My task this period was to investigate Linguistic Relativity, specifically, how the Korean language's emphasis on "Woori" (We) versus "Na" (I) influences my personality. As someone who is already fluent, I’ve noticed I act differently in Korean, and my goal was to document these shifts. I hoped to understand if my "Korean persona" is a natural evolution of my skills or a performance of cultural expectations.
I recorded myself describing a recent successful experience (completing a difficult accounting project) in both English and Korean. I then listened back to analyze the difference in my tone, pitch, and the "ego" of the narrative. I asked my community language partner to describe my "personality" using only Korean adjectives. We compared this list to how my English-speaking friends describe me. My partner and I had a very deep interaction regarding the word "Woori" (우리). In English, I say "my house" or "my mom," but in Korean, I must say "our house" (woori-jip) or "our mom" (woori-eomma). We practiced a reciprocal goal where I had to describe my personal achievements using "collective" language. My partner pointed out that when I speak Korean, my voice actually drops in pitch and I become more "attentive" (listening more than speaking), whereas in English, I am much more assertive. A not-so-successful experience occurred when I tried to be "humble" during a roleplay about receiving a promotion. I over-corrected and ended up sounding insecure rather than modest. My partner explained that there is a fine line between Gyeom-son (true humility) and sounding like you lack confidence. I realized that my strategy of "mimicking humility" was too surface-level; I need to learn the specific linguistic "markers" of confidence that still respect the social hierarchy. This actually seems to be a problem I observe in English as well.
This process has triggered a lot of enthusiasm for the "psychology" of the language. I’ve realized that speaking Korean makes me feel more connected to others, but it also makes me feel more "watched" by society. There is a certain frustration in feeling like I can't be as "loud" or "opinionated" in Korean as I am in English, but there is also a sense of peace in the communal nature of the vocabulary.
I’ve learned that the "Self" in Korean is not a fixed point, but a relative one that changes based on who you are talking to. I will now pay closer attention to how I use honorific suffixes not just as a rule, but as a way to define my "closeness" to someone.
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