In this artifact, I am introducing myself and my family members!
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I wrote a few vocabulary words in Hindi. Following that, I wrote days of the week in Hindi. I also wrote numbers in Hindi!
Here, my language partner and I are having a conversation!
Pooja Patel
Dr. Grove
SDLC Hindi
14 December 2012
Final Reflection
My journey of learning Hindi this semester has had its highs and its lows.
I decided to learn Hindi for numerous reasons. One of the main reasons was so I could reconnect with the Indian culture. Having been born and raised in Indian, it was crucial for me to know the national language of the country. In many ways Hindi was starting to become a dead language for me. After being in America and not having frequent exposure to Hindi, I was starting to forget the language. I forgot how to read and write as soon as I came to the US. Now, I was not able to talk in Hindi either. However, knowing my national language mattered to me. The language’s rival in my life was vital.
This semester I was able to reintroduce myself to Hindi. My goal for this semester was to achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi. I already understood Hindi. By the end of this semester I was hoping to learn how to read write, and speak. From constant interactions with my language partner, I was able to learn how to speak. Since a culture is a large part of self-directed learning, I was able to explore the Indian culture. India is a vast country with numerous languages and various cultures. Amid all of them, it is hard to identify a single Indian culture. By having conversations with my language partner, I learned multiple cultures put together help define the broader Indian culture.
Next semester, I will be enrolled in the upper level SDLAP. This will allow me to further all that I have learned this semester. This semester, I was not able to reach all of the goals that I had set for myself. Going into the next semester, I will be focusing more on the reading and the writing component of Hindi.
I believe that I have made considerable progress with Hindi this semester. Therefore, I look forward to learning Hindi next semester.
Language Partner Meeting #12
Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.
Week: 11/26/12 – 12/2/12
Goal for the day: Final Revision
Final language partner meeting with Sanya!
Today was revision day. We reviewed alphabets. We talked bout days of the week and time. Food and clothing came into play as we talked about culture.
After this moved on to working on my culture presentation. I decided to do my presentation on Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. Sanya helped with the organization of the project. We settled on talking about history of the festival, some common traditions, and the ways of celebrating. My goal for this project was to define what Indian culture really was. As I did research, I found that it is the sects of different cultures in Indian that make up the larger Indian culture. Keeping that in mind, I decided to see how North India celebrated Diwali differently than the South. India is known for its elaborate clothing. Therefore, I decided research what kinds of outfits are wore during the festival. In this project I also wanted to utilize what I had learned from SDLC 105. I talked about the importance of family in the Indian culture. I also looked at the macro-level and explored the values of the larger Indian society.
Language Partner Meeting #11
Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.
Week: 11/19/12 – 11/25/12
Goal for the day: Grammar
This week’s “to do” was grammar. After having a hard time with reading, my language partner and I decided to focus on speaking.
Sanya gave me sentence structures. She explained how a basic sentence in Hindi is set up. After receiving this template, we started talking. I had better luck with talking than I did with reading. Utilizing the vocabulary that I had learned over the course of the semester, I was able to strike a real conversation. We talked about our likes and dislikes. I was able to talk about food using the fruits and vegetables vocabulary I had learned earlier. I was also able to use some of the business vocabulary. Overall, this meeting went a lot better than the prior one!
My experiences with the self-directed learning at UR has been very beneficial to my learning of the Hebrew language. Working with Shir has been such a positive of my last semester. We had a very flexible schedule together, but we always got together and worked on Hebrew. I was shocked at how quickly I was learning the language by studying it on my own, but most of all my talking and listening to Shir. Shir and I met at many different places over the course of the semester. We explored the city of Richmond together, walked along some parks and tried out different restaurants. At each location we would talk about the location in Hebrew and then talk about our week, how things were going, and what tests or papers we had coming up. In addition, I was most excited about learning how to read the first page of my Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone book in Hebrew. I bought the book in Israel and when I bought it I made a goal to myself that I would do my best to try and learn Hebrew well enough to begin to read the book. I still have a lot more reading comprehension and recognition of vocabulary to work on; however, I truly feel comfortable entering into a beginning conversation in Hebrew with someone. If anyone wants to know about food, or ask me how I am doing. I feel comfortable having an introductory conversation with that person.
Sadly I was only able to see two cultural presentations, both of them based on the language of Urdu. I knew nothing about Afganistan before the presentation. I thought it was beautiful to see pictures and listen to the presentation about how Afganistan used to be what the West would deem a very "modern" country: people listening to the beatles, short skirts, and bob and push up hairstyles. It was tragic to here about how Afganistan became a nation where it is now. The presentation really gave me a stronger sense of appreciation for Afganistan as a country and taught me that the country hasn't always been under Shiriah law. If the country ever opens up and becomes more accepting, I would love to visit the country.
The topic of family is extremely important in both Jewish and Israeli culture. The background of Jewish history of assimilation, diaspora, and persecution. This makes being Jewish a very familial thing. This semester I started to conduct research with Hillel on the Former Soviet Union and immigration for religious freedom to the U.S. and Israel. From the conversations I've had, these people were scared to be publicly Jewish, and thus religion was something that was only shared among family. I feel like this culture of familial importance and emphasis has spread to Israel. Since Israel is an immigrant nation, people arriving in Israel not only spoke different languages, but brought with them different ideals and and practices. While over time Hebrew and an Israeli culture dominate, Israelis still hold close to them the unique traditions of their families and pass them on throughout the generations. For me, I hold the Jewish traditions and values, but I am also culturally mixed with my Italian catholic side of the family which has allowed me to learn more about both cultures.
During this week, Shir and I got together and really emphasized working on my vocabulary and feeling comfortable speaking. Shir had me write down our conversations in Hebrew and this really helped me to work on my spelling. We had the Hebrew Final on December 8th and it went really well. Over break I plan on going online to a couple of websites to maintain my vocabulary. I am excited to start working on Hebrew some more next semester.
The chapter on Sociocultural Factors had a number of interesting points on language learning and experiences outside of ones own cultural background. The first one that I could really relate my academic work to was the section on linguistic imperialism. In modern day, English is accepted as a universal language, however this is not a concept that was just born one day. Over years of imperialism and colonialism, English speaking nations have dominated the global arena not just militarily and economically, but through the spread of language, ideology, and values. These latter ones thus undermine the native culture and norms with the domination of Western ideals. I think this is extremely important to consider today as Westerners plan their travels and recognize the value of learning about the behaviors and culture of the country they are visiting rather than expecting to be accommodated in English by people who have adapted to Western culture. Being in Israel, all street signs are posted in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. I have never stopped to think how it must feel as an Arab or Israeli to have all three languages. On the one hand, this promotes tourism, however, on the other, it undermines the value of having a distinct and unique culture. This leads to the question of the Whorfian hypothesis of whether a language reflects a world view or whether it shapes one. I believe that there is truth to both, however, as an international studies major I can argue the latter better. I think the Cold War struggle of containment/liberation between communism and democracy was very much at the same time a struggle between different ways of life and understandings of the world. Much of the rhetoric used in the Cold War served to export these ideologies by promising a better standard of living. You started seeing personal televisions, bathrooms, and later cell phones, valued in societies that were no where near as developed in infrastructure or economy to necessitate these commodities. I think that the topics above are a perfect representation of the "Stage 3 of Culture Shock" discussed in the chapter. The exciting euphoria of Stage 1 wears off once people realize that the language has thus also channeled a cultural discourse away from one's native cultural values and associations.
The article "How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language" discusses how language immersion allows people to process and apply a new language with native-like capability. In my opinion, immersion is an easy and efficient way to learn and significantly improve a learner's ability to grasp a language. I can make an example of this out of my own experience, since my capability to speak Russian and Ukrainian proficiently without stuttering and getting confused with the phrasing of English opposed to Russian, is visibly better when I'm back home in Ukraine because the dominant language being spoken and heard by myself and my surroundings is Russian. This is also due to the fact that I do not have an option to rely on another language like english, and in order for others to understand what I am trying to say I have to interact with my peers and family in Russian, and make sure that what I am saying makes sense in Russian even if the phrasing is not what makes sense in English (a problem I very often run in to.) My Russian speaking capabilities and clarity once I come home from Ukraine to the US are significantly better. On the other hand, due to my absence from the US, my English goes through the same struggles as does my Russian, because I become accustomed to hearing and speaking one specific language. I have definitely heard of language immersion before, however I had not really read any studies that supported the theory of language immersion up until I read this article. I also found the study that used electroencephalography, which is a test that measures brain processing in order to determine that people who learn a language through language immersion, actually end up using the brain patterns of a native speaker. It is very reassuring that the brain patterns that are found during immersion are not present with the language learners who learn the sam language in a formal setting, such as a typical classroom. Overall I believe that there is nothing more significant that language immersion for a language learner who is seeking to polish his or her skills in a native manner, which is what makes the difference between being an amateur and a capable speaker of a language being learned.
After reading "A Picture of Language," I learned a lot about the different methods of learning and teaching grammar, which is a language learning aspect that many disregard. Throughout my lifetime in education I have studied many languages such as: German, Russian, Ukrainian, English, Spanish and now even Turkish, however grammar was never something I could pick up on very easily since every language has their own conjugation systems and grammatical exclusivities. This article discussed the many difficulties of "parsing", which I found interesting. Parsing develops a learner's practical skills in analyzing sentences and picking up on tenses, parts of speech, and the form and function of the included conjugation. From past experiences with learning languages I can definitely agree that this is not a very fun process and it does not develop the learner's speech, however I believe that it is a necessity to analyze how sentences work for a language learner because it creates the foundation on which the learner can build his or her language skills, and make sure that they are grammatically correct. I was not surprised at the end of the article, that most of the people interviewed by the author who were language learners were expressing how important it is to learn with "parsing" and come up with an approach that is more visual and relatable to learners, especially because that was the way I would try to learn my grammar when learning other languages. I would usually find a trend or visualization that I could relate to myself and help remember.
After reading Sociocultural Factors, I learned about different approaches and unique ways of treating and accepting cultures. This was very interesting to me because it provided me with an insight that I had never considered myself before. The section about stereotypes was particularly interesting because it was a topic that I could relate to, especially since I am a foreigner myself with a different culture. The section discussed how stereotypes are noticed by people because they judge those who come from different backgrounds and cultures, while they disregard the stereotypes that could be derived from their own culture and beliefs. Francois Lierres's suggesting article for his fellow Frenchmen, who was planning on traveling to the US was very entertaining and pointed out how people in the US are unaware of their own stereotypes that they have created while mocking french people. The second culture acquisition concept hit very close to home for me, mostly because of acculturation, which is the claim that a person who is learning a second language usually develops a second identity. Cultural shock can make a serious impact on someone who goes through acculturation, especially if his original culture and identity is questioned and mocked by the people of a different country and culture.
The reading, "Communicative Competence," offered some useful insight.The term communicative competence is defined by Dell Hymes as: "that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts". I believe that out of the different competences, communicative competence was the most the most interesting and applicable term for my own learning of Turkish. The definition of communicative competence includes several subcategories such as: grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Grammatical competence refers to the competence used to learn the linguistic code of a language, discourse competence refers to a wide range of competences that includes our ability to speak and our interaction with written text, sociolinguistic competence indicates an understanding of the social context of a language, and strategic competence refers to an individual's ability to recover from mistakes they make when speaking the language, often due to a lack of fluent knowledge. I found learning about the different forms of competencies to be very useful tool in measuring my learning of Turkish. The different competencies have shown me what areas of improvement I need to focus on. For instance, since I am a beginning learner in Turkish, building my strategic competency will come in handy throughout conversations with experienced speakers who will notice my shortcomings in speaking the language and provide help with fixing my mistakes to become a better speaker. I believe my greatest benefit from reading "Communicative Competence," was the knowledge I gained from learning how to make an example out of particular logical aspects that are associated with language and could be applied to my further learning and advancement in capability of speaking Turkish.
First, I want to start from the bottom and talk about something that really intrigued me this semester: the concept of time. In past semesters, I have tried to figure out the lunar calendar and make sense of where the Western concept of time falls in comparison. In my Black Vernacular class, we learned that in Africa as well as the Middle East, time is circular. It does not depend on the clock, but rather on nature, which only makes sense. I best made sense of the lunar calendar by relating it to astrology. In Afghanistan, the first day of the New Year is the first day of Spring, which can be March 20 or 21. This is also the first day of the astrological sign: Aries. This calendar is also about 11 days shorter than what we are used to because the 12 months each have approximately 29.5 days.
I then wondered about when my birthday would fall during the lunar calendar and more importantly, how are birthday celebrations in Afghanistan and Iran if the calendar slightly shifts each year? After talking to Mirwais, birthday celebrations are more of a big deal for children from the ages of five to 15, so the need to be exact is not dire. Also, the day one celebrates his or her birthday is close to the exact date, so there is not much confusion about this.
Moving on, I learned about Buzkashi which is known as the "most dangerous sport." Select males are trained from a young age to be strong, horse jockeys so they can compete in the Buzkashi games. The game involves aggressive, physically fit men riding on horses and trying to carry a sacrificed goat across the goal line. The competitors wear little, if any, protection and whip one another to cause the goat wielder to drop the goat. I used this as part of my presentation and watched some videos about it. I commend those who choose to compete.
Something else I gained more insight on is the school system in Afghanistan. Mirwais said the school system is still new and has been strengthened in the last decade. There are private and government-run schools, as well as private and government-run universities. Private schools require students to pay tuition and the education is better than that of a government school. This is very similar to private vs. public schools in America, but I would not say that the education gap is so severe in all cases. There is a very important test that students much take before entering a university; it's called the University Entrance Test. I wanted to compare it to SATs at first, but found that it is much more important. The higher the score, the better opportunities he or she has when going to a university. There is also a totem pole in regards to test scores and majors. If someone scores 250 or above, they can have an engineering or medical major; between 250-200,they can have an arts major; and failing is below 200. If someone fails, they can retake the exam in one year or just go to a private university. Government universities are better than Private ones, which was intriguing in comparison to secondary school standards.
I was actually more fulfilled by just learning about the culture this semester even though my findings are surface level in comparison to Afghan and Iranian history.
I formatted the learning activity in word document and emailed it to my sister to see if she could successfully conjugate verbs in Farsi. She is now a Spanish teacher, but learned some Arabic when she attended an Islamic primary school in Washington, D.C. Although, she could recognize the similar alphabet, she was unfamiliar with Dari. Based on my instructions, she was able to conjugate the verbs correctly for all pronouns with the exception of "they". She added an extra "nun" and "dol." Verb conjugation is my strong point and I learned conjugations based on simple instructions.
Learning Activity
Goal: To be able to conjugate verbs in the past tense and form simple sentences.
- There are six pronouns used in Dari, find them below along with a phonetic spelling.
من - (man) “I”
شما -(shoma) “You” (formal)
تو -(tu) “You” (informal)
ما –(mo) “We”
او – (o) “He/She/It”
آنه (oanha) “They”
- In the English language, we deal with irregularity of verbs when it comes to conjugations, which complicates the learning process. However; past tense verbs in Dari are regular as far as I can tell.
- Below, you will find the traditional suffixes for verbs based on the associate pronoun.
- من Drop “ن” and add “م”
- شما Drop “ن” and add “ید”
- تو Drop “ن” and add “ی”
- ما Drop “ن” and add “یم”
- او Drop “ن”
- آنه Add “د”
Find an example below of a past tense verb conjugation
دیدن : TO SEE
من دیدم
تو دیدی
شما دیدید
ما دیدیم
او دید
آنها دیدند
Now conjugate the verb رفتن meaning “ to come” for all six pronouns.
