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Advice on Making Punjabi Program? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Dixon Groupie Canada Joined 6049 days ago 54 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 5 03 July 2010 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I want to learn Punjabi but I don't think that there are many good resources out there
with audio. I want to read of course, but my main goal is spoken conversation so I want to heavily focus on listening. People better than I at learning languages might just say "Go converse with a native" but I don't really learn well that way. I memorize much better by both seeing and hearing a word. For example, in Korean right now I'm studying a book with 2000 sentences and an accompanying audio CD where the sentences are spoken by native speakers. The book's focus is 2000 commonly used Korean words based on frequency. I play the MP3 tracks all day so I become used to the intonation and accent. The important part is that I read and break down the sentence in the book first--I don't understand the audio tracks until I've done that. I would be lost if I just conversed with someone without reading what they were going to say first. I also learn better and faster when studying alone. I have access to native speakers. I was thinking about voice recording them reading sentences into Anki which should do the trick for me. But where should I start as far as texts to get these sentences from? Ideally they would be in Punjabi and translated into English. I'm not partial to any script but my grandmother uses the Gurumakhi script so it would be satisfying to write a letter to her through it. I would hope that the sentences are not just typical phrasebook stuff but based on frequency and real use. Any suggestions on materials for my predicament? Additionally, do you think there would be full time intensive Punjabi language schools in Punjab, India? If there are no good language schools there then I would be better off just immersing myself in the Punjabi speaking community in Canada, when I get back from Korea. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5984 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 2 of 5 03 July 2010 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm really interested in this topic, since Punjabi is on my list of "must-learn" languages due to its prevalence in my home town of Vancouver.
Previously I had found a site from an Indian university that had several short children's stories with mouse-over dictionary help and audio for the whole thing. Unfortunately I've lost the link, but I'll paste it here if I can dig it up again. (EDIT: Woo! you're in luck, I just found it again. "Online talking stories") I'm not sure if any universities offer good courses, but in India most people seem to either learn Punjabi growing up, or by moving to a Punjabi-speaking area with knowledge of a related language like Hindi. I know that in Vancouver, Simon Fraser University offers some "self-instructional language programs" which are sort of like distance education, and UBC and Langara offer regular classes. Once I restart on Punjabi, I'll probably just contact them in order to buy their textbook material, but I'm not convinced that the classroom setting will be interesting to me. I've thought of two routes to learn Punjabi. One is via Hindi and Urdu, which seem to have much more content. Maybe I'd try to listen to a few hundred hours of Hindi content, and then later switch to Punjabi with real speakers. I'm not sure whether this will be that effective though, since I don't know how much Hindi I'd have to learn in order to be a useful stepping stone to Punjabi. The other method is the more likely possibility for me. The Vancouver Public Library has several novels translated into Punjabi (such as "The Godfather", for example). I'd get some of these books with their English counterpart, and start working through them word by word, while also using a "Teach Yourself" book for basic vocab. Then, I'd perhaps just pay some native speakers an hourly rate to read out sections of the novels and record it. In effect, make my own audiobooks. Yes, this sounds sort of expensive, but like you said, there's quite a lack of learning materials. I like your suggestion of having someone read Anki sentences to you, but I think I'd personally prefer to use a novel. This might be more interesting to the person reading too, since it'd be a continuous story instead of just a jumble of sentences. Another source of material is your local Gurdwara. They typically offer Punjabi classes to kids, and therefore have a bunch of basic readers that they use. If you inquire there, then you could probably buy some off of them. Edited by doviende on 03 July 2010 at 7:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| socks Triglot Newbie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5263 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English, Telugu, Hindi* Studies: French | Message 3 of 5 03 July 2010 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it's great that you're going to do this. Punjabi is supposed to be my mother
tongue, but my maternal grandparents never even taught it to my mother, in an effort to be 'modernized' parents. I speak and understand Hindi, but I'm often lost when I hear people in my family talking rapidly in Punjabi. I can understand them if the conversation is short and not too obscure, basically if I know what they're talking about to begin with. However, my mom, who grew up hearing the language oftener than I did (I barely hear it spoken once a year anymore) can understand everything that's said. She just can't speak it. So learning Punjabi through Hindi could be one way of going about it, but it would just be extending it one step further. You don't learn Hindi through Sanskrit, or English through Latin, for example. I'm almost certain that there aren't any university courses offering to teach Punjabi anywhere in the country. Apart from the fact that they have a rural population with a low literacy level, I don't think there would be much scope for the graduates career- wise. I also wouldn't advise you to go to Punjab... I hope I don't have to articulate the whys of that. [edit: I completely assumed I was talking to a female when I wrote this sentence. Sorry. Your being male changes everything.] Interacting heavily with the Punjabi community in Canada should be the best way to go about it for now, I think. If you can find someone patient enough to work with you and teach you the basics, it would go a longer way than making audio recordings of sentences (I think). If you aren't familiar with the language at all, and if you can't pick out words (or don't know where one ends and the other begins), the audio will probably help you a lot when you're practicing. I agree with you about learning better when you can see the word, but you will have to learn the script for this to work with Punjabi. Are you already familiar with it? If not, it will take a lot of (completely separate from listening comprehension) work. I don't think that any one approach is going to work exclusively. Making an audio course will be time-consuming and frustrating, but worthwhile if you're willing to deal with the challenges. I would suggest video recording conversations in public settings, such as weddings (they have a lot of those), where people are recording things anyway. You might also get a group of people to put on a show if you suggest this to them. They may invent their own 'drama' or do a play that they know. It's a good way to learn, and the possibility of the exaggerated body language will help you understand things that you may not through audio only. Edited by socks on 03 July 2010 at 8:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dixon Groupie Canada Joined 6049 days ago 54 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 5 09 July 2010 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
My grandparents spoke Punjabi too, and like in your family, my mother never learned the language. I don't have the benefit of knowing Hindi though.
Is it dangerous to take a woman to Punjab? I was thinking of traveling India (especially Punjab) with my Korean fiancee. My grandma went back to Punjab alone, and some of my aunts just returned from there with my little cousins. You are probably right that I would be more likely to find a structured Punjabi course closer to home, or in the UK. Vancouver is a three hour boat ride away from me though which is why I won't enroll in a class there. However, the recommendation of Simon Fraser University's distance education course will lead me to investigate further. I am leaving Canada in three weeks to live in Korea so I will have to seek out a Sikh temple in Korea and maybe post a wanted ad for a lesson. Nobody will have experience teaching the language so I need to create a way to make a course for myself with my tutor. Any suggestions relating to that from anyone? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| socks Triglot Newbie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5263 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English, Telugu, Hindi* Studies: French | Message 5 of 5 10 July 2010 at 9:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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It isn't - or shouldn't be - dangerous, but the few non-brown* women I know have had
some unpleasant experiences while travelling alone. Especially in places that don't have a lot of tourist populations, local people seem to have a different idea about what is or isn't acceptable behaviour. It can be disturbing when you have random people touching your hair in the street. Of course, not all foreigners experience that sort of thing (I hope). It's common for people to stare, though. If you're looking to go to very crowded places like the Taj Mahal, you should try to go early in the morning - tour guides, people selling postcards and photographs, beggars and such tend to harass people a lot. The only time I went there, I had such a bad time that at the end of it my view of the Taj Mahal was that it's just a very fancy tomb. Depressingly and unnecessarily perfect, yes, but still a tomb. And I kept remembering that Shah Jahan had the artisans' hands cut off after it was finished. Not a good experience. Where are you planning to go in Punjab? Chandigarh should be very nice, and not unsafe at all. Do you have family there? It should be fun to go to some of the rural parts. About making your own course: the advantage you'll have with this is being able to learn the language in a manner that you know works well for you. Try making a draft outline of the program, and discuss it with your tutor. If you're making an audio course you'll have to decide how much emphasis you want on the listening comprehension versus getting the pronunciation right... and how you're going to work on those in the long run. Good luck! *[White, but since all other races are 'non-white' to them, they're 'non-brown' to me :p] 1 person has voted this message useful |
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