Reflect upon what you learned form the culture project presentations--both your own and those of your fellow learners.
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Reflect upon what you learned form the culture project presentations--both your own and those of your fellow learners.
You need to be a member of The SDLAP Ning to add comments!
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I really enjoyed watching everyone's cultural project presentations. For presentations based on Korean culture, I was surprised to see how much I was able to learn. I had a basic knowledge on the topics presented, but I was able to definitely learn more details about each topic. For example, I had seen a few variety shows before and was familiar with them, but Vana's presentation definitely broke apart key themes in variety shows which I never noticed. Heather's presentation was interesting because I am not as familiar with Korea's working culture, and it was interesting to see how it differs to the culture in the US. I also enjoyed Shuyi's presentation as I knew little about the specifics on Korean fashion beforehand. While researching my own presentation, it was really great to learn more on the specifics of Korean education and how intense it has become. It made me think about how hard it would be to only study for so many years, and also feel fortunate that I was able to have a completely different experience in the US.
For the other presentations, I really enjoyed the opportunities to learn more about Pakistani and the ASL culture, which I have very little exposure to. It was interesting to learn more about the history of languages in Pakistan and India. I also enjoyed getting to learn about ASL, as I was definitely not aware of these misconceptions about ASL, or that people who sign have such expressive facial features.
I really enjoyed everyone's cultural presentations!!! I have learned so much about the Korean, Pakistani/Indian, and Deaf culture that I would not have otherwise if I had not taken this course. I very much enjoyed Hadi's presentation on the way language developed in India and into Pakistan and the historical aspects to why South Asia is divided (politically) the way it is because of language. It's so astounding to realize that language is really that important. Taylor does such a fabulous job at explaining the deaf culture and because I am not personally acquainted with the deaf community, it was really awesome to see her sign for us. As for my other Korean learning peers, it was nice to learn more about the Korean culture I knew some but not a lot of information about. Jenny's presentation broke my heart because the reality of the academic life is so true for students in Korea. And I loved Heather's exploration of the work force, it brought to me, attention on things I never thought about should I ever think about working and living in Korea. Shu Yi's presentation on fashion was great too! It's always interesting to see the difference of celebrity fashion and real-life fashion for Koreans.
I had a fun time exploring the Korean Variety Show and the ways in which it works and functions in the Korean society and how language is an integral part of it. I never really paid attention to the editing part of Variety Shows but now I am more aware of the intentional decisions of sound effects and visuals to add humor and add the Korean sensibility in general. It was great to explore Korean Variety Shows!
I really enjoyed the cultural presentations. I liked learning about the different aspects of Korean culture and about the history behind the languages of Pakistan and India. I never knew that the education system in South Korea was so intense. That is so much pressure to put on a child at such a young age. It's very sad, but I can see why they have such a high suicide rate. I thought Vana's presentation about the popular Korean shows was very interesting and I thought the clips that we watched in class were hilarious. Heather's clips with the businessmen talking about the workplace were very interesting as well. I really liked learning about how the cultures differ.
It was interesting doing research about deaf culture. There were a lot of things I never knew and never even would have guessed, like that so many people think that the deaf know Braille. A lot of it seemed common sense to me, but if you grow up around certain prejudices, I can imagine it would be difficult to think otherwise.
Today , we did presentations on our target language cultures. I find it interesting that, although there are several students learning Korean, we did not have any topics in common, which definitely gave me a new insight on my target culture. There were plastic surgery, drinking culture, as well as the growing makeup market in our presentations in regards to South Korea’s cultures. Heather touched on several cultural aspects based on her past traveling experience this summer. The understanding of a culture can be traced to food, drinks and her daily observations, which have a distinct perspective of Korea’s culture. Other classmates also shared their understanding of their target languages from different fields such as history, business and drinking.
Overall, it is good to know about how my classmates reflect on their target language culture from many aspects. I can also learn from their tactics and paths to build up and deepen my understanding of Korea’s cultures.
The cultural presentations were an eye opening experience. The knowledge I gained about South Korean cultural astounded me. This was because of the degree of disparity that is between South Korean and Pakistani culture. Just one example of this can be seen in how much emphasis South Koreans placed on physical beauty. It was not considered uncommon for a man to invest both time and money so heavily on cosmetics and makeup. However, in Pakistani culture, it would be considered highly abnormal for a man to much such effort in to beautifying himself. I imagine one reason for this disparity might be the fact that Pakistani is a poor developing country. Citizens are barely making ends meet and do not have the financial resources to invest anywhere else. While on the other hand, South Koreans are a generally financially well off nation and have greater purchasing power.
Tasks for Week 4 and 5
For weeks 4 and 5, I was want to learn Siriaki’s number system. I understand that, much like most major languages of South Asia, Siriaki too has a pattern when it comes to counting. I intend to use my language partner is my primary resource as there is very little material available online. However, as I have recently discovered, there is considerable overlap between Siriaki and Sindhi. I intend to exploit it when I come a difficult situation.