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Fourth artifact

Posted by David Mowry on April 7, 2010 at 7:00pm

4. Artifact

For this artifact, I listened to one minute of a Schola Insta-class news report from November 9, 2009. While listening, I transcribed the audio to the best of my ability. The
first part is what I heard, the second is what was actually said, and the third
is a list of new vocabulary. Some of what I wrote in the first part just doesn’t make sense. I've underlined the mistakes and the corresponding correct parts.

Part 1

İzmir’e geldik iş bulduk. İzmir’de çalışıyorduk ve ne tekinde ’94 senesinde İzmir’de bir çocuğumuz oldu. Herkesin üç sene sonra kız dünyaya geldi. Hiçbir sorunumuz yoktu ve 2008 senesinde üçüncü aynıya kadar hiçbir sorunumuz yoktu.

Osman Çürümez daha sonra İzmir’de bir basma fabrikasında çalışmaya başlamış. Ancak 2001’de yaşanan ve Türkiye’ye derinden iki ay türist senesinde iş denetılmış.

Bu sever iş bulamadım. Kriz var. Malamda ortuduğum arkadaş vardı ordacılı kendisi. Olaya değince yaptık kapama benim. Ben de başladım ilk önce ilketabla yani oradacılık yapmaya çok dardan toplayarak üç ay dört ay bu şekelde yaptım sonra yani kendime toparladım.

Part 2

İzmir’e geldik iş bulduk. İzmir’de çalışıyorduk. Ve nitekim de 94 senesinde İzmir’de bir çocuğumuz oldu. Arkasından 3 sene sonra kız dünyaya geldi. Hiçbir sorunumuz yoktu. Ve 2008 senesinin üçüncü ayına kadar hiçbir sorunumuz yoktu.

Osman Çürümez daha sonra İzmir’de bir basma fabrikasında çalışmaya başlamış. Ancak 2001’de yaşanan ve Türkiye’yi derinden etkileyen kriz sırasında işten atılmış.

Bu sefer iş bulamadım. Kriz var. Mahallemde oturduğum arkadaş vardı. Hurdacıydı kendisi. O öyle deyince yattı kafama benim. Ben de başladım ilk önce ilk etapta yani hurdacılık yapmaya. Çöplerden toplayarak. Üç ay, dört ay bu şekilde yaptım. Sonra yani kendimi toparladım.

Part 3

1. Nitekim - as a matter of fact

2. Arkasindan - at the end of (arka - back)

3. Basmak – to press

4. Derinden - deeply

5. Etkile - influence

6. Atilmak – to be thrown out

7. Sefer - journey

8. Hurdacı – junk peddler

9. Kafa - head/mind

10. Etap - stage/lap

11. Şekilde - form

12. Toparlamak – to collect

Week #10

Posted by Laura Major on April 7, 2010 at 5:30pm

This week we continued practicing the personal pronouns and the verb "to have." I am now starting to be able to form my own sentences with the verb "to have" in sentences such as, "I have three cats." We also learned some of the human body parts which are also hard to learn just through the Farsi alphabet without the transcription but it is slowly getting easier to read. Several times we go back through past vocabulary and re-read the words in Farsi to make sure we know how to pronounce them correctly.

Learning Journal #6

Posted by Alper Daron on April 6, 2010 at 1:57pm

In the sixth week of our classes, we covered "bgadim" - clothes. And I also learned how to say I have, you have, s/he has, we have, you'll have and they have. Grammatically, there are big differences in conjugating verbs.

I have = Yesh lee
You have = Yesh leha/lah (depending on the gender of the person)
He/She has = Yesh lo / la
We have = Yesh lanu
You all have = Yesh lachem
They have = Yesh lahem

I feel like every week I am learning more vocabulary, but I begin to forget the ones that I have learned earlier, so I think the best way to remember all of them is to keep looking at the old notes and reminding myself how to say words in Hebrew.

I also realized that I started to form very short sentences like: I have white shoes ( Yesh lee naalayim levanim) , We have two black coats (Anahnu yesh lanu sney meilim shahorim) or she doesn't have a car (Hi en la mehonit ahat).

Learning Journal #5

Posted by Alper Daron on April 6, 2010 at 1:41pm

In the fifth week of our classes, we covered the numbers after 10. I think the numbers are not as complicated than I thought they would be. It is only important to remember the ones between 11 and 20, and the ones that go 20, 30, 40 ... all the rest is easy because they just say for ex; 40 and 5 for 45 or 70 and 9 for 79. We also covered "zman - time" and how to say for ex: "shaa eser - it's 10 o'clock"

Also, In Rosetta Stone, I learned how to make nouns plural, depending on whether they are masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns usually get -im, and feminines get -ot.

Ex: Apple = Tapuah, Apples = Tapuhim or Car = Mehonit, Cars = Mehoniyot

Also, unlike English apparently the adjectives also become plural.

Ex: One Red Ball = Kadur (Ball) Echad (one) Adum (Red)
Two Green Apples = Sney (Two) Tapuhim (Apples) Yarokim (Greens)

Artifact Number 3

Posted by Andreas Vassilopoulos on April 6, 2010 at 12:57am

Alibabaninbirciftligivar....wav

Great voices. These two guys are really talented!!

Thursday Student Advisor Meeting

Posted by Andreas Vassilopoulos on April 6, 2010 at 12:54am

Last Thursday at my student advisor meeting we learned some grammar and how to conjucate simple verbs and phrases in Turkish, like kick the ball, to run, to attack, to come and other basic things. I learn how to conjucate pretty fast once i knew the ending of each verb, like how it ends if it is me, you, them etc. We are still focusing on the subject that I am most interested in, soccer. I keep on learning new words that are about soccer like caoch, goalkeeper, nets and also phrases.

On Thursday we also did the artifact I posted about all the main fruits. We learned some fruits in former classes but I learned all of them on Thursday and decided to post it as an artifact by writing below the english word and the translation in Turkish.

In the end of our session I showed the video I want to show as an other artifact. It is a video about Ronaldo the Brazilian soccer player, where Eric Cantona the famous French player is describing him and I am going to cut his voice and translate the phrases he says in Turkish.

Artifact Number 2

Posted by Andreas Vassilopoulos on April 6, 2010 at 12:40am

Artifact number two - talking Vokis.

Posted by David Mowry on April 5, 2010 at 12:30pm

Köpek - gazeteci
Köpekbalığı - AKP milletvekili

1: Gazeteci
2: AKP milletvekili

1. Merhaba hoş geldiniz.
2. Selam, hoş bulduk.
1. Şimdi AB üyeliğinden bahsetiyoruz. Ne dersiniz?
2. Türkiye’nin AB’ye ile üye olmasını çok istiyorum. Ekonomi ve askerisiz siyaset için çok önemli bir şey.
1. Size göre AB ve Türk hüviyeti çok farklı mı?
2. Tabi farklıdır, ama Türkiye’nin kimliği değişmeyecek. Daha çok ticaret, hürriyet gelecek.
1. Başka bir sebep var mı? Mesela, şimdi Türkiye’de bina içerinde sigara içmek yasaktır. Aynı zamanda yeni anayasa değişimini değerlendiriyorsunuz. Meclis’te ne tartışma oluyor?
2. Türkiye’de asker ve yargı çok kuvvetli. Parti olarak daha özgür meclis ve partiler istiyoruz. Son zamanlarda Anayasa Mahkemesi DTP’nin kapatılmasının gerekli olduğun karar verdi. Bize göre yargı fazlı kuvvetli, ve AB’ye göre de çok kötü bir şey. Butün ülke siyasal hassasiyetin değişmesini istiyoruz.
1. Diğer partiler ne duşunuyor?
2. Güç istiyorlar. Biz demokrasi istiyoruz. AB’le birlikleşmesi istiyoruz. Başka bir şey yok.
1. İlginç. Teşekkur ederim, güle güle.
2. Ben de teşekkur ederim.

In order to make them talk to each other, the two sets must be played at the same time. Press play on the first one two seconds before pressing play on the second one. After these two finish, the conversation continues. Press play on the fourth one second before pressing play on the third.

The best song ever written. Artifact 3? Olur mu?

Posted by David Mowry on April 1, 2010 at 4:00pm

Ali babanin bir ciftligi var....wav

Ali Babanın bir çiftliği var.
Çiftliğinde .... var.
.... diye bağırır.
Çiftliğinde Ali Babanın.

horoz...üürü üüüüü
kuzu...mee, mee
köpek...havvv, havvv
kedi...miyavv

Başka...
arı... vzzzz, vzz
tavuk... cik cik
karga... gaaak, gaak
eşek... a-iiii, a-iiii
ördek... vak, vak
at... ih-ih-ihaaa

Learning Journal 7

Posted by Tania Bukach on April 1, 2010 at 2:30pm

Sofia found me a great website with lists of useful Farsi phrases! It's well organized, and includes the pronunciation and the arabic script. We went over several lists, which incorporated a lot of what I already know (though many phrases vary because some of what Sofia teaches me is more Dari than Farsi).

I've been researching for my culture project, and have decided to look at historical Persian clothing. I want to focus on the Zoroastrian times, before the Islamic conversion. That would put us pre-7th century.

Week #9

Posted by Laura Major on March 31, 2010 at 5:00pm

This week we learned personal pronouns. I had been familiar with a few of these just from learning common greetings so it wasn't too hard to learn. With the pronouns we included the verb "to have" which helped me learn how to conjugate in the present tense. I have taken other languages before and the set up was similar in that the conjugated verb is taken from the root of the main verb and then the ending for the specific pronoun is just added onto the end. We also learned the days of the week which are really easy. The week starts with Saturday as "shanba" and then numbers are added in front of shanba. So Sunday is just "yak shanba" in which yak means one. Next week we will learn human body parts.

Verbs (Simple Past Tense)

Posted by Roman Abdul Satar on March 30, 2010 at 5:30pm

In English there are verbs that irregular (to go) and regular (to clean), however in Persian it's not the verbs that define the regularity or irregularity of the verbs. In Persian the tense is regular or irregular. For example, the verbs in simple past tense are regular while in present simple tense are irregular. All tenses except present can be regular.
In Persian there is not a well-defined rule for grammar.

In simple past tense almost all verbs are regular. For example the word to go رفتن (raftan) and to go the simple past tense we just need to drop the letter n, we will have رفت (raft). So in all verbs ending is N, by just deleting that letter we get simple past tense verb.

My Progress

Posted by Roman Abdul Satar on March 30, 2010 at 4:00pm

When I just started this course (end of January) I just knew the alphabet as doing all this work and meeting with Sofia twice a week improved my abilities significantly.

What I knew before this course
1. Unlike western languages, Persian is written and read from right to left.
2. Persian consists of 32 letters. Some of the letters have small and big form and others have only one form.
3. There non letter characters that are used to make up vowels.

The next step was to be able to recognize the letter from alphabet that I knew.The first exercise that I needed to do before starting reading was to understand how each letter gets combined with the next one. After that I was able to recognize those letter in a word and by combining the sounds of each letter I was able to make up the word. Then to become really good at it I was writing words myself combining them and creating a word.
Having been able to read slowly, Sofia started the reading exercises which were reading children stories. At the beginning it was very hard, not knowing some Persian words made even more harder to make up that word. The important factor for improving my reading was to read over and over again, so I will be able to understand why that words spelled like that, understand the meaning of the story and become faster in my reading.
By following these strategies I have read four stories and improved my reading speed and it made reading itself much more easier and less frustrating.

Grammar: Pronouns

Posted by Roman Abdul Satar on March 30, 2010 at 3:00pm

The first lesson of grammar was on the pronouns. A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. We focused on the subjective pronouns, a pronoun is acting as a noun.
The Subjective Pronouns:
Singular:
I = من pronounces as man
You= تو pronounces as to (torture)
He and She= او pronounces as u (moon) By saying oo you will not distinguish if it's a woman or a man.
It=آن pronounces as an
Plural:
We= ما pronounces as ma
You=شما pronounces as shoma
They=آنها pronounces as a:nha
After learning each pronoun I was then instructed to use them in a sentence.

Culture: Passover Seder

Posted by Nora Mann on March 30, 2010 at 2:30pm

This is the first year that I have not gone home for a huge Passover seder=(. This dinner is somewhat ritualistic and includes more than half of the family- normally instead of just having my dad read the story of passover, everyone retells the story of the Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt. The story of the exodus from Egypt is meant to be told to everyone...

It is weird not having a seder plate full of maror, charoset (my favorite), karpas, Z'roa, and Beitzah. When I used to live at home, my sister, mother, and I would make Charoset. This delicious mixture of nutes, apples, cinnamon and red wine was used to build up buildings in Egypt. Waking maror was my grandfather's job- he always loved having fresh horseradish- so spicy/bitter to represent the harshness of slavery! The Karpas was my brother's job- to separate the parsley and celery-and make salt water- this combination represented the pain the jews felt. Now the gross part- the Z'roa- goat shankbone- and boiled egg (Beitzah)- that was dad's job- these represented sacrifice.

Regardless of missing the seder, I know I am not going to miss just that! When the pharoah freed the Hebrews, they fleed so quickly that their bread did not rise. SO I will be missing leavened bread for this week. Let the week of Matzah begin;-)

Culture Blog 4

Posted by Tania Bukach on March 30, 2010 at 11:30am

In the Geert Hoffman analysis of Iran, Uncertainty Avoidance and Power Distance are highest. However, these are fairly low for a Muslim country, which may be because the study was done in 1972 (can ANY country be evaluated by a study that old? It's been 40 years!).

The lowest score is Individuality. I can definitely see this in my studies so far. Sofia and I were talking about romantic relationships in Afghanistan. They definitely show how collectivist the society is (admittedly I'm not talking about Iran here, but the analysis I read suggests its scores may look more like other Muslimcountries now). The discussion arose when I asked her what the word for "partner" was. She gave me the word for "spouse." I asked, "What if you're not married?" It turns out, there isn't a word for dating someone, or any kind of romantic relationship outside of marriage short of prostitution. Almost everyone dates, but it's always a secret. You would only tell you're most trusted friend, and definitely not you're family.

When the couple decides to get married, it is a family affair. The man goes to his family and tells them he wants to marry the woman. The women of his family go visit the women of her family and ask when the man's father can meet with the woman's father to discuss the man and women getting married. The woman's family then asks around to make sure the man's family is respectable.

If a couple didn't follow this procedure, the consequences would fall on the woman's family. The woman would be seen as a prostitute. The father would be seen as not having control over his family. The mother would be seen as not raising her child morally. It's clear the relationships are all about loyalty and family honour - signs of collectivism.

Gender dynamics are very different in Afghanistan, but I will write more about that in my learning blog!

Culture Blog 3

Posted by Tania Bukach on March 30, 2010 at 11:00am

Product, Practices, Perspectives: Parsi-Cola

The Parsi-Cola bottle seems to be popular in glass. This is probably because it is competing with Zam-Zam, another popular cola that is known for its glass bottles. Zam-Zam's glass bottles are part of its marketing strategy - to use Iranian history. The glass bottle is more antiquated.

Both Parsi-Cola and Zam-Zam claim to be Iran's "national" drink. Parsi-Cola's very NAME is evidence of this (Parsi=Farsi=Persian=Iranian). They are capitalizing on the politics of production in Iran. Many sources say that Iranians want to drink pop while avoiding American products (such as Pepsi and Coke). In politics, the US is "The Great Satan." However, it's also interesting how the Parsi-Cola bottles are modeled after Pepsi and Coke bottles. The colours and shapes are extremely reminiscent of its American counterparts.

Something else I noticed is that Parsi-Cola has both Farsi and English writing on it. I don't know why this might be. Perhaps it's to attract tourists?

http://k43.pbase.com/o4/93/329493/1/58068895.IranMar064221.jpg
http://parsikhabar.net/wp-content/parsicola-blog2.jpg
http://www.iranian.com/PhotoDay/Dec98/Images/cola.gif

http://haft2.com/haft2know/blogimages/coke.jpg
http://www.pepreinvent.com/download/pepsi/product_shots/pepsi_bottle.jpg

Learning Journal 5

Posted by David Mowry on March 26, 2010 at 1:14pm

For this week, I completed my first artifact. I wrote a short composition about the current political topic of Turkey, which is related to various proposals for changes to the constitution. I started out with the political background to the proposals, and then I read two sources with competing viewpoints on the subject. I read the articles and briefly summarized them in my writing. My language partner helped me edit and correct my mistakes, and we used these mistakes to go over grammar points on which I need help as well as which words are appropriate in which contexts. I will post the artifact in a separate blog post. Additionally, I read a third article unrelated to my artifact, performed both intensive and extensive listening activities, and spoke Turkish for half of a lunch with Onur. After we finished going over my artifact, my language partner and I had a conversation about traveling in Turkey, which allowed for unscripted conversation. These conversations always feel like the most productive aspects of the meetings, although I recognize the importance of grammar, structure and new vocabulary.

1. Artifact

Posted by David Mowry on March 26, 2010 at 1:00pm

Diyarbakır’a gittiğimde yerel seçimler oldu. Seçimlerde, AKP’nin desteği azalınca DTP’nin desteği çoğaldı. Seçimlerden altı ay sonra Anayasa Mahkemesi DTP’nin kapatılmasına karar verdi. DTP, PKK ile ilişkileri olduğundan dolayı kapandı. MHP ve DTP’nin kürt kimliğinden dolayı kararı
destekledi.

Karar verildikten sonra AKP, anayasa değişimi teklif etti. CHP ve MHP anayasayı değistirmek istemiyorlar. Anayasa değişiminde parti kapatılması zorlaşacakmış, askeri dava açmak kolaylaşacakmis.

Hürriyet gazetesinde reform ile ilgili “muhalefet var“ yazdı. Yargı ve muhalefet partisi, karşıtlıklarını vurguladılar. Başyargıç “bu öneri anayasaya karşı... iyi reform değil“ dedi. İfadeler Hürriyet’in çok laik bir gazete olduğunu ispat etti. Karşıt görüşlü Zaman gazetesi ise reformu destekledi. “Türkler bu demokratik, önemli reformu istiyor" yazdı. İki gazete de sendikalardan destek olduğunu yazdı, ama her gazete farklı sendikaların ifadelerini aktardı.

Haberi değerlendirdiğimde gazetelerin çok farklı görüşleri olduğunu anladım. Birçok gazete okuyarak siyaset ve toplum hakkinda gazetelerin farklı fikirleri anlaşılabilir.

Reflection on learning experiences so far

Posted by Laura Major on March 25, 2010 at 5:30pm

So far I have found that the Farsi language is not that difficult to learn. It can be kind of similar to English or really any other language to learn in that the conjugations and declensions are similar. I'd say that the only huge difference is the alphabet which takes patience and practice to learn. Now that I have learned the alphabet the only trouble is trying to read and pronounce words without knowing a lot of vocabulary. In order to read a lot of the Farsi language, you need to be able to recognize the word in order to know how to pronounce it. As I don't know a lot of vocabulary, it's difficult to read. I had bought a book on how to learn Farsi and that has been a great help. However I would say that the greatest help I have is from my language partner, Wadia. She helps us with our pronunciation and grammar and we can learn one on one much easier than reading through a book with no idea how to pronounce anything. I feel that everything can be learned for Farsi without too much difficulty as long as they are willing to be patient and practice their language enough.

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