http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

What about Iran?

If we explore the Iranian culture through the lens of the 5-D Model, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of the Iranian culture relative to other world cultures.

Power distance
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. 
Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

Iran scores high on this dimension (score of 58) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat

Individualism
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”.
In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.

Iran, with a score of 41 is considered a collectivistic society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member 'group', be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies offence leads to shame and loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee’s in-group, management is the management of groups.

Masculinity / Femininity
A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner / best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organisational behaviour.
A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine).

Iran scores 43 on this dimension and is thus considered a relatively feminine society. In feminine countries the focus is on “working in order to live”, managers strive for consensus, people value equality, solidarity and quality in their working lives. Conflicts are resolved by compromise and negotiation. Incentives such as free time and flexibility are favoured. Focus is on well-being, status is not shown.

Uncertainty avoidance    
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways.  The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score.

Iran scores 59 on this dimension and thus has a high preference for avoiding uncertainty. Countries exhibiting high uncertainty avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas. In these cultures there is an emotional need for rules (even if the rules never seem to work) time is money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality are the norm, innovation may be resisted, security is an important element in individual motivation.

Long term orientation
The long term orientation dimension is closely related to the teachings of Confucius and can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue,the extent to which a society shows a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historical short-term point of view.

Cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people from different cultures and different backgrounds. In order to be able to understand cultural competence and the reason behind why people think and behave the way they do, we need to learn one´s traditions, values and norms. What might be considered rude and strange to one group of people, does not necessarily mean that it will be perceived the same way in another culture. We need to be aware of cultural competence, and we develop it by examining our biases and prejudices.

It is crucial to understand communicative competence (CC) because it enables us to interpret and convey messages that are received. CC is the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals. In Canale and Swain's definition, there are 4 different categories that make up CC:

- grammatical competence (also called linguistic competence)- is the ability to use grammar and vocabulary

- discourse competence - is knowing how to interpret the larger context and see a whole picture, for example knowing how to put words and sentences together to create conversation

- sociolinguistic competence- is knowing how to respond to language appropriately, in certain settings and under different conditions

- strategic competence- is knowing how to recognize when communication fails and knowing how to repair it, for example the ability to recognize when I or somebody else is misunderstood and the ability to fix the problem

Nonverbal communication is a very important part of communication as it is sometimes considered more effective than words.We may think that nonverbal communication is universal but it is not. Every culture interprets body language, facial expressions and gestures differently. Therefore it is important to understand nonverbal communication of one's culture. It is important to remember that our body is always saying something even when we are not speaking.

A conversation with my Language partner where he asks me about my likes and dislikes.

20130427%20141907.m4a

I wanted to teach Turkish numbers to my friend Tayang. I personally think that learning numbers in any foreign language can be a lot of fun! I decided to teach Tayang how to count in Turkish, because he saw me once studying Turkish and asked me to count in Turkish for him. He liked how it sounded and asked me to teach him some Turkish. I planned out a learning activity and decided to have a class with him when he had some spare time. I used one of the study rooms in the library with the whiteboard so I could write the numbers in Turkish. This gave us an atmosphere of a "real class." Then, we used flashcards to help him memorize the numbers more easily. I also brought coins so we used them as a tool to count and practice numbers. At the end of the class, I gave him a short quiz to find out how much he learned. He actually got an A+.  He also had trouble pronouncing some Turkish letters such as ğ, ü and ö. Practice makes perfect so I advised him to just repeat numbers in Turkish and practice, practice... He liked the learning activity and now he knows how to count to 10 in Turkish. I have included a picture of our class. This is Tayang working on the numbers.  

Reflecting on my work, I can say that I am extremely happy with my progress so far. My language partner is great and really helpful. When we go to dhall together, we talk about food, when we are in the library we talk about school. I learned so much vocabulary. For example, I learned that in Turkish when you are full you can say either that you are "doydum" or "tokum". You use doydum when you are eating and cannot eat anymore, it means that you are full at that time, but you would use tokum when you have not eaten for some time but still feel full (the state of being full).

Me and my language partner listen to Turkish songs together and we are planning to watch my favorite Turkish soap opera "Dudaktan kalbe". I really like that we always do something else so our classes never get monotonous. I also learned present continuous, I cannot say that I perfected it, but I am very comfortable using it. I have learned many words and verbs so far, so that is a huge plus for me as well. I am still not very comfortable with telling the time, I do not know why I find it sooo difficult, but since now on whenever I look at my watch I am going to tell myself the time in Turkish and if I cannot recall how to say it, I will have to check it in my notes. I really do not want to make any changes to my current learning style, because I find it very interesting and I never get bored. Also, the material is sometimes challenging and I always try to do more than I set out to  reach. The teaching and learning style is very effective and I will definitely stick with it!  

In addition, I am very happy with my second artifact. This is actually the first time that I used software "Camtasia" to record myself and add text to the video. So, not only did I create an artifact, but I also learned how to use this software. My language partner said that my artifacts are creative, and that I am very funny!! 

Knowing a language's history can definitely impact how you learn that language, because it provides you with a wider view of understanding. History allows you to compare the language you're studying with the language it descended from, and allows you to see how it transformed along the way. It's also useful to see how your language spread throughout the rest of the world. In my case, studying Italian, history plays a major role. Italian is a Romance language descended from Latin. Out of all the Romance languages, it is the most linguistically similar to Latin in terms of vocabulary. This was helpful to me as a student. I learned Italian originally in elementary school when I lived there, but my middle school back in the US required us to take Latin. Knowing how Italian worked really helped with Latin grammar and similar words, and then I was able to understand Italian vocabulary better because I could relate the Latin roots to them. When I studied Italian for a second time (in college, and then living in Italy again), my four years of Latin background helped make it relatable in addition to the Italian basis I already had. Latin was spoken commonly on the Italian Peninsula until the early 14th century, until the Florentine dialect began to take precedence. This later developed into standard Italian. Italian is also a language characterized by many dialects. This resulted from all of the different regions in the Italian Peninsula being separate kingdoms until Italy's unification in 1861. At that point, Italian derived from the Florentine dialect took precedence as the "mainstream" standard--although only 2.5% of the Italian population could speak that standard language in 1861! Today, knowing standard Italian can help (somewhat) in seeing how the dialects differentiate. Two variations are so different that they're considered "official regional languages" (Sardinian and Friulian). I lived in Sardinia when I was young and didn't experience this too much in the particular area where I lived, but there was definitely a distinction inland in some of the much older towns. Fortunately, both of the areas I lived in Italy (northeast Sardinia and Rome) spoke the central Italian dialect, which is most similar to standard Italian. One of my favorite Roman sayings is the greeting "salve" (pronounced sal-vay), which shows the extent of Latin's effect on Italian...the Roman salutation is also "salve" (pronounced sol-way)!

One of the most significant ways knowing the history of a language is helpful is that is can link help us better recognize or understand connections between the language being studied and the language(s) already known. As the article uses the example for mother and how similar it is in other languages from the same family. 

It's also interesting to start to consider the sharing of terms, and the distinctive alterations that the terms may or may not undergo. As far as Persian is concerned, there are quite a few words that have been taken from Arabic, an afro-asiatic language, such as 'salaam' in stead of 'dorood' for greetings and behtar which, interestingly enough is very similar to the english better. 

Placeholder journal...I don't actually have any artifacts since I'm not enrolled in 110! However, the methods I'm using to practice my Italian include watching Italian movies (and trying not to use the sottotitoli!), listening to some Italian songs or news reports, and reading some Italian articles when I get a chance. I also have been following some major current events stories taking place in Italy; namely, the selection of the new pope and the coverage of Elezioni 2013.

It is very important to learn the history of the language you are studying. Language is a very important component of culture, and knowing its history helps in understanding many things. For example, Hebrew shares a lot of its grammar with Arabic and its alphabet is very similar to the Assyrian alphabet. When I first heard my friends speak Hebrew, I could recognize words or whether they are speaking about a guy or a girl. This did not make sense to me because similar languages can share words, but sharing grammar is not usual. Now that I know the history of Hebrew, I know how this is possible.

Hebrew was not spoken since the second century CE. It became the language of the Hebrew scripture only and it was read a few times a year. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a movement was initiated to restore Hebrew as a spoken language. The initiation was based on the religious importance of speaking Hebrew. The majority of modern Hebrew is based on Biblical or scripture Hebrew, but a lot of the grammar and words are taken from Arabic, English, Russian, and Latin. The alphabet used in modern Hebrew is the simple square alphabet that originates from the Assyrian Aramaic alphabet.

Week 6: Second Artifact

artifact2.pdf

Week 7: Third Bi-weekly Post

For these weeks, we did one lesson with the objectives of learning how to express impossibility and negation. We also covered the expression of past events and some grammatical markers such as -il, -rul, and -aeso. In order to complete these tasks, we decided to continue with the strategy of the last lessons. We practiced listening to dialogues dealing with the given objectives and also did a reading lesson. These dialogues included new vocabularies and grammars so Brigid went over the rules and gists of the grammar lesson in order for me to have a better understanding. Because this lesson was a bit more extensive, we decided to stick to only one large lesson for these two weeks. She taught me to the adverbs "do not", "want to do but can't" and the markers "at/in" and "from". There was also the objective marker (-il and -rul) which is attached to a noun to indicate the direct object of a transitive verb. One is used after the a vowel and the other is used after the consonant ending. Lastly, we learned the pre-ending'-았/었/였-'. This was the most confusing for me which is why we spent more time focusing on this section of the lesson. We did a practice fill in the blanks to make the learning more efficient. Overall, I felt like we got a lot done and accomplished a lot. The strategies of doing listening and reading along with grammars seems to be working out well so far so again, we will continue doing this probably for the rest of the semester.

Hangul was created for both social and linguistic reasons. For social reason, it was easier for common people to learn and become more literate only people in the government and upper class were able to learn Chinese. And anyone that knew Chinese was automatically assumed to be in the upper class, especially due to the fact common were not able to learn Chinese. Classical Chinese was known as Hancha. During this time period, Chiense characters was common amount all of North East Asia. The creation of a easier language would make an equal status for everyone.

The other reason were linguistic based. The two languages during the period were both Chinese and Korean. Chinese characters were not able to express the language of the difficult of the translating form Korean to Chinese. The separation between the languages was not appreciated either. And the most relatable for the people was that common people did not have the resources to learn Chinese. Like mentioned in the Turkish presentation, only the upper class was able to learn Chinese.

So who created Hangul. The person that created Hangul was King Sejong. He was the only king was that was given the title “the great king” except for two other kings that were given the title of being “great”. He was also famous for his influence in technology, military and humanitarian work. During the creation of Hangul he made a 28-letter alphabet for the Korean people. Each shape of the letter resembles from the olden-day Tenji, which is a style of writing when brush was used.

Hangul was created in the secret because of the resistance from the aristocrats. Each of the letters in Hangul is a shape that is based on the configuration of the articulators in the making of the sound. Although this is more then the original version of Hangul, there has been changes made since Hangul was first created.

Hangul was first designed for the reader to easily to distinguish and for the writer to have a simple writing system. The designers were familiar with the Chinese phonological theory, and to some had an understanding of Tibetan, Mongolian, Japanese and Jurchen. Another set of knowledge that was used was Buddhist scriptures. All of this knowledge led to the creation of Humminjeongeum, which means instructing the people in the correct sound. 

Humminjeongeum is the explanation of the completion of creation alphabet. The word means to teach the correct sounds to people. This meaning was given because Hangul was made to replace Chinese character that were used to point of period. Scholars during the period had to learn classified Chinese first to order to write. It was made to make education easier for everybody. But initially it was not accepted by scholars, therefore did not become effect until after World War II. There are two versions of Humminjeongeum, one is a seven page manuscript in the Hancha and Chinese. And the other is a 36 manuscript that has both Hancha and Hangul.

Knowing all of this information and much more gives me knowledge about Korean culture and the reason behind their pride. For anyone that is Korean, I can now understand not only is their spoken language an important part of their identity but their written one has more history behind it. Koreans scarified so much so they can have a system that gave themselves identity, and not use the language of another country. They truly fought for their language after the Japanese occupied Korea, where many started to gain nationalist pride with Hangul. This pride stuck around until current day because only very few places actually use and teach Chinese or Hancha. 

This past week, Milica and I decided to taste some Eastern Europe. Last semester, we went to Balkan Restaurant. This semester, we visit two food markets here in Richmond: Aida European Food Market and 2M Mediterranean Market and Deli. I am happy to say that I used some Bosnian, and the store owners were very receptive and amused. The host at 2M fed us free hummus. It was delicious. And he bragged about his adopted Guatemalan son in elementary school, who is loved by all women, loves going to Bosnia, is sweet, straight A award winning student. It was one of the cutest promotions I've ever heard. A picture of the man is attached in the word document. marketPics.docx When they heard an Asian man speak their language with some decent pronunciation, it looked as if though they were doing all they could not to burst out laughing. Anyhow, the food was good and I thought the people were friendly. I am now familiarized myself with some Eastern European (and some Western European) food/dessert delicacies. I've attached a word document with some pictures.

Second Artifact- Turkish

According to the classifications listed in the "Figuring Foreigners Out" article, South Korea leans to the collectivist, indirect/high-context nonverbal, monochronic, external culture (I think). I looked up a study that used a more 'scientific' method than my guessing method here. According to the Geert Hofstede Center, South Korea is a collectivist country, as I have guessed. They state that their collectivism is evident by the commitment to the "member 'group', be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty is paramount... and the society fosters strong relationships where everywhere takes responsibility for fellow members." 

The Center scored S. Korea on an aspect called "uncertainty avoidance," which they define as "the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these." This seems to tie in which S. Korea's monochronic nature because, as the country is one of the most uncertainty avoiding countries in the world, they believe that time is money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard and precision and punctuality are the norm.

The site doesn't have many thoughts on S. Korea as an external culture but I personally think it is due to the prevalence of "fate" themes in Korean dramas. The article defines an 'external' culture as one which believes that 'some things in life are predetermined...there are limits beyond which one cannot go and certain givens that cannot be changed and must be accepted.' Usually in Korean dramas, especially those of the romance genre, a couple is tied by fate, as if their love was predetermined (example: "The Sun and the Moon") and is inescapable (which leads to comedic situations if the couple starts off with a love-hate relationship). 

During this week's meeting with my language partner, he showed me a news article on naver, a popular Korean search portal, about some guy's altercation with the police (I don't have the exact link to the story). I read the article aloud so that he can gauge my reading level. I mainly had trouble pronouncing words that I hardly ever come across since my mouth is unaccustomed to shaping them. Reading an article like this on The Korea Times, about a Japanese scholar's criticism of Japan's claim to S. Korea's islets, is difficult because I may understand the barebones gist of a sentence but lack many important details. (That Korea Times article has a side-by-side translation so I see what I'm missing.) Written Korean is also much more formal than daily speech, which is something I'm more used to, having grown up trying to speak to my grandmother. 

I will continue going through the Talk to Me In Korean curriculum (currently I'm on Lesson 2). As a supplement, I will continue to listen to Kpop music since the songs usually contain everyday speech / vocab, something that'll be easier for me to understand than the news or the radio. Weekly meetings with my language partner will also include one-hour dedicated to watching a K-drama together. 

I had heard this tongue twister my aunt was saying once and it was in Sindhi and I never understood it or could say it. But with my progress in the language I have understood the tongue twister and I really like saying it.

I planned to teach my roommate this tongue twister:

Chari chokri chamaji

khaye khata berr

Uthjeri ojari

Gabe jer pere

चरी छोकरी चमजी

खाएँ खटा बेरा

उठ जेरी ओजारी

गाबे जेर पेर 

I wrote it down for my roommate and asked her to read it but listening to pronunciation I felt like laughing because it was so different from the real pronunciation. I told her to repeat it with me like a little song so that she could retain it in her memory.

This tongue twister is about a girl who is considered crazy because she won’t stop eating sour berries and if she eats more berries she will loose her ability to taste. 

Reflect on how knowing a language’s history can help you learn the language.

I think to be aware of the history of the language is very helpful and interesting to study a second language. Koreans initially write in Chinese. Long time ago, the way how they write is the same as the Chinese. In another word, Koreans write Chinese! After that, Koreans change the way how they write things, and transfer in their unique style. Before 1st century, it was proto-Korean, it was not well-formed. 1st-10th century, it was old Korean, and it was the time they use arrangements of Chinese character to represent phonetically. Then, it came the middle korean, it becomes easily read and write. Later was modern korean, which have developed including variances in pronunciation, vocabulary. 

It helps me to learn Korean because there are two levels in Korean, first is formal way and then is the informal way. People speak informal way to the people who are same age as you, and use formal way when speak to elders or people who you first meet. This attribute to its history because Korea has history of dynasty, so it includes some moral standard in the history. I would more like to learn to speak the informal way because it is more casual and widely used nowadays. 

What artifacts will you use to document your learning? And why?

I just focus on speaking and listening Korean, and I made a tape recorder to repeat some of the Korean phrases after I learning some useful daily sentences. I think this is a good way to learn because I am not just learning the sentences, but also listening how I pronounce the sentence. How much differences between my pronunciation and the native speakers. In the future, I will watch more Korean Movies or dramas in order to improve and keep recording my voice in Korean. 

Reflect on “cultural competence”:

I enjoyed reading this chapter and I think communication is a natural event, communication link provide information to each other and in this case we exchange individuals through symbols, signs, or behaviors. When we communicate we exchange information so that we can better understand each other. Humans do not exchange data, but sharing meanings, which refer the management of messages in order to create meanings. At the same time, we link other people's thoughts and feelings. 

When I try to learn a new language, I think I have three main stages and goals:

1. I can self present myself, let other people perceive what I try to say

2. To develop a relationship, such as friendship

3. To manage interpersonal conflict and influence.

In conclusion, communication is even a strategy to achieve goals, which is to maximize their achievement by using knowledge, cultural context in order to adapt communication.

Sindhi being an ancient language has a lot to do with History. It is the language of Saints and Rishis of ancient Sindh. It has been the inspiration for Sindhi art, music, literature, culture and the way of life. Many great poets and literati have been profoundly inspired by the beauty of Sindhi language.

Sindh is in Pakistan but vast numbers of Sindhis are Hindus who live in India or other parts of the world. Historically India and Pakistan were one country known as Hindustan and after the partition of 1947 Sindh was acquired by Pakistan. Most Hindu Sindhis fled to India and went all over the country to create a new life.

Language is definitely affected by the difference in the Muslim Sindhis and the Hindu Sindhis. Muslims in Pakistan take words from Arabic and Urdu to incorporate it in their Sindhi vocabulary whereas Hindu Sindhis take words from Sanskrit and Hindi to incorporate it in the Sindhi vocabulary they use.

I believe that learning a language's history can definitely help you learn the language. Language is not only about memorizing vocabulary and grammar, but exploring culture, its people and tradition. In the first place, there must be something intriguing about the country or culture that made us want to learn the language. We need to know the history of language because it is the key to the understanding of the way things are and why they are that way. History is a major component of learning a language, and it is, to my mind, one of the most enjoyable aspects of acquiring a new language. If you choose to learn about a language's history, it will not only make your learning process more interesting, but you will get to appreciate little things about your target language that will definitely keep you motivated to work harder. 

Here is a quick history of Turkish language:  

Turkish language belongs to Ural-Altaic family of languages. The Ural-Altaic languages are distinguished from the Indo-European by: 

•  the absence of gender
•  adjectives precede nouns
•  verbs come at the end of a sentence 

During the Ottoman Empire (1453-1920), there were 3 languages used at that time:

• Arabic- language of religion
• Persian- language of art and literature
• Ottoman Turkish- language for the business administration 

These three languages belong to 3 different language families: Semitic, Indo-European, and Ural-Altaic. These languages are very different in terms of grammar, pronunciation and spelling, and they caused many difficulties in spelling and writing among people who spoke it. For these reasons, during the 19th century there was a reform of the language. The aim was to create a language that would be easier to read and write and would contain more Turkish words. 

Turkish leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had a goal to create a language that was more Turkish, and less Arabic and Persian. His goal was to produce a more modern language that would be easier to learn and pronounce. This process was accomplished by switching from Arabic alphabet to Latin alphabet as well as purification of the vocabulary. 

In May 1928, numbers that were up to that time written in Arabic were replaced with Latin alphabet. Transition from one alphabet to another one lasted only a few months. On January 1, 1929, it actually became unlawful to use the Arabic alphabet to write Turkish. 

Today, Turkish possesses rich vocabulary and is spoken by more than 70 million people throughout the world. Turkish speakers reside primarily in Turkey, Germany, Cyprus, Bulgaria and other parts of Eastern Europe.