Uzbek Brian: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Day 31: More Fun Food Shopping Excursions & Reflection Videos

Assalomu alaykum!

Awesome Saturday today! Had a great sleep and woke up late and then headed off with my friend Eddie who's studying Tajik/Persian here down to the Sunflower Market on the free Orbit bus. Got an awesome box of nectarines and some grapes, papayas, and other items, and then went back to the dorm for some laundry, relaxing, and chatting with friends and family (shout out to my grandma!).

In the afternoon went down to Yoga Nirvana for my Saturday 4pm class which I've really really been enjoying and am definitely going to miss when I head back to PA. The teacher Daniella is super knowledgeable and the class is strengthening and restorative at the same time. Always feel like a million bucks when I walk out of there!

Then met up with my friend Ana (from the Saturday before last) for another fun trip to the Asian market to pick up some goodies there and head back to the dorm for a nice meal. Great to socialize and see friends and enjoy some delicious food as well, pics are below. What a great start to the weekend! Tomorrow is some homework of course as well as other productivity items. Talk soon!

Also wanted to include 2 videos I made today on various topics to think about:

And of course, pictures!

Durian time :) Me in my element

Awesome whole and pieced jackfruit at the Asian market

Yay, actually edibly ripe Kent mangos are popping up in the markets!

I FOUND FIGS AT WHOLE FOODS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and Ana

Jackfruits just chillin in the corner of the Asian market, nbd

Xayr,
Brian

Friday, June 29, 2012

Day 30: Uzbek Music Club! Video Singing "Kerak Emas" & Uzbek Week 4 Program Reflection

Assalomu alaykum!

Busy and fun day today! In the morning we had our usual Friday quiz on this week's material. Today's quiz went well and incorporated a lot of the new adjectives and descriptive items as applied to a creative expository writing piece about America and the different kinds of people and activities in this great country.

Went to a great presentation at 1pm by a friend named Jaimee (studying Tajik, who starred in this video from Uzbek Club) that shared some really interesting insight on connections between art, Islam, Russian culture, language, and more. It was called “Bolshevik Brother or Islamic Other? Representations of Muslims in Early Soviet Posters, 1917-1930”.

Some more regular class in the afternoon and then advanced Uzbek student Anna shared a cool presentation on Uzbek, Russian, and Japanese transportation systems (featuring their taxis, metros, and trains respectively). Great to get more practice listening to Uzbek. After that, a fun Uzbek game called "Besh Tosh" (video below explains it all).

Later in the evening got together with all the Uzbek students for a casual Music Club, practicing singing a well known favorite we have been listening to in class called "Kerak Emas". Video for that is below. Great time tonight, fun chats and laughs and good to hear some more Uzbek music as always. Check out the media for today below, and see you tomorrow for shopping at Sunflower!

First off, here's my Week 4 reflection video:

Next, clip of "Besh Tosh" this afternoon:

And of course, collection of clips from Music Club tonight:

And last but not least, today's photos:

This morning's workstation :P

Cool obtuse lime-like citrus growing outside Coor Hall here at ASU

Jaimee at her presentation

Nicole and Skaidra are experts already at Besh Tosh!

Learning from Saodat Opa

Started the Cyrillic alphabet this afternoon!

Singing at Music Club

Performance of Kerak Emas :P

Kerak Emas lyrics

Thank you Nick for your awesome music tonight !!

See you soon! Be sure to leave a comment if you're enjoying the blog!

Xayr,
Brian

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Day 29: Uzbek Verb Review & A Quick Clip of Phoenix Weather

Assalomu alaykum!

Test tomorrow again! Coming up at the end of Week 4 and preparing for regular Friday testing. With less new material this week from midterms earlier, the test will be a bit smaller and is mainly focusing on verbs and adjectives, so I've included our key vocab in this area below. Also below is a quick video I shot of some Phoenix blustery weather here in the desert that's sort of cool to see. Lastly, a couple photos.

Study these flash cards | Study verbs flash cards

Study these flash cards | Study adjectives flash cards

View of the pool from the elliptical at the ASU gym

Awesome psycholinguistics section at the library!

Finally got info on the system of library subjects to make browsing less overwhelming! :)

Are those clouds I see ?? In Arizona ??

Enjoying this flavor of kombucha lately!

Xayr,
Brian

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Day 28: Practice Talking about America or Describing a Classroom Using Uzbek Postpositions

Assalomu alaykum!

Day 28! Four weeks so far in Arizona. Quite busy day today with class stuff and getting back rolling with new information. Today's post just includes some homework practice about America as well as describing a classroom using postpositions that indicate location (in, on, under, among, etc), which are applied to both of these situations. Other than that, pretty regular day! How are you guys?

Here is my homework or you can also view it here:

See you soon. Hopefully some photos tomorrow!

Xayr,
Brian

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Day 27: Homework Practicing Sentences about America with Uzbek Comparatives

Assalomu alaykum!

Midterms today! Test went fine and was nothing unexpected. Now done a semester's worth of Uzbek language credit. All review material still available here if you missed it. Got started with new material this afternoon and went over some information on comparative and superlative adjectives. Below is a quick homework for tonight or you can view it here.

Xayr,
Brian

Monday, June 25, 2012

Day 26: Massive Uzbek Vocabulary and Grammar Review for Midterm

Assalomu alaykum!

REVIEW TIME! Tomorrow is our midterm for Elementary Uzbek. Technically we will have completed 1 semester's worth of material. Wow, this program has gone fast! Very productive day in class today getting all kinds of vocab and grammar review fresh in our minds again and onto online written resources. Today's post is a collection of those resources, whether for my classmates or anyone following interested in learning Uzbek.

Let me tell ya, Uzbek learners out there, Uzbek Brian's your place to come! For many other languages etc you'd have to pay for this stuff. Thinking of selling a companion guide actually to my textbook, no kidding. We shall see!

Let's start with the major Uzbek grammar and language points, all summarized into a printable PDF below or available here if you are having trouble viewing it.

Next, here's a ton of Uzbek flashcard sets on various topics useful for review:

Study these flash cards

Study these flash cards | Study adjectives flash cards

Study these flash cards | Study verbs flash cards

Study these flash cards | Study adverbs flash cards

Study these flash cards

Study these flash cards | Study countries flash cards

Study these flash cards | Study social flash cards

Study these flash cards

That's it for tonight, quite a lot to take in, but hopefully you find these useful or interesting! Please leave a comment below if you are reading or participating in review here on my site, it helps me to know that this time is spent to good use. Much love!

Xayr,
Brian

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Day 25: Uzbek Family Presentation, Quick Video Blog from "A" Mountain

Assalomu alaykum!

Nice Sunday today. Got up late and relaxed in the morning, then went for another great hike up "A" mountain here in Tempe to get myself moving. Got some computer work done, organized some articles for my websites and books coming up, and hung out with some friends. Not bad!

Here is my video blog from today:

Here is my presentation for class on family. View it here if you are having trouble.

Also, here is a quick document for one of our exercises in the textbook. Just to see more samples of written Uzbek in action.

See you soon! Big test on Tuesday.

Xayr,
Brian

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Day 24: Fun Active Saturday, Fruit Shop, Workout, Yoga, etc

Assalomu alaykum!

Awesome Saturday! Woke up this morning and headed off with my dad from the hotel to do some food shopping and say goodbye until I get back. Had a great time seeing him and it worked out well with his business trip schedule to visit here in Phoenix. Got some awesome fruit at the Asian market and regular market, and then headed back to the dorm.

Was pretty active today: carrying heavy boxes in the fruit morning (kinda like weight training, with a purpose!), did 3 miles in the treadmill at the SRC, and then walked to and from the yoga studio and did an hour and a half very intense but very good practice there. Great post workout dinner of durian! :)

Tomorrow is "get things done" day so I will be posting more here in terms of resources and studying stuff. Enjoy having the Saturday to relax etc. I really love it here in Arizona, and besides missing parents/friends back home and a couple little home-ish things, I'm quite happy to stay here! I'd consider living here.

Some photos from today and yesterday:

(From the other day) got a quick easy haircut here on campus!

Cool shot of clouds and the fountain outside the Hilton this morning

Me next to Buddha outside the Asian market :P

Restocking durian at Mekong

Found Synergy kombucha at Sunflower! Didn't think they had it

Beautiful 60+ lb jackfruits at Mekong

I've had donut peaches, but donut white nectarines?! Awesome!

Clipping from the weekly flyer at Sunflower. Now you see why I like it so much!

Xayr,
Brian

Friday, June 22, 2012

Day 23: Uzbek Week 3 Program Reflection

Hey guys!

Here at the Hilton Squaw Peak Hotel for the night and wanted to post a quick blog entry. No wifi but I had to keep up with my consistency so I downloaded the mobile app!

My dad had some business items here in Phoenix so he planned his trip for while I'm here in AZ so we could meet up. Had a great time at the pool here and just relaxing and with a nice change of scenery.

Wanted to pass on the link to my Week 3 Reflection video I made after the test this morning. Here ya go:

That's it for tonight, talk soon!

Brian

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Day 22: Uzbek Chapter 5 and 6 Review: Flashcards and Study Guide

Assalomu alaykum!

Test tomorrow! Week 3 has just about come to a close already, going really quickly here when I look at it that way. Tomorrow we have our usual end-of-week quiz on Chapters 5 and 6 which covered directions and more conversational work and then daily routines and describing key activities. Busy studying tonight but I wanted to pass on these resources:

Study these flash cards

And also, my Chapter 5 study guide. Gonna do Chapter 6 tomorrow:

See you tomorrow!

Xayr,
Brian

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Day 21: Talking about Holidays in Uzbek, Uzbek Chapter 5 Vocab

Assalomu alaykum!

Hey guys! Pretty normal day today. Classwork on Daily Routines and continuing to develop competency with speaking and using verbs as well. Here's a quick post with some vocab and homework practice. Let me know what you think!

Practice on holidays:

Practice on Chapter 5 vocab (thank yous to Zach, will be posting mine tomorrow)

Study these flash cards

Xayr,
Brian

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Day 20: Uzbek Club! Videos, Photos, and Powerpoint Presentations

Assalomu alaykum!

Uzbek Club today! Here at the Critical Languages Institute each language group gets together for a fun evening of music, food, socializing, and practice to energize the language and culture in a real life setting. After class today we set up at the Hayden Hall lounge and kitchen for our event, preparing lots of Uzbek cuisine (and fruit!) as well as special presentations and videos on different sights around Uzbekistan. All to some awesome authentic Uzbek music, whether pop, rap, or traditional sounds.

Thank you to everyone for a fun night! Here are some photos and videos from the event. I also have embedded a PDF of my homework from this afternoon with some key dialogue and verb practice. Enjoy!