Blogs

The learning objective of the first week was to learn pronouns and possessive pronouns. The ultimate objective of learning different types of pronouns was to be able to talk about myself and about other people with more ease and flexibility. For instance, my hobby is listening to music, her university is big and so forth. 

As a result, I had asked Suyeon to teach me pronouns and possessive pronouns and how to use them in sentences. She was really nice to prepare a grammar sheet listing all the pronouns, with examples of uses according to the context. Although I had learned pronouns last semester, we went into greater with Suyeon. I learned that not only do different subjects have different pronouns, they also two forms: formal and informal. For example, the pronoun "I" is "na" for informal and "cho" for formal. Simillarly, there are formal and informal forms of every pronoun. 

In addition to formality, different endings are added to the pronouns when they occur in different types of sentences. In a sentence like "I am a student" where "I" is the subject we use "naega" instead of "na". On the other hand, in a sentence where "I" is the object such as "You called me" we use "naleul" in stead of "na". Similarly, all the pronouns change slightly according to the sentence structure. As a side note, there is no separate word for "also" and "too" in Korean, so "me too" is "nadoo" which is a different variation of "na". 

As Suyoen, was telling me about the different endings of pronouns, I realized that I was already familiar with them and I had also been using them all the time in my head while watching Korean shows. Therefore, the grammar made more sense to me then. However, I also realized that even though it is very different from English, I did not find it strange because Bengali has a very similar structure and that I have been instinctively using it all the time. 

I also realized that mastering the interchange of different forms of pronouns will be possible only through a lot of practice. In order to use it smoothly while speaking, it is necessary for it to come naturally and instinctively. Thus to get maximum exposure to Korean, I have asked Suyeon to use only Korean during the tutoring sessions and I try my best to answer in Korean, even if it is in broken sentences.  

I went to Ellwood's with Katrina and Jo. The week before Katrina had asked me to learn 15 new words, so I could show her to next week. I did learn my 15 words, but the website I normally use, aslpro.org, sometimes has out-of-date words, so a few of the words I thought I knew had actually changed signs. ASL is also colloquial, so some of the words may have been signed the way I learned them in other places, but the sign was different in Richmond. One that was different was the sign for "falling in love," which I had learned as one thing, but was actually something else. I like learning the new words on my own, but I wish that there was a sure way of knowing that the sign I am learning is correct. 

I think my language learning has gone well so far. My knowledge of deaf culture has increased dramatically and that has been very helpful. Because one of my goals is to be able to talk about religion in ASL, attending a church meeting held in ASL has been a great help to me.

            Knowing the language is just one aspect of a culture. It is important to not only know what to say, but how to say it, which is of the utmost important when speaking American Sign Language. Because so much of a conversation in ASL is dependent on facial expressions, just knowing the signs does not necessarily mean you will be able to communicate your point effectively. Body language and facial expressions all contribute to the culture and language of ASL.

            Learning about deaf culture has certainly been an eye opener. I always knew that there were still people who had incorrect ideas about the deaf (that they are all intellectually handicapped, that they are unable to communicate effectively, etc…), but it runs much deeper than I believed. I definitely need to learn more about deaf culture and about the stigmas that surround it. I’m sure that even when others see me in public signing, they automatically believe certain things about me, even though it is obvious that I am hearing (because I (as of right now) still speak more than I sign).

            I always meet with my language partner in a public place (like a restaurant or a store). There are always people looking at us oddly. I’m sure they do not mean to in a bad way and they don’t mean to stare, but it is very rare to see people signing in public. There is not a large deaf population in Virginia and I cannot remember a time when I saw a deaf person speaking sign language in a public place. Because it is clear that I am not deaf, I’m sure many people wonder why I am learning ASL. It is not a language that many people want to learn and if I met someone else learning ASL, I would probably assume that they had a family member or close friend who was deaf and they wanted to be able to communicate with them.

            Even though the culture surrounding ASL exists in the United States, it still differs greatly from what we consider to be “American” culture in some aspects. One thing that springs to mind is how often touching is used to communicate something. We often yell or say something to someone in order to get their attention, but that’s not possible with the deaf. It is completely normal to tap someone on the shoulder or arm to get their attention, even if you don’t know them, because it is most likely the best way to get their attention. I find deaf culture to be incredibly interesting and I can’t wait to find out more about it so I can communicate better with the deaf.

https://youtu.be/E2rZI5vBeQk

Looking back since the beginning of the semester, I realize that I have made significant progress. I memorized numbers, names of days, months and have put a significant effort into building my vocabulary. However, it is one thing to know the information by heart and another to actually have the ability to use in real life. Therefore, what made me sure that I had gained significant knowledge of the Siraiki language was when I sat in on a Skype conversation my Language Partner was having with his parents. To my utter amazement, I was able to make out decipher almost the entire conversation. In an attempt to track my progress, I have made this part of my weekly task. I often find myself in my language partner’s room, sitting beside him while he Skypes in Siraiki. I try to decipher what he is talking about with the limited knowledge and vocabulary at my disposal. This has become a really fun task, as I am able to make out the topic of the conversation, if not the exact details. At times when I am unable to fully wrap my mind around the conversation, I have to resort to understanding physical queues of my Language Partner. For example, body language, tone of voice and facial expression tend to play a heavy part in allowing me to gain insight into the dialogue. And no, that isn’t cheating.

To add to that, learning Siraiki culture has been the most interesting facet of this course. I used to believe that Siraiki and Urdu culture would be similar. However, I was proved wrong. My own culture places stress on social hierarchy and this is reflected in the Urdu language as well. The verbs and personal pronouns that we use when addressing elders are very different from the ones we use when addressing someone of the same age. Such great stress on social hierarchy is not present in Siraiki culture at all. And this is reflected in the language as well. The verb and personal pronoun usage is same regardless of who is being addressed, whether the person on the other is old or young. This caused me a lot of confusion because I was unable to tell whether my partner was addressing his father or his little brother when he was talking on Skype. 

But this undertaking has exposed one major chink in my armor. Although I can understand the gist of a statement or question in Siraiki, I can only respond in bits and pieces and that too with an immense struggle. I feel I still have a long way to go before I am able to become comfortable in speaking Sriaiki and not just understanding it. This will involve me shifting gears at a certain point in the semester from learning the language to practicing what I already know. I feel that is the only way I will be able to become fluent in the language.

I learned the alphabet and introductions last week. 

The sounds that I keep having trouble with remembering are these letters: ü, ı, i, e, ö. I think its hard to remember these because the vowel sounds that I'm used to doing in Bengali, Hindi, and Arabic are so different from these. They remind me of German and French vowels, which have vowel sounds I'm not familiar with speaking. I think my best bet will be to listen and imitate daily until I get used to forming these sounds correctly. 

I learned basic introduction phrases. This is an example of a typical conversation: 

A: Merhaba/Selam (Hello)

B: Merhaba 

A: Ben Arzu. Adin ne? (I'm Arzu. What's your name?)

B: Benim adim Noraya. (My name is Noraya)

A: Memnum oldum. (Nice to meet you)

B: Ben de memnum oldum. (Nice to meet you, too)

A: Hoşçakal. (Goodbye- person that is leaving)

B: Güle güle! (Goodbye- person that is staying)

The Culture Shock video was very intriguing to me. I can absolutely relate to the aspects of being immersed in an entirely new environment and the amount of adjustment it requires out of a person. 

I studied abroad in Madrid for a semester in the Fall of 2014. Being from a small Massachusetts town and coming to Richmond, I have not been exposed to a whole lot of unfamiliarity in my life. When I landed in Spain, I immediately came to the realization that it would be a place to call 'home' for the next four months. During the first couple of weeks in Madrid, I missed my family and the United States a lot. I would have trouble falling asleep some nights because I would contemplate whether I made the right choice to study abroad. Eventually, I became comfortable in Madrid and loved every moment of my time there. However, I definitely experienced a good deal of culture shock studying abroad in Spain. 

My advice for people who are traveling or going to live in a new culture is to slow down and realize that you will be able to get through the initial feeling of uneasiness. I would tell these people to immerse themselves in the culture and learn the customs and tendencies of the native people (personal space, eating and sleeping habits, etc). 

In regards to the in-class presentations of my fellow classmates, I really enjoyed hearing about particular aspects of different cultures, in addition to the one that I am studying. I really liked hearing and learning about the divisive languages of Pakistan and how the languages spoken in different regions are easier to learn for those who live close to the border of those regions. In addition to this, it was interesting to hair about beauty trends in South Korea, ranging from plastic surgery to male cosmetics. Korea’s focus on couples and all the different holidays celebrating couples was also nice. The presentation on sign-language was interesting because I have never really thought about how deaf people communicate with each other and how certain expressions are expressed more adamantly through facial expressions. The Italian car commercial was also enjoyable to see as an example of the strong familial bonds in Italy.

Like English, a sentence in Korean can be formed with just a subject and a verb. However, unlike English where the verb is introduced at the beginning of a sentence, in Korean it enters at the end of a sentence. The sentence structure follows the form of subject + object + verb. Therefore, it is wise to pay close attention to what someone is saying until he or she is finished with their sentence. Otherwise, the listener will be confused as to what is trying to be communicated. In order to grasp this concept, I think it would be practical for me to continue listening to shows and media outlets where people are constantly speaking or singing so that I can try to pick out the grammatical structure of the sentences. In addition to this, I can look at reading material to identify them. In my communication with others, I do not think a reference grammar would be as helpful to me because I like to observe subtleties in languages by listening to them. However, I think that it can be useful if I am writing something, such as an E-mail to a friend.

I found the Culture Shock video to be very interesting. I have never experienced culture shock on such a large scale, but I can definitely understand how the students came to feel the way they did. I also thought that their stereotypes about Americans were very interesting (and not entirely unfounded). It made me really appreciate my friends who are from different countries and how well they have adjusted to life at UR and in the United States. 

I have never been out of the country, but I have experienced culture shock in small doses. Last summer I worked for my dad's commercial painting company and the majority of his employees are El Salvadorian. I spent most of the day surrounded by people who did not speak my language, but had to communicate with me. I speak Spanish, so I was able to communicate with them, but they had certain characteristics that I had to learn. For example, instead of calling lunch "almuerzo" or "lunch" they called it "lunche." I was confused for the first week or so until someone told me that they just made up their own word for lunch. They then spent most of the lunch time talking about soccer, something which I know very little about. I tried to participate when I could, but it was difficult. There were also other native Spanish speakers who worked in the same building who were not aware that I knew Spanish. They would often talk about me very obviously, unaware that I could understand them (but it was always nice things, so I didn't mind too much). 

I also received a bit of culture shock when I attended my first ASL religious meeting. It is incredibly difficult being in a place where everyone speaks the language but you and I'm sure that many people who have experienced culture shock have had this same thought. 

Second Artificat

Reflect on the Culture Shock video and your own experiences and expectations of culture shock

As an international student myself in University of Richmond, I encounter culture shock everyday. I, interestingly, find that every sentence makes sense although those interviews were conducted 10 years ago according to the video.

Academically, I was surprised that courses in Richmond require a lot of participation. All of the courses value communications such as group projects. The professors are approachable as mentors and instructors.

In spiritual life, I felt excited during orientation. However, when the excitement faded, the strong isolation and homesick came up to me. Richmond students usually have not studied abroad before. They cannot understand how international students feel.

To cope with culture shocks, I choose to maintain a good attitude instead of giving up. I am willing to make friends, reach out and involve in diverse activities. The university provides great resources such as the academic skills center, the speech center for supporting international students in academic aspect. Psychologically, we do have advisors and host families that are assigned to us. I will try to get used to the new environment and provide critical perspective here. More importantly, I will continuously learn to how to maintain my identity and my value when surrounded by Americans as a minority.

Culture shock was the biggest problem I faced when I arrived at UR. For me, culture shock was like getting punched in the face again and again for an entire year. I was always dazed and confused with the new terms, accents and cultural references. Therefore, it was easy for me to relate to the international students in the video. However, what I could most relate to was the plight of the Jordanian student whom Dr. Essid talked about in the video. According to Dr. Essid, the Jordanian student had a difficult time doing analytical writing because the system he was taught in did not emphasize critical thinking. I had a similar experience when I first started doing analytical writing. The education system of my country does not encourage critical analysis. It expects students to write an essay to restate the established opinions because those opinions, much like the individuals who came up with them, are infallible. Therefore, I had a difficult time transitioning from a system where passivity is encouraged to one where such aloofness is looked down upon.

Evaluation of weeks 4 and 5

I feel I was relatively successful in learning the counting in Siraiki. I expected there to be a pattern in Siraiki counting, which there was. And the pattern was easier to learn than the one for Urdu. That is not to say that there wasn’t any similarity. For example, in Urdu and Siraiki 29 is pronounced as combination of the words for thirty and nine unlike in English where the number is a combination of twenty and nine. I was also able to pickup the Siraiki accent. The accent is similar to that of Punjabi, which I am used to hearing. All in all, I feel that I was largely successful in completing the tasks.

I will be exploring two major cultural topics through the course of this semester. The first is national holidays in South Korea and the second is relationship values in South Korean society. These two are very broad topics and breakdown of the details included in each topic is given below.

1. National Holidays in South Korea: There are several national holidays observed in South Korea. However, I will focus more on the more popular ones. For each holiday, I will explore the historical and cultural significance, how it is celebrated by the people. Sometimes the rituals performed on these days can tell us a lot about the values and beliefs of the Korean society. I will also explore other days that are not official holidays but are celebrated by the young people. 

2. Relationship Values in Korean Society:  I will be exploring the dynamics of different kinds of relationship in Korean society. Korean people place a lot of importance on formality and hierarchy. As a result, there are a set of expectations and responsibilities associated to the relationship between family members, employer and employee, professor and student to name a few. Examining these relationships in detail will also give me an insight on the founding principles of the Korean society and also how those principles have changed overtime. 

I will collect information on these topics mainly through internet articles and discussion with my language partner. My secondary sources of information will be youtube videos and television shows. However, since information presented in the shows can be biased I will always double check with my language partner for validity. 

Besides learning facts, exploration of these topics will provide me information about the prevalence of issues such as patriarchy, discrimination of race, sex and socio-economic class, freedom of speech in the Korean society. It will also help me identify the differences between the Korean and American culture. 

I went to a restaurant with Katrina, Jo, and Katrina’s niece and nephew, who also know a little ASL. They were communicating across the restaurant in ASL, which was really cool to watch. I had a list of questions I wanted to ask Katrina, so I asked her about formal and informal language and about communication scripts. There is "formal" language, but that basically just means that when you're talking to an elder or someone of import, you won't use slang or English Sign Language, a hybrid of English and ASL. Katrina couldn't think of any communication scripts off the top of her head, but I'm sure I will begin to notice some as I spend more time with the deaf community. 

Today , we did presentations on our target language cultures. I find it interesting that, although there are several students learning Korean, we did not have any topics in common, which definitely gave me a new insight on my target culture. There were plastic surgery, drinking culture, as well as the growing makeup market in our presentations in regards to South Korea’s cultures. Heather touched on several cultural aspects based on her past traveling experience this summer. The understanding of a culture can be traced to food, drinks and her daily observations, which have a distinct perspective of Korea’s culture. Other classmates also shared their understanding of their target languages from different fields such as history, business and drinking.

Overall, it is good to know about how my classmates reflect on their target language culture from many aspects. I can also learn from their tactics and paths to build up and deepen my understanding of Korea’s cultures.

A) My First Artifact contains a lot more than just a normal conversation, but I think that I can do pretty well just talking to someone, especially someone I have met for the first time. I can sign my name and I can recognize the letters of the alphabet when someone else signs their name. I can tell someone where I am from and I can also tell someone that I am learning ASL, so they know not to expect too much. Because I know so many random signs, I can often watch a conversation and catch a word here or there, but I don't always know exactly what is going on.

B) I've definitely progressed in the everyday language goal. I'm learning different foods, colors, clothing, how to ask for things, etc. The religion goal has been a little bit more difficult, but I have learned some new things. For example, whenever you talk about God, you always sign on the right side of your body. I am right-handed, so theoretically, this shouldn't be too difficult, but when I want to copy what someone else is saying, I have to remember to do it on the opposite side. 

The music goal is a little harder to reach, mostly because it is not something that deaf people talk about often. I did learn, though, that the sign for "music," "song," and "sing" is the same, so you just need to pay attention to what context it is used in. I did learn a few more signs, like "choir" and "artist." If I want to talk about a particular musician, I would just have to spell out their name. 

I found all of the presentations to be very interesting. Since I know a fair amount about modern Korean culture, the presentations about Korea were somewhat familiar to me, but I would say I learned a deeper knowledge about culture through them. I am completely unfamiliar with Pakistani culture, and Hadi's descriptions of how languages developed in South Asia and what this means for the variety of languages in Pakistan today was extremely fascinating to me from a linguistics standpoint. From my knowledge, China has a similar situation in which each region often has its own distinct dialect, but the country has been teaching standardized Mandarin, the national language, for decades now. I guess I never realized a country could lack a national language that unifies communication across every region. I also found his motivation for learning his particular target language really interesting, that learning this language first would then help him learn other languages used in nearby regions in Pakistan. 

Also, having no background in sign language, I learned a lot from that presentation, too. When the student was talking about the importance of using facial expressions for getting your point across, it made a lot of sense to me, but I would never have considered that to be so important in ASL. I really wonder how that is displayed in normal, everyday conversation, and what exactly makes a deaf person that much more expressive that you can tell them apart from a hearing person who is also using sign language.

As I hit the hard part of the learning curve for my Arabic studies, I started thinking about picking up another language to rekindle my love of learning languages. I was heavily leaning towards French up until I went to Istanbul for my spring break trip while I was studying abroad in Jordan. I was thinking about French for a number of reasons- I have an interest in the North African region and so it paired well with my Arabic studies. I have also been putting French off for years now. With my decision to spend a fifth year at UR, I was looking at places to study abroad again. Morocco was at the top of the list, but my decision became heavily swayed after falling in love with Istanbul. After much deliberation, I decided I wanted to go study abroad in Ankara. I wanted to be in a place where traveling is a lor more feasible than in a place such as Jordan or Morocco. Turkey has an amazing dynamic of Islamic and western culture mixing and it's an aspect that I am deeply curious about learning more about. This is where my desire to start learning Turkish from stemmed! Although I will be taking language classes at Bilkent University (assuming I get accepted into the program), I want to get a head start on learning more about Turkish culture, history, and especially the language. 

I met my language partner Arzu Avci on September 22nd! We decided to meet three times a week for 50 minutes: Mondays 3:00-3:50, Tuesdays 12-12:50, and Fridays 11:45-12:35. However, between that time and now my schedule changed so we adjusted our meeting times to Tuesdays 12-1:30 and Fridays 11:45-1:30 PM.

Resources:

I found a Turkish TV channel on YouTube for kids with videos about random things- such as numbers and alphabets. Everything is completely in Turkish, but there is a lot of repetition and exposes me to words I wouldn't know otherwise! For example, I began watching the video on the alphabet (which is about 40 minutes long), but I learned that "aslan" means lion! I was excited about this discovery because I thought of Aslan the lion from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Since there is so much repetition and the video is so long, I can watch these videos while I'm doing Turkish homework or just play it in the background while I something else and get used to Turkish sounds and words. I prefer immersive language learning, so it helps that everything is in Turkish.

In order to get more exposure to Turkish, I thought it would be fun to watch a Turkish drama. There's a specific one that I've been meaning to watch about Layla and Majnun- which is just about the equivalent of Romeo and Juliet for eastern cultures. It's been hard to find the show with English subtitles, so I'm going to try watching this version with Arabic subtitles (so far it's been manageable!). I think this would also help in picking up tones and styles of speaking in Turkish. 

Among all of these, I also have Mango Languages and Byki to use as resources. I think these two help with reinforcing things that I practice with Arzu. I'm also thankful for all these resources because it means I don't have to plan my lessons as much- I can use Mango and Byki as my template for where to go next in terms of beginner's learning and just reinforce it through outside resources.