Do some preliminary research on what interests you about the target culture and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic?
**This journal post is intended to help you formulate foundational preparation (scaffolding) for your final presentation.**
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I think one thing I find interesting about Korean culture is how there are different ways to talk to people depending on the difference in age. I think the closest thing that I can compare to in the English language is the usage of honorifics like ma'am and sir. However, it is not just dependent on age, but also how much you have known a person determines whether you would use formal phrasing. There are three levels of Korean formal phrasing: Higher Levels, Middle Levels, and Lower Levels. In Higher Levels, there are two sublevels: Hasoseo-che and Hasipsio-che. Hasoseo-che was used to formally address Kings and Queens and is no longer commonly used today. Hasipsio-che is used among strangers and in professional workplace settings. In Middle Levels, there are three sublevels: Haeyo-che, Hae-che, and Hage-che. Haeyo-che is used between colleagues who are of the same age. Hae-che and Hage-che are no longer commonly used. In Lower Levels, there are two sublevels: Haera-che and Hae-che. Haera-che is used in impersonal writings and in relationships with close colleagues and parents to children. Hae-che is used among friends and relatives.
I believe my continuation of watching Korean drama and calling my brother and mother to practice Korean will help me practice this aspect of Korean.
One aspect that particularly interests me about the ASL (or Deaf) community is how I am learning that there sometimes is a difference in how people who are deaf or hard of hearing are treated as opposed to those who are Deaf. While I have picked this up somewhat from discussions had between hearing and HOH/Deaf persons in the ASL practice groups that I am in on Facebook, I didn't really understand to what extent.
Recently, I had watched a YouTube video published by Cheyenna Clearbrook. Cheyenna is an amazing YouTuber who is Deaf that I have been watching recently. I began watching Cheyenna and other YouTubers who are Deaf both to pick up terms that I may not come across during my lessons as well as to become more exposed to the Deaf community through watching their videos. I felt that learning about the Deaf community should be a crucial part in my learning plan.
In one of her videos that is now private, Cheyenna discussed her experience being a student at Gallaudet University, a well-known university for deaf and hard of hearing students. As someone who was grew up in a "hearing culture", Cheyenne was constantly bullied by a group of students at Gallaudet. This significantly impacted her experience while she was a student there. After watching this video, I was led to watch two other ones of hers, called "I am Deaf Enough" and "Sharing our raw and painful experiences at the university". As I read the comments on each of these videos, I began to see how this mistreatment is unfortunately common.
This relates to language because, depending on how an individual responds to particular questions concerning their background and the education they grew up in, they may be mistreated. Some individuals are made fun of because they don't necessarily have a "deaf voice" or because of how, if they went to "mainstream school", they may not have had as much access to the Deaf culture/community as they would if they went to a deaf school. I am also learning how there is a divide within American Deaf culture regarding cochlear implants. Some members of the Deaf community are referred to as "Elite" if they come from a well-known Deaf family or had gone to large Deaf schools. While I am unsure that I will need any special vocabulary to further engage this topic, I do know that I will need to rely more on linguistic knowledge. I will need increased exposure and education on Deaf culture to ensure that I, being a hearing person, am not disrespectfully regarding Deaf culture in any way.
One way that I am trying to learn this is through listening to members of the Deaf community and asking questions when possible. For example, I recently learned of the difference between deaf and Deaf and how important it is to correctly write such through reading comments made by members of the Deaf community. This is something that I am still trying to understand, and I look forward to addressing d/Deaf more with my language partner.
Here are a few of the videos and articles that I found really helpful in helping me understand what is referred to as "elitism" within the Deaf community:
If you do not have time to watch the videos (captions can be turned on), the comments are also very informative! To continue this, I hope to learn more about how American Deaf culture differs other Deaf cultures.
What interests me about Hebrew culture is how it follows the Biblical traditions and customs. First of all, Hebrew is the language of the Bible, which is both the religious and cultural foundation. Learning Modern Hebrew is the simplest way into the Bible. Furthermore, many English words borrowed from Hebrew are related to Religion. These examples show that if one wants to understand religion on a deeper level, one should strive to learn Hebrew and its history, traditions, and context. One can do this by learning the language because without studying the language (meaning), it would be difficult to understand why Hebrew culture is the way it is now today.
To learn more about the topic, as mentioned, learning the Modern Hebrew would be the first step. However, one should try to know biblical Hebrew as well. It allows you to engage with the Old Testament in its original language. Since Bible is a "Jewish book, and the authors of both testaments were all Jews familiar with the Hebrew language and Jewish thoughts, learning biblical Hebrew will also give you new insight into the meaning of New Testament writings." One major difference includes using different verb tenses. Modern Hebrew uses the same verb tenses that we use in English; past, present, and future. However, in Biblical Hebrew, there were only two tenses; perfect and imperfect. Knowing the differences will allow me to better understand Biblical Hebrew and how it affects the Hebrew culture.
I have not included these objectives because I feel like learning modern Hebrew will be difficult. I do not know if I will be able to learn Biblical Hebrew in a timely manner, but I would still like to familiarize myself with the differences in the future.
Exciting post, Jannette. There are significant differences between modern and biblical Hebrew. Let's talk in class soon about your priorities and interests.
My main focus of Indonesian culture is how to communicate and express respect. For example, age and seniority are strong values in their culture. This is shown through the many labels available to address people: ‘mbak’, ‘kak’, ‘pak’, ‘ibu’, etc. Each of these, along with a few others, are used to express the relative standing of both participants in the conversation. For example, I would use Ibu to address a woman older than myself, Kak for somebody only slightly older than myself, and Mbak for a woman at any age. Although there are some other more nuanced labels we have learned, they are not frequently used by Indonesians. My regular lessons with Farida, a native Indonesian speaker, are incredibly helpful for conveying these nuances of culture within the language. Although I am still struggling with the basic understanding of the language, or the organizational competence of grammar and text, I am hopeful that by the end of the semester I will begin to feel slightly more confident on my ability to apply the language in various contexts.
Our meetings with Farida are now held mostly in Indonesian, which is also helping my understanding of the language to move beyond a grammatical competence and into a discourse competence. The other student, Casey, and I have discourses in Indonesian where we are put in a random context. For example, today we practiced buying food items from a supermarket with one of us acting as a shop keeper and the other acting as a customer. Farida corrected our phrasing to be more natural in that context. We frequently conduct similar exercises for those scenarios that we might frequently find ourselves in, in order to make sure that we are able to express ourselves appropriately. I particularly find Farida’s corrections to be helpful when understanding the appropriate language to use in various contexts in order to express respect in Indonesian culture and language.
Some of this, however, I strongly feel will only come to me with a full immersion into the language and culture. I was able to learn the nuances of Italian language and culture and how to express my respect within their framework while I was there for 10 months. Although I can memorize terms and theories, I truly only think that a deep sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence will be internalized after I spend a fair amount of time within an Indonesian social context. However, I hope to learn as much as I can before that occurs, so that if/when I do go to Indonesia, the sociolinguistic competence will come much sooner.