What is your interest in 'your' language and the culture(s) where it is used? What do you hope to learn this semester? this year? in the future?
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What is your interest in 'your' language and the culture(s) where it is used? What do you hope to learn this semester? this year? in the future?
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As I have studied Spanish and Chinese, I am interested in Turkey because it is a part of a region that I have yet to study, but so much of current events are taking place in the middle east and international decisions are influenced everyday by the actions of the countries surrounding Turkey. I am in International Studies major, so I value new cultures, experiences, and travel, which is why I want to learn basic Turkish, because one day I may travel there. Additionally, I have a few friends who are Turkish and speak it fluently, so I think it would be fun to be able to communicate on a basic level with them because Turkish is not a very widely spoken language. I would like to be able to say basic greetings, be comfortable asking for directions, learning how to conjugate verbs, and be able to get by at a restaurant.
My interest in Korean language and culture come from Korean dramas and k-pop. Since I began to watch Korean dramas, I fell in love with its culture. Although Korean culture is quite similar with Taiwanese culture, but there are still some interesting differences. Differences such as the way people interact with each other and different food style, etc. Thus, I want to know more about Korean culture by learning this beautiful language. I hope this semester I can focus more on the communication part because I think that the most important thing about learning a language is to be able to communicate with the natives, and know them better by using their languages. What's more, since I have some Korean friends back in Taiwan and in Korea, I hope I can talk to them only in Korean in the future, and this is my final goal of learning Korean as well.
My interest in Korean stems from Korean popular culture. K-pop and K-drama are very popular across east Asia and are known by more people in the United States. When I listened to K-pop, I was always wondering the meaning of the frequent said phrases. Of course, I would want to see alone sometimes but I do not speak any Korean. Thus, I thought I can self-learn Korean with a language partner. By doing so, I can learn at my own pace and focus on the aspects that I am interested in. This is my first semester of learning Korean and I am a total beginner. I hope to learn greeting sentences and be able to introduce myself. I want to be able to ask for direction, time, and other commonly used questions. In addition, I want to learn Korean alphabets so I can pronunce any word when I see it.
I am interested in Portugese because my favorite soccer player, Ronaldo, is Portugese. I hope to one day be able to converse with him about his accomplishments in soccer in his native tongue. In this semester I hope to be able to address people, and freely converse with people in Portugese about soccer.
My interest in the Turkish language stems from my deep interest in being involved in world affairs and I hope to one day serve in the beautiful country of Turkey with the American foreign service. I do realize that there is very limited time to truly learn the language therefore I have tried to set practical goals for learning the language. In these next four months, I would like to gain a basic foundation where I will know the alphabet, simple greetings, and how to ask for things like food, transportation, and goods. I want to know how to ask for directions, understand directions and be able to find my way around Turkey. I also hope that I can become comfortable with pronunciations and even be able to understand elementary conversations in Turkish. Along with basic conversational skills I would like to learn various political terms like how to say the ‘government’ and ‘prime minister.’ While these are short term goals, I plan on continuing my studies of Turkish after this semester until I become fluent and fully comfortable in living and working in the country. Apart from learning this new language, I am also excited to learn about the beautiful and rich history and culture of Turkey. I am interested in learning their main cultural practices from food to dances and important celebrations.
I am interested in learning Korean because many of my close friends are Korean and I would like to be able to communicate better with them. Often times, I feel left out when my friends are talking in Korean and they also wish that I speak Korean. Furthermore, since I have become close to my friends’ families, I would also like to be able to converse with their parents. I feel that if I speak Korean to the elders, it would be more respectful. I wish to converse daily in Korean with my Korean friends so that I can keep on improving my Korean outside class. In this semester, I hope to be able to make a simple conversation with Korean elders and also with my Korean friends.
As I mentioned in my learning journal #1 post, my first important goal is to have better phone and in-person conversations with my family and friends, while my significant goal is to be more comfortable with writing and typing in Korean. The following are specific tasks that I’d like to achieve to help me accomplish my goals.
-Talking about field of study courses (Science, History, Art)
-Talking about jobs and professions (Pharmacy, Lawyer, Accountant)
-Talking about health (in relation to career?)
-Talking about schedule / daily activities
-Talking about weather
-Asking/giving directions
-Strengthening my previous knowledge about the second way to say numbers (birthdays)
-Strengthening my previous knowledge about family relationships (mom’s and dad’s side)
*These tasks are subject to change/develop across the semester.
My interest in Turkish language and culture comes from the relationship I have with a girl I met here in the U.S. who is from Turkey. After spending time with her and becoming really good friends, her constant references to the beauty of her home country and the traditions that make up her culture I became intrigued and wanted to know more. Being that it is the last semester of my senior year and our school offers a Turkish class, I figure there is no better time than now to make the most of this opportunity and to begin enriching my knowledge of the Turkish language and culture.
During this semester, I hope to foster a basic knowledge of the Turkish language by learning greetings, key phrases like "how are you" and "what is your name", and pronunciation so that I can read Turkish letters. By the end of this semester, I would like to be able to have small conversations that would allow me to communicate with natives and navigate through the country for whenever I plan to visit.