Even after the first week of being given materials and resources on how to self-teach, I realized that I did not know how to effectively self-teach in my past attempts. I did not exhaust all the resources out there, but I just thought sticking to one book would be enough. However, beginning this semester and having so many resources and different ways to go about learning, it was difficult to make a coherent plan. I tried out different websites and bought the Korean from Zero book and I ended up going weeks just doing different lessons on each and I was only learning bits and pieces here and there. I made my learning goals and I thought they were reasonable for a semester’s time, but I really forgot about what I had on my list. I originally wanted to cover all of the general topics that you could find in a beginner's language course. I was using Korean from Zero and I just wanted to go chapter by chapter because I was really just looking for structure, which I felt like my learning goals were not structured enough. At first I really liked using Mango languages, but I quickly realized I was not going to go anywhere in terms of my learning goals because I was just going lesson by lesson covering what Mango has already structured. I never used diigo to bookmark anything, I just preferred to use my web browser's bookmark tool. 

I was and I think I still am more accustomed to the structure of learning languages in the classroom where there is a set list and going through topics seem to flow naturally. But even with my learning goals, which are topics that a lot of beginner’s Korean books cover, I felt like I was jumping around and not really grasping everything I needed to know. So from here on out, I think if I learn another language or continue Korean, I will find a course to take that has all the important topics based on level laid out. The topics seem to flow and I feel like I can move through them easier in a class setting. I like that in a course, the teacher will have activities where allowing you to learn by interacting with others. I do not know many Korean students on campus, so I did not have a language partner, which is something I really value when learning a language. When I was studying abroad, tandem language partners was a big thing. It is where you teach your partner English and they teach you French, for example. I learned better French abroad in one semester than I ever learned in six years of Spanish classes and although my grammar was not the best, I was confident in holding conversations. For Korean I am nowhere near that level of confidence.

I think the way I ended up learning as much as I could to complete my learning goals is sufficient for learning survival conversation topics for a short trip to Korea. I ended up just using online sources like Talk to me in Korean and Korean word/phrase lists to learn the basic vocabulary for each topic I listed and I liked those sources the best. The last 2 weeks of class the IOS version of egg bun came out and I started trying it. I think it would have been better if I was able to access it at the beginning of the semester, but the format was interactive, where you learn vocabulary words and phrases by chatting in the app. I think when I created my learning goals, I had it in the back of my mind that I would go more in-depth than what I ended up learning for each goal, but in the end I just wanted to learn at least something in each topic. For most of the semester, I was learning more of the grammar rules and how to construct sentences using the Korean from Zero book and I was getting stuck and frustrated.

I ended up learning half of my learning goals going through that book, but it was a much longer route because of the detailed grammar. If I was stuck on a topic I would google it, but unlike in a class if I could not find the answer myself there was not really anyone to ask. I was getting confused because the book would say a phrase in one way and then another source would say it differently. In the end I realized there are multiple ways to say a sentence in terms of the formal/informal endings and I think I have heard enough of the different ways to be able to piece out sentences I want to say. Another frustrating part I encountered was just feeling like I could not really ever have a conversation. For each learning goal I learned the essential phrases and vocabulary, but if you asked me to have a full conversation on food, I could say I like this dish, and not be able to elaborate further. I think phrase by phrase learning is definitely helpful for survival learning, but eventually I would have to focus on learning how to construct sentences with ease. I definitely did not realize how much I really learned till the assessment. I felt like I was able to say a lot of different words and phrases but when I did the language assessment, having to actually use it my mind went blank. If I continue Korean, I would like to learn past and future tenses so I can be able to expand the range of conversation to talk about future plans and my past experiences. 

This activity is one Sequoia and I made up for the 105 class. We chose body part vocabulary as the learning task and used the head, shoulders, knees, and toes song. 

The lyrics in English:

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

Eyes and ears and mouth and nose

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

The lyrics in Korean:

Meo ri, eo kkae, mu reup bal, mu reup bal

Meo ri, eo kkae, mu reup bal, mu reup bal

nun wa, gwi wa, ib wa ko

Meo ri, eo kkae, mu reup bal, mu reup bal

I think the cultural presentations showed me a link among the different cultures from the languages we are all learning. Particularly for Korean, I saw connections from other topics such as education fever, weddings, school violence to my own presentation topic on plastic surgery. With that, the one topic that I think really stood out to me was the education fever. To put it in blunt terms, I think Korea has a huge obsession with being perfect. This obsession is exemplified by the high beauty standards where people have become obsessed with being skinny, yet still maintaining some curves, have a thin oval face, double eyelids and bigger eyes, and white skin. These qualities are even thought to be unwritten qualifications for getting jobs. But being the best does not mean looks are the only priority. Education is something one must conquer in order to get ahead. Students in Korea are waking up at 6am, leaving school at 4pm, going to cram schools till midnight. Basically their whole lives are spent just on school and nothing else. As a result, the stress is enormous and some students end up committing suicide or have other mental issues. Mental issues are also a problem with the beauty standards. Now before the presentation on North Korean refugees, I always thought that North Korean's would live their lives a lot better in South Korea, with freedom to be their own persons. But it seems like South Korea may not actually be the best place for them. Coming from North to South Korea cultural differences are a big shock and with a society that is so fast-paced and striving to get ahead, if someone who is not programmed for succeeding their own path, it is hard. For students from North Korea who have language difficulties and are behind academically, it is difficult to get on the path that South Korean students are on. Reflecting on Korean culture makes me appreciate American culture. It does not feel like everyone is trying to out compete each other and education is more go at your own pace and define your own success. I understand that in Korea human capital is really the only resource they have, so being the best is important for the country to thrive economically. But I do not think I could live there and live up to their education and beauty standards. I admire Korea and its language from a far. 

Even after the first week of being given materials and resources on how to self-teach, I realized that I did not know how to effectively self-teach in my past attempts. I did not exhaust all the resources out there, but I just thought sticking to one book would be enough. However, beginning this semester and having so many resources and different ways to go about learning, it was difficult to make a coherent plan. I tried out different websites and bought the Korean from Zero book and I ended up going weeks just doing different lessons on each and I was only learning bits and pieces here and there. I made my learning goals and I thought they were reasonable for a semester’s time, but I really forgot about what I had on my list. I was using Korean from Zero and I just wanted to go chapter by chapter because I was really just looking for structure, which I felt like my learning goals were not structured enough.

I was and I think I still am more accustomed to the structure of learning languages in the classroom where there is a set list and going through topics seem to flow naturally. But even with my learning goals, which are topics that a lot of beginner’s Korean books cover, I felt like I was jumping around and not really grasping everything I needed to know. So from here on out, I think if I learn another language or continue Korean, I will find a course to take. I like that in a course, the teacher will have activities where allowing you to learn by interacting with others. I do not know many Korean students on campus, so I did not have a language partner, which is something I really value when learning a language. When I was studying abroad, tandem language partners was a big thing. It is where you teach your partner English and they teach you French, for example. I learned better French abroad in one semester than I ever learned in six years of Spanish classes and although my grammar was not the best, I was confident in holding conversations. For Korean I am nowhere near that level of confidence.

I think the way I ended up learning as much as I could to complete my learning goals is sufficient for learning survival conversation topics for a short trip to Korea. I ended up just using online sources like Talk to me in Korean and Korean word/phrase lists to learn the basic vocabulary for each topic I listed and I liked those sources the best. I think when I created my learning goals, I had it in the back of my mind that I would go more in-depth than what I ended up learning for each goal, but in the end I just wanted to learn at least something in each topic. For most of the semester, I was learning more of the grammar rules and how to construct sentences using the Korean from Zero book and I was getting stuck and frustrated. I ended up learning half of my learning goals going through that book, but it was a much longer route because of the detailed grammar. I was getting confused because the book would say a phrase in one way and then another source would say it differently. In the end I realized there are multiple ways to say a sentence in terms of the formal/informal endings and I think I have heard enough of the different ways to be able to piece out sentences I want to say. If I continue Korean, I would like to learn past and future tenses so I can be able to expand the range of conversation to talk about future plans and my past experiences. 

Korean%20Plastic%20Surgery.pdf

My cultural project was on plastic surgery in Korea. I was interested in this topic because I noticed that the Korean standards of beauty are very different than those of the U.S. It seems everyone in Korea wants to be pale, skinny, have a slim face, double-eyelids, dye their hair, and make their eyes bigger. This is all I see in pictures of Korean celebrities. Even the skinny Korean girls seem to be talking about jaw-line surgery to slim down their face. High school students are asking their parents for double-eyelid surgeries for graduation presents. I know many people in the U.S get plastic surgery but I feel like among non-celebrities it is not really a big thing. But I think Korea's high standards of beauty may be linked to just striving to be the best in general, as Korea's main resource is its people. However, I think this puts a lot of pressure on people to strive to be the ideal person, whether it is beauty or intelligence and as a result, the stress and suicide rates increase every year. 

Here is a brief little recording of me talking a bit about my family. 

Artifact%203_%20Family.m4a

Here is a video of me teaching how to say different body parts. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YIBF-aOKYc&feature=youtu.be

Going according to my learning goals I have accomplished: 

Introductions, myself, my family

Body parts, how to say I'm in pain

Basic items in a Korean menu, some fruits and vegetables, how to order something

Numbers sino-korean and Korean version

Basic clothing vocabulary, ask how much something is, say something is cute, ugly, pretty

Describe today's weather

Days of the week

Basic vocabulary for the transportation: bus, taxi, how to ask where is something.

I don't think I hit the extent of what I wanted to learn, but just the basics for each goal and that made it more feasible to accomplish. For example, I wanted to be able to go shopping and be able to list everything in the store, but I really just know the basic words for shirts, pants, skirts, etc. I think what was more useful in the end was just to use topic lists that had key phrases and vocabulary. For example, the Korean restaurant word list had how to say I want bulgogi, and then the name of different menu items. I wanted to go by the whole book of Korean from Zero, but at my own pace I was getting stuck in the nitty gritty bits of grammar and I wanted to focus on how to structure sentences when it wasn't even on my learning goals. But learning by the book, I realized how hard Korean grammar becomes after a certain level. I did not really practice actually speaking, except when I occasionally talked to my Korean friend and I would insert phrases that I knew and were relevant to our conversation. I started using egg bun recently because it just became available on the iPhone. The downside go learning by topic as I did is that I would only feel comfortable discussing things in the realm of what I listed above. Moving on from here, I am not sure if I am the best at self-teaching a language. I think for basic survival terms like I learned it is feasible, but to be able to have longer conversations I need the structure of the classroom, where there are in class activities and I am forced to use it in the class conversations. It would have been nice to have an actual language partner to kind of have that structure to practice. But I think I did alright on my own. Watching Korean dramas has become more interesting for me because I can actually pick up more words now and recognize the context they are using it in. 

This week I plan on working on my goal of learning vocabulary and phrases that are useful towards health such as describing pain, body parts, and different health care professionals. I have my categories of vocabulary outlined there. but in terms of phrases, I think at least knowing how to say this hurts here, my leg,arm, etc hurts is still good. I will mainly use vocabulary lists I found on pinterest that have been useful for learning vocabulary for other things as well. I will also use the Korean from zero for body part vocabulary. As for phrases I found a list on pinterest that is helpful in learning phrases for talking about pain. I will also look at Talk to me in Korean for more help. I don't think it'll be feasible for me to learn names of diseases and go into complex conversations such as diagnosis and treatment as it's really beyond my level of comprehension at this point and I won't be able to grasp it all before the end of the semester since it can pretty much turn into a medical korean course by itself. 

Coming into this independent study course, I already knew how to read and write, but I didn't know how to speak, so whatever I read I wouldn't really understand. If I was told a word in Korean I could figure out how to spell it and write it. I learned this in 7th grade through my friend. She really only taught me the basic alphabet and from there I could figure out how to form the letters here and there through online resources. I first started by figuring out how to spell the names of Korean people I knew. The little special cases where some words that sound a certain way aren't spelled the way they sound were easy to figure out through seeing a variety of signs in the area I went to middle school. When I started learning Korean, I was able to skip the first couple chapters in the books that focused on learning how to read and write the letters. I found it easier for pronunciation if I read the example sentences in Korean rather than the romanized version. I think Korean has an easy writing system. The grammar and learning how to speak part is the most difficult. But I think it really helped me get through the grammar and achieve my lesson plans faster since I knew how to read. I think I am still pretty slow at the reading, just because they are different letters. I find that if they are written very small, I can't really tell what it says because the letters are all smushed together. 

My learning goals for this week are to work on asking for direction and giving directions. I am just going to look it up on Talk to me in Korean. I am also going to start on some vocabulary for transportation using Korean from zero and talk to me in korean. I will brush up on the rest of the grammar that I have been working on in Korean from zero so I can continue on to how to order food in restaurants. So mainly this week will be focused more on the how to say specific phrases rather than focusing too much on the steps of the grammar. 

As a bilingual person, I haven't personally felt like I'm smarter than my monolingual friends. The only thing I can think of is that I feel like I have better memory than most people I meet, but that goes for both monolingual and bilingual people I meet so I'm not sure about that. After reading the 2 articles, I feel kind of convinced that bilingual children have an advantage over their monolingual counterparts. While the advantages may be subtlly enhanced abilities in executive function, any benefit is better than no benefit. But I often associate the advantages of being bilingual with more cultural and social factors. Since most children who are bilingual are likely to be multicultural or have parents who come from another culture such as immigrant parents, the exposure they have to the different cultures than the ones they are surrounded by everyday open up their eyes to the world and the many possibilities. They see that there are many different kind of people and give them that cultural competency and be able to interact with people of different cultures than their own. At least, that is one benefit I think I have from being bilingual. Being able to speak more than one language also means you have the ability to communicate with even more people. I think people are really starting to tune into the benefits of being multilingual and the rise of bilingual immersion schools have been a part of that trend. I know people who have gone to French school in the U.S. all their lives and they're american, but that gave them the advantage of being able to attend university in France, completely conducted in French. Plus, tuition is a lot cheaper. 

I believe from my Korean from zero I have learned about 100+ words as there are vocabulary lists at the end of every chapter that go along with the lessons to be covered. At the beginning of the semester I used Mango languages more, but I prefer learning the vocabulary from Korean from zero or from talk to me in Korean because of the way they present the vocabulary. In Mango you just pick up the vocabulary as you learn how to say things and progress through the lesson, but I prefer having a set list at the end of the lesson to look over what vocabulary words I learned. In my learning goals I don't really have a set list of vocabulary words I want to learn, but more as much vocabulary as I can attain while to learning how to say things in different conversation topics. Although I may have to revise my learning goal once more. I didn't expect it to take so much time learning the basics of introducing myself and my family and learning how to construct certain sentences. sometimes I forget about what specific conversation topics I wanted to learn since I spend so much time just going chapter by chapter. But I don't feel like I could really skip around chapters because then I feel like I'm missing an important basic grammar topic that I need to actually learn for my learning goals. I think from here to the end of the semester I need to find the right activities and lessons that will help me focus more on my learning goal topics. The chapters I have gone through in Korean from zero have gotten me through dates/times, introductions, body parts, and directions. 

Most of what I know about family dynamics in Korean culture have been through watching Korean dramas. It seems that family is very important in Korean culture. There is a big hierarchy and respecting your elders is a must, so they are the priority. When the elders cannot take care of themselves it seems it becomes the unspoken rule that children have the responsibility to take care of their elders, whether that means taking them into their house, which seems to be the usual case and particularly for families that are not as rich. For the rich families it seems there is always a caretaker in the home, whether or not the elderly family members live in the same house as the younger ones. In one drama I watched called Can we get married, the family status and roles really come out as the two main characters are trying to go through with their engagement and get married. The girl seems to have to make efforts to really please the mother-in-law. Buying gifts for the family is considered a must for the bride and it shows commitment to the family even if the bride is not rich. The groom is stuck in the middle of trying to please his mother's wishes and ideas as he cannot go against her and eventually he breaks up with his fiancé once in order to maintain peace with his mother. It shows that the people currently in the family take priority. Even though people who are actually family are considered most important, it seems that neighbors and friends are also considered as family in some cases. In many dramas, I saw best friends living under the same household and neighbors taking in their neighbors as family. 

This week my learning goals are to continue with my lessons from Korean from zero. I have been having trouble with chapter 10 and I've been searching for other sources that can help me solidify the grammar. One website that my friend recommended to me has been good for review and advancing in my skills. It's called Talk to me in Korean. It seems most of what I have learned so far is covered through all the chapters in lesson 1, so I think I will step back for a bit and review lesson 1's chapters. Then continue on to future and past tenses in Korean from zero and perhaps lesson 2 in Talk to me in Korean. 

Artifact%202.m4a

This week I am working on lesson 9 from Korean from zero, which is one asking for things and counters. It also goes into describing objects. Once I get through this, I plan on reviewing the past chapters and particularly the grammar and vocabulary, which I'm not sure is solidified in my head yet. I think in general I have a grasp of the past chapters and I can definitely say more complete sentences and describe things already, but at the same time, it's hard to know if I really have mastered everything. I will also continue to chapter 10, which goes into future, past, and present tenses, which I feel will take me the rest of the week to get a grasp on. 

I think when a language dies out, a culture dies out along with it. In the article it discussed the native american languages that were dying out, there was even one where there is only 5 people left who speak it. So the issue they have is trying to preserve the language, for example establishing online resources where people can come to learn the language. It must be particularly difficult for people whose language is dying out because, it is a part of the culture they identify with, so it would be like losing your identity or a part of it. For me, since I also speak Thai, I know that there are certain feelings that I can express better in Thai than in English and vice versa. So when a language is dying out and there are not a lot of people left who can understand the words you express best in, it could also feel like you have lost a way to connect with others. With the native americans, they have such a rich and long cultural history that it seems if their languages die out all of those memories will too. New generations of children may not be able to connect with their ancestral cultures as previous generations did. It is shame that so many languages are dying out because other languages are taking a more globalized role and have therefore been deemed as more important and useful to learn. I think to everyone their specific language is important to them and having so many different languages and cultures is what makes the world unique. Even though it may be more useful and convenient if everyone started speaking English as their main language, we all lose the uniqueness. With Thai, there a lot of English words that have become common vocabulary that people use nowadays and my mom was explaining to me that modern Thai kids these days are less Thai. I think I am definitely one of them, being more American than Thai, but at the same time having the Thai culture really enriches my experiences and how I see things. If we just had one culture people would see things for the most part the same way and that makes for boring conversations. With all of the unique identities and languages, we have interesting conversations and our lives are richer. 

I think Korean culture is polychronic. For example, I read that Koreans would value keeping a good relationship with co-workers rather than pressing them to meet deadlines for a project. I recently read an interesting article on the concept of "Korean time". This concept refers to Koreans always being late to an appointment. But in more recent years Koreans have noted that Korean time is fading and more people are now on time to appointments. Korean time may have evolved in the recent years due to people joining the workforce where if one is late one could possibly lose their job. With so much focus on improving human capital along with the emphasis on being competitive, performing the best at school and at work, the evolution of Korean time makes sense. However, in personal relationships I think Korean time is still very much prevalent where being late to meet a friend runs less of a risk. Even if the meeting with a friend or family member runs late, I think Koreans are very much okay since relationships are so important. I feel like Korean time is very much linked to eating. I always feel like I take forever to eat Korean meals especially with Korean barbecue. Meals can be accompanied by drinking soju and having fun conversations that seem to last forever as well as it is portrayed in Korean dramas. 

This week my goals are mostly to focus on mastering material I learned from Korean from Zero chapters 7 through 9. As soon as I started chapter 7, a lot of sayings I have heard from Korean people and through dramas and songs started making sense and I was recognizing the meaning. These chapters focused on describing objects, people, saying the locations of objects, and possessions. It isn't hard to understand the general grammar of how to say these phrases but the you learn multiple ways of saying the same thing and then the little particles and changes among different phrases confused me a lot and it was hard to keep them straight. During my exercises I found that I would add in an extra particle or forget a certain word. I think I will turn to online resources such as Mango and perhaps activities online to quiz me. If I can get past chapter 9 this week I want to start on chapter 10 and start learning how to ask for directions.