Hey guys! Hope everyone's doing well. Continuing my journey here at ASU with week 2 of CLI Intermediate Uzbek. To go along with last week's pattern, this post includes a brief "week in review" overview of my last 7 days here in Tempe. Here's a little video blog I recorded this afternoon talking about this week's class and activities:
And now for the remainder of the week in review post :)
I love Arizona at sunset! A view from the bridge near my dorm
Outlook: Feeling great this week, really gotten in the swing of things schedule-wise and life-wise here and very much grateful to be here. I've been aiming to keep busy with schoolwork and client work, as well as to take a little bit of time out each day if I can to work on fitness and enjoy the surroundings. I'm enjoying living on my own (but miss you guys back home!) and want to relish as much as I can from the Arizona desert sun before this summer is over--something I was thinking about a lot this week. Also, in general just feel healthier and happier this week.
Giving my little presentation (with a festive Uzbek-style hat, haha)
Class: Class has been productive and interesting! I feel like I am learning a ton this year and we are covering some interesting cultural, linguistic, and educational topics ranging from familial relations, household dynamics and common items, airport travel, and just in general getting better at giving in-depth descriptions and asking questions/giving answers in a more sophisticated way. It's been fun talking with Elementary students (on Fridays we do a Q&A to practice), as well as doing Uzbek club (see my presentation below), watching some Uzbek news and movies (starting to really follow the audio!) and much more.
Bridge overlooking A mountain area and stadium on way to dorm
Free time: This week during free time I was really looking to get back on my fitness kick and I've been enjoying using the Sun Devil Fitness Complex facility here, it's really a great place to get inspired to workout. Enjoyed the pool with friends a bit yesterday, as well as doing regular cardio on the machines, and a little bit of rowing and weights as well. Also enjoyed as always visiting the local markets--Mekong, Whole Foods, Safeway, Tempe Farmer's Market, and Sprout's--to load up on some goodies. Good eats lately! In addition, I've been working on compiling ideas for my web design business and getting documents and finances in order--nice to feel the productivity rush!
Enjoyed some durian and papaya with a friend for lunch
This week: This week I'd like to focus a lot on reading ahead before class in order to be better able to follow along, specifically with vocab and some phrasing constructions. I'm hoping to find time to make Quizlet vocab cards of all major words from the chapters thus far, even if a few, just to keep fresh. Also, I am looking forward to hopefully finish a website for a client, getting a bunch of product entries in for another client, and starting to put together a concept for a personal Brian Greco site.
Alive and well!
Resources:
A bunch of homework texts this week, in addition to my dialects presentation! Check them out at the embedded boxes below or at the linked English names. Enjoy! :)
That's it for this week! Thanks so much for reading, feel free to leave a comment or subscribe with the form on the right. For anyone who sent me letters, I am hoping to get them this week -- sadly haven't received yet, maybe just a delay! Will keep you posted. Talk soon!
Fun day today! Regular class in the morning continuing our unit on food and restaurant etiquette, which came in handy this afternoon on our trip to Golden Valley Uzbek Restaurant! For Uzbek Club this week our teachers and administration treated us tonight at an unassuming yet cool-to-visit center of Uzbek culture and cuisine right here in Phoenix. Good times had by all. And an awesome dinner! Feasted on delicious melon (a variety from the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan) grown locally. What a treat, thank you so much!
Here is a video with fun clips and pictures from tonight:
And another one, speaking Uzbek featuring the local melons:
And of course pictures for sharing and viewing:
With the Uzbek teachers
Har kishiga katta rahmat! Thank you everyone! See you tomorrow.
It's Sunday! For today's post I'd like to share a homework piece I did for tomorrow's class. Behold, my Uzbek menu! We were assigned to make a menu in Uzbek to go along with our unit on food and restaurants. Mine has a bit of a spin! Needed to practice regular cuisine vocabulary so I made it a vegetarian restaurant, didn't want the likes of mutton and horse on the menu. :)
But fret not, the entire bottom section is for fruit eaters like myself. 1/2 kilo of your choice of fruit at an awesome price! Currency is the Uzbek so'm (UZS), and as the cost of living is so cheap in Uzbekistan, nothing on this menu would even come out to more than $4. Check it out below or here in PDF format at Google Docs. Click to enlarge.
BRIAN'S RESTAURANT
Welcome to our restaurant! Please come in!
Brian's Restaurant has only the most delicious vegetarian dishes.
For fruitarians we also have a ton of sweet and fresh fruits to choose from.
DISHES: For a tasty breakfast, lunch or dinner
Meatless Pilaf (rice dish) - breakfast, 2000 so'm / lunch or dinner, 2500 so'm
Meatless Somsa (savory pastry) - 4, 1000 so'm / 8, 1800 so'm
Vegetable Soup - small bowl, 1500 so'm / large bowl, 2000 so'm
Vegetable Kabob - 4 kabobs, 1500 so'm / 8 kabobs, 2200 so'm
Vegetable Pasta - medium platter, 2500 so'm
Vegetarian Pizza - for 1-2 people, 3200 so'm
Eggs and Vegetables - 4 eggs, 2300 so'm
Vegetarian Salad - small platter, 2200 so'm / large platter 3000 so'm
Grapes and Bread - for 2 people, 2000 so'm / for a big group, 3000 so'm
FRUIT: we have only the best and sweetest fruit! 1/2 kilo: 2000 so'm
Apricots, Peaches, Plums, Grapes, Watermelon, Strawberries, Pears, Apples, Figs, Persimmons, Oranges, Quince, Pomegranates, Cherries
DRINKS: regular water (non-carbonated), mineral water, juice, tea, coffee
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!
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!
Cool presentation with the CIA during the noon break, on career opportunities with language and service
Hanging out at Uzbek Club
My fruit arrangement at the food table. I brought the grapes and oranges and honeydew, the peaches and watermelon were there :)
More fruit
Jaimee, Daniella, and Miriam. Love you guys!
Matt, Ruth, and Liz
Keri and Skaidra
Hanging out
Watching students' presentations about Uzbek cities
Trying traditional Uzbek cuisine
Great pic, guys!
My presentation on Shahrisabz, a city in Uzbekistan
Uzbek dance party! Great music tonight, really authentic and catchy
Hey guys! Pretty busy day today. Had testing this morning on Chapters 3 and 4 which was composed of various writing assignments to demonstrate knowledge of the vocabulary and general language competency thus far. Feel pretty confident about how I did and from our brief look at the tests (no grade yet, but corrections) I am pleased.
Other than that, had some short class topics and am getting ready to finish the school week into tomorrow with our postponed class from Tuesday. After that, hope to meet up with a friend for yoga and a trip to the Asian market! Will be posting pictures tomorrow.
Today's post is just a review of Chapter 4 like I did yesterday for Chapter 3. View below or you can view and download this is a PDF here btw. Tomorrow asap in the library I will add the text version on this post.
Test tomorrow! Coming towards the end of week 2 and am preparing for my second exam on chapters 3 and 4. Had a pretty productive day, lots of class discussion and been busy also with a lot of writing too. Had a nice dinner using up some ripe fruit also, kind of fun. Went to the shared kitchen in Hayden West. Other than that, here at the library now doing major "get this done" work on Chapters 3 and 4, so here is what I came up with.
Elementary Uzbek Textbook Chapter 3: Ismingiz Nima? Introductions
Continuing on with my run through of key notes from lessons in Nigora Azimova's Uzbek: An Elementary Textbook for my Critical Languages program at ASU.
A: Hello (greeting).
B: Hello (response). What is your name?
A: Anna.
B: Where are you from?
A: I am from America.
B: Are you a student?
A: Yes, I am a student.
Key Dialogue 2
A: Salom, yaxshimisiz? Ismingiz nima?
B: Yaxshi, rahmat. Ismim Laylo. Sizniki-chi?
A: Meniki Dilshod.
B: Tanishganimdan xursandman.
A: Men ham.
Loose English Translation
A: Hi, how are you? What is your name?
B: Good, thank you. My name is Laylo. And yours?
A: Mine is Dilshod.
B: Pleased to meet you.
A: Me too.
Key Dialogue 5
A: Assalomu alaykum, Madina opa.
B: Ha, Lolaxon, yaxshi yuribsizmi?
A: Yaxshi, rahmat. Madina opa, bu kishi mening turmush o'rtog'im, Zafar aka bo'ladilar.
B: Yaxshimisiz, Zafarjon?
A: Xudoga shukur. O'zingiz yaxshi yuribsizmi?
Loose English Translation 5
A: Hello (greeting), Ms. Madina.
B: Yes, Ms. Lola, how's everything?
A: Good, thanks. Ms. Madina, this person is my spouse, Mr. Zafar.
B: How are you, Mr. Zafar?
A: Good, thank goodness. And yourself, how's everything?
Cultural Notes
Instead of Mr./Ms./Mrs., Uzbek uses honorific ending aka and opa which literally mean "older brother" and "older sister" to respectfully address someone, and it comes after the name. For example: Alisher aka, "Mr. Alisher" or Hulkar opa, "Ms. Hulkar".
The suffix -xon is added to an Uzbek woman of younger or same age as the speaker, like with "Lolaxon" in the dialogue. The ending - jon is used in this same situation for males, for example "Karimjon".
Key Introduction Phrases
Ismingiz nima?= What is your name? Ismim... = My name is... Tanishganimdan xursandman. = Pleased to meet you. Sizniki-chi? = And yours? Bu mening... = This is my... (friend/spouse/etc)
Diqqat, Qoida (Language Points)
Ablative Case -dan
This suffix is added to the end of a noun to indicate action away from something or someone. It can be expressed in English as "from", "out of", "off", and so on. For example:
kutubxona = library (lit: book-room) kutubxonadan = from the library Toshkent = Tashkent (Uzbek capital) Toshkentdan = from Tashkent men = I/me mendan = from me
Also important to note:
Qayer = root for "where" Qayerdan = where from Qayerdansiz? = Where are you from? Qayerdansizlar? = Where are you (pl) from? Men ...dan = I am from ... Men ...danemasman = I am not from ... U ...dan = He/she/it is from ...
And so on.
Place of Origin
The -lik suffix in Uzbek creates a word for a person from a particular place, whether to be used as a noun or as an adjective sometimes as well.
This is used where a root word for a given ethnicity is not already used to mean in English "person from", "-ish/ese person", or "...man" (sort of archaic, but the same idea).
Mainly I have noticed it used for countries whose nationality is not also a true ethnicity, such as America, Canada, Australia, and so on. Also, these ethnicity and language words are not capitalized in Uzbek.
Examples without -lik:
O'zbekiston / o'zbek / o'zbekcha = Uzbekistan / Uzbek (person) / Uzbek (language) Angliya / ingliz/ inglizcha = England / English(man) (person) / English (language) Fransiya / fransuz / fransuzcha = France / French(man) (person) / French (language)
Examples with -lik:
Amerika / amerikalik = America / American (person/descriptor) Kanada / kanadalik = Canada / Canadian (person/descriptor) Avstraliya / avstraliyalik = Australia / Australian (person/descriptor)
Conjunctions
ham = also (used after the noun or pronoun it refers to)
Ex: Brian ham biroz xitoycha gapiradi. = Brian also speaks a little Chinese.
va = and (joins two or more concepts, cannot start sentence)
Ex: Mening otam, onam, va opam bor. = I have a father, mother, and older sister.
lekin = but (preceded by comma)
Ex: John Amerikadan, lekin hozir O'zbekistanda yashaydi. = John is from America, but now lives in Uzbekistan.
chunki = because (also preceded by comma)
Ex: U band, chunki u talaba. = He is busy because he is a student.
Keling, Suhbatlashaylik (Language in Use)
Useful Practice Dialogue
A: Kechirasiz, Lolamisiz?
B: Yo'q, men Feruza, Lola emasman. Mana bu qiz Lola.
A: Lola, yaxshimisiz? Bu sizning kitobingizmi?
C: Voy! Ha, bu mening kitobim. Katta rahmat!
A: Arzimaydi.
C: Ismingiz nima?
A: Ismim Jamshid.
C: Talabamisiz?
A: Ha, shu yerda o'qiyman.
C: Bu Feruza, dugonam.
A: Tanishganimdan xursandman.
B: Men ham. Siz Toshkentdanmisiz?
A: Yo'q, Andijonman. Siz-chi?
B: Men Buxorodanman. Lola Namangandan.
A: Juda yaxshi.
C: Kitob uchun katta rahmat!
A: Arzimaydi. Mayli, bo'pti.
B/C: Xo'p, rahmat.
Practice Talking about Countries
A: Tom, siz qayerdansiz?
B: Texasdanman.
A: Texas chiroylimi?
B: Ha, menimcha juda chiroyli.
A: Texasda odamlar qaysi tillarda gapiradilar?
B: Ingliz tilida.
A: Ispan tilida-chi?
B: Ha, ispan tilida ham gapiradilar.
Asl O'zbekcha (Uzbek Realia)
Cultural Notes
Uzbek has various dialects depending on the part of the country which vary slightly.
Here are some differences between standard and Tashkent dialects:
men >> man = I Qandaysiz? >> Qalaysiz? = How are you? ism >> ot = name ota >> ada = father ona >> oyi = mother
Demographic-wise, Uzbekistan consists of around 80% Uzbeks, 5.5% Russians, 5% Tajiks, 3% Kazakhs, 2.5% Karakalpaks, 1.5% Tatars, and 2.5% other. Uzbek is the official language of Uzbekistan but many representatives from other nationalities use and speak other languages, particularly Russian.
Muomola Odobi (Social Interaction)
Tanishuv (Introductions)
Bu kishi kim bo'ladilar? = Who is this person? O'zimni tanishtirishga ruxsat eting. = Let me introduce myself. Ismingiz nima? = What is your name? Familyangiz nima? = What is your family name?
Javob (Response)
Bu kishi Nozim aka, o'qituvchimiz. = This person is Nozim, our teacher. Ismim Jamshid. = My name is Jamshid. Alimov. Men Ravshan akaning o'g'liman. = (My family name is) Alimov. I am Ravshan's son.
Uzbek Names
Most Uzbek names come from Turkic, Persian, and Arabic roots. Female names generally end in the vowel "a" and male names generally end in a consonant.
Example female names: Farida, Sevara, Lola, Feruza
Example male names: Alisher, Sherzod, Otabek, Azamat
Writing Letters in Uzbek
Here are some key phrases for correspondence, loosely translated: Hurmatli ... = Esteemed ... (opening) Qadrli ... = Dear ... Yaxshimisiz? = How are you? Ishalringiz yaxshimi? = How is your work going? Uychilaringiz yaxshi yurishibdimi? = How is your family? Javobingiz kutib qolaman. = Looking forward to your response. Xat yozib turing. = Keep in touch. ...ga salomlarimni yetkazing. = Say hello to ... Salom bilan = Best regards (lit: with peace)
