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Almost every week we had a quiz on what we had learned before.
We had to read/translate the comic book, Adventure with Tin Tin.
I then made a list of the new words I did not know yet.
Swedish Language
Jante's law
Today I presented on the Israeli Defense Force (IDF); the two other students who presented had topics about video gaming in South Korea and the Swedish Education system. These three topics do not seem to have much in common but as I was watching these presentations I kept finding things that could relate to my presentation.
Before I share my train of thought I would like to touch on the other student's presentations. I thought both of them were great and they clearly know a lot about their topics. The way Sweden's education system is laid out is very unique and I have heard of nothing like it. I wonder if it discourages or encourages more people to continue their education (to higher ed) because high school ends much earlier (age wise) than the typical education system we are used to. The video gaming was very interesting and actually makes me angry how segregated the sport is because it seems like only men are recognized as typical players. Yes there are females out there but the only mention I heard of a female and gaming throughout the whole presentation was about the "love seat" where a boy can invite his girlfriend to come watch him play video games...not play, just watch. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that most of these games are so violent and involve killing other people.
While listening to the education system presentation I was thinking about how being drafted into the army at 18 affects the Israeli education system. It certainly affects the high education system as I mentioned in my presentation but I am curious to know if it also affects the elementary through high schooling because most Israeli citizens are preparing to go into the army. I am sure it does and will talk to my language partner about it.
The people who are typically playing these video games are high schoolers according to the presentation. Most of these games involve killing and there is such excitement about it (as we saw in the video clip)...there is something very wrong about cheering someone on while they are killing other people/beings in the game. Yes it is only on the TV screen but who says a video game cannot influence life offscreen? Most people in the IDF are right out of high school, not much older than these gamers, and are out on the battlefield and in the streets with guns in their hands. Although the Israeli government has good intentions putting a gun in an 18 year old's hands sound pretty dangerous to me. If these gamers are so excited to kill their enemies...why wouldn't people halfway across the world and about the same age have the same feelings?
I support the IDF and do not think this is of huge concern since they all go through intensive training but the presentations brought up these interesting points for me.
Inanmiyorum yaaaa nasil bu calisacagiz?
Gelecek yil Avrupaya gidecegiz insallah.
Eyvah eyvah, ablam ne zaman geliyor?
Allah Allah, bana ne soyledi...
ne olur??? ordek yok, hic bilmiyorum :(
Yolda cok para bulacaksin. Bir insan tanisacaksin ve bu insan senin ayatinin aski. Bu yil ona ile evleneceksin. Dikkat et, hava cok soguk, ve sen hasta olacaksin.
This link is of John singing the body parts in Hebrew. To get him to perform on camera was difficult, but he eventually allowed me to video tape.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israeli-group-quietly-feeding-Syrian-refugees-in-Jordan-329385
I was now interested in learning about how Israel IS helping out the Refugees. My next cultural post will be an update on what is happening with the refugees but I found this article from October 22, 2013 to be quite compelling. A company called IsraAid is provided anonymous support to the Syrian refugees in Syria and Jordan. This company has raised over $100,000 to help the refugees in this area and are gaining more and more help daily. 70 volunteers cross the border to Jordan weekly with medicine, food, and supplies. Just because the country of Israel is not as friendly to refugees as some people would like does not mean that the country does not support or help with refugees across the world. IsraAid is a non-profit, NGO, that has provided aid to other countries such as Japan, Kenya and Haiti. IsraAid is currently working on bringing Social Workers to Jordan and Syria to help with the psychological trauma of warfare.
http://israaid.co.il/projects/jordan
Going straight to the website IsraAid, I was able to learn a bit more about the project and the statistics. They estimate that there are over 6.8 million people who are in need of humanitarian efforts. This was astonishing to me. Their efforts they have distributed over 10 tons of supplies to the refugees and helped over 7,000 people.
10 yil icinde, ben Kanadada yasacagim. Orada buyuk bir muhasebe firmda yapacagim. Buyuk bir ailem var. Dunya seyahat edecegim. Avustralyaya gidecegim. Orada birkac yil oturacagim. 15 yil icinde, Universitede calisacagim. Muhasebe ogretecegim. Ogrencileri yardim edecegim!
Eighth Cultural Post: Reflect upon what you have learned from the cultural projects presented in class
I was extremely interested by the education in Sweden. What stroke me the most was that higher education used to be free (until 2011) to everyone in the country which obviously says a lot about the country and the culture. A country that put a strong stress on education clearly cares about the way of living and the success of its citizens. The fact that almost all the schools but two are public is also very important. It contributes to the idea that Swedes are part of a big community where there are not much social differences among them. Which is important because with the reduction of differences, people can relate to each other more easily and can by consequence work better and do things much more efficiently than other countries where personal success is central.
The women in the military force in Israel was also interesting and also relate to education. By promoting the number of women in the army the country conveys a good message that is the equality of sex, women have the same rights than men and can fight for their country. The army is apparently a great and honorable path to follow in the country, probably due to the conflicting nature of the state of Israel that is constantly under attacks. The fact that Israelis volunteer at a very young age and choose to stay in the army their entire life reveals the dedication to their country and the importance of their identity in their life.
Throughout week 7 I learned the names of animals that one would see at a zoo. Speaking of zoo, my language partner and I discussed what locations are popular among Ukrainian people for their outings and the zoo is considered a popular location. After we covered animals, we went into occupations and workplaces. I found it interesting that many of the business terms in English such as management, consulting, marketing, etc. are basically the exact same words in Ukrainian. Several other occupation names were also similar to the Russian language making this topic one of the easiest to learn for me. However, there were some occupations that were completely different in Ukrainian and unlike any other language I am familiar with so we allocated the majority of our time so I could become familiar with those. We also went over addressing university major and minors and how to incorporate that into a conversation in Ukrainian appropriately. Learning these terms an how to apply them appropriately has helped me with my confidence in speaking Ukrainian.
For week 6, my language partner and I focused on telling and asking for the time. It was a little tricky since there are ways of telling the time that are different and unique from Russian. For example: “half of first” means 12:30, or “the 11th hour” which means 11:00. It is still a little confusing but I am getting more used to it, practicing has definitely helped me a lot in maintaining my knowledge of everything that we have learned so far in the semester. My language partner and I have been going over more in-depth conversations in Ukrainian that effectively make me dig deep into everything I have learned so far in order to properly conduct the conversation. We have also been covering imperfect grammatical conjugations that are very similar to the Russian grammar scheme. Overall my knowledge in Russian has been able to ease my grammar learning in Ukrainian since it is almost identical.
It is now week 5 of my learning schedule and as the weeks have been progressing, I have become more and more confident with my skills in Ukrainian and its application in common settings. This week my language partner and I discussed Ukrainian food, table manners and cultural differences in a dining setting compared to the Russian culture. We then focused on learning basic food and dish names and how to place an order at a restaurant or any other dining setting. I also learned how to describe the food in terms of their characteristics such as healthy, ripe, fresh, medium-rare, etc. After establishing a strong foundation in the food category we went into weather. My language partner and I conducted conversations regarding the weather, temperature, and seasons of the year. My objective was to learn how to ask about the weather and conduct a conversation on that topic and I was able to do that relatively well by the end of the week.
Throughout my fourth week of learning Ukrainian, my language partner and I looked into the Ukrainian culture and language and how it has been influenced historically. Ukraine was conquered by Russia and Poland continuously for the past centuries, therefore the pure Ukrainian language became influenced by various cultures and languages that shaped it into the language that we know it as today. However, various elements of the original Ukrainian language are still an integral part of the language and have not been influenced by either the Russian or Polish language. For example, the word “cradle” in Russian actually means “tie” in Ukrainian. My language partner and I also spent time learning the various words in Ukrainian that are identical in meaning in the Russian language, as well as other words for objects that are completely different from Russian. We then incorporated the gained vocabulary knowledge into conversational skills, specifically to discussing a typical room setting and naming all my typical belongings. I also learned how to ask to borrow things such as a pen or phone. The remainder of the week as spent on learning how to describe items in regards to their color, shape, size.
It is now week 3 and at this point I have established a good foundation of grammar, sentence structure and conversation building in my knowledge of Ukrainian. From here on, my language partner and I decided that it would be a goo idea to continue to build on top of my conversational skills in Ukrainian. My language partner showed me a video of the Ukrainian Prime Minister delivering a speech on national television where he ended up using Russian language out of frustration in his failure to correctly pronounce eloquent Ukrainian speech. My language partner pointed out that a main reason why the Prime Minister was having trouble in his speech because he lacked the practice of using Ukrainian in a relaxed setting. Therefore we decided that I will be learning Ukrainian through language immersion since I will get accustomed to its use they way that I am used to using Russian language. We spent the rest of the week learning physical traits, addressing those in a proper sentence and with proper conjugation. I learned how to ask people common questions in regard to their name, height, age, hair, eye color, etc. as well as answer those questions appropriately when I myself am asked these questions.
In my second week of learning Ukrainian I have already seen significant improvement from my first day of learning. My language partner and I have now been going over common phrases that I would use as a follow up to the greetings we learned in the prior week. Therefore we have been reenacting several scenarios where I would act as a tourist in Ukraine who is trying to ask for directions to a common facility. I also learned how to apply metrics when asking or providing directions such as: “walk straight for 200 meters and then turn left and continue for 100 meters.” We discussed the flow of Ukrainian conversation and how to transition from greetings to asking for directions so that I better understand the sentence structure in the Ukrainian language. So far, Ukrainian grammar is very similar to Russian and has been a relatively easy topic for me to cover. If I were dropped off in Kyiv, I would be fairly confident that I would be able to address a stranger in a friendly and appropriate manner as well as ask him/her/them/etc. for directions to a common facility such as a bank, library, or hospital.
