Elementary Estonian ESTO 101 Autumn 2002

MTWThF 10:30-11:20

THO 211

 

Instructor: Ulla Vanhatalo

E-mail: ulla@u.washington.edu

Telephone: 543 6883

Office: 305 Y Raitt Hall                                                                                              

Office hours: W F 9:30-10:20

                              and by appointment,

                              be free to e-mail and ask for help!

 

 

Required textbook:          

 

                      E nagu Eesti by Mall Pesti & Helve Ahi

                      + tape cassette!

                      (Available at the UW Bookstore)

 

 

Dictionaries (optional):

 

                      Eesti-inglise sõnaraamat

                      Inglise-eesti sõnaraamat

 

                      Estonian-English-Estonian dictionary On-line by Indred Hein

 

 

For those who are interested in Estonian grammar in English (optional):

 

                      Tuldava, Juhan: Estonian Textbook

 

 

Read about the Estonian culture (optional):

 

                      Tõnu Õnnepalu: Border State

                      Alo Raun: Estonia and Estonians

 

 

A lot of good www-addressesand information about the Estonian course in UW:

                      http://courses.washington.edu/estonian/

 

 

 

 

 

Course Objectives:

                                                                                      

This introductory course in Estonian will provide you with the tools to acquire and practice Estonian as a listener, speaker, reader, and writer in everyday contexts. This course will also introduce you to culture providing information on customs and daily life in Estonia.

 

Grading:

                                           

10 %   Participation: Communication is our ultimate goal. Take part in class activities on an intensive and systematic basis! (

 

20 %   Homework: Daily homework will be assigned and graded with a 3, 2, 1 or 0. Please return your homework next day. I do accept late homework with reasonable number, but it would be really nice to get your assignments back in time. You will have an average of 25 graded tasks, 4 of which can be dropped. Homework will include exercises from textbooks, worksheets, readings, essays etc. Please copy your textbook exercises onto a separate sheet! Please don’t forget the coordinates (your name, the date when the assignment was given, page and exercise number).

 

10 %   Journal: You will be asked to keep a journal in Estonian every two weeks. Practice what you have learned, write about topics we have worked with in class. Sometimes specific topics will be assigned. The journal can also be a dialog. You can write one longer entry (at least 12 sentences) or two or three shorter entries (4-6 sentences each). Please turn your journal in every second Thursday (Oct 10th, Oct 24th, Nov 7th, Nov 21st, Dec 5th). An example of a journal entry from the first two weeks might be:

          Minu nimi on Katrin. Ma elan Seattle’is. Ma olen ameeriklane. Ma räägin inglise keelt ja õpin eesti keelt.

 

10 %   Oral exam: To be arranged during the 9th week.

 

15 %   Quizzes: There will be a weekly quiz every Friday (except October 18th, November 8th, and December 6th). These quizzes will test you on the skills and topics we have covered and practiced in class and on homework assignments. One quiz can be dropped. No make-up quizzes will be given without a good reason.

 

15 %   Tests: There will be three unit tests (October 18th, November 8th, and December 6th). No make-up tests will be given without a good reason.

 

20 %   Final Exam: Will be given on Friday, December 13th, at 8:30-10:20.

                     

                                                                                                            

 

( If you do your homework and participate in class, the quizzes, the tests, and the exam will present no surprises.

 

( If you must miss class, please inform me before class, ulla@u.washington.edu.

 

November 11th – Holiday – No class

November 28th – Holiday – No class

November 29th – Holiday – No class

 

 

 

Preliminary Schedule

                                           

 

 

Week 1

Greetings, introductions, Estonian map, Estonian names, towns etc.

Verb conjugation in present tense

Pronouns in nominative and genitive (what? who? whose?)

Inessive and adessive case (where?)

 

Week 2

Countries of origin, languages, capitals and nations

Imperative

Elative and ablative case (where from?)

                                                                

Week 3

Expressing likes and dislikes

Numbers 1-10, colors

Singular (nominative, genitive, partitive) and plural (nominative)

Negative imperative

 

Week 4

Addresses and phone numbers, placing a phone call, the city of Tallinn

Numbers 11-1000

Partitive singular (how many?)

 

Week 5

                             Telling time, acquiring info, buying tickets for train and bus

                             Measurements

                             Illative and allative (where to?)

 

Week 6      

                             Talking about weather, taking a trip, birthday congratulations

                             Seasons, months, weather, means of transport, body parts

                             Verbs käima and minema

                             Comitative

                             When?

 

Week 7

                             Talking about family, relatives, age, home, telling time

                             Adverbials

                             Partitive of personal names and numerals

                             Compound words

 

Week 8

                             Invitations to theater or concert, holiday greetings

                             Days of the week, ordinal numbers, Estonian holiday celebrations

                             Past tense of olema (to be)

                                            -ma and -da infinitives

                      Ordinal numbers

 

Week 9

                             Talking about occupations, office hours, describing an appearance

                             Occupations, institutions

                             Translative, terminative and essive cases

                             Personal pronouns (partitive)

 

Week 10

                             Job interview, CV, job advertisements

                             Occupation, clothing

                             Conditional tense

                             Agent and activity

                             Review of inner local cases