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Learning a language is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have.  At the same time, it can also be one of the most daunting and frustrating experiences if you’re ill-equipped to embark on such a journey.  While I have always been a lover of languages different from my own, I have never been a quick language learner.  As a result, many of my previous language learning journeys were like emotional roller coasters in which I would love the new language I was learning and its accompanying culture in one moment, and be completely frustrated with it in another moment.  Contrary to the intended structure of the course, I did not register for MLC 110 and was not technically learning a language on my own.  Still, I was learning a language – Portuguese! 

My purpose in MLC 105 was therefore a bit different from most students taking the course.  Having just returned from a semester abroad in Brazil, I was really excited about Brazilian culture and mesmerized by the Portuguese language.  I acquired a fairly decent proficiency of the language while abroad, but I was afraid of forgetting a significant portion of it upon returning home.  As I said in a previous blog post when referring to the need to practice a language, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”  Therefore my goals in MLC 105 were to maintain the Portuguese proficiency I gained in Brazil through sufficient practice, and to continue to improve my knowledge and understanding of it.  More specifically, I wanted to be able to navigate between the past, present, and future tenses with relative ease, learn 10 new vocabulary words a week, and learn at least 3 new songs in Portuguese. 

These goals were very realistic and easily attainable for me, because I was also registered in the Portuguese for Spanish Speakers (LAIS 313) language course.  The course covered material ranging from grammatical constructions and syntactic structures to cultural aspects of the language, such as music and regional social norms of Portuguese-speaking countries.  In the process of taking MLC 105 in conjunction with the LAIS 313 course, I was able to have a structured schedule of language learning.  I can say with confidence that I am now able to navigate with greater ease throughout the various tenses in Portuguese, and I learned a tremendous amount of new vocabulary words.  Similarly, I listened to a lot of Brazilian music during this time, both in and out of class.  Out of class, I used the wonderfully free internet source, Pandora, to listen and learn about some great new Brazilian music. 

If I had an opportunity to do things a bit differently however, I would have tried to obtain a language learning partner even though I was not registered for MLC 110.  I think it would have been really beneficial to have someone to practice the language with in a way different from classroom practice.   Perhaps in the future, language partners could be provided for students who request one, even if they are not self-directed language learners.  I’m sure such a task would be difficult, but I think the relative gains would be high in terms of the speaking proficiency of students learning foreign languages.    

One aspect of MLC 105 I was really pleased with was the cultural presentations.  Through these presentations, I had the opportunity to research and learn more about a culture I had always been interested in (the Gullah people).  In addition, I was able to learn more about the respective languages and cultures my fellow classmates were learning.  It was very interesting to see the existing patterns inherent in many languages and to see how cultural tendencies tend to overlap throughout many cultures.  As an International Studies major, I relish in any and all opportunities to gain insight from discussions on the linkages between language, culture, and society at large.  I also enjoyed the required readings for the course.  While some of them were a bit technical (i.e. How the Brain Handles Language), I found it very helpful to learn about the theories underlying language studies and about the various strategies for approaching language learning.  The information provided through this texts are not common knowledge and I might not have sought out such information on my own if it were not for this course.            

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the progress I made in MLC 105.  For the most part, I have accomplished the goals I stated in the beginning of this course.  While I was unable to practice my speaking as much as I would have liked, I still received more practice than I most likely would have achieved without the structure provided by both MLC 105 and LAIS 313.  In the process, I gained a wealth of knowledge about languages and cultures I previously had very little contact with.  Thank you Dr. Grove and Professor Scinicariello for your assistance in this process!  I will end this reflection with a bit of Portuguese: muito obrigada a vocês por tudo que fizeram.  Estão lindíssimas!   (Thank you all for everything that you’ve done.  You’re wonderful!)        

Reflection%20paper.docx

Babu_MLC105_Reflection_Paper

Coming into this semester my experience with Dari was never really structured. All of my relatives speak the language; however, I grew up only speaking English at home. On the other hand, when I travel abroad to visit my relatives, the only means for me to forge any type of interaction with them is through speaking Dari. Over the years, being immersed in Dari while abroad has allowed me to develop the ability to speak the language proficiently. Unfortunately learning the language through immersion presents some difficulties since I never picked up on proper grammar or pronunciation. In addition, while I needed to speak in Dari with my relatives, there was never a need for me to learn how to read or write in the language. As a result, my goals for the semester were to improve my speaking ability—pronunciation and grammar, and learn how to read and write.       

Personally, I did not find Rosetta Stone to be a useful tool for my language learning. I spent my first few weeks of the semester attempting to learn how to read and write through online resources. Nevertheless, Dari is an extremely difficult language to develop reading and writing skills on one’s own. Therefore, I did not notice any strong development until I began meeting with my language partner. Initially, during the first few meetings, I focused on learning how to write the alphabet. After becoming comfortable with the alphabet, I began to form words and then read. Eventually, as my abilities improved, I was able to write and read basic sentences. By the end of the semester, portions of the meetings I had with my language partner consisted of her saying words and sentences in Dari and having me write them; I found this task particularly useful. In regard to my speaking ability, I felt that it naturally progressed as I continued to learn how to read and write. Paying attention to grammar and pronunciation is especially vital for developing literacy in any language, not just Dari. In turn, that attention translated into improvements in my speaking.

Aside from the meetings with my language partner, I reflected on my past language learning experience with Spanish, and I tried to develop ways to apply my past approaches to Dari. One of the most essential aspects of my language learning was practicing Dari daily. I tried to spend anywhere from five to fifteen minutes each day, if possible, reinforcing what I had learned throughout the week. For instance, when I was first learning the alphabet, I would write each letter of the alphabet I could recall from memory; I kept doing this until I could recall the entire alphabet. Furthermore, I was fortunate to have family members that spoke Dari who were able to gauge my ability in the language, and then suggest improvements. To my surprise, the artifacts and culture project also aided me in gaining a better grasp of Dari. At first, I thought that the assignments would leave me repeating things I had previous knowledge of; however, I was mistaken since the assignments offered me an outlet to learn new words in an attempt to better portray whatever topic I was presenting.

Looking back on the semester it is difficult to find any aspect of my learning process that I would have altered. I do not feel that I did anything which impeded with my ability to progress with the goals in my learning planning nor do I feel that there were any other means to help me learn the language in a better way. Although, I do feel that my coursework, aside from learning Dari, was occasionally too great for me to be intently focusing on my language learning as well as I could have. Nonetheless, there was no way to alter my coursework, so I learned to accept the fact that I had to make some exceptions to my daily Dari practice.

Taking into consideration my ability in Dari at the beginning of the semester and the goals I put forth in my learning plan, I feel that I made noticeable improvements. I am confident that I could read children’s books in Dari, or write a simple sentence on command. Albeit, after one semester, I do not think I could delve into anything more advanced. While I do not feel that the levels of complexity of the topics I can discuss have drastically changed, I do feel that I have better control over my speaking ability. I definitely would consider this semester a success, but my ability in Dari ultimately relies on how much I continue to use the language. Consequently, I have decided to continue working on my Dari by moving onto MLC 111.

Today my teaching assistant and I focused on learning some vocabulary. He taught me that woman in Turkish is Kadin, man is Adam, child is cocuk, water is su, bread is ekmek, tea is cay, car is araba, house is ev, pencil is kalem, money is para, city is sehir, movie is film, morning is sabah, noon is oglen, , afternoon is ogleden sonra, night is gece. We focused a little bit on vocabulary since we had been working mostly on conjugations and grammar for the previous weeks.  We discussed these words and i was told that in order to say them in a plural form, all i had to do was add ler or lar to the ending of the word, depending on whether the last vowel before the ending of the word was either e,i,o,u or a,i,o,u. In order for me to be able to memorize the words, my language assistant made picture cards and would pop them out in random order while I would have to quickly reply what the picture is showing in Turkish. My language assistant told me to practice that throughout the evening since he said that I would most likely forget the words by the next day. That evening I did not practice the words because I had to study for two midterms in other classes, surprisingly however, I tried to test myself with the cards and noticed that indeed I had forgotten the words over night. That experience taught me that vocabulary needs to be practiced in order for it to stick in my memory, and better yet applied while speaking, that way it will never be forgotten, at least not so quickly.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/04/thinking-in-foreign-language-makes-decisions-more-rational.ars?clicked=related_right 

This semester has been incredibly rewarding for me. I initially had no plans to sign up for MLC 105 and 110, but on a whim, I decided I might want to try adding it to my schedule because I wanted to take the opportunity to learn Korean formally. I approached it with a very open mind - I didn't get frustrated with myself when I wasn't able to progress at the speed that I had initially thought I could reach. It turns out Korean is even harder than I thought! I was forced to relearn many things I thought I knew, but I found that there were several words and concepts that I was entirely wrong about because of my incomplete and informal lessons. Although immersion (speaking it at home) is a great way to learn the most important and useful parts of language, it does have a tendency to put other aspects on the back burner, such as grammar and more formal concepts. Consequently, I found myself constantly rethinking things I had become accustomed to as a novice Korean speaker. 

I enjoyed learning about some of the concepts that I encountered while learning my language. The concept of anomie was very familiar to me, but I had no idea it was a recognized word until our reading about cultural isolation. I enjoyed reading the various articles about different kinds of learning and case studies pertaining to language. The universality of language is almost paradoxical because they are all different, but somehow, the foundation is very similar for many of them. It was interesting to learn about the cultural aspects of language as well. 

Watching the video about exchange students and about the different perceptions in various countries was both enlightening and entertaining. I was able to learn quite a bit about things that I really had no experience with - I had no idea what an exchange student's life was like. It made me reflect on how I will interact when I go abroad eventually. Also, the different gestures and intricacies of other countries were new to me for the most part, so learning about things like crossing your leg over the other is simple, but useful. 

As a language learner, I think I learn best when I motivate myself through social pressure. I find that when I am in a situation where I am forced to speak with as much clarity and fluency I can conjure, I usually am able to rise to the occasion. For example, I speak in Korean with one of the language partners just for fun and because I know I would feel embarrassed if I made a silly mistake, I take extra care and spend more time thinking about what I want to say. Through this kind of practice, I have found that my conversations with my parents have become better and better, and even my friend thinks I've improved! Although learning to write and read Korean wasn't a goal of mine, I think I have had the extra benefit of a little improvement for both thanks to sheer exposure. 

I've learned the significance of culture and language through my experiences as a self-directed language learner. I really enjoyed this class because I was able to learn about other languages through my peers, as well as through lessons with my language partner. 

MLC 105 Reflection Paper

Afghan Education    Follow the link to read

Below is the link to a paragraph about my weekend.

Second Farsi Paragraph

This demonstrates my first Farsi paragraph! How exciting?

FARSI PARAGRAPH

Farsi Etiquette-Click this link

vocabulary 1

vocabulary 2

vocabulary 3

Follow the links below to find the verb conjugations

verbs1

verbs2

verbs3

verbs4

v  Introduce myself

v  Ask others introductory questions (name, age, how he/she is doing)

v  I can count in Farsi

v  Talk about the weather

v  Describe myself ( female, student, favorites)

v  Say what I did yesterday, today, will do tomorrow (simple sentences)

v  I can talk about what I did during the week/weekend (basic sentences, but use “then”/ “after”

v  Talk about my family

v  Tell time

v  Learned some about the lunar calendar/how Farsi-speakers talk about dates

v  Form basic sentences/questions based on my vocabulary

                                  "Chanda" Panda!

You are pretty.          "Neevu chanda aderee"

In Kannda, beautiful/pretty is "chanda".

Do you see this panda? Isnt it pretty? Chanda panda!

Since Chanda and panda rhyme, its an easy tool to remember the word in Kannda. Remember the pretty panda and you are on your way to complimenting someone's beauty:

"Neevu  = you

"chanda" = beautiful

"Aderee" = are

This teaching method was really effective in helping one of our friends learn the word chanda. The rhyming nature of chanda and panda help recall, and then having an item that is pretty and lovable also helps with the meaning.

Please see Bethany's blog for Journal Entry 6 for our artifacts :)

I really enjoyed seeing what other people had been learning in class. I thought the one on krab-maga was very interesting and the insight into a very different culture was great. I also liked the one on Punjabi music was great because it allowed me to hear the language as well as experience the cultural context of the music. I thought the development and migration of the music through immigration and using newer beats to reach a younger generation and connect them to the older generation was interesting. =) I wish however that more people had used their target language in their presentation. 

In terms of our learning goals, Bethany and I did practice conversation with each other and with Aarti and I think we came out of the experience with a deeper friendship with Aarti. We had envisioned a larger amount of Bible verses to be learned that we did not get to, and we did not have time to put them all into a song - but I still want to do so, and Aarti and we will remain in touch to continue learning even after our evaluation. Some impediments to our learning were the fact that sometimes our meetings got cancelled when, for instance, Bethany had to go home, or Aarti had something unexpected come up, so at times we were behind schedule. I found our discussion of family very interesting  for example to say "I have two daughters" in Kannada is "For me, two daughters are," and this says a lot about how the view family as an extension of themselves. Overall I enjoyed the experience, and I hope to continue learning with Aarti!