Our course has come to an end, and I have learned so much about myself and language learning overall. I honestly did not know what to expect from 105, but it is safe to say that it was my most interesting class during this semester. With it being my only non-business class during the week, it was always something that I looked forward to. I even started to consider taking more Global Studies or Linguistics classes. I learned that I really enjoy learning about other cultures, languages, and everything in between.
Before reviewing any of my notes or looking back at what we covered, I do recall a few topics we talked about that stuck out to me. One that I think back to a lot is that group of people (I do not recall where they were located), but because of the language they spoke, they could not tell the difference between certain colors, but they saw a big difference between colors that I thought were the same color. The fact that language and the words they use literally changed the way they saw the world is crazy to me. I think that this is a lot deeper than just colors; there are so many other things that I definitely see one way, but other cultures see in another way. This ties into the other main topic I remember going over about how a “normal” action in one culture can be seen as offensive in another culture. For example, in the USA, when we shake a superior’s hand, we should be firm and look them in the eye to show our confidence. In Korea, you are not supposed to look your superiors in the eye because it is seen as disrespectful. This lesson was from when we read Figuring Foreigners Out, which gave me a lot of perspective into how it can be difficult to communicate with someone from a different culture, not just because we speak different languages, but also because our cultural norms are different. Another example is the sense of individualism in the USA, but in Korea, they are a lot more collectivists and this is regarding the importance of connection, holidays, and closeness with your family. These were just a few points that really stuck out to me when I mentally reviewed what we had gone over together.
This course also helped me to strengthen my knowledge of Articulatory Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax. We were tested on the primary manners, secondary manners, other linguistic vocabulary, and phonetic transcriptions. There is the saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” which was definitely true for this course. The International Phonetic Alphabet is a topic that I have probably heard of in the past, but actually learning about it and the different sounds and symbols was quite interesting. The test on these topics went well, but I do remember being nervous for the phonetic transcriptions because I felt like there were some symbols that were different, but they sounded the same to me. Sometimes I still struggle with that same thing in Korean. The second test over morphology and syntax made me realize the amount of information that others had learned in school that I had never learned before. This was a big, vocabulary-heavy test for me, but it showed me that I want to become more knowledgeable in this topic in the future. If I have a better understanding of this topic, I know that my writing will become a lot better.
In regards to my Korean language learning, I will say that I was an overachiever when making my language plan. I had a lot of big ideas coming into the course, and when working with Emily, I truly learned a lot. Originally, my goal was to focus on speaking and listening, but over time, that shifted into learning more about grammar, reading, and writing. These are topics that are much easier to learn with someone when they are teaching in person. In my opinion, speaking and listening are something I can do more work with alone, on YouTube, or through other media. I learned so much with her, and I am excited to continue my learning over the Summer.
This course helped me learn so much and showed me that there are many other interests that I have, but I just have not revealed them to myself yet. I'm excited to continue learning Korean and maybe even take more classes like this one in the future.
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