When I did some preliminary research about my target culture I found some interesting facts. I found out that Koreans believe that direct eye contact during a conversation shows boldness however it is very impolite to have a conversation avoiding eye contact. I think this relates to the paragraph read in the article about nonverbal communication. It is also recognized that Koreans shake hands and bow at the same time and the depth of the bow depends on the relative seniority of the two people. Young people are expected to give up their seats to the elder on a crowded bus or subway and they are expected to wait for the elder to eat first during meal times. Another interesting fact is that when you receive a present or an object from an older person, you are expected to receive it with two hands to show respect. I think these cultural facts will help me understand as I learn the topic about history in my target language. As I watch documentary files, I will be able to understand why people are acting in a certain way. When I am engaged with the topic of history I will need to have knowledge in some historical Korean vocabulary. Some examples are gama which means palanquin, nui or orabeoni which means older sister/brother. I need to be aware that the people in the past had a different culture and linguistic knowledge in education. In my objective for my learning plan, I mentioned how I will be writing down vocabulary that I hear from the documentations to study. But I think I will add in an objective where I will need to gain some knowledge beforehand to help me strive better.
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