So this week I had plans to work with the words I learned last week to speak some sentences and make a video for you guys so I can share my progress. However, the words I learned last week I am not confident in the pronounciations AT ALL. It was much easier to hear Duolingo say the word and repeat it but from memory and trying to sound the words out with my alphabet I wrote it was much harder. I have been practicing the words but I think I need to work with a video tool so I can hear the pronunciation first. I was memorizing the words, how to say them, and what it is translated to but I didn’t actually understand them. So when I was trying to make a video this week I felt like I didn’t know how to sound out the letters to make the word. I will need more practice on my own this week to do it myself rather than watching someone else do it.

In place of putting sentences together this week I am choosing a new medium to learn from today. I found in my house a Ukrainian-English-French dictionary that is in the form of a childrens storybook. This was gifted to my mom from a childhood friend a long time ago and it hasn’t been used much. Every few pages has a new category such as mealtime, at the supermarket, at the park, etc. Each word has pictures which really helps to remember the words.

In honour of Thanksgiving and my family eats some traditional Ukrainian foods I learned the category meal time. I will make a list of the foods I ate this week:

• • Печений індик – Roast Turkey
  • М’ята бараболя – Mashed Potatoes
  • Голубці – Cabbage Rolls
  • Вареники – Perogies
  • Булочки – Buns
  • Сметана – Sour Cream
  • Салатниця – Salad
  • Борщ – Borstch Soup

I found a helpful website titled History of Ukrainian Cuisine that explains some common Ukrainian dishes that are DELICIOUS!

I still wanted to create a video this week to show what I learned however with my luck I got sick on Monday after Thankdgiving and am not ready to make a video.

Using this childrens dictionary I learned all the images on it and am having an easier time memorizing since I have pictures. It did take me a lot longer than other platforms I have used cause I had to sit and compare the words to the alphabet to sound out words. The book was much more independant and made my brain work more instead of just repeating what I heard. I think it will push my to memorize more and think more.

This is week #4 of my learning project and I made some great progress this week!

I began to learn words this week and am slowly (very slowly) beginning to string sentences together. I made a list of all the words I learned at the beginning of the week and then used this to study each day and try remember them. Since I learned the alphabet the last few weeks I was able to sound out the words to learn the pronunciation better. So far learning the words and pronunciation is not to challenging but remembering the words is really hard.

I used Duolingo to help me learn this week and it was awesome at teaching me but had some downfalls aswell. Duolingo is a good source to start with and probably good to learn the whole language as well because it uses active recall strategies. It keeps asking me the same questions until I get it right which I believe is a really effective way to learn. The accesibility of it is so nice because it was easy for me to just do a few lessons each day. However, a really big downfall for the app is you only get five “hearts” and each wrong question costs you a heart. You have to wait until the next day or else purchase more hearts. I don’t like this when I am trying to learn a new language because I am going to make plenty of mistakes and it limits my learning. Besides having limited amounts of hearts Duolingo is so good to learn from becasue it uses active recall and is so easy to learn a few lessons in a day.

This week I learned the second half of the alphabet and practiced writing the letters. I followed the video How to Read The Ukrainian Alphabet. Part 2. By Speak Ukrainian. This video was made by the same person that I watched last week. Again her video was very organized and easy to follow. She speaks clearly and gives great exaples of a comparison from an english word to a ukrainian word.

The biggest challenge of this week was using a new platform to create a video. I have never made a YouTube Video before so I chose to do that. However, I really really struggled to edit a video on YouTube so I ended up using iMovie to edit and create my video. I have used iMovie before however I have never edited the videos and added images on top of the video. The learning curve for me this week was combining multiple videos into one and added the images on top of my video. I still incorporated YouTube since I had to create my account and publish a video. In regard to the SAMR model I think that iMovie, YouTube, etc. fits into the modification category. It allows students to interactively work from home. Prior to this technology if a student was working from home they were not able to share videos of progress and it would be simply emailing and describing progress. As well, since I was able to add images on top of my video I was able to create a clean, professional, and informative video to help others. It would not be possible for me to share my progress in an online class as cleanly and easily as I did.

How I Made My Video:

1. I filmed five seperate videos of me reading the alphabet out loud.
2. I trimmed each video in Photos app on the iPhone
3. I added each video into iMovie and got rid of the fancy transitions between videos for a seemless transition.
4. I wrote each letter on my laptop using OneNote app then screenshotted and cropped each photo.
5. I then turned each screenshot of the letters into videos using the iMovie app. I watched How To Put Photos On Your Video (Phone) by ItsFrida on Youtube.
6. Then I was able to insert the video on top of my original video.
7. This video will explain how to edit a photo on top of my video.

Please ignore the large white box appearing it is just to cover some personal information from the internet.

This Week:

I started to learn the ukrainian alphabet!

I found a super helpful video to watch this week on YouTube called How To Read The Ukrainian Alphabet by Speak Ukrainian. For each letter it would show a picture of it and how to pronounce it. This video was super well done and overall very helpful. It was long and took time to pronounce each letter slowly and clearly while adding examples of a ukrainian word it was used in as well as a comparison to an english word.

I focused on the first half of the alphabet and learned 17 out of 33 letters. This was very difficult as some letters will look the same as english letters but are actually very different.Learning to pronounce the letters was one thing but remembering them was another challenge. I printed a page that had a picture of the letter, with the pronunciation underneath. It is not a great sheet to learn from but works well to help remember. To help me remember I am just referncing the page multiple times a day and saying the alphabet out loud. I only learned half this week so I can really try and focus on the first 17 letters.

Upcoming Weeks:

Next week I am going to finish learning the rest of the alphabet and will hope to be ready enough to share a video with you guys of my progress!

Introduction To My Learning Project

I have absolutely zero experience with understanding or speaking Ukrainian unless it is the name of my favourite Ukrainian dishes. I was inspired to choose this language to learn because my Grandma used to be able to speak it however she lost the language before I could even walk. My mom could understand some common words but not enough to pass it onto me or my siblings. I want to feel a connection to my grandma and mom by sharing something that is very important to them. In the last few years I have spent more time participating in Ukrainian traditions than I ever have and feel like learning the language should be next.

I am beginning at the basics and starting with the alphabet. I am planning to use many resources such as Duolingo, a Ukrainain dictionary, and YouTube videos.  Once I learn how to write and pronounce the letters of the alphabet I will progress to learning common day words. My goal by the end of the term is to be able to speak to my mom and grandma. Even though they cannot speak the language they can both understand some common words.