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At 17:20, Mandy states that American students tend to think that international students don't want to communicate with locals. She believes that American typically fail to understand how international students feel having to adjust to an entirely new culture.

I think this is true. It is easy to underestimate the impact of all those adjustments on the emotional and psychological experience of international students. In my language-learning efforts, I have had a small taste. Expressing oneself in one's native language is hard enough. To have difficult expressing oneself in another language on more basic levels is a formidable challenge to the cross cultural experience. There can be a sense of inferiority, intellectually, to those you're talking to. It really helps to have understanding natives who understand what a foreigner goes through.

On the flip side, the bashing of the native culture and clinging to the familiar (often times in "gangs") is a habit of international students that can make it difficult to build meaningful connections. It's difficult for Americans to befriend or reach out to an international student who isn't willing to risk vulnerability, to make a genuine effort to help the other side understand them. It's certainly not easy to put oneself out there, especially in a foreign environment. But if an international student has a genuine desire to build close relationships, I think this is a must.

Considering the focus of my cultural project is on religion in Afghanistan, I thought it would be interesting to explore secularism or at least an era when the role of Islam was not overwhelming (i.e., during the Taliban regime). Moreover, I also wanted to examine the country's past modernity; that is not to say that there is no semblance of modernity in Afghanistan today, but still is in somewhat of  a rebuilding state. I also think what drew to learning more about Afghan modernity were the stories I heard from my parents who had grown up in the nation during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. From my perspective, I feel that the media often portrays Afghans as living a backwards society; however, such is not the case and certainly was not when my parents grew up in the nation.

I think one of aspect of Afghanistan's history that has not been fully understood is the role and rights of women in the nation. People assume that the religious beliefs present within Afghanistan having been holding women back for centuries. On the other hand, there was a time when women in Afghanistan had close to, if not the same, opportunities as men. For instance, in recent times, most people see photographs of Afghan women fully covered in burqas or chadris, as pictured here. From my perspective, it seems that most people assume something like the chadri is something that supports the notion that Afghanistan is a nation composed of extremist Muslims; which could not be further from the truth. In fact, the chadri was not worn until the Taliban gained prominence in Afghanistan. Women were forced to wear the chadri by the Taliban and they obliged, since fighting back likely lead to death. Interestingly, in the '50, '60, '70s and even the '80s, it would be close to impossible to find a woman wearing a chadri, especially in major cities such as Kabul. It was not uncommon to see women in modern, Western-like, clothing, as seen in this picture.

Another subject that is often frustrating to hear regards education in Afghanistan. Many people assume that Islam forbids or limits educational opportunities, yet it is the actions of extremist groups (e.g., the Taliban) that create such horrendous conditions. Women in Afghanistan not only had the opportunity to go to school, but many often went on to pursue higher education; like my mother and other family members. In an article for Foreign Policy, Mohammad Qayoumi, who grew up in Afghanistan during the '50s and '60s, noted, "A half-century ago, Afghan women pursued careers in medicine; men and women mingled casually at movie theaters and university campuses in Kabul." Certainly, women and men once had the same opportunities for an education, as seen in this photo of a science class that shows men and women sitting beside one another working in a lab. 

Of course, this is all not to say that Islam did not have an influence in Afghanistan during some its more progressive times. Islam has had a role in the nation for centuries, and only recently has that role drastically shaped the nation's health and modernity.

I think it's really important to keep native languages alive, to preserve the cultural connections to the past. I had a conversation with my mother recently about how the older generations should teach the younger generations the native language. She doesn't think it's important -- she believes that it's better for the younger generation to assimilate into the majority culture. I disagree with her though, and this article demonstrates why. For history's sake, it's important to maintain language. Certain aspects of culture and tradition can only be kept alive through language, since culture and language are so closely entwined. The Siletz people, through their dictionary, are keeping the heritage of their ancestors alive, even when they have been threatened with oblivion so many times before. I really liked the story about the linguistics graduate student who is picking up Siletz. It shows that the language and culture of a group, no matter how small, can be shared with others and enrich their lives, even if they aren't connected to that culture through ethnic heritage, and demonstrates why keeping more languages alive enriches the world as well.

Language and culture are inextricably intertwined – language does not exist by itself in a vacuum. Learning a language involves learning a culture as well, because by interacting with speakers of a certain language, one is interacting with members of a certain culture as well. For me, the culture of Iran, where my target language is primarily spoken, is familiar, if not well understood. By learning Persian, I hope to become more comfortable with the culture I grew up with.

Though I was raised by Iranian parents, my lack of proficiency in the Persian language prevented me from fully embracing and understanding my family’s culture. As a native English speaker, I was always much more comfortable with Western culture and preferred it to Iranian culture because I lacked the language skills to understand the culture I was raised in. Through my studies of French at school, I often felt that I would feel more comfortable living in France than Iran, despite my ethnicity and heritage. My French language skills gave me the power to understand a culture that I had no other connection to better than the one generations of my family had been immersed in.

It is possible to learn language without learning the culture, but outside the classroom, understanding culture is necessary to apply the language skills learned. Culture is what, in my experience, makes language three-dimensional. Conversely, it is impossible to learn about a region’s culture without learning at least some of its language. In describing a cultural phenomenon, it is necessary to use some words from the language spoken in that culture. For example, Iranians celebrate the Iranian New Year, or Norooz. Norooz cannot be effectively explained without using words in Persian to describe its customs and traditions, such as the haft sin table setting that contains seven items all starting with the letter ‘s’ to symbolize the new year. Something global can be described in multiple languages, but something specific to a certain culture requires the native language to explain it.

Through studying Persian, I have come to feel less culturally ignorant than before. The culture that was supposed to be my own, although it did not feel like it before, has become less foreign to me. Even though I am still learning the basics of my target language, I feel more connected to my relatives and the culture they are a part of. The power language has to connect people and facilitate communication is evident when examined through the lens of culture, and has personally enlightened me. 

Copy of the "Verb Midterm" below:

Midterm: Bosnian

Part 1: Conjugate the following verbs in present, past, and future (Verbal):

1. Razumjeti
2. Piti
3. Vjezbati
4. Jesti
5. Znati

Part 2: Translate the following (Verbal):

1. He studies
2. We could
3. They will write
4. I walked
5. She knows
6. You get
7. You (pl.) lost
8. We understand
9. They will ask
10. You (pl.) loved
11. I ate
12. She is
13. We run
14. He will feel
15. I worked
16. You talked
17. They will love

Part 3: Fill in the blank:

1. Ja_____________(played) fudbal.
2. Nikola i Ana _________(will run) sutra.
3. Jovan ___________________(talks) glasno.
4. Marko I ja ______________(walk).
5. Vi ________________(ate) piletinu.

I found Halliday’s seven types of communication to be useful to my understanding of “communicative competence,” not only in a foreign language, but one’s own native language (223-224). Some of these categories represent skills that any communicator might want to incorporate into their repertoire. For instance, people of all ages might only be well-versed in instrumental and regulatory functions of language. Sadly, I’ve met plenty of these sorts of people. Some people only have the ability to communicate in a way that allows them to try to “manipulate” their environment to make things happen, or express “regulatory” statements that show approval or disapproval. In school, I think we learn to use the “representational” function of communication. That is, we learn to explain and describe knowledge. These are the basic three communicative functions I think most individuals graduating from a university will leave with.

The last four types I think are really helpful for enriching any cultural experience. The first is called interactional function. This is described as the ability to joke and understand folklore, cultural expectation and mores. This sounds a lot like cultural awareness. I think SDLAP this semester has really opened my eyes to the intricacies of Bosnian and American culture. After having to pay close attention to such things in a foreign culture, one becomes much more aware and even creative in the expression of certain idiosyncrasies in one’s own culture. The second is called the “personal” function of communication. It is the skill to express feelings, emotions, and gut-level reactions. It is very interesting to compare the ways in which certain emotions are expressed in different cultures. Similar to the interactional function, one can find studying another culture very helpful in one’s own methods of communicating feelings and gut level reactions. Again, the imaginative function capacity, which incorporates fairy tales, jokes, stories, and other creative work, is really enhanced by knowledge of another culture and language. All of these provide one with more tools in their own cultural tool box, in addition to bringing American phrases into the foreign domain. The last function is called the heuristic function, which is described as the ability to acquire knowledge about one’s environment. It is the inner philosopher in everyone. Learning about another culture and the ways in which they contemplate fundamental questions of our existence is, obviously, incredibly helpful to framing and thinking about such questions in your native language.

Week 9

    Shir and I met this week at the Balkan restaurant on Patterson Avenue.  Because the waitress at the restaurant is our friend, we ordered our food in Hebrew and spoke Hebrew to her.   Shir and I talked about our week, what we did the past weekend and what we were eating.   At the restaurant we also talked about the various countries that make up the Balkans and how each country has their own version of the same food.  For instance, in Israel Bouyeka is a pastry, but Bouyeka for some countries in the Balkans is more similar to a calzone.  

Week 10

   Shir and I finally finalized a date for our Shakshouka party.  We are meeting on Nov. 30.  We met on Shir's birthday and I was able to sing to her Happy Birthday "Yom Holechet Sameach".  After we met we read some more Harry Potter.  We finished the first page of the book!  

Goal for the Week:

Review Vocabulary

Converse and Comprehension

Result:

Done

Film: Montevideo, God Bless You

Method:

I sent my language partner a long list of vocabulary words to review in preparation for next week’s vocabulary midterm in combination with verb conjugations in past, present, future tense. So she drilled me and asked me questions on vocabulary words. We also did an exercise where I was asked to think about a vocabulary word and describe it. It went slowly, and I wasn’t able to speak in complete sentences, but it was tremendously helpful. She would also think of a word, while I was expected to guess what the word was. I was stronger on listening/comprehension. We will continue this next week.

The movie was titled Montevideo, God Bless You, a Serbian film made in 2010 about the Yugoslavian national soccer team’s efforts to participate in the FIFA World Cup in Montevideo, Uruguay in July 1930. It felt good to recognize and understand words here and there. There were also some very pervasive Serbian cultural themes: nostalgia, trust, honor, brotherhood, teamwork/unity, and national pride. They are reflective of struggles and hopes of the people.

Goal for the Week:

Recover

Experiment with the Croatian textbook.

Result:

Done

Two Chapters from the textbook.

Method:

I’ve found the first chapter of the elementary Croatian textbook to be a fantastic resource. It’s really helpful to be able to listen to native speakers talk about simple subjects, but at a very high speed. There is a sense, especially in the beginning, that you are struggling to keep up and end up falling out of the conversation. Familiarity with vocabulary is clearly only the first step. After working through the conversations, I did the exercises. These included English-Bosnian and Bosnian-English translations and fill in the blank present tense conjugation. It was basic, but really reinforced what I was learning. For instance, I knew the verb “govoriti” (to speak) well. I knew how to ask questions (Da li… or verb li…). But after listening and speaking the thing so many times it’s become more “automatic” in my head.

Goal for the Week:

Past, present, and future verb conjugation drill

Verb Midterm

Result:

Done

Method:

During the week, I practiced conjugating many different verbs. Sometimes, she would state a pronoun and infinitive verb, and I would conjugate it in a specific tense. Other times, I would be provided the verb, and then asked to conjugate it.

We had the verb midterm on Saturday, November 27. I got 105/110. Will post the midterm when she sends me an email copy.

This week, we learned how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. The present tense is very irregular in Farsi -- the stem of the verbs changes, unlike in the past tense. To conjugate a verb in the present tense, the same system of removing the "-an" from the infinitive and putting a suffix depending on the subject is used. However, the stem that the suffix is attached to is not the same as the infinitive. For the verb "raftan," the stem changes to "mirav-". (All verbs in the present tense have the suffix -mi attached). For the verb "sohbat kardan," the stem changes to "mikon-". For the verb "didan," the stem changes to "mibin-". This makes the present tense very difficult, as all these stems must be memorized, and thus we spent a lot of time on it. 

We also learned the future tense at the same time. The future tense is the same as the present tense, but words like "tomorrow" (farda) or "future" (ayndah) may be used to indicate the speaker is talking about the future.

I recorded a third Voki artifact, introducing my family. My dialogue translates as, "I'm going to talk about my family. My father's name is Masoud. My mother's name is Jaleh. My father is 57 years old and my mother is 56 years old. My father is an engineer and my mother is a homemaker. They live in New Jersey. They are from Iran. My father is from the city of Shiraz and my mother is from the city of Abadan. I have two aunts (mother's sisters). Their names are Jila and Mozhdeh. I have one uncle (mother's brother). His name is Amir. I have two aunts (father's sisters). Their names are Shahlah and Soraya. I have one uncle (father's brother). His name is Saeid. They are all from Iran, but they live in Iran, Sweden, America, and England."

The learning activities for weeks 7 and 8 were quite different. The tasks for both weeks were split between learning terms in regards to family and asking questions in Dari. 

There are a few interesting things about familial terms in Dari. For instance the word for uncle differs if that uncle is maternal or paternal. Likewise, there are multiple terms for the word cousin (that are also differentiated by gender), there is one term for each of the following: cousin (paternal uncle), cousin (maternal uncle), cousin (paternal aunt) and cousin (maternal aunt). Additionally, there is no distinction between the words niece and nephew, but there is a distinction if the niece or nephew is your brother's or sister's child. 

Below are some words related to family:

father - پدر

mother - مادر

brother - برادر

sister - خواهر

uncle (paternal) - کاکا

uncle (maternal) - ماما

aunt (paternal) - عمه

aunt (maternal) - خاله

cousin (male / paternal uncle) - پسر کاکا

cousin (female / paternal uncle) - دختر کاکا

cousin (male / maternal uncle) - پسر ماما

cousin (female / maternal uncle) - دختر ماما

cousin (male / paternal aunt) - پسر عمه

cousin (female / paternal aunt) - دختر عمه

cousin (male / maternal aunt) - پسر خاله

cousin (female / maternal aunt) - دختر خاله

grandfather - پدر کلان

grandmother - مادر کلان

grandchild - نراسه

As I mentioned before, some of the two weeks was spent on asking questions in Dari. Below are a list of common terms used in asking questions:

Why . . . ? - چدا 

What kind / type . . . ? - چى نرع

What else . . . ? - دىگر چى

How much / many . . . ? - چند

Who . . . ? - کى

After creating my learning activity, I decided to put it to use and have someone attempt to learn the personal pronouns in Dari. I used the activity with a friend who is learning Arabic since the Dari alphabet is quite similar to the one for Arabic. He remarked that it was not too difficult; although it was troublesome writing personal pronouns he knew in Arabic in a different language that had a similar alphabet. In hindsight, I think the activity was effective for someone who knows the alphabet. The only realistic thing I would expect someone to be able to do from the activity, without knowing the language, is be able to pronounce the words. However, I do think I could have created a more difficult activity for someone who is just beginning to learn Dari or may already know a little bit of Arabic. 

Goal of the week: learn useful verbs

My aim this week was to become more familiar with verb that I can use in conversation. My language partners and I met twice this week to discus verbs and how I could use them in sentences.  These are some examples of what I worked on.

to get up - uthwanu
to drink - piwanu
to sleep - suwanu
to go - jawanu
to walk - chalwanu
to run - dhodwanu
to eat - khawanu
to see - jowanu
to study - vanchwanu
to speak - bolwanu
to cry - radwanu
work - kaam
to do work - kaam karwanu
to laugh - haswanu
to wash - dhowanu
to dry - sukovwanu
to throw - nakhwanu
to make - banawanu
to meet - malwanu

All of these verbs are useful in basic conversational Gujarati. I am eager to use these in conjuncture with other sentences I have mastered without the help of my language partners.  In addition to the   vocab that I am learning from Pooja and Prachi, I'll be able to converse for hours!

Although I wasn't able to view the "Culture Shock" video, due to technical difficulties, I still wanted to write about the experience of culture shock and how it has impacted my life. When I was in second grade, my parents and I moved from Wollongong, Australia, to Tucson, Arizona. Though Australia and the United States are very similar countries, there was still a significant enough difference for me to experience culture shock as a young child.

I remember some traumatic (for a seven-year-old) events happening when I first started school in America. In elementary school, the teacher would write sentences that were grammatically incorrect on the board and we would have to correct the grammar by going up to the board. On the first day I started school, I volunteered to correct the sentence at the board. I vividly remember telling my teacher that the sentence needed a "full stop" at the end. The teacher shook her head and replied that a period was necessary. Having no idea what a period once, I indignantly repeated that, no, the sentence needed a full stop, but the teacher said I was wrong. Frustrated over the communication barrier and convinced that I was right, I went back to my seat almost in tears. Other second-grade tragedies included failing a spelling test that included words like "favorite" and "color," which I knew were spelled with a "u," struggling with slang like being asked to "scoot over," and being teased on the playground for my weird accent, which I eventually lost to blend in with my classmates. 

Though these experiences upset me as a child, in retrospect they were mostly harmless, and insignificant compared to the culture shock that others face. First, even though I was in a new country, my new peers spoke basically the same language, minus pronunciation and some vocabulary. I was also only seven years old, and had plenty of time to adapt to my new country. I didn't have to struggle to learn a new language or a radically different culture, but even then I had some trouble at first. I can hardly imagine the hardships someone must encounter coming from a completely different country, not speaking the language or knowing the culture at all, and usually alone, like my mom when she left Iran and went to England at eighteen by herself, barely speaking English. I have so much respect and awe for people like her (and the people in the video, even though I could not view it) for being able to accomplish so much.

Creating a learning activity to teach somebody anything in Dari is pretty difficult considering the complexity of language. Therefore, I thought it was probably best to work with something that is a little easy to learn--assuming you already know the alphabet. That said, I chose to create a learning activity using the personal pronouns. 

من = I

• من sounds like maan
• Composed of two characters: م (meem) and ن (noon)
• Join both characters together, remember from right-to-left, to form من

تو = you (singular/informal)

• تو sounds like tu (almost like the number two or you in Spanish)
• Composed of two characters: ت (te) and و (wow)
• Join both characters together to form تو

شما = you (plural/formal)

• شما sounds like shehma
• Composed of three characters: ش (sheen), م (meem) and ا (alef)
• Join the characters together to form شما

او = (s)he/it

• او sounds like oh
• Composed of two characters: ا (alef) and و (wow)
• Join both characters together to form او

آنها = they

• آنها sounds like aanha
• Composed of four characters: آ (alef), ن (noon), ه (hey) and ا (alef)
• Join the characters together to form آنها

ما = we

• ما sounds like maa
• Composed of two characters: م (meem) and ا (alef)
• Join the characters together to form ما

This week's reading on "cultural competence" was very informative. Being cognizant of the differences between cultures is key to succeeding in today's globalizing society, and key to assimilating into the target language's culture. By being stereotypical Americans who are ignorant of other's cultures, we insult other people, making them feel as if we perceive our culture as superior. Part of learning a language is learning the social cues, norms, and behaviors that are inherent in the culture, so that we can function properly in society -- there is more to it than memorizing grammatical structures and vocabulary. This goes beyond the classroom and into the real world of Iran, where colloquial Persian is spoke and a person speaking the formal Persian learned in school would be laughed at. Sociolinguistic competence is hard to achieve, even in a native language -- the lack of politeness seen every day in society is an example of this. So being able to achieve it in the second language takes a lot of time and effort, but is ultimately very rewarding for the learner. Being able to integrate into the new society is a fulfilling experience. The better we can understand a new society and culture, the more we can appreciate and better understand our first. 

This article provided me with a lot of insight about the logistics of language.

In my target language of Hindi, I would like to reach the Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency. “CALP is that dimension of proficiency in which the learner manipulates or reflects upon the surface features of language outside of the immediate interpersonal context” (219).

Language competence consists of organizational and pragmatic competence. Grammatical and textual competence form organizational competence. Illocutionary and sociolinguistics competence compose pragmatic competence.

As far as learning Hindi goes, I would like to focus on pragmatic competence more than organizational competence. Within illocutionary competence, I will focus on learning ideational, manipulative, heuristic, and imaginative functions (219). Sociolinguistic competence consists of sensitivity to dialect or variety, sensitivity to register, sensitivity to naturalness, and cultural references and figures of speech (219). 

Weeks 8 and 9:

I completed tasks 5 and 6 which were to learn to tell/ask about time and to learn the numbers and dates. I had already introduced myself to numbers previously so I reviewed those numbers. There are different ways to say the numbers for the hour and the minutes. She said the numbers out loud first and I had to repeat them after her. Then I learned the structure of telling time. The structure: AM (ojeon)/PM (ohoo), hour #  + (shi), and minutes # + (poon). For example, 3:43am would be read as ojeon sae shi sa shib sam poon. This task can be combined with task 6 of learning the numbers because now I can count from 1-99. Learning the structure of telling time was pretty simple once I memorized the numbers. I also learned how to ask about time which is "Jigum myot shi aeyo?". Now I know how to tell someone what time it is and ask a person what time it is. As for telling what day it is,  Brigid and I learned how to write it and say it. I am familiar with the alphabet so I can slowly but effectively put the letters together and read. After you state what day it is, you always add "yo-il" at the end of each day. To ask what day it is.. you can say "O nul un myot il yi aeyo?"

[The days of the week = Wol, hwa, soo, mok, kum, tto, il]

Months: il wol, yi wol, sam wol, sa wol, o wol, yook wol, chil wol, pal wol, gu wol, shib wol, shibil wol, shib yi wol.

Learning activity: Since I just learned how to tell time, I decided to teach my roommate how to say the time in Korean. In order to do this, I created a worksheet with a big clock drawn on it with the pronunciations of the numbers for the hours 1-12 written around the circle. I also wrote the numbers for the minutes 1-10 on the bottom. Once you know how to say 1-10 you can figure out how to say 11-60 pretty easily. I also wrote the format/structure for telling time as I mentioned above. I gave her an example of a time and told her the time according to the format I've provided for her. She said it was fairly easy as long as she was pronouncing it correctly. I gave her a couple of different times varying between am/pm and low/high minutes but she was able to successfully put the numbers and words together to give me the correct time. I would say this was a pretty effective lesson because I taught someone else what I am learning which re-enforced my skills of telling the time. My teacher from middle school once told me that teaching someone else is an effective way to teach yourself. 

Because of the Muslim holiday Eid, my meetings with my language partner were canceled. So this week, I focused more on teaching myself using the website www.easypersian.com. I worked on using the word “ra,” which signifies whether something is an object in a sentence. Mirwais had mentioned “ra” a few times but it had always confused me, so using the website was a good way to clarify its meaning and solidify my use of it. I also learned how to say something is “mine” or “his”, like “my pencil” or “his book”.