Blogs

This week I worked a surprising lot with Rosetta Stone, attempting to learn the different names of rooms of houses.  Rosetta Stone had a few very good activities on this.  It did not include any information about furniture, so I have not learned those words, but I can identify the different rooms. For my cultural project, I have decided to research housing in Afghanistan.  For this reason, I spent my weekly meeting with Wadia discussing housing.  Typically, Wadia and I work on grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation; so I usually have a lot to report back here about my progress.  This week, however, was more culture-related and so my language progress during my practice session wasn't as great as it's been in other weeks. 

I did come out of the meeting feeling like I'd learned a lot about living in Afghanistan, which to me seems more valuable than learning some new vocab words.  First, Wadia told me a lot about how different social classes live, and she got on google to look up some different styles of houses for me.  She also taught me about decorations around houses and made a point to teach me the difference between the public and private life.  She also showed me pictures of curtains and explained that they're typically very thick and heavy so that they can truly separate the private inside life from the public view.  She also explained the influence that Western culture has had on Afghanistan and told me about how her house has a very Western style.  What I found most interesting though, was that despite the Western influence, appliances are still very different.  Traditional homes do not have refrigerators, dish washers, dining tables, or even western-style beds.  She did explain that her house does have separate rooms for separate family members and that they have western style beds.  Refrigerators, however, are a strange commodity and even rich people do not necessarily have them.  Freezers are a sign of wealth.  They show that someone is able to have cold drinks, which is a luxury in Afghanistan. 

Conversations about homes gradually led to conversations about family.  Wadia got on Facebook and showed me pictures of her siblings and cousins.  Back when I was learning vocabulary about family members, I was a bit thrown off by the 8 words for "cousin".  However, when Wadia was showing me pictures of her cousins and siblings hanging out together, it made sense to me why their culture has more words for our one word.  In Afghanistan, families are much more close-knit than I'm used to here in the US.  Cousins will often live under one roof and so it is necessary to have 8 words in order to differentiate between father's sister's sons and mother's brother's daughters. 

The reading for this week acknowledges the plethora of languages that exist in the world and how they can be related and categorized to and with each other. The reading highlights different language "Families" and how these families form the languages and, where the languages are used today.

Recognizing language families is very important because it gives us a greater understanding of History, and in many cases can help you better learn and understand words and grammar for a language based on other languages in that family. Basically what a language family is, is a collection of languages that can all be traced back to a common ancestor from which, in some way, all the languages in the family were formed. These daughter languages that are formed can be found to have similar language tools. In many instances words are very similar to each other, which i think is apparent as an English speaking person when studying Spanish or French. especially because they use the same alphabet. However even some languages that do not use the same alphabet can be similar which I have noticed when studying Hebrew. It is amazing how other languages and cultures have so much influence over each other, such as English and Hebrew whose modern calenders sound very similar.

As someone who loves and appreciates the value that History has in the world this section I found to be very interesting. I believe it is very important to know where you come from, and language is a very big part of that history. For all i know even certain families may have individual speaking nuances that are unique to them and that can be traced back for generations. I think it is important to recognize that even though something, in this case languages, may appear to be so very different, they can in fact be discovered to be more similar than anyone thought possible.

Jerusalem, the capital of Israel and a holy city for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, has a long and complex history. The Old City in Jerusalem is thought to have been inhabited, consistently, for 5000 years! Its history is marred with painful conflict and tensions. The Old City is sectioned into various segregated quarters: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Armenian. The sovereignty of Jerusulem, that is, under which country it belongs, has long been a controversial debate. Israel claims it as its capital, and it is recognized as such now, but it was not always this way. East Jerusalem and the Old City used to be part of Jordan, until the 6 day war in 1967. As a result of that war, Israel gained territory from Jordan, among other countries, and this territory (the West Bank) included East Jerusalem and the Old City. Israel treated the West Bank as an occupied territory, but treated East Jerusalem and the Old City as an extension of Israel's border. This was condemned by the UN. The UN had originally proposed that Jerusalem be an "international city" split between Israel and a Palestinian state. Of course, this was not implemented. Supporters of a Palestinian state, however, maintain their desire for Jerusalem to be their capital.

The city has a very unique character, being both ancient, with ancient structures, and metropolitan/urban. It is multi-linguistic with Hebrew, Arabic, English and various other languages spoken.

Since our class has decided to stray away from the syllabus, there isn't a reading for me to comment on this week.  The syllabus does mention cross-cultural experiences, so I can talk about a few of the experiences that I have had.  I've had a few cross-cultural experiences throughout my life, most of them occurring in the past four years while at the University of Richmond.  The largest of these experiences definitely occurred in my time studying abroad in Rennes, France.  Not only was I immersed in a completely new culture, but I was also surrounded by people who were also foreign to France.  When I first decided to study abroad in France, I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be going somewhere exotic like some of my other friends and classmates.  I'd already traveled to France before, and thought that European cultures weren't that different from the culture here in the United States.  This underestimation of differences, however, proved to make transitioning even more difficult.  It was the small differences that I hadn't even considered that actually were the most drastic changes.  Meals were different sizes and eaten at different times of the day.  Breakfast usually consisted of a cup of coffee and a piece of baguette, lunch was the largest and longest meal, usually including a type of meat, and dinner was eaten very late (sometimes not until 1030 at night) and was a small meal, either a type of salad, a dinner crepe, or quiche.  Something that seemed so small (the reordering and resizing of meals) made a huge impact on my day to day life, in that it affected my mood, my level of energy, and even my daily planning.  For instance, I didn't have as much energy after lunch because I'd just eaten a huge meal and wanted to relax, or there was the fact that I had to make my night plans much later because I had to take family dinner into consideration.

What I really learned from that experience was not just that meals take place at different times and in different orders in different cultures, but that ever difference (no matter how small) must be considered.  The experience in France also made an impact on me in that when meeting with Wadia and Maroof, I asked them more questions about the cultural associations that come with different vocabulary.

This week, I was working on learning the different names for food items and on how to order in a restaurant.  Keeping in mind the question of how culture impacts these words, I asked many questions about restaurant etiquette and what types of foods are associated with which meals.  First, because Iran and Afghanistan are Muslim countries, pork is not eaten and so I did not learn the word for pork.  Also, tips are not left at restaurants, and restaurants are typically much more casual than in the US.  I was trying to gain the right vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant, but Maroof constantly told me that all you do is point on the menu and say the name of the thing that you want.  Wadia also showed me some menus and we had a good laugh at certain items...like "French Fries" written out in persian letters, but pronounced the exact same way.  It is very easy in this way to see the influence that the West has had on Persian-speaking countries.  I didn't do too much this week as I spent some time searching for phrases for ordering, and then learned that they don't really exist in a cultural context.  So mainly, this week was spent on food vocabulary, which mostly meant practicing pronunciation as many types of foods are specific plates with made with chicken, lamb, or beef.  All in all, I learned that the most important thing to know for ordering is the different names for types of meet, as the rest of the menu doesn't really have direct translations into English anyways.   

This is my updated learning calendar.  Now that we have begun learning verb conjucations I feel like I will be able to learn phrases and basic questions more easily.  However, because we mainly focused on vocabulary before I had to re-asses my progress.  Unfortunately, I think I was a little ambitious to begin with and will have to remove a few topics of conversation from my list of topics. Fortunately though as we move into the last few weeks, this will allow me to focus in on specific conversations and learn the sentence structure and vocabulary that goes along with each one.

Farsi_Lesson

I know this is late but here is a conversation that I wrote.  It is comprised of basic introductions and phrases.  For a later artifact, I plan to record this conversation with another one of the Persian learners, or with my language partner.

Artifact 1.docx

The world is a unique and fascinating place. What makes this so is the abundant amount of cultures one can find when travelling the globe. This reading was about how the various languages of the world keep the diverse range of cultures that exist, and that if these languages are not preserved all will be lost. This, however i believe to be very untrue.

I do agree that differences in culture are fantastic and keep the world interesting, however being fearful of losing languages is a little absurd. All current languages that exist now must come from somewhere; usually they are hybrids of previously existing languages.  Some of these previous languages may have died out. For example there is a definite Latin influence on the English language, however Latin is no longer used as a conversational language. Is this detrimental to the world? Not at all, because like an organ donor, Latin was able to give parts of itself to various other languages. So no latin no longer exists, but pieces of it live on in other languages.

What it seems is that the author is afraid of change. This i believe is a very common thing for humans to experience. Humans like patterns and consistency and things out of the ordinary tend to be intimidating or scary. However if it wasn't for change nothing would have ever progressed and the world would go from being fascinating to being pretty mundane and boring. It is important to recognize that all languages the author is talking about preserving did in fact come from somewhere else, and one day millions of years from now new languages will exist and they will have the old languages like English that are no longer in existence to thank for their birth.

This week we began working on verb conjugations.  Now with the vocabulary I have learned I have been able to form simple sentences. I still hope to be able to put more time into Rosetta Stone over the next few weeks and continue listening to news podcasts in Farsi.  Hopefully by learning more verbs and verb endings I will be able to pick up on more words in the podcasts. This coming week we will continue learning about verb tenses by working with the past tense. 

Along with working on the verb conjugations I have continued working on reading and writing.  I have been able to write out the simple sentences I come up with.  This not only helps with verb conjugations but it also helps me to remember the rules for connecting certain letters to others and remembering which forms of letters to use in different locations of the word.  My handwriting has also improved but it still takes me a while to write anything in Farsi because I'm not used to writing from right to left.  

Over the next few days I plan to catch up with my artifacts by using writing samples, typing out simple sentences to practice typing and spelling, and recording a conversation between me and another Farsi student. 

Since Farsi is also spoken in Afghanistan I thought it would be interesting to study some cultural aspects of that country as well.  While greeting new people men and women usually exchange verbal greetings.  Women are also welcome to extend their hands in order to initiate a handshake but men cannot do the same for women.  Personal space should also be respected.  Usually between men and women an arm's length of space should be kept.  Between friends of the same gender though this distance is greatly reduced.  

Eye contact also differs between the United States and Afghanistan.  People of the same gender and age usually look each other in the eye.  Younger members of society though should use indirect eye contact with their elders.  Women and men should also avoid consistent, intentional eye contact with one another.  

Afghanistan seems to be a strange mix of polychronic and monochronic culture.  Usually more emphasis is placed on relationships and spending time with each other than actually meeting set deadlines.  On the other hand, punctuality in business situations is appreciated and respected.  

Afghanistan also has some cultural taboos.  A few of them involve feet.  Because they are seen as the "lowliest body parts," showing the sole of your shoe, pointing your heel or toe at someone, or moving something with your foot are all considered disrespectful.  On a different note, men and women should not display affection in public.  Also, like in Iran, refusing tea upon arrival will also be seen as rude.  Other customs that parallel those of Iran include bringing a pastry or a nicely wrapped gift to the person's house.  

The Overture: Thai Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWojOCWoN44

Thanks to my Netflix account and the foreign films section I have been able to watch numerous Thai movies with English subtitles. Most recently, I watched "The Overture." In 1940 government officials ordered the rapid modernization of Thailand so they outlawed the playing of traditional music. The life of this famous musician represents the conflict between the push for modernization and the desire to hold onto rich traditions tied to Buddhism and the monarchy that still exists in Thailand today. The image of a Buddhist monk carrying a cell phone represents this conflict of ideals in a modern context:

Fan Chan (My Girl) Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakCHla0oRY&feature=related

It is interesting to see the way in which the Thai media perceives the childhood "games and gangs" of young Thai kids. This particular movie is more indicative of a Thai rural setting than an urban setting because the kids are riding outside together on the open road rather than watching movies or playing video games in doors. Many of the jokes are similar to those used by children in the United States. The boys pick on each other for liking a girl and the big bully tries to boss everyone around. The gang calls the bully “Huan Dom” which is an insulting phrase that literally means "Fat and Brown." This represents the characteristics that are least desirable in Thai culture in regard to weight and skin culture.

Learning Journal #10: Cross-Cultural Experience and 260-282

I had numerous cross-cultural experiences that reinforced the major differences between text analysis and discourse analysis. Text analysis requires excellent reading capabilities and a background knowledge of the language and culture being studied. Discourse analysis, on the other hand, requires a certain sense of familiarity with the customs, beliefs, and expectations of a place and a people that allows you to react properly in social situations.  This is especially difficult in scattered dialogues, as opposed to monologues, when multiple individuals take turns in contributing to a conversation. There are certain bodily clues and cultural nuances that allow one to fit properly in this type of conversation. Many times during my stay in Thailand I felt as though I understood much of the vocabulary and sentences being spoken around me. But at times, during a meal for example, I still felt entirely lost in conversation and unable to contribute.

The cross-cultural experiences were most difficult for me not at the outset, rather after I had already displayed a level of language and cultural competence. A prime example of this is when I sat down for a meal with a Thai family having already had short introductory conversations with many of the individual family members. As the food was passed around, the “scattered dialogues” began and I was not able to keep up. All of the sudden everyone is looking at me and I have no idea what they want or how they expect me to react. It is at this point when I learned to admit failure and simply laugh in hopes that they would laugh along with me. Luckily, they usually did.

Cultural Competence and 289-335

What I found most interesting in this week's reading was the way in which the author differentiated between Accent and Dialect. In the past, even in previous blog posts for this class, I have used these words interchangeably. Now I know that accent refers to the distinct pronunciation a person makes when speaking. For example, a person from Alabama may be distinguishable from a person from the Northeast because of his or her "southern accent." Dialect, refers to a broader meaning which includes the grammar and vocabulary the speaker uses as well.

The discussion of accent and dialect pertains directly to the idea of "cultural competence." Accent and dialect play a major role in gaining added meaning out of something a person is saying. This is why language competence and cultural competence go hand in hand. Being able to decipher meaning from picking up on distinct accents and dialects is crucial in determining the speaker's background in terms of geographic location, socioeconomic status, level of education, employment, etc.

In order to raise my cultural and language competence I am continuing to try to reach out to any Thai resource and/or person on campus. Recently, I ate lunch with a Thai student who spent a lot of her childhood in Singapore. As a result, she definitely had a slightly different accent and dialect than other Thai people I have met. Additionally, she had a unique perspective of Thai culture relative to the other Asian cultures she has been a part of. Hearing stories like her's is very helpful for me in understanding Thailand's role in southeast Asia and the world as a whole. I will continue to reach out to others in the Richmond area to raise my "cultural competence."

We also had an awesome listening class.  This class I realized how much I had learned this semester because I was able to pick up so much of the dialogue.  It was very encouraging to notice that much of the vocabulary used, I had learned this semester.

On Friday of this week, we spend the meeting making two different artifacts: one on the pronunciation of different Bengali letters learned the previous week, and another on Bengali counting.  In the Bengali counting video, I could from 1-40 on the creases of my fingers.  Although one might think of counting is an easy task in a language, in Bengali, this is not so.  There is not a distinct pattern for counting, (the 30s do not have the same pattern as the 20s) like English, Japanese, or Spanish.  This makes remember the numbers very difficult remember, so difficult in fact that my language partner even struggles with them.  My goal is to learn all the numbers through 50 by the end of the semester, and after that all the 10s and 5s. 

This week was great.  We spent the majority of one of our classes working on pronunciation especially of the different D sounds in Bangla.  As you will hear in a artifact I will be posting soon, the Ds are very similar.  My language partner was very good at explaining to me the mouth physics required to make the sound possible.  Now although I still have to concentrate I can produce correct sound. 

Not only that but for the reading this week, we read about a foreigner talking about his inability to pronounce different Bangla sounds.  Now not only can I pronounce them, but I can talk about my ability or inability to do so! 

We were unable to do a listening clip this week because another class had taken over our normal meeting place.  Instead, we had an extended conversation class.