Posted by Becky Walker on February 22, 2009 at 2:37pm
1. Farsi is considered a subject-object-verb language. It contains 6 vowels, and the 23 consonants include the labial (m, p, v, f, b), alveolar (n, t, d, s, z, rr, r, l) , postaveolar (ch, jh), palatal (j), velar (n, k, g, x, y), uvular (g), and glottal sounds (h). Farsi has few prefixes, but relies heavily on suffixes.Spanish is also considered a SOV language, which has helped my understanding of Farsi, as I can relate it to another language in which I have already begun learning. However, Spanish appears to have a more flexible concept of the SOV structure than Farsi, as subjects are not always necessary in Spanish. Spanish is synthetic as it uses inflection to indicate both number and gender for nouns and adjectives.2. I am studying syntax and word order in hopes of understanding how the language itself is structured. This will allow me to aurally understand the language when I can anticipate what types of words fall where within a sentence.3. I will focus on learning the proper suffixes that change adjectives to nouns, or other cross-grouping suffixes in order to expand upon my vocabulary and description abilities. Also, prefixes and suffixes will allow me to conjugate verbs in a variety of tenses as well.Problems for Review:Japanese is considered to be agglutinative as it combines multiple morphemes in order to form words. The example given displays this. It take the root “mi” which is a morpheme, adds a polite suffix “mash” and adds “i” on the end to indicate tense. Though some of these morphemes can stand alone in Japanese, such as mi, it needs a root to indicate its meaning, as mi can represent numerous things. Ikimashita follows this pattern as well, with ‘mash’, ‘i' and ‘ta’ all being included. The only aspect of the word that changes is the root, which is now iki. If ikimashita were to be a in the simple past as opposed to a more complex version of the past, ikimashita nad mimashita would not bear the same resemblance.Greek on the other hand is considered a synthetic language. Greek has variations in sound depending on the combination of letters in a word, and words in a sentence. In the example given, the ending ‘a’ indicates the inflection as the verb determines the subject (first person singular). Bébēka follows the same pattern—a duplicated form of the root, with the suffix indicating the subject.
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1. Languages I am currently studying in linguistic terms.Farsi:Morphological – agglutinative – uses sufficesVerbs express tense and they also refer back to the subject and quantitySyntactic Structure – OV, SOV – prepositional phrases are normally positioned before the VerbRussian: Morphological – syntheticSyntactic Structure – the sentence structure is not highly dependent on word order2. Important Characteristic:Persian makes extensive use of word building and combining affixes, stems, nouns and adjectives.For verbs, knowing the suffixes that refer back to the pronoun or person the sentence is about.There are 6 vowels, which are written into the words; are shown as symbols either about or below the consonant.3. I will focus on the formation of words using the symbols to indicate vowel sounds, so as to improve my reading and comprehension of the words.
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Posted by ReidSchluter on February 21, 2009 at 1:57pm
This post is delayed by 3 days, but I will just write as though I did it mid-week. In terms of the two artifacts that I would like to be evaluated upon, I think that a one-page or so autobiography would be a good additional item to the Dutch EU proficiency exam (which I need to know how to retrieve). I was also considering maybe recording a conversation between Jan & myself, but I think it may be too soon for me to do unscripted. I think that writing about myself, and simply displaying the vocabulary, grammar, etc... that I have learned would provide a more fair assessment of my progress at this point. I would turn that in first, and then take the Dutch proficiency test the next day. I am not entirely sure what it is (and again I need to know how to acquire it), but I would imagine/hope that I do reasonably well for someone at the beginner level.I accomplished all of my specific goals for this week that I outlined in my previous learning plan. During my lengthy car-ride to & back from Florida I was able to get through: specifics of the royalty, yes/no questions, rhetorical questions, months/dates/holidays, & both congratulatory & telephone conversation phrases. I was also able to read a couple of magazines (one sort of a political commentary i.e. Newsweek & the other about soccer), and discern many of the main points from the articles--particularly the soccer ones. This upcoming week, I have been/will continue to work on the perfect tense (I have...), which my book devotes a lot of pages to, and Jan agrees is very important. In addition, we both agreed that it would be a good idea to work through the verb list in the back of my book and identify & remember the important ones on my own. I will learn their meanings & their stems, which will be very useful to learn in tandem with the perfect tense--which connotes much of completed action dialogue according to Jan. Hopefully learning a lot of the fundamental verbs will allow me to have better general understanding, as well as helping me write a mini-autobiography.Aside from that, my pronunciation is developing well. My voice thankfully recovered from bronchitis, and I can again make the important g/ch sound. I typically now only have a couple errors in the sample dialogues that I do with Jan. My speech is still somewhat slow, but presumably speed will continue to develop with time. I would imagine that at the end of the semester I will be able to record an unscripted dialogue with Jan as a final artifact.
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Goals:Format and sentence structuringVocabulary buildingPractice speaking formal Farsi.Resources:Ministry of Finance documentsBusiness articles on BBC website.Language partner
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Posted by Chelsie Darner on February 18, 2009 at 10:00pm
I was trying to find listening that I could actually understand and this little song that I uploaded in my music section just deals with the color blue and simple objects.The second is the persian version of "if you're happy and you know it.'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8_N5r5fbUchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOf8zE54Ebc
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Posted by Brian Mahoney on February 18, 2009 at 12:53pm
Last week I didn't end up getting to learn much new vocabulary. I have started to get a much better handle on the use of prepositions, but I still have a lot to learn. Instead I focused mostly on learning a few new tenses (present/past progressive, subjunctive, present perfect). Conjugation is surprisingly easy, but I still have a difficult time thinking of how to say most things quickly. While I have learned a considerable number of tenses, I am not yet very familiar with them. As a result I think this week I am going to focus primarily on practicing what I have already learned. Even some of the vocab that I've learned I know but still have to think about much to hard too recall in order for it to be very useful practically. One way that I am going to practice this is by writing up a summary of my family and my life as one of my artifacts. Talking about things that occurred at different times and in different situations should be a good way to practice getting used to using various tenses to describe events. Another thing I've started doing recently is practicing changing the sentence structure of things that I say in English throughout the day. I don't have the vocab or language skills to say many things yet, but I find that it is a good idea to think about the way the sentence would be structured in Farsi but using English words, since in most cases I still don't know enough to actually say what I want to. Even when I do know how to say something it takes me a little bit to think through the proper way to say it, so practicing syntax and grammar in this way should be a good way to get used to thinking in Farsi once I develop enough language skills to say more things in the actual language.
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Posted by Brian Mahoney on February 18, 2009 at 11:26am
The first artifact I'm going to make is a summary of my family, where I live, what I study, etc. I'll write it down and scan it and post it to my blog. I'll also record myself reading it using some program and post that also. The second artifact I'll create is a translation, as best as I am able, of a news article from the BBC, probably about the war in Afghanistan. I'm sure there will be a lot of things that I'll have to look up, so I'll indicate the things that I don't really know but was able to figure out in some way.
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Posted by Brian Mahoney on February 18, 2009 at 11:15am
Interpretive- understand and follow introductions and basic formalities- be able to follow the main point in conversations about familiar topics- be able to infer the general meaning of things that I don't understand when repeated slowly given the context- understand texts about familiar subjects; be able to look up and learn words and sentence structures I don't understandInterpersonal- be comfortable asking people to repeat themselves slowly or to explain themselves in a different way- be able to respond appropriately to questions or in common interactive situationsPresentational- be able to explain myself in most situations after thinking through what I am trying to say- develop a sufficient accent to be understood when speaking without significant difficulty by the listener- be able to write using a variety of tenses about a variety of situationsLong Term- gain enough understanding of the language to easily continue to improve vocabulary and understanding- develop familiarity with tenses to the point that I don't have to put substantial thought into conjugation in various situations- eventually be able to find a way of expressing most things in normal conversation, even if it requires finding a different way of saying something roughly equivalent to what I actually mean
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Posted by Becky Walker on February 17, 2009 at 10:36pm
As I am not particularly technologically friendly, I will be using audacity as my means of recording and uploading my artifacts. This works well, as my main focus within learning Farsi is the oral component. The first artifact that I intend to upload is an introduction of myself, this will include: a greeting, my name, my age, where I live, who I am, as well as a brief description of what I am not (in order to use other adjectives).The second artifact that I will be using is a description my family. This will cover the following learning objectives that I have been working on: family members, numbers, conjugations of the verbs to be and to have, plurals, and the proper use of adjectives. My intention for selecting family as my second artifact is that family is very important in Middle Eastern countries, and a common topic of discussion. I want to be able to not only identify members of my family by their proper title, but describe them as well. This will be more comprehensive than my first, thus the reason it will be my second uploaded artifact.
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Posted by Will Cragin on February 17, 2009 at 10:00pm
Semester Goals – By the end of the semester I would like to…- Be able to recognize Farsi characters and read Farsi words.- Greet people and say goodbye to them.- Introduce myself to others and understand their responses and questions.- Be able to ask about different goods – fruit, food, clothes – at a market in Tehran, Iran, and be able to understand their response.- Know basic grammar structure – pronouns, conjugations, negatives, and sentence structure.- I want to be able to read a menu and order from it.- I want to be able to ask Iranians what they think about Americans.Long Term GoalsMy long term goals are to be able to communicate effectively with native speakers of Farsi and Dari. I hope to one day work in a Farsi speaking area, and being able to communicate with the people there would greatly help my work. It is therefore not necessary to be able to read Farsi at an academic level, as I am far more interested in using it colloquially. I have always been fascinated in learning about other peoples and cultures, and in my mind the first step towards any understanding among people of different backgrounds is to be able to speak the same language.
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My long term goals for this semester are being able to read children's level books without having to dissemble the words and using a dictionary. I also want to be able to write simple sentences and phrases. My speaking goals will simply be to expand my vocabulary. My first artifact will be a translation of Jack and Jill into Farsi. My second artifact will be a weather report recorded on a power point.
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Goals:- keep working on my vocabulary building.- Search for more resources.- start writing my reflections in Farsi.Resources:- BBC website. Business News articles.- My language partner had provided me with some documents in Farsi which will help me understand the terminology used in specific department.
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As of now, my long term goals are as follows:To be able to identify letters of the alphabet when written, and simple commonly used wordsTo be able to greet others and say goodbyeTo be able to introduce myself, express basic information about myself (name, age, where I am from, how I am doing, details about my family, occupation) and ask others the sameBe able to describe objects using their position, color and the number of itemsRead and order from a menuBe able to describe my daily routine in simple termsBe able to communicate basic information to a customs officer
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Posted by Will Cragin on February 17, 2009 at 5:22pm
Week 3 Review -This past week I continued to study Farsi script, and am gaining more confidence as the weeks progress. My reaction time is quicker and I feel more confident. While I did not learn months yet, I was able to learn pronouns, prepositions, family vocabulary, more question words, and some practical conversation about malls. Mona, our drill instructor, brought a friend in who goes to Sargent Reynolds community college in Richmond. He is from Iran, and has been in the US for the year. He answered questions about Iran, things about nightlife and social life for college students, ways of dress and different styles, and about family relations. It was very interesting. I also spent a fair amount of time practicing basic conversation and introduction skills with another Farsi student, which was extremely helpful.Week 4 - This week I would like to learn numbers, 20-100, 5 new verbs, 5 new adjectives, and fruits. In addition, I would like to continue reviewing the Alphabet and getting more comfortable reading script. I also plan on continue to practice Farsi conversation with another Farsi student twice a week. Not only will this reinforce vocab and phrases learned, but it will allow me to be more comfortable both speaking and listening to the language.Resources - BBC Farsi, Farsi Textbook, Class notes, handouts, EasyPersian, language partner for speaking practice.
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I have been focusing mostly on reading and writing. If this is the case for other people as well I suggest looking into rosetta stone. The sentence building exercises are very helpful with word recognition. Needless to say, I will be integrating Rosetta stone into my lesson plan and will rely on it much more.
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Objectives:• Learn members of the family• Learn 5 adjectives and be able to use them in a conversation• Learn 3 verbs (To be, To go, To want) and their conjugations in the present tense• Learn 5 more prepositions• Learn 10 fruitsResources• Language Partner• Other classmates• BYKI flashcards• Modern Persian textbook• Diigo LinksTasks• To learn members of the family I will study the vocabulary from my textbook and make flashcards. I will learn them from flashcard use and oral repetition.• Learn 5 more adjectives from BYKI flashcards and study them with the use of oral repetition and flashcards• Learn 3 verbs and make charts that show their conjugations with each of the 6 forms from textbook.• Learn 5 more prepositions from BYKI flashcards. To learn them I will use flashcards and oral repetition• Learn fruits from both the textbook and BYKI flashcards and practice through oral repetition and flashcards.Evaluations• Be able to ask someone the names of the members of their family, where family members are from and how old they are• Be able to hold a conversation asking how people are and be able to respond with newly learned adjectives.• Be able to use verbs in a conversation about who I am, where I am going and what kind of fruit I want, using the first and second forms of the verbs.• Be able to have a conversation about the kind of fruit I want, the color of the fruit and the quantity of the fruit.
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This past week my learning objectives went well. I felt that I had a lot of things to learn and I would not say that I have fully mastered all of the vocabulary. I think with a little more practice I will be better at answering questions about time, days of the week and age more quickly than I can right now because I am not as familiar with the vocabulary as I would like to be. I think that for next week I will have fewer objectives in order to continue working on the vocabulary from last week.Watching the movie Kandahar was a positive experience because it was nice to know that there were some words that I recognized when Farsi was spoken at a normal pace, including phrases like “What’s your name?”, “Hello” and “How are you?” The BBC broadcasts that I have been listening to are a little more frustrating in that even though I can pick out words, they speak at a language level higher than what I have. Hopefully as I listen to more broadcasts and learn more vocabulary it will get easier to listen and I will be able to understand more than I do right now. However, the broadcasts are helpful because they help me learn the rhythm of the spoken language and where the spaces are between words.This week in drill was interesting because on Thursday Mona brought in a male Iranian student and we got to hear how he spoke Farsi, how he wrote Farsi, and hear about what life was like for a guy in Iran. At first if he wrote a word on the board I had a hard time figuring out what characters they were, but by the end of the class I could pick out the characters. It was also nice getting a male perspective on what living in Iran is like and I think our whole class learned from his perspective on things like what people wear, eat and do.
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Reflections Week 4After altering my learning objectives to target two main areas I can focus whole-heartedly in, comedy and accent/vocabulary, I’ve decided to go back and fourth every other week in these areas. Starting this week I will focus on very short jokes, ie. children jokes, riddles, etc and understanding them and hopefully gradually progressing to move longer and mature forms of comedy. Some of them will make sense and others will not due to translation and cultural reasons.- The main issue that I am having with these children jokes and riddles are that although I am gradually understanding them more and more, but because they are meant for children I don’t find them very interesting or funny. But I need to get a firm grasp of these easy starter jokes so that I can understand the mullah nashrudin jokes and beyond.-Surprisingly a lot of them deal with animals that are not found (even in zoos) in the middle east.-A lot of the jokes also aren’t meant to be funny but teach some type of moral, and some aren’t very clear morals at thatie. Why did it rain? (Cheera baran shooda?)-Because the clouds were sad (abra besar tangh shooda)An examples of a joke that I had difficulty understanding:- Why do fish need to live in salt water? (cheere mai zendege mekoni da awi namak?)-pepper makes the fish sneeze every time (moorch akash mekona mai ar daf)The problem I had with the above joke was trying to translate my answer in English to Farsi, when I did that it did not make any sense at all, I have to get rid of the transitory phrase of translating everything from English first in my head and just start and end in Farsi. Also I kept getting confused in saying “pepper” without the “black” because usually “pepper” is usually never said without a type, ie, black pepper, red pepper, spicy pepper, etc.
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