to learn that kind of muscle memory in such a short time.

I will likely continue my learning journey by keeping in contact with my language partner and maybe visiting Korea in the near future.

I think the section on bilinguals was helpful to me. It sort of helped me figure out where I placed in terms of the 3 different classifications. I moved from the US to Korea back to the US at a very early age so my situation is a bit different. My parents also did not know English so they prioritized me and my brothers learning English over Korean.

I’d love to get to learn more about the historical development of the Korean language and the significant changes it had.

This past month we had a focus on Korean history and the gym. We watched a couple different Korean dramas/movies. My favorite one was probably The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, which recently came out. The film was set during the Joseon Dynasty period so we gained many different cultural aspects from the film although it may not have been historically accurate. I particularly enjoyed the film because Han Hyo-joo was starring. The film was a bit comedic but had some history trivia which Jannette gave a small quiz on to make sure we were listening and understanding.

In addition, me and Jannette began watching Gym Jong Kook. This is basically Jong Kook’s gym vlogs where he works out by himself and at times with other famous celebrities. Our main focus was learning some of the gym lingo. We learned how to properly work out in terms of form and getting that ‘느낌’. One of my favorite words that Jong Kook used a lot was ‘맛있어’ which basically means yummy. He would often say this when he felt the pump going as he was working out. We also focused on the body parts used at the gym which helped me with my presentation.

Another thing we discussed was the pali pali culture in Korea. We realized how apparent this was in literally all aspects of Korea. From the way they walk, to how they write, and even etiquette. This brough us to a sort of origin of the pali pali culture which was during the ‘Miracle of the Han River.’ Where it was all about rapid expansion and growth.

Finally, we wrapped our semester by going on a trip to Northern Virginia with some other SDLC students. We got some KBBQ and reflected on our semester.

For this last cultural post, I wanted to explore a traditional element of Portuguese culture and decided upon exploring music. My language partner had told me to see what I could find on folk music because he believed it was quite popular in the culture. Upon further research, it turns out that is exactly right. In Portugal, there’s a huge tradition of music called Fado music which essentially is comparable to longstanding folk music. Fado music roots back to stylistic music of previous working class and poor generations, and is best described as melodic and somewhat melancholy. The word fado translates specifically to “fate” or “destiny”, and really stresses mournful tunes and lyrics. Many common songs in the genre refer to the sea, and is linked to the concept of homesickness, longing, and nostalgia. Some say it is the genre of longing to be home. Within fado, two main genres exist: Lisbon style and Coimbra style. Lisbon style of Fado is much more popular within the country and is signified by audience engagement with clapping. On the other hand, Coimbra style Fado is much more refined as seen as a formal music style to show appreciation of something. This style dates back long ago and demonstrated its significance when Amália Rodrigues passed away, known around the country as the “Queen of Fado”, three days of national mourning were declared for everyone. This is something that’s been engrained in culture for a long time.

Accompanying the actual music, is the traditional dance and movements of Fado. The stylistic dances have differed greatly over time and really depending on the era it came from. Some typical styles include: energetic couple routines, single song and dance combined, and large crowd circles joining hands in dance. A lot of the dancing portion of Fado stems back to where Fado entertainers were from in the early nineteenth century. A lot of Fado singers or entertainers were from distinctly urban areas of the country. In these areas, tradition evolved over time to be both song and dance instead of just song unaccompanied by any movement. These entertainers then spread the tradition of dance across the country with their performances, and it became a typical phenomena for both to have its place in Fado.

Fado music has transcended typical Portuguese entertainment for generations and something that the country has tried to protect. If one visits portugal today, the visit is absolutely incomplete without listening to or seeing some Fado music be performed. The typical venue for this is now public squares around the country or private event type organizations putting on traditional folk performances. In addition, there even are Fado restaurants in some places throughout the country. This combines a unique interactive experience of song and dance with dining. Some of the most famous ones I found during my research were: Casa de Linhars and O Faia. Both are in Portugal and have continued to operate to this day. 

In addition to this research, I’ve also linked some videos for reference to a traditional Fado type song. 

Songs: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ved_vBZSY2w 

For this last language post, my partner and I decided to explore more into linguistic differences between Spanish and Portuguese. We had done this a little in the past and it’s helped to expand my understanding of the language when thinking about it in terms of how something would be done in Spanish. In the past we’ve discussed how ficar doesn’t exist in the language, how ão typically replaces the Spanish ending ion, and some other things. For this specific month, we wanted to continue building my basic understanding of the language, so one section of meetings were blocked off as review of some of the basics and vocabulary we’d already covered, and then the other half of meetings were strictly into this new exploration between the differences of Spanish and Portuguese. This was really helpful because the act of practice and retention is the best way for me to really learn anything. So, being forced into this recalling of what I learned previously has done wonders for me. On a side note, that learning process of constantly recalling information might be my biggest takeaway from this whole class and process. I never really understood the value and challenges of trying to remember something foreign, but you really have to work to commit things to memory through practice. However, with all that being said, this post will focus on my learning of the new material contrasting the Spanish and Portuguese languages.

One of our main learning focuses that we covered this month was the uses of the word “a gente”. Now a gente on its surface kind of is similar to the Spanish word of gente and similarly means “the people”, but it is actually much different. In Portuguese, a gente typically replaces the formal “nós” in Portuguese, which is nosotros in Spanish, and typically is used in everyday conversational conventions. Interestingly, one would never see a gente written in any formal texts or even in more formal conversations, but in everyday speech it’s almost completely expected. Nobody even thinks of it different, and it can be used very uniquely. For example, one in speech would say, “A gente sempre fala Português”, which means “We always speak Portuguese”. However, in written form or contextually this would be “Nós sempre falamos Portuguese”, which means exactly the same thing. It’s an interesting quirk of the language for sure and one that was super interesting to me. In Spanish, that would be “nosotros siempre hablamos Portuguese”, which is more similar to the second form with “nòs” for sure. 

In addition to learning about a gente, we also touched upon the usage of you within Portuguese and Brazil specifically. In Brazil, for example, tu (you) began not being used in most of the country actually, and the word você became the standard. However, tu is still used in Portuguese, but it is used differently depending on the region where it is spokes. Outside of Brazil, in the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world, like in Europe, the difference between tu and você is rather similar to that of in Brazil and both are still used with their original connotation. Which essentially means that você is the formal form and tu is the informal form.  Examples: Tu tá quieto, cara. Tá tudo bem?

Moving forward, our focus will be not to add any additional learning but try and keep up with what I already learned. I really learned a lot and look forward to the last two culminating assignments of the course.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pfwiv0XZaxb3d30H0E9thVhTzgOekgvy/view?usp=sharing