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This week I kept working on vocabulary by using flashcards.  I got some of this vocabulary from Rosetta Stone and other words and phrases I got from the internet.  One of the problems that I have been running into while trying to be proactive in learning vocabulary is that some of the translations or spellings are wrong.  I found this out when I was meeting with my language partner.  He was looking over the lists that I had compiled and he pointed out the mistakes in the vocabulary lists.  This is frustrating especially when I'm trying to learn the language and do not have a teacher at my side all of the time to tell me when words or phrases are correct or incorrect.  This makes it much harder to progress with learning vocabulary independently of Rosetta Stone and my language partner because I don't want to learn things the wrong way. 

It has also been hard to try to keep up with learning a specific number of words a day.  This is especially hard if I can't hear a native speaker say the words.  If I learn the word based on my own pronounciation and learn it wrong then the process is almost pointless.  I can, on the other hand, begin to recognize words more rapidly on sight though. 

For my own language learning this week I continued to work on Rosetta Stone and listened to more BBC news podcasts in Farsi.  I also visit the BBC news Persian website to see if I can recognize any words.  In our individual sessions, Maroof and I have been working on introductory conversations such as saying hello, goodbye, asking someone's name, where someone is from, greetings throughout the day etc.  This process has helped me to build my vocabulary and started to make me think in Farsi.  Now my responses are becoming more automatic and less labored. 

The reading for today about nonverbal communication in other cultures was very informative and interesting.  I thought the fact that the article started out by describing individualist and collectivist cultures was strange at first but then realized how other aspects of cultural communication stemmed out of this basic classification.  One experience that I can relate to is how the article describes certain actions that mean different things in different cultures.  When I was in Spain, I learned that a specific hand gesture means "crowded."  The way I was used to seeing a similar hand gesture used was to portray some kind of solicitation of money. 

Another aspect of the article that I have personal experience with is the monochronic v. polychronic aspects of different cultures.  In Spain it was never really clear when we were supposed to arrive at a location.  Our professor would say something like "mid afternoon" and I would have to ask my host family what time that translated to.

Finally, I thought the last chart of the article was informative.  I learned a few years ago that showing the soles of your shoes to someone was an insult in the Middle East and I recently saw protesters doing this in Egypt toward pictures of Mubarak.  It is also interesting to see how some behaviors do not translate between cultures at all.  An example of this is friends holding hands in public, but people in a romantic relationship not holding hands in public in "culture 2" while in "culture 1" it is acceptable for couples in romantic relationships to hold hands in public.  For my next cultural post I hope to research nonberbal communication in the Middle East.

This past week JT and I had the opportunity to learn more Hebrew with our tutor Maya. This time we learned about days, months and numbers. By the end of the session we had learned all twelve months, the seven days of the week, and could count to ten. Months in Hebrew are one of the easiest things to learn. Take for instance January is pronounced “Janwell” and August is pronounces “Awegoost.” We are lucky that we only had to know the 12 months, as the ancient Hebrew calendar has 20 or so months. The seven days of the week basically all consist with the first word “Yam” and is then followed by another word. We were able to count to ten, but were not able to get all the way up to the 31 days in each month.  So far we did a great job learning what we set out to learn for the week.

During the week I also had a follow up meeting with Dr. Scinicariello to track our progress. Due to our group’s scheduling conflicts we are only able to meet once a week, but it still works out because JT and I live with each other so we are able to test our Hebrew out on each other on a routine basis. As we discussed in the meeting sometimes the best learning is between a novice learner and a novice learner because we are going through the same struggles of learning what we are really trying to understand when learning the language. 

The reading Figuring Foreginers Out was more of a refresher for me than new information. I learned similar things about cultures and their various make ups from my classes in international marketing and from my classes that I took abroad. In fact I took a class abroad that only talked about Hofstede's principals. In it we talked about individualism vs collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. The United States is known as an individualistic society in which there a big difference in power in the corporate world. Men must always act manly and are thought of as soft or homosexual if they show feelings that are typically associated with women. On the other hand in numerous culteres around the world the behavior is the exact opposite. Take for instance Sweden, where IKEA is from. In Sweden a customer can contact the CEO of the company, if they want to talk about something. That is unheard of here, but the power distance is so low in Sweden that just because a person has the title of CEO does not mean they are far superior to the other workers. Also, in that society the people win and lose as a team, not as individuals. There are no bonuses for superior performance at the end of the year, unless the company reaches its goal at the end of the year. 

What I did learn towards the end of the article was about the non verbal cues that are accepted in one culture and disdained in another. In a culture like America, we like our distance, we are firm with our speaking and handshakes, and always maintain eye contact. In an Asian culture, distance is less of an issue and speaking and handshakes are more soft, and eye contact throughout a conversation is un heard of and almost considered rude. A person from culture one that is encountering a person from culture two needs to recognize these differences so that the interaction will not be awkward or interpreted as disrespectful. As long as one is aware of the difference in values and behavior, there will be no problem in bridging the gap between cultures and getting along with everyone. The problem is few are that cultured, that they know everything about an entirely different culture's behavior. 

I really enjoyed the readings from Figuring Out Foreigners.  I found it interesting how the author was able to communicate ideas about cultures by comparing the extremes of cultural behaviors.  We talked a little about nonverbal communication the second week in class, and it was again mentioned in this reading.  I had already thought about how signals could have the same or different meanings in different cultures, but I didn't think about what might happen if someone accidentally used nonverbal communication when simply making a hand gesture that doesn't have a meaning in their own language.  This reading also made me question which cultures are considered individualist and which ones are collectivist.  I definitely think that the US (or at least the East Coast) is more of an individualist culture, with people working towards their own goals rather than the goals of the group.  The point about time is also extremely important.  I always just thought that all cultures were monochronic, but discovered how the US is more monochronic than many other cultures when I studied abroad.  While in France last year, I realized that French culture is more polychronic than the US.  In France, it was almost rude to arrive on time.  When invited to a dinner party at 20:00, guests were actually expected to arrive around 20:30 or 21:00.  I'd like to find out about how the Persian-speaking cultures treat time, and will be sure to ask Wadia or Maroof about this in our next meeting.  I really never thought about the approaches of indirect/direct communication.  Now that I think of it, while studying abroad, a lot of the American students found that French people were rude.  This mainly came about because they were very direct towards us, always saying exactly what they meant and not trying to sugarcoat or insinuate the true meaning.  If they thought that someone had a bad French accent, they would laugh or say how silly it sounded, whereas in American we were used to people calmly giving us tips and implying how to improve. 

From this reading, I've seen how important it is to learn nonverbal communication along with verbal.  It really is important aspect of how different cultures communicate, and has the possibility to lead to many misunderstandings and behavior that could be considered rule or insulting. 

I'm starting to make a lot of noticeable progress in my language learning.  I've continued to watch newsclips on BBC Persia, and have noticed that I'm getting used to the sound of the language.  For last week's meeting with Maroof, we were going to go over introductions.  Conveniently, I was just at that point in Rosetta Stone, so to prepare, I simply used Rosetta Stone, which taught me how to say "My name is_____" "What is your name?"  "I came from____" and "Where do you come from?".  I also learned the Persian names for many countries.  During the session with Maroof, we practiced saying these things together, and are now able to have basic conversations.  In the next few days I'd like to record an artifact with another Persian student in which we will have a conversation using everything that we have learned.  Maroof also had us practice some reading.  He would write short words on the board and then have us sound out the word.

In my meeting with Wadia, I again practiced having these conversations.  Additionally, I told Wadia that I wanted to practice my writing.  To do this, she would tell me a word or phrase that was on my new vocab list and I would then try to write it, having her correct me.  I found that practicing like this really made the letters make more sense in my mind, and it got easier and easier to spell words.  To continue this practice, I've been writing my vocab list over and over, and then adding new words. 

This week, I am going to work on: counting, telling the time, and saying the date and days of the week.

No two people are alike and it is personality differences that separate each of these individuals.  It is important to note that, even though values may be the same among families, how individuals perceive them creates the difference as the chance for misunderstanding becomes greater.  The comment on cultural generalizations is important and interesting since it acts as a warning for foreigners.  That being said, culture and people are not independent of one another, which is why it is vital to learn them together.

Culture is the common ideal and belief people share in a certain area.  Therefore, what we come to understand is that members of that society act a certain way because of what is and is not acceptable in their opinions.  Therefore, to understand behavior it is important to understand the values behind them.  I believe that this is what MLC 105 & 110 aim to do, give meaning to the language through culture.  Why members of that society say certain things and do certain things.  For example, my Turkish friend said when he first came to UR a teacher would constantly snap his hands together making a fist with one and then covering it with the opposite hand.  This is extremely offensive in the Turkish culture but the teacher had no idea that this gesture was offensive.

This event goes to show that individuals should not be too quick to judge as certain actions or phrases may not always have the same meaning in different cultures.  Usually, the end result is the same for most conversations but how one arrives at the answer may be completely different.  For example, there is a section about how varying cultures ask for and receive the time.  Knowing how to properly receive information is vital and wherever you end up, the most important thing you can do is understand the culture and understand what it is you need to do in order to remain respectful.                     

The section of assigning meaning to behavior also intrigued me.  I forget that when I am interacting with people of other cultures here at the University of Richmond or somewhere else in the world behavior does not also signify the same thing.  This principle is particularly important when learning a language.  Many times expressions or slang will not make sense until the culture aspect is understood and entered into.   

In pages 1-57 of How Language Works, Crystal covers a number of topics including non-verbal language, the physical mechanisms by which spoken language is produced, and how speech is heard and perceived.  Much of the information about transmitting sounds and the biological structures that contribute to speech was familiar from my Physics and Biology classes, respectively.  Thus, I found the sections about all the different types of language most interesting.  As Crystal shows, "language" is extremely diverse, from body language, spoken language, sign language, all the way to simple vocal noises.  I agree with his statement that, “Probably the most remarkable property of language is the way it enables us to talk about virtually anything we want (8).  Past or present, fact, speculation, or nonsense, language makes it possible to express it all.  This is far from true, however, when learning a new language.  Not knowing the words or the sentence constructions to express what one wants can be one of the biggest frustrations when speaking a language one is not fluent in.  I found it extremely interesting when Crystal mentioned that, "...some 40% of human languages (over 2,000 in all) have never been written down (17).   This is hard to comprehend because, other than English, all of my language learning has been done through a combination of reading, writing, and speaking. 

I am happy to be starting regular meetings with my language partner this week, as I anticipate he will be a great resource.  Also, a new audio program called Speak Hindi With Confidence just arrived so I was able to try that today.  I found it useful and think it will improve my listening and speaking skills and help introduce some new vocabulary.  I will have to work on finding sources for reading and writing.  It is difficult to find material that is at a level simple enough for me to understand.  I would like to learn at least 20 new vocabulary words a week; I should be able to speak them and write them in the devanagari script.  I am currently working primarily on verbs so that I can form meaningful sentences.

Step 1: Ask if the rickshaw driver will take you to your destination.  If he understands your stumbling Hindi and therefore doesn’t drive away, proceed to step 2

Step 2:  Ask how much the rickshaw ride will cost.  When the rickshaw wallah says about 100 to 200 rupees more than the cost is supposed to be because you have bright red hair and are obviously not a local, proceed to step three.

Step 3:  BARGAIN.  This may take some time.  Some insistence of बहुत  ज़्यादा  है! (That is too much!) or pleading  मै छात्र हूँ ! (I am a student!) may be useful.

Step 4:  Once you have settled on a price, be prepared to give directions to your destination.  Knowing how to say go left, turn right, straight ahead is very useful.  Or, be prepared to ask the rickshaw driver to pull over so that a random stranger on the street can give the rickshaw driver better directions than you can in Hindi.

Step 5:  When you arrive at your destination, make sure you know how to ask for change from your rickshaw wallah, who might otherwise not be so forthcoming.  

Repeat, at least twice a day to and from school, or more if you choose to go anywhere else. 

To me, language immersion came to mean being put in situations where I was forced to use my limited language skills, or I wouldn’t be able to get home, for example.  I am happy to say that within a few weeks of being in India, I was able to go about this task without too much difficulty.  It is also worth mentioning that as my Hindi became better, bargaining became less necessary, as Hindi speakers really appreciate and respect foreigners learning their language.  Many rickshaw drivers were incredibly excited and enthusiastic about my learning Hindi; if they knew a bit of English, they would try to teach me some new Hindi phrases. 

Being thrust into an environment where the main language was Hindi was extremely frustrating at times.  Simple tasks could become lengthy undertakings due to the language barrier, so it was important to keep a positive attitude. At the same time, being surrounded by the language at all times was extremely helpful as a learner.  I know I picked up many phrases and words simply by hearing them repeatedly in everyday interactions.  This constant exposure will be something I will have to improvise at Richmond, listening to Hindi CDs, watching Hindi television, and talking with my language partner.  I was ecstatic when I was in India and the language finally began to click and I was able to follow and participate in exchanges of conversation.  The excitement at knowing my Hindi generally faded quickly through some humbling experience or another (Example: riding in a car for seven hours with my teacher's four year old daughter whose Hindi put mine to shame!) but overall I left feeling satisfied with the progress I had made during my time in India.  

It is best for me to speak the language when learning.  I do not find it very difficult to memorize new words or tenses on paper, but have a hard time recalling them quickly in order to speak well.  Thus, I think my time with my language partner will be most helpful.  When I am not working with my language partner, I will need to make it a point to look at something Hindi related everyday, whether it be a movie clip or flash cards, etc. in order to keep refreshing and expanding my knowledge of the language.

Understanding the semantics of how the brain processes information is vital to learning a new language.  There are various levels of meaning and it is just as necessary for an individual to know the cultural background, as it is to know the language.  There may be similar words in two different languages but could have wildly different meanings under certain contexts.

For said reason above, learning vocabulary should be done in context.  Learning with synonymy can be very helpful as the book advocates for learning through more than just simple memorization.  As we have discussed in class it is important to give the word meaning (besides its actual meaning) to you so you can have a connection with it.

This idea of meaning is different, specifically in the realm of names.  In a majority of the western world there is a given Christian name and a family name.  Such a name system does not necessarily hold up in the rest of the world.  Even if it does, the names may not necessarily mean the same exact thing.  For example, for myself and majority of the people I know their first and last names do not mean anything.  However, in a foreign language it is not uncommon for a name to have an actual meaning. 

Lucky for me, meaning can be borrowed in many cases.  Many words such as laptop or computer are borrowed from the English language and used in others.  In Turkish the name for a mobile telephone is, you guessed it, mobil.  Can make life much easier.   However, morphology can complicate things as suffixes and prefixes are added to various words.   I know the suffixes have given me a tremendous amount of trouble in Turkish since it seems that almost everything is added to the ended of the words.  Makes words much more difficult to identify. 

Though morphing is difficult, grouping words with suffixes and prefixes together can make learning them much easier.  Kimirzi cicek means red flower and I grouped them together to help me understand the two.  Makes it much easier to learn vocabulary for me.         

Who new vowels were so important for the recognition of a language?  There are many ways in which individuals pronounce and physically speak consonants but the vowels make the accent.  Vowel classification helps locate the accent, which can in turn pinpoint an individual from a physical location.  My mother speaks Italian fluently and is able to place other native italian speakers.  Any deviation from the cardinal position of the vowel creates this distinctive feature.

Following in the same vein, phonemes exist to change the sound of words to imply different meanings.  This was apparent in class today when we attempted to learn Japanese.  The intonations were very different when we changed from the phrase “how are you?” to the phrase good.  Switching the pronunciation of those ending letters helped us identify the difference. 

Identifying sound sequences is very important and is something that Rosetta Stone emphasizes.  Words are broken up to better understand the syllables and what letters may usually go together.   Understanding the tone individual’s use gives “shape to the words” and allows the listener to put better context to them.  It terms of learning the books discusses breaking meaning up into chunks, more specifically rhythmic chucks which allows better memorization. 

When babies are learning to speak their mothers respond with a different tone of voice and thus there are different reactions to various types of speech.  The simple utterances that young infants make have resemblance to language they will speak later down the road.  Both passive and active language learning comes into play.  For example, some babies may say “wawa” for water which can easily transform into the correct word. 

This week in our meeting with Maya, DC and I went over directions as planned in the previous meeting. We also however learned man other vocabulary words. We're focusing on key words that we all think will be useful when trying to make simple conversations in Hebrew. Once again this week the pronunciations of the words was a key factor in learning words. After reading this weeks reading for 105 i learned that pronunciations of certain sounds that are made in languages can be integral to that language. I discovered that the sound described in the book as Glottal, or when "we make the vocal folds come together to cause a closure or friction" (pp. 60). This is the sound i believe most closely matches the sound you need to make when producing certain Hebrew words. Also in the reading was discussion of tone of voice in language which is definitely an integral part of speaking a language. This, however is not something we have covered yet in the meetings with Maya. I also think this is the most difficult part of a language to learn, especially since the tone of voice for certain languages can change from region to region in areas that speak the same language. 

An interesting thing that happened in our meeting with maya was that we at one point had a question that Maya did not know the answer to. So she decided to call her Mom and ask her how to say what we didn't know. Maya's mother lived in Israel and speaks Hebrew fluently. Next week we decided to discuss numbers and the calendar. 

Reading Response: (pg. 58-96)

This week's reading relates directly to a problem that arouse between my language partner and I during Monday's session. In the past I have relied heavily on my own non-precise system of transliteration so that I could speak and listen to Thai without memorizing the alphabet. It worked well for me in Thailand because I spent so much time in the classroom hearing the various sounds and words repeated over and over again. However, it is more difficult for me to put my finger directly on the sound I need to replicate or comprehend in a self-directed program. Therefore, I am going to use the suggestions in "How Language Works" and some reference to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to create a more systematic approach to transliteration. This will incorporate diacritical marks, as mentioned in the text. Most importantly, I am going to emphasize the 5 major tones while learning new words. Since, in Thai, is in 50% of the world's languages, the tone has the ability to entirely change the meaning of the word, I am going to stick to a very strict system of numbering and practicing the 5 tones so I don't mistake them while learning new vocabulary.

This week I continuted working on the alphabet by making notecards and practicing the sounds the letters make.  I am also becoming more familiar with how to use the variations of the letters in different parts of the words.  In our group session we had a short conversation saying "Hello, (name) how are you?"  "I am well thank you.  How are you" "I am well thank you.

The persian script looks like this:

سلام ___ چطتوری؟

خوبم مرسیو چطتوری؟

خوبم مرسیو

Along with learning the alphabet I have been working on writing, and typing in Farsi along with reading and listening to news stories.  So far I have listened to a total of about an hour of news podcasts from BBC Persian this week.  I haven't been able to pick up many words but the words I have recognized are "men- mard ha,"  "women- zan ha,"  and "police-cognate-."  I have tried to include the persian script of these words but it keeps messing up the formatting of the blog so I don't think I will be able to include them.  I have continuted to work with Rosetta Stone and I am beginning to pick up on basic grammatical structure such as word order. An example of this is Subject+object+verb makes a simple sentence.  While listening to the BBC news podcasts I don't really understand anything but I can sometimes hear the end of a sentence by the intonation and the presence of a conjugated verb form that I recognize.  I have also been working on learning new vocabulary in Rosetta Stone by taking note of new words and writing them down.  Once I master the alphabet and sounding out words I hope to focus more on vocabulary than I do now.

Just as a note, adding in the persian script above messed up the formatting so any period I put at the end of a sentence keeps moving to the beginning of the line until I type something after it.  That is why the period at the end of these paragraphs are at the beginning of the line, and not at the end. 

The parts of the reading that interested me the most were the parts that talked about stressed words and how they can lead to different types of phrases, and how babies learn to speak.  By this I man that stressing certian words can lead to a question or a statement.  This is something that I have been able to pick up on in Spanish and hope that I will be able to pick up on in Farsi as well.  The other section that interested me was the section about babies and acquiring language.  The fact that babies can distinguish between certian sounds by the time they are four weeks old astounds me.  I also thought it was interesting that there is a logical reason why children seem to not pronounce certain sounds when they are young.  Examples of this are consonant clusters like "sky" which some children will pronounce "kai".  I never really understood why certain sounds were difficult to pronounce but now I know that unstressed syllables seem to be lost in the words of a child.  

Over the next week, I hope to continue working with Rosetta Stone and focusing more on reading, vocabulary, and listening activities.   

Although I have already made this post elsewhere just to make it easier to find my learning plan and goals I will make a separate and individual blog. The main goals I want to accomplish as a novice learner are:

Greetings / Farewells (formal/informal, for different times of day, etc.)
Introducing yourself (your name, where you are from, what you are studying, something interesting about yourself)
    --Eliciting this information from others
Identifying and talking about family members (names, relationships, professions, something interesting)
    --Eliciting this information from others
Telling time / asking the time
Asking / saying the date 

In addition to these goals JT and I established with our language partner we wanted to learn to talk about sports, weather, and be able to ask for directions. 

The primary way we plan on reaching these goals is meeting with our partner to reach one goal a week. During this meeting we write down and speak every word that we note as very important to learn. Then after meeting with Maya, JT and I try our Hebrew out on each other over the course of the week. Since we are roommates it is easy to practice our Hebrew on each other. So far we have been successful in reaching our goals. 

From this weeks reading I learned several key things attributed to effectively learning language. I was not aware how much effort and how difficult it is to speak consonants, vowels, and recognize syllables. For instance the mouth changes from front to back of the throat as well as the tongue changes shapes in its various pronunciations of the primary and secondary cardinal vowels. I believe there are 10 different parts of the mouth or throat that produces the sounds necessary to formulate words and sounds.

In hindsight I guess it is harder than imagined to find syllables. At my ripe age of 22 it is no longer a challenge, but I can see how it can be hard with a syllable usually being larger than a single segment, but smaller than a single word. Now that I am trying to learn a foreign language like Hebrew I recognize the difficulties in finding the syllables. Having a familiarity with a certain language helps finding these syllables and currently I have no idea how to formulate words properly in Hebrew.

I completely agree with the text on its discussion of tone of voice having an impact on how one interprets the other person speaking to them. You can quickly decipher whether the person talking to you is being friendly or stern, just by the inflection and tone of their voice. If it sounds booming and authoritative they are acting stern, if it is softer and is accompanied by a smile then the person is acting friendly.

The section talking about babies and their auditory skills was also very interesting. I have a niece now that is nearly 2 years old and she has been very receptive to voices that she has heard over the last two years. The text argues that babies only respond and take in voices that they are familiar with. Rowan always responds to my family members, but rarely responds to me because she rarely sees me. I am thought of as a stranger in her mind, so she does not actively listen to me. There is also a correlation between her babbling and spoken language. At her age she has maybe 100 plus words in her vocabulary, but she has about 500 babbling words. I have confidence that as she increases in age those babbling words will translate in to words we actually recognize.

Finally is the sad truth that speech can wrong at any point in one’s life. You can have 60 years of great speech, but one stroke can cause a person to lose everything they have accumulated over those previous years. Speech is a very fragile thing, it is great to have so we must all be grateful for it. Hopefully none of us will ever have to experience the problems mentioned in the text with speech problems and acquisitions. 

       Losing our fluency was my favorite section of this reading, it hit home with me.  While I was not fluent in conversational French, my reading and writing skills were excellent.  It was easy for me to articulate what I was reading, and extremely easy for me to understand what i was reading and then saying.  However, this fall i had the opportunity to go to Paris for Fall break to visit some friends, and to say i was TERRIBLE at french was an understatement.  When in Paris i stammered, i stuttered and i had no idea what i was saying, thinking or reading.  I did my very best, after a few days i started to get the hang of it, but i still felt like an alien.  I felt so lost because i could not articulate what i was thinking, fortunately french is not necessary, however it would have been nice to use the tools i spent so much time and effort learning. 

       I had a similar experience when in temple this year for the High Holidays.  I sat down to read the prayers and follow along in the service, and I realized that I only knew the songs from memorizing them, my ability to read hebrew has lessened.  This fact really upset me in the fall, and as a result, I have decided that starting this summer I will begin relearning the alphabet and letters in order to read better.  I hope to travel to Israel this summer so this re-earning of hebrew will help me.

Losing fluency is difficult to come to terms with but quite easy to do.