Internet Activity #4

I have always wanted to learn how to speak hindi ever since I saw my first bollywood movie when I was younger. My parents are both of Bengali heritage but can speak fluent Hindi and Urdu as it was mandatory in school. My mom is so good at it when she speaks to people who's mother tongue is Hindi or Urdu they are always apalled that it is not her native tongue because she is that good at it. I've always asked my mom to teach me but to be honest she is not a very good teacher and she always says no. She will throw it out randomly and ask me if I understand and I pick up on most of it but not all. So when Jamie suggested learning a language on the podcasts, I decided to try it out. The two I picked were, "Learn Hindi, Real Life Situations. Real Time Songs. Experience India" and "Namaste Dosti - The Learn Hindi Podcast"
The first one I was pretty excited to use because I thought it would use popular recent Hindi music, which I do happen to listen to. I can even memorize all the lyrics and sing them with the proper dialect but I don't understand it. So I figured this would very exciting not only would I be learning but I'd hear songs and maybe understand them in a more creative manner. As I listened to the podcast, it was not exactly what I had imagined. It sounded very low budget, I know that is something you can see but somehow I heard it too. It seemed grainy and not very clear. The music was very loud and not clear, it seemed like old songs my parents used to listen on their record player. To the ears, it was not very pleasing. I did not like the way it was formatted it was confusing and hard to understand. I feel i only propelled backward as I tried to learn Hindi. The songs being very old did not help as it did not appeal to me much since they were songs that were unknown to me. It did not have a flow that made it easier to understand as it went along it only seemed to become more confusing. The second one "Namaste Dosti" was much more better, it had a formatted layout followed every week with dialogue and still incorporated the bollywood culture by taking a popular movie and having dialogue from it and one of the popular songs and describe the meanings. The first Bollywood movie I ever watched was one of the featured podcasts in a previous week. I found this way more appealing and that I actually learned some things, as I said in previous entries when I tried out Google Chrome I haven't stopped since so maybe now I will start actually using this application in the future. I believe it is a positive and forum for those to learn that of other languages in an easy manner. I really enjoyed how it was set up and it is helpful as it is inexpensive and a good way of learning. I think its better method of providing information because reading abuot languages can be hard to absorb because it is passive you need to be more active. However being in a classroom setting or enrolling in a class can also be difficult, so being able to listen to it and repeat it is a better alternative to the latter. I can see how this information can be better than formal methods because sometimes it just helps to hear things rather than sitting and reading. If something does not interest you your mind can wander, but we use our hearing so avidly and listen to things we might not want too an audio podcast may be a better forum and more effective in that sense. 

The ida of an audiobook can be good and bad. For classroom settings and children during their formative years certain audio clips of songs, stories and games is a good way to get them to learn and listen. But when it comes to providing an audiobook of an entire novel, that is really up to the person individually. I do not think I would really enjoy that kind of literature as I really enjoy reading and I would rather be active reading than just passively listening to someone else read a  novel,  but of course thats not the same for everyone and can be interpreted differently. 

Video Podcasts

My embed Video
Spaghetti Cat - It's hilarious. This actually happend and the other day when I was in the movie theatre it was on the screen all of a sudden, it has become a cult phenomenon. 

The videos that I watched were Master MC Lupe Fiasco joins Jian Ghomeshi in Studio Q 

Lupe Fiasco born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco is a Grammy-Winning rapper. I decided to watch this video because Lupe Fiasco is critically acclaimed as being a breath of fresh air from other rappers as he is a practicing Muslim and does not swear in his raps. He seemed like a very humble person during the interview declaring how he only decides to make 4 albums as that is what he came set out to do and after that there is nothing more to produce, as other entertainers just keep producing music that is not always their best. 

My other clip was of "The Soup" with Joel McHale. This is one of my favourite shows, the host Joel makes funthigns in popular culture in his half hour show that occur during the week. In this clip he makes fun of Tyra Banks and how such a historical moment occured that Barack Obama won she still finds a way to make it about herself. Its absolutely pathetic

I enjoyed the vidcasting but I did find it easier just to get youtube videos because I have never been a fan of iTunes specifically. I think it is poorly designed as a Media Player and there are better options out there from VLC to Media Player Classic to even DivX.

It is for that reason I did not like doing the vodcasting because you had to specifically download it and I've always found iTunes to be slow on downloading. i would much rather prefer Youtube to see a bit of it and if its worth it to let it keep loading or to close it. Regarldess 

it does not take that long on that website. It was an interesting experience but it wasn't something I would continiously do as stated before partly due to the player. I Do not like the format or how the videos are played within, I find it somewhat annoying to do anything. 

It is better in the sense that if you miss something you can always find them and it is a broader search capability for people to find the things they like and watch it.

Youtube has become an international phenomenon I believe because back in the day there was not much to do on the internet for the average person. If you thought about it

Napster was the most profound thing and slowly one p2p sharing program would get bugs and viruses and eventually shut down. All of a sudden youtube emerged as a place where you could place

video clips online. It is a forum for this technological age to express how they feel and create a platform for their opinions where it never was before. It has become a place for people with similar intrests to find the things

they love. I belive that the video capability was the last thing availalbe really helped why Youtube because such a huge driving force in todays pop culture media.