Blogs

Goal for the Week:
Do what I feel like.
Result:
Watched about 45 videos of the “Angry Serbian” on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/itsabrainhumor
Reexamined why I am learning Bosnian and my plans for it.
Method:
This last week, I was tired, slightly burnt out, and decided to take the week off. While I met with my language partner, we were mostly making light-hearted banter. I found the Angry Serbian videos absolutely hilarious for a while. Every culture has its stereotypes, some accurately characterize a large part of the group’s population, and some do not. In any case, I think there were some funny, and true observations made by the youtube author based on my interactions with the people of the Balkans. The guy is a Serbian in his early twenties. He lives in Canada and makes videos that mock typical Serbian habits or mannerisms. What I found most striking was the videos describing interactions with American culture. Some of the most pervasive themes included American ignorance (cultural, geographical, lingual, historical), American exceptionalism, American attitudes about Serbia, and typical Serbian behavior (guys, girls, parents, dress, dating culture, values). The guy mocks Americans for things like mistaking Serbia for Siberia, spending excessive money on Halloween, their conceptions of Serbians post-Bosnian War, and Americans’ seeming inability to learn or empathize with other cultures. He mocks Serbians for their predictable dress, swearing, views on women, etc…
This video, along with my interactions with my language partner, was how American and Serbian culture seems to clash head on with particular disdain from the Serb side. Bosnian Serbs cannot stand Americans’ sense of superiority. This stands out because other cultures I interact with do not share the intensity of disgust. My guess is that Serbia, being a particularly nationalistic and exceptionally proud country itself, is insulted at America’s attitude to them. How could anyone not know where Serbia is? How could anyone not recognize us as great world nation? WE ARE SERBIA (disgusted spit to the side and fist pump). Any how, this is just my personal observation/guess.
I ran into an educational existential crisis earlier in the week. Thoughts of “what if I don’t get the Fulbright” entered into my head. These thoughts always enter at the most opportune times! In a stroke of good luck however, I ended up skyping my uncle in Malaysia for the first time in 7 to 8 years. When I told him that I was hoping to go to Bosnia next year, he said that Malaysians and Bosnians have excellent relations! During the war, Malaysia, a Muslim state, welcomed Bosniaks into the country. Malaysian universities in fact, are quite accommodating to Bosnian students, students who wish to learn Bosnian, and people who could speak fluent English! Plan B!

Weeks 12 and 13:

For language task 9: I worked on learning how to state daily tasks such as the things I did that day. I started off by learning to ask "What did you do today?" I was able to incorporate time with each activity that I completed. I can now state how to say things like I woke up at 7 am, I ate breakfast, I took a nap, I did homework, I went to class, and etc. I thought it was important to be able to talk about daily activities in order to hold a conversation with another person. Although it may not be much, it is still a good start. To ask what did you do today, it is "Onul muo haetsoyo?"

The structure of constructing these sentences is as follows... Onul + time + ae + activity. To say I woke up at 7 am, I would say "Onul achim ilgob shi ae il o natsoyo". 

More examples: Onul...

shawo haetsoyo - to shower

bab ul mogotsoyo - to eat

yi ppal ul ddakatsoyo - to brush teeth

chingudul yirang shopping haetsoyo - to go shopping with my friends

suk jae haetsoyo - to do homework

nat jam ul jatsoyo - to take a nap

suop dul o gatsoyo - to go to class

jam ul jatsoyo - to go to bed 

The 13th week was during thanksgiving break so we were not able to meet but I reviewed everything I have learned so far.

Attached is my 4th artifact of telling time and being able to write it.

Artifact #4

Week 12:

I am planning to work on my final presentation which is the concept of dowry and weddings in Pakistan. Also want to try talking about weather and asking questions with my language partner.

Week 13:

in this week I am planning to review all the short sentences that I have learned so far. Also would like to find an urdu speaking student and try to talk to him/her just to test my abilities in Urdu language speaking.

Week 14:

In this week I am planning to finish up everything that is due in this class, do a final review with my language partner and reflect on others culture presentations from SDLP 105.

For Week 9:

I learned numbers from 100-1000, pronunciation and writing them, make short sentences and used the numbers. Also learned about the calender and telling the date in Urdu.

Week !0:

We talked about different types of food, since I already learned how to order food in previous weeks so it was easier for me to talk about food. My language partner and I both talked about traditional foods in our home countries and the importance of food in any event.

Week 11:

In this week, I tried to read the short poems and understand the meaning, as my goal was to read and understand short poems, and  I guess I have fulfilled this goal by now.

“Why Bilinguals Are Smarter”

NY Times writer Yudhijit Bhattacharjee is convinced that learning to be bilingual increases cognitive capabilities, making an individual “smarter.” Holding two languages at once evidently forces the brain to continually “resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.” More specifically, Bhattacharjee reports that these muscles included the ability to ignore distractions, focus, switching attention from one thing to another, memory, and conscientiousness and adaptation to new environments.

I think this is an interesting concept. It harks back to the challenges we’ve talked about as an international student. As someone new to a culture, one learns the necessity to suppress certain expressions and adopt new ones. Naturally, I am sure that the muscles the author describes are certainly at work. These muscles seem essential to one’s ability to survive in a foreign environment, let alone thrive.

I’m curious as to what we would consider a different language or cultural context. In other words, to what extent is exposure to the culture shock experience beneficial? One might argue for instance, that initiation into a professional environment is an introduction into a completely different cultural context than one is used to. True, one can convey direction, commands, or other objective, factual information. The English might be the same, but the various mannerisms, cultural cues, rituals, and meanings might be so different, that you might as well be speaking a different language. How about in interpersonal communications? How about a college party environment, versus an academic gathering, or a club? I think one could argue that the language that one should speak in these different places to have a fun time is very different. What in other words, is the exact benefit of taking the effort to become “bilingual” in the popular sense? To go to one country or the other? Is it exclusively a matter of degree of foreignness? That one has to be extra alert in a foreign country? What is the difference between the bilingual experience and learning how to be a professional ballroom dancer, princess, or Catholic as a monolingual immersed in the respective culture?

Cultural Project

For the cultural project, I am interested in perceptions of American and Bosnian relations today. I aim to understand these perceptions through an analysis of three different narratives of the Bosnian War: Serb, Croat, and Bosniak. Knowledge of these three different narratives I hope, will allow me to better understand how and why the United States holds various reputations among the three different groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The four questions that will guide my analysis are as follows:

1. What happened?
2. How was it resolved?
3. Why was the resolution effective or ineffective?
4. What was the United States’ role in the conflict?

To answer these questions, I will consult three sources. First, I plan to interview three Bosnians from three different ethnic groups for this project: a Bosniak, a Serbian, and a Croat. Using university students as source material may not be the most factual or reliable in terms of historical accuracy, but they are helpful in my efforts to identify popular conceptions and assumptions of Bosnians’ own history. After all, it is too commonly these uninterrogated assumptions that define our prejudices and emotional ties to certain events or people.  Second, I will consult an academic source titled The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention by Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup. This will provide a rigorous and professional account of both the war in Bosnia and the role of America. Third, I will refer back to the Youtube videos and movies that I’ve seen. Cultural output is useful and fun means to glean insights into a society’s account of historical events.

Ultimately, the goal of this project is to further my understanding of the three different realities that exist in Bosnia Herzegovina. By the end of this project, I hope to be able to identify similarities and differences between them. As I plan to travel and potentially conduct federally-funded research in Bosnia, I am also interested in understanding where the United States fits into these narratives.

This week was Thanksgiving, so I did not have my usual weekly meetings with Mirwais. I have attached a picture of my final artifact, which was a personal one, a birthday card to a family member. I wrote it to my khaleh Mozhdeh (my mother's sister). The card says:

Dear Khaleh Mozhdeh,

Happy birthday! I miss you a lot. I hope to see you very soon. I love you. 

Layla

I finally learned prepositions! I have attached sentences that I created using Dari prepositions

.Artifact 4

I consider knowing other languages a “blessing in disguise” (Why Bilinguals are Smarter). As a person who know multiple languages, I gave this article a lot of thought and access how my mind treats the languages I know. For the most part, I think in English. However, there are certain words that I don’t know the names for in English. In these cases, my mind automatically thinks of Gujarati. When my mind switches, it automatically starts to think in that same language for a while. Then it switches to the language that I use on a regular basis.

Overall, this article provided me with a lot of insight. However, I do wish that they had expanded how the brain is impacted by multiple languages? I know more than two languages and I would like to know more about how exactly my mind processes the information it receives. I believe that there is certainly a cutoff point after which knowing more languages won’t make you smarter and “smarter”. 

I strongly believe that it is absolutely crucial to preserve languages.

I found the story of this language revival extremely interesting. However, this article did leave me with some questions. What is the practical use of this language? If no one can actually “speak” the language, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having a language? It is great that a record and a dictionary are kept of this language but what about the culture that comes with the language? How will that be preserved? Can a culture be really “preserved”? 

The culture shock video reminded me of my transition to America.

I came to the US in 2005 when I was 11 years old. I entered school in seventh grade. As a foreign student I was able to relate to the experiences of the exchange students in the video. I distinctly remember not being able understand English at first. I went to an English medium school in India but the English I learned din school was so much different than the English spoken in America.

After the language barrier came the solitude. I moved to the US with my immediate family and yet I had a hard time with living in a completely different environment. I wanted to interact with others but I simply could not. I didn’t know their language properly neither did I know their culture. I came from a culture that was polychornic and collective. This was much different than the American culture. I did not get used to the American culture till after spending almost five years in the States. Even today, there are times when I feel extremely uncomfortable in some surroundings because I don’t know the American culture! 

 Language Partner Meeting #10

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 11/12/12 – 11/18/12

Goal for the day: Read Short Stories

I picked a short story and I tried to read in Hindi. I was able to pick apart the letters and understand the words gradually. Overall, I had a hard time finishing the story I was reading.

So far in my meetings with my language partner, I have learned to recognize the vocabulary that we focus on weekly basis. However, when attempting to read, I had a hard time with understanding certain words. Since Hindi uses a different alphabet that made it even harder to understand using context.

This week I learned that I need to broaden my vocabulary further before I can properly understand an entire story in Hindi. 

Language Partner Meeting #9

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 11/05/12 – 11/11/12

Goal for the day: Business Vocabulary

I am doing a business minor. One of the reasons that I am learning Hindi is because it will be useful to me in my professional career. This week of my learning plan was dedicated to learning the business vocabulary of Hindi. Sanya provided with me a list and we spend majority of our time learning the pronunciation of the words.

During our conversation, I noticed that a lot of words that we were sing were mainly in English. Later, Sanya explained to me that in business surrounding, English is used predominantly. In the list that I was given, a lot of the words were in formal Hindi. On a day to day basis, these words are rarely used.

Keeping this in mind, I still want to learn the useful words for business vocabulary. From this point forward, I will be choosing which words are more important for me to learn. 

Throughout the semester, I have been trying to figure out what young adults do for fun in Iran and Afghanistan. The topic of hookah came of particular interest to me because its origins are in Persia and India. 

I recently read an article entitled " Hookah Smoking from It's Middle Eastern Roots to It's Collegiate Prominence Today" by Michael Holt of Yahoo!. He noted the hookahs' roots in the Middle East and how this form of recreation now popular among  U.S. college students .

Holt described hookah as follows : " The hookah functions in such a way that a coal is placed on a screen which is affixed atop of a clay bowl filled with a fruit/sugar molasses and tobacco mix known as Shisha. When the coal is lit ,it glows red hot as you inhale from the hose and receive water-filtered fruit flavored smoke. This smoke is inhaled like cigarettes and often the smoker does "O's" and other smoke tricks while exhaling."

When I visited Aladdin and Eko Lounge in Richmond for hookah, I found that they offered many different flavors. I usually try the tropical flavors or U.F.O., which is a blend  of all different types of fruits. Most places only offer hookahs that are filled with water, but Eko is different. They allow participants to replace the water with Red Bull or White Wine to enhance the flavor of the tobacco and to boost your "high."  I could not find any information on whether that is an option in the Middle East.

The popularity of hookahs is evident in the fact that most cafes in Iran and Afghanistan offer hookahs. I think that may be better than smoking cigarettes in establishments because the smell is not so strong and disgusting. I also read that hookah is healthier than smoking cigarettes, but the jury is more than likely still out on that. 

Holt  said, " Compared to cigarettes the hookah takes a long time (an hour) to smoke a bowl, cigs are for the busy people they say. The hookah also has less nicotine due to the water filtering is effective in the hookah in removing some damaging material though not significantly healthier when used as often as a cig smoker would smoke."

I spoke to Mirwais about hookah and he did say that it is regaining popularity in Afghanistan.

This is a form of recreation for people in the Middle East and has no negative associations as far as I can tell.

Language Partner Meeting #8

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 10/22/12 – 10/28/12

Goal for the day: Giving directions in India and the terminology that is used

My language partner gave me the word pronunciation in Hindi. We spend majority of time learning the following words:

Following words are commonly used in stating the addresses in India: mains, crosses, blocks, and sectors. After I learned the words, Sanya give me an example of a probable address in India:

# 434, 5^th Cross, 8^th Main,

2^nd Block, Rajajinagar

Hyderabad – 567798

What struck me the most about this address was that it was in English. No technical Hindi terms were used to state the address. This just goes on to show that English is becoming a big part of the Indian culture, thus, affecting the Hindi language. 

Language Partner Meeting #7

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 10/22/12 – 10/28/12

Goal for the day: Review day

So far in the semester, I have learned a lot. I have learned how to read and write days of the week and numbers in Hindi. I have learned how to tell time. I know the words for food and clothing. As I have immersed myself more into Hindi, I have simultaneously uncovered a lot of about the Indian culture. This has helped answer many questions about my own Gujarati culture.

However, one question is yet to be answered. Will I be able to reach the goals I have set for myself? After being half way through this semester, I think my learning plan is extremely ambitious. I have set high goals for myself. So far, I have learned a lot but I still have much more to learn. According to my original plan, I should know how to read and write at an elementary level by the end of this semester. However, at this point, my vocabulary in Hindi is small and it will not allow me to read and write properly. At this point I my reevaluating my learning plan. 

Language Partner Meeting #6

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 10/15/12 – 10/21/12

Goal for the day: What are the main holidays in various regions?

India is a vast country with multiple languages and traditions. North India is much different than South India. Similarly, East India is much different than West India.

As my language partner and I started talking more about the festivals of India, we also dwelled further into the religious practices of India. India is a vast country often known as being a spiritual and holy land for multiple religions. Hinduism is followed by the majority of the population. Next comes the Islamic faith which is then followed by Christianity. Other religions of Indian include Sikhism, Buddhism, and Parsism. Hinduism is practiced throughout India. The other religions are concentrated in certain part of India.

India celebrates and welcomes the seasons of the year, birthdays of divine beings, saints. Two main festivals of India that are celebrated by all include Diwali, the festival f lights and the Indian New Day, that takes place the day after Diwali. For example, Navarati is heavily celebrated in the Western part of India. Holi is widely celebrated in the northern part of India. Festivals like Pongal and Onam are celebrated in southern India. 

Reflection #2

Learning Hindi has been fascinating and challenging for me. As I immerse myself further in Hindi, the more I appreciate the language and Indian culture as a whole. So far I have accomplished a lot in Hindi. I have familiarized myself with the alphabet. This will help me read basic signs in Hindi. After the alphabet, I learned numbers and days of the week. This taught me how to tell time in Hindi. After learning the basics, I moved on to learning more about the Indian culture. Food plays a large role in the lives of Indians. It serves as a combining force for all the different cultures that exist in the nation. Therefore, I asked my language partner to teach me the Hindi names for fruits and vegetables. Shopping in a bazaar for fruits and vegetables is a large part of the Indian tradition and its customary cooking fashion. Also, food is something that I am very passionate about. By focusing on learning of what I care for and feel passionate about, I learned Hindi more efficiently.  

I am an auditory and a visual learner.  So far, I have learned from hearing about the Indian culture from a macro perspective. In my weekly meetings with my language partner, Sanya, I have taken consistent notes. I am hoping that these notes will help me remember Hindi in the long run. I have been getting a lot out of initiating small conversations in Hindi with other people on campus who speak the language. These conversations and the conversations that I have had with my language partner help raise my confidence as far as speaking goes. Another component that helped me get comfortable with Hindi was learning how it originated.

The second presentation for SDLC required us to do some research regarding the history of our target language. This presentation played a crucial part in helping me understand the origin of the language and why it is the way it is. The big question that I have always had is “why do words in different languages such as Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Turkish sound so familiar to me?” In our class, one of my peers is learning Urdu. When she shared her artifact with our class, I understand majority of what she said. This further elevated my curiosity. I did not understand why I understood Urdu? For me it was very important to learn about the origin of Hindi and how it is related to other languages such as Persian, Turkish, Arabic and many others. From doing research, I discovered that in the early history of India, Persian-speaking Turks used to control northern India. The Indians did not know the language of the Turks, Persian, and the Turks did not know the native language of the Indians, Sanskrit. Hindi was created as a colloquial version of Sanskrit. Sanskrit was mixed with words from Persian, Arabic, Turkish and many other languages to create Hindi.

Doing research helped me answer a big question. However, one question is yet to be answered. Will I be able to reach the goals I have set for myself? After being half way through this semester, I think my learning plan is extremely ambitious. I have set high goals for myself. So far, I have learned a lot but I still have much more to learn. According to my original plan, I should know how to read and write at an elementary level by the end of this semester. However, at this point, my vocabulary in Hindi is small and it will not allow me to read and write properly. When I meet with my language partner for this week, I will be talking to her about what she thinks I can accomplish before the end of the semester. 

Language Partner Meeting #5

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 10/8/12 – 10/14/12

Goal for the day: Learn the Hindi names for various articles of clothing.

Among many aspects, Indian culture is also known for its unique clothing.

In our meeting, my language partner introduced me to the new vocabulary related to articles of clothing. I was taught the pronunciation and repletion helped me in remembering the words.

During the “culture talk” period, my language partner and I discussed how people in different regions of India dress differently. We dwelled further into this topic by discussing what is acceptable attire our cultures: Gujarati culture versus the Bangalore culture. Saris are commonly worn in India. However, Guajarati saris are wore much differently than a southern style of wearing a sari.  

Language Partner Meeting #4

Goal for the semester: My goal for this semester is achieve the “elementary” level of Hindi, i.e. read, write, and speak.

Week: 10/1/12 – 10/7/12

Goal for the day: Learn the Hindi names for fruits and vegetables.

Food is a large part of the Indian culture. In many ways, Indian culture is known for its flavorful food. Breakfast is called naashta. Lunch is called dubher ka khaana (afternoon’s food). An evening snack is called naashta. Dinner is called raat ka khaana (night’s food).

During our weekly “culture talk”, my language explained to me the importance of going to bazaars to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables. If I were to go to a major city in India, shopping at the bazaar would be a common occurrence. Therefore, I decided to dwell into the food aspect of Hidni further and learn about the words for fruits and vegetables. Some of the fruits and vegetables listed below can only be found in India!