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I have decided to talk about “the bachelorette party in Turkey” for my final presentation. Miss Hanife gave me actually this idea when she told me that her sister is getting married this year and that she is already preparing the bachelorette party. I asked her what the bachelorette party looks like, she told me several things that I found very surprising but interesting. For example this night is called “Henna night”. When I heard that, I decided to do some research, and I found out that henna means “protection, happiness” and that it is an integral part of the wedding process and that if the bride to be does not have it during the bachelorette party or the official wedding, she is not going to be accepted to heaven. Then, during my research I found out that there are 3 parts of the wedding; the engagement, the henna night and the official wedding. I also found out that girls prepare for this night so much in advance, several months in advance actually.

Also, the most important dance during the henna night is called halay dance, which when I watched some YouTube videos, I realized that we in Bosnia have a similar dance which is actually traditional dance. That is when people hold each other’s hands and dance in a circle. For my final presentation I will include a YouTube video of this dance so the audience can see what the dance looks like. Also, this time is when the bride to be gets a lot of jewelry, especially gold. In my research I also found that there is a traditional part called ISTEKLER and that is when people call each other to dance together. This is especially common thing to do at the official wedding, for example the bride can call her sister to dance and then somebody else can call the groom’s brother to dance together, and this is how people can actually meet up, dance together. I find this part interesting and I am looking forward to researching more about this part. There are a lot of important and interesting parts of this Henna night that I am excited to research and share with the audience. First of all, I want to know the real meaning of using henna at the bachelorette party, its importance and learning more about all the steps and events that happen prior to the actual wedding.

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I was impressed when I realized how much me and Ms. Hanife covered this semester. I have been taking Turkish for 3 semesters and even though I have always been an overachiever, I never thought we could actually cover this much in such a short period of time. It may seem that we only covered a lot of material, but I actually understood everything that we covered and I am pretty much confident that I can use it in my daily conversation with my Turkish friends. Not only does my language partner says that I have improved but my Turkish friends are very much impressed and when they see me they hardly ever speak to me in English, they keep speaking to me in Turkish. This is very motivational because I feel that they believe I have enough Turkish knowledge to be able to understand whatever they are telling me, and I do indeed, I do understand most of what they speak but I find it much harder to actually express myself in Turkish. I believe that it is like that for any language, it is much easier to understand the language that is being spoken to you, than actually speak it and form sentences using the right grammar and vocabulary. I find it especially hard with Turkish language, considering the fact that there are just so many tenses, and rules, and exceptions that you have to be careful and pay attention to. Looking back at how little I actually knew, I basically knew only present continuous and now I am able to use some advanced grammar/tense in Turkish such as reporting tense, then some tenses that do not even exist in English. I found it particularly difficult to understand rules and tenses that do not exist in English or Bosnian. Me and Miss Hanife would spend much more time on such tenses than on some rules that are more less similar to the languages that I speak. At the beginning of this semester when my language partner told me that we should finish the book we were using last semester (which is really intense and detailed) I did not believe that it could happen, especially because the material in following chapters was getting tougher and harder. But we were determined and we worked hard on accomplishing our goal, and last week when we actually finished the book, I was just so impressed and happy that I just could not believe it. I just wish I could take Turkish language next semester as well, but since I am graduating in May that may seem impossible. I wish I had taken Turkish from my freshmen year. If I had been taking Turkish language from my freshman year, I wonder how much I would have known now. I am pretty sure that I would be pretty much fluent, considering that in only 3 semesters I have accomplished this much. My language partner said that the book we used is for intermediate students and definitely not for the beginners. I like how me and Miss Hanife focused a lot on communication which helped me become more confident speaking in Turkish. Before, I used to not speak up in Turkish because I thought I would not be able to form sentences correctly, or that I would make some huge, silly mistakes, but working with Miss Hanife really helped me boost my Turkish confidence and I do not have this fear anymore. That is what my Turkish friends also realized and pointed it out to me. Even though our biggest source of learning Turkish was the intermediate book, I have also used other sources, mostly Turkish TV shows, music, news. Biggest help was definitely my language partner who would correct my mistakes, explain the material whenever I found it confusing and hard, practiced with me, and communicated in Turkish with me. The most rewarding achievement for me is my satisfaction that I have improved my Turkish, that I became more confident speaking it and being able to understand my Turkish friends and talk to them. Even though I know that I do make mistakes when I speak in Turkish, I am sure that I make less mistakes now compared how much I made last semester. I am a kinesthetic learner, I learn the best through hands on experience. So basically, when I learn vocabulary, the easiest way and most efficient way for me to memorize the words is by writing them down, repeating them and rewriting them again. When it comes to learning how to pronounce Turkish words/letters, the best way for me is watching Turkish TV shows and listening to songs. One of my goals was also to learn more about Turkish culture and I sure have accomplished this. I did a lot of research on Turkish culture just to find out the most interesting topic for my Turkish presentation, and when I found out the topic that I wanted to research further, I spent a lot of time learning about it, preparing the presentation which gave me a better insight into Turkish culture.

Overall, I believe that this was a very beneficial class for me, and working with my language partner Miss Hanife was very helpful and enjoyable. Everything was going smoothly and scheduled right at my pace. Whenever I thought we were going too fast or when I did not understand something, I would always spend more time on that particular material until I understand it completely, and this was really helpful for me. Thus, we were not rushing to cover all the material just to go over it, but we made sure that everything we cover I understand. By working hard every week, and by being motivated and determined we were able to finish the entire book.

I only wish I could continue taking Turkish and working with Miss Hanife. However, I am graduating so it seems impossible. I will have to work on my own now. I believe I have a really strong base, I can continue building strong vocabulary, learning new grammar/tenses and of course keep communicating with my Turkish friends and visit Turkey in the near future.

Overall, I am really happy with how much I improved, and I believe that this class was extremely helpful for me not only that it helped me learn Turkish language, but learn more about Turkey in general, learn about its tradition, culture and people.

I am proud to say that Ms. Hanife and I accomplished our goal. Our goal was to finish the rest of the book that we used last semester and during these two weeks we managed to finish it off. I simply cannot believe that we have covered so much material in such a short time, but everything was going smoothly and just at right pace.

These last two weeks we worked a little bit on grammar, and mostly we were revising the material we covered throughout this semester and focused on conversation. I was surprised that I was able to lead conversation in Turkish using more advanced grammar, vocabulary and even some idioms. We spent one session listening to Turkish songs, reading poems, and talking about Turkish culture. After talking to Ms. Hanife about Turkish culture and traditions I finally figured out what I want to deliver my presentation on. I have decided to talk about Turkish bachelorette party. Ms. Hanife’s sister is getting married and she told me how the entire family is already preparing for the wedding that will be held in June. Miss Hanife gave me this idea and now my task is to do a lot of research and be ready to present it. Even though I was initially planning to talk about hookah, I have realized that it will be much more interesting to talk about the bachelorette party, especially because it is much more different from what bachelorette parties look like in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States.

These last two weeks, I was revising with Miss Hanife all the material that we have covered this semester. We covered the entire book, and my language partner said that I improved a lot. Going back to the first chapter, I realized how easy that material is compared to the material in the last chapters. Revising present continuous, past simple, future tense all the way to reporting tense and learning how to say that you are doing two actions at the same time, I came to realized that we have covered more material than I thought we ever could in such a short period of time. There are of course some tenses that when I looked at back were a bit blurry and I could not remember exactly how to use them but when I revised them, I remembered.  I also wrote my “I can statement” and me and Ms. Hanife went over it again. My final exam is in a few days but my Turkish learning will definitely not stop there. I am determined to learn Turkish and I am really motivated to learn it and I will continue learning it, watching Turkish TV shows, and listening to Turkish songs and most importantly keep communicating in Turkish with my Turkish friends. I am looking forward to improving even more and one day speaking Turkish fluently.

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Notes and Works Cited:

The second half of the semester has gone well. I think that both Emily and I have figured out what type of work we want to do in regards to Hebrew. I noticed that last semester I didn't do as good of a job working on talking/speaking and pronunciation, so that is something that Emily and I have tried to work on a lot. I am getting really good at spelling, which was one of my goals. I can pretty much guess the spelling for any word in Hebrew - that is a huge accomplishment for me!

I also have become more culturally proficient. What I mean by this is I have gained an ability, I believe, to understand the Israeli culture more than I did before. Through projects such as my cultural project on food, and research on some of the attitudes in Israel that I will post about in my cultural post, I feel more connected to the cultures that speak Hebrew.

I am impressed with my reading skills. I have become very good at reading and I rarely make pronunciation mistakes anymore. I am not sure if this is from just having more than one semester under my belt, or having a background in reading Hebrew from all my years of Hebrew school, but this feels really important. I feel that you can't speak if you don't know how to read, just as I believe that in English, your vocabulary is greatly improved by an ability to be able to read and digest a lot of information. I think it works the same in Hebrew and I am proud of myself for continuing to read and translate.

This has been a tough semester for me, I have been sick a lot and in the hospital 3 different times. I have tried to keep up as best as I can with Hebrew but I think the speaking is what has suffered the most. Even when I am sick, it is easy to look over flashcards and vocabulary, but it is harder to meet with Emily (we have obviously still been meeting) and talk about pronunciation and work on speaking proficiency. 

Finally, I think that I have just become a lot more comfortable with the language. I feel that I have more confidence in speaking, reading and writing and my ability to be comfortable in Israel or another place where Hebrew was spoken (ie a city in America or another country). This was my main goal, to be able to be confident in myself and my Hebrew abilities. I feel that I have reached that! It feels good.

This is me working on my pronunciation by practicing Hebrew prayers.

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“Why Bilinguals Are Smarter” by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee really gives the reader a glimpse into the benefits of learning more than one language. I have personally never considered all of these benefits and truly had no idea about the extent to which research has been conducted in regards to bilingualism and intelligence/cognition. In this day and age, it makes more sense to correlate bilingualism with greater cognition and having a greater adaptability for changes in a new environment, for example. The research findings in this article really blew my mind. In particular, research pertaining to Alzheimer’s disease as well as dementia was quite telling. Those who were bilingual were more resistant to obtaining such symptoms in comparison to those who were monolingual. Therefore I realized that I really would like my children to learn more than one language as they are growing up. It will give their minds a workout and it will help them mentally in the long term, based on this interesting research. 

I want to teach my roommate how to introduce herself in Hindi, and how to ask someone, "how are you?" and the response "I am well". To do this, I will teach her each word, one by one. Using non-verbal communication, I will bow with both hand together and teach her "Namaste", then, I will teach her "AAp kaisee hay" by again saying each word one at a time, and then I will reapeat the whole phrase. I will use body language in this as well by offering my hand towards her when asking "how are you?". Then, after she has that phrase down, I will teach her "meh teek who", in the same process. I will say each word one by one and then repeat the whole phrase, pointing at myself emphasizing that I am referring to myself and saying, "I am well".

My efforts to teach my roommate the how to say "Hi, "How are you?", and "I am Good and you?" was very successful. While I did not time it, I think that in following the strategy I listed above, she was able to master these phrases within 2 minutes. I think what really helped, was the fact that she was putting these phrases into context right away. We were greeting each other, (bowing with our hands together) and then asking the common question that follows in greeting someone. Also, I think my emphasis on each word, repetition of each word/phrase, as well as my non-verbal communication really helped her learn this basic/foundational Hindi dialogue! 

Based on “Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction” by Kirk Johnson, this article gave me a new perspective on how languages need to be maintained in order for them to not become completely extinct. A new light was shed on the language of Siletz Dee-ni, an American Indian language with only five speakers left. It is essential to create a pool of speakers large enough so that it will not disappear first of all. Secondly, this article addresses the need for dictionaries for the language to be created officially. It is amazing that this language was able to survive through songs used for native dances. Thirdly, the institutionalization of education systems that teach Siletz Dee-ni has become more prevalent, creating an arena for people to learn this beautiful and ancient language. This structure will help this language to flourish and hopefully, it will thrive with time. Therefore I gleaned alot from this article-so many factors go into keeping a language alive that I have never considered, having English as my first language. In a way, I have taken for granted how accessible and dominant the English language is and it was a neat experience to attempt to put myself in the shoes of someone whose language is on the verge of extinction. This would be a scary and terrifying feeling in my opinion yet I am glad that there is hope for the future of Siletz Dee-ni, based on the findings of this article. 

These two weeks me and Ms. Hanife worked on more grammar and vocabulary. Turkish language has so many rules, that I usually get so confused which tense to use when. During these two weeks I learned when to use ending “-ip” on the verb. Basically, when you perform two actions at the same time, or one action immediately following another we use this tense. So for example if you want to say “I took my jacket and left home”, in Turkish it would be “Jaketim aldip, evimden ciktim”. First, I took my jacket and then I left home. I found this tense interesting and actually useful. More interesting thing is that you use the same “-ip” ending regardless of whether you are talking about yourself, 1 person or several, and then the other part of the sentence can be in present continuous, future tense or past tense. I also learned the difference in using “cunku” and “bu nedenle”, they both mean “because of” but you cannot use them interchangeably. For example, if you say “I want to talk to you because I think you misunderstood me” is when you use “cunku”, however if you wanna say “I think you misunderstood me and because of that I want to talk to you” is when you use bu nedenle. It may seem complicated at first, but when you understand it once, you will be able to apply it in conversations. Practicing this tense these two weeks, I feel comfortable using it and I do not think I might have any serious problems using this tense.

Me and Ms. Hanife also had a session when we read Turkish poems, and talked about Turkish culture. We read some popular poems that Ms. Hanife likes very much and that are not very hard to understand by a beginner/intermediate level students.

I have been talking to my language partner about Turkish culture/traditions to help me figure out what I should deliver my cultural presentation on. Right now, I am planning to talk about hookah and importance of hookah on Turkish culture. Last time I presented on Turkish coffee, and the audience enjoyed hearing about famous Turkish coffee and tea. Considering that hookah/nargila is very popular in Turkey I believe that this could be an interesting topic to do a research. Also, I could compare it to Bosnian culture where hookah is very popular. I talked to my language partner and she said that this could be an interesting topic and that hookah is more famous in certain parts of Turkey and less popular in other parts. I think it would be interesting to do a research on this and see why there is a difference and how significant that difference is.

So far, I like how my Turkish is improving. My Turkish friends say that I have improved a lot, and that always motivates me. However, we are covering a lot of complicated material and a lot of tenses so the more I learn I feel like the less I know. I wonder if I will ever be able to master this language and be able to speak it fluently. There are just so many exceptions and rules that you cannot simply learn by heart but pick up by using the language daily. This is challenging task for me, and that is why I actually like this language and I am determined to learn it no matter how hard it is. It may take me several years, but since i am really interested in the language, I think I can accomplish my goal.

A)   Current Abilities

1. Know the sounds of the letters in the alphabet

B)   Goals

1. Be able to have a small conversation
2. Greet people
3. Talk about myself and my family
4. Ask for directions/get around a new place
5. Tell time and day of the week
6. Pronounce words correctly
7. Talk about my day and ask others questions
8. Talk about my interests/ hobbies (dancing)

C)   Tasks 

1. Watch Hindi movie/listen to songs- discuss plots with language partner
2. Discuss current events and tie in with Indian culture
3. Have conversations with my language partner and friends who speak Hindi
4. Learn everyday slang
5. Learn directions
6. Learn numbers
7. Be able to ask/give directions

Self-Assessment:

I think I have met most, if not all of my goals. However, I am still a bit rough on asking for directions/getting around new places. I can greet people and talk about myself and my family. I found that using flashcards as well as sounding words out loud has helped me improve my vocabulary as well as pronunciation. In addition, listening to Bollywood songs and watching Bollywood movies has definitely reinforced my learning of certain vocabulary and phrases. Looking back on this semester, I have definitely completed all the tasks in my learning plan. However, I need to continue practicing these tasks as I have not retained ALL the information.

Here is attached my cultural presentation related to "Doing Business in Korea"PresentationKorean.pptx

During the first half of the semester I accomplished approximately half of my learning goals (including being able to introduce myself, talk about my background, being familiar with numbers) and so my instructor and I focused on the following remaining goals: 

-Being able to set up a meeting (day, month, hours, minutes)

-Being able to express my feelings

-Being able to go through a basic conversation in the corporate world 

Regarding the ways of arrange a meeting, the key was to understand the korean numbers, which I became relatively good at it after a lot of practice but also to become familiar with the days of the week and the months. My instructor and I would go over all of them during a couple meetings to make it almost automatic for me to know them.

The big challenge of this second-half of the semester was to be able to read the time and give the time accurately. The numbers used for hours are different than the ones used for the minutes so it quickly gets complex. We proceeded in few steps; the first one was to learn the set of numbers for the minutes and then the set of numbers for hours. We finally associated them along with the notion of "AM" and "PM" to make it complete. Then I was able to associate the days/months with hours/minutes for a complete time scheduling.

An important thing everyone should be able to say in the country they are is the way they feel; for this reason we dedicated few lessons towards how to say "I feel ..." and "I ... you". Once I understood the structure I had to memorize and learn the adjectives and that was it! Obviously it took a bit more time to adjust the pronunciation.

Finally, my instructor and I allocated some time towards the few phrases that can occur in business conversations. So I am now able to say what I am doing for a living , in which industry I am working on etc... (as well as ask them to someone).

Family Vocab

In this powerpoint, I demonstrate my ability to identify and introduce members of my family as well as say one thing about them. I use family vocabulary words which include the word for: family, mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, and step-grandpa.

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My friend Charlie from U of M who also takes Swedish agreed to have a Swedish conversation with me.

For my fourth artifact I decided to show how to express your feelings in Korean.

Fifth Cultural Post: The Concept Of Kibun

Kibun is a central concept in the Korean's business world; there is not any literal translation in english but the term indicates pride, face, mood or state of mind. When hurting someone's kibun, you hurt their pride and dignity which is one of the worst thing that can happen to a Korean.

Since the interpersonal relationships rely on the principle of harmony it is important to maintain a peaceful, comfortable atmosphere at all times. It is preferred over any kind of confrontation/aggressivity, even if it means telling a "white lie".

A concrete application of the kibun in the business world would be if a manager criticizes his subordinate in public; at the same time if a subordinate does not show proper respect to his superior, he will damage his superior's kibun.

Having the ability to judge the state of someone else's kibun,  how to avoid hurting it while maintaining your own require some skills but is a very valuable one to have. People mastering this skill are highly considered by their peers.

The ability to determine another person's kibun by using the eye is called "nunchi". It is accomplished by watching body language and listing to the tone of the voice. It is mainly for this concept that in Korea, people are very aware and attentive and rarely loud and obnoxious.

Through the semester I learned to do the follow things in Korean:

-Meeting a person for the first time

-Purchasing/selling something 

-Understand numbers and prices

-Read all the characters

-Express my feelings

-Talk about my background

-Set a meeting/appointment

-Read dates and time

Korean Cultural Presentation