Throughout the semester I've attempted to learn more about Korean culture by talking to Isla, learning from Youngmin, exposing myself to Korean music and watching Korean television. Overall it was really interesting to look at both the many similarities and differences between the culture I'm used to in the states and Korean culture. Some of the big differences I have found are that people in America tend to be more individualistic, while I would say people in Korea seem to be more community and family centric. In the states it is not uncommon for people to place their elderly relatives in retirement homes and pretty much forget about them, but in Korea people give their elders much more respect. The whole language and culture has an age based hierarchy of formality and customs for honoring and respecting those older than you. Isla's grandmother lives with her parents and she is just the sweetest most amazing woman. She was one of the first female doctors in Korea and she worked in the emergency room for much of her life. Isla's grandfather was an aeronautics engineering professor at Waseda university. Whenever Isla talks about her grandparents she is always so filled with love and respect, and you can tell that she is really proud of their accomplishments. 

As the semester comes to an end I've been taking time to review what we've learned over the semester as we continue to learn new things. Youngmin and I have been reviewing vocabulary from introductions through dining and transportation, and even though I've been forgetting throughout the semester I'm making a real effort to remember the large sino-korean numbers and when to use each number system. While there are still many more things that I can't talk about than things I can, it is very exciting to be able to come up with a sentence or grammatical structure that hasn't been taught to me simply by recombining parts that I have learned. I feel like over the semester I've been learning different pieces of the Korean language but as the Semester comes to and end I'm surprised with how much those parts have come together to form an, albeit patchwork, whole language. From my discussions with Michael I have realized that I'm more of a feeling or sense based language learner, and I feel like I've started to develop a slight intuition about the language. While I still have a long way to go I'm proud of the step forward I've taken this semester. 

This week for my cultural learning Youngmin and I have been going over the Korean royal palace Gyeong Bok Gung(경복궁). This was prompted by a gift from Youngmin that she brought from Korea of a build-it-yourself cardboard model of the palace and grounds, but I was especially excited to learn more about the place

because I had actually visited there on my last trip to Korea. We decided that it would be a good learning exercise to build the model together and then use it as part of my final presentation, with her giving me the instructions and part numbers in Korean, and me following her instructions. It was really helpful to get some practice using the positional vocabulary we had learned and using numbers in a real life situation.

After we finished each building or section she would tell me the name in Korean and then we would read about the history of what we'd just built. We built models of and learned about  structures like 광화문, the great southern gate of the palace which was built in 1395, which I was planning on including a picture of us in front of but Isla vetoed the picture because she didn't think she looked good (which obviously isn't true), but here is a picture of us in front of the museum entrance with Isla attempting to hide from the camera. 

We've covered a lot of new vocabulary and grammatical structures recently and I was really proud to be able to translate a chapter dialogue from the textbook from Youngmin's spoken english to written Korean without any help.

The dialogue was between two friends discussing weekend plans, travelling to school, and playing sports together. It also incorporated new grammatical structures like the different types of negations, doing things together, and positional descriptions. 

In my fourth artifact I read a dialogue written in Korean out loud while attempting to use proper inflection and situational timing. While I know all the vocabulary and understand the material this can still be tricky for me because my reading can be a little slow and its hard to keep the timing fluid and natural. I would say that I can definitely work on my pronunciation and in the future I would like to be able to read at a faster pace. 

Artifact 4

AO_Artifact_4.mp3

Reading a textbook dialogue written in Korean without preparation. 

• Third Cultural Post
• Teach someone using the activity you created in Week 9; reflect upon the effectiveness of the activity.

I tried teaching my roommate how to read Korean using the learning activity I developed and it worked with surprising success! The Korean alphabet is pretty simple and intuitive, and while some of the pronunciations can be hard to distinguish, learning the basics can be very intuitive. I taught my roommate Jake the basics of the alphabet and then asked him to match simple Koreanized pop culture names like Batman and Spiderman to their pictures, and he was able to sound out the words with the occasional assistance of the alphabet sheet very quickly. I'd say the exercise was effective and I think incorporating fun activities like this can make learning a new language more engaging and fun. 

For my third artifact I went out to a local Korean Barbecue restaurant with my girlfriend. It was really fun talking to the waitress in Korean and ordering food in Korean, even though the waitress seemed significantly less impressed with me than I was feeling. Isla and I tried to speak in Korean as much as possible throughout the dinner, and stick to Korean customs. I told the waitress, 이인분 차돌바기  주새요, 도 갈비 돌솥비빔밥  주새요, which means can I have two orders of chadolbagi, and also an order of galbi hotstone bibimbap? Chadolbagi is my favorite type of Korean barbecue, its this very thinly sliced beef that comes rolled up and raw. When you drop the meat on the hot grill it starts to sizzle and then slowly unrolls. Bibimbap is a classic Korean dish, and this version had rice, chunks of galbi, and plenty of vegetables, cooking in a very hot stone bowl. Isla also descibed the side dishes that they traditionally serve you at Korean barbecue restaurants which she told me are called BanChun, and which can vary widely between restaurants. My favorite BanChun is called Gyu Lan Jjim, and which is like an egg souffle with green onions. 

• In your learning journal, reflect upon your progress to date, consider the effectiveness of your learning plan and activities, and discuss what changes--if any--you will make to finish the semester.

I think my studies are progressing well and I have learned a lot and become more confidant in my listening skills. My goals of learning practical vocabulary and terms for finding my way around Korea and using public transportation have come very far and I feel confident in my ability to understand and even give basic directions and understand transportation names. One thing I would like to learn more about is the different levels of formality, as we have mostly been learning the informal tenses and I think it would be helpful to learn the formal tenses as well for my goal of talking to my girlfriends parents. 

Recently we've learned how to talk in the past tense in Korean(숙제 했어요, which means I did my homework), how to talk about and describe food (i.e. 갈비 짜요, which means Galbi is tasty/savory), grammatical words like 이게 and 저게, which mean this and that,and 도, which means also, amongst others. 

My learning activity was to teach someone how to read Korean, or at least to learn the Korean alphabet and be able to sound out words. I did this by teaching them the basic consonants and vowels and then trying to get them to sound out words like 바투만, which sounds like batman. I've used this tactic of typing english using Korean characters to practice my reading and writing skills while texting my girlfriend. 잍서  걸에잍!

Artifact 2

AO_Artifact_2.mp3

Demonstrated new vocabulary covering introductions, numbers, transportation, food and grammatical terms. 

We've finished reviewing the Korean alphabet and have been working on learning to count in both the sino-korean number system and the korean number system. The hard part for me has been learning when to use each system, as at times it can really seem arbitrary to me. For example, you use the traditional korean number system when you're saying your age or stating the hour, but you use the sino-korean number system when stating the time in minutes and talking about distances. I can now say 저는  스물둘살  임니다 , which means I am 22 years old. If I were to say 저는  이십이살  임니다 it would be grammatically incorrect Isla says people would laugh at you. We're learning how to count to even higher numbers and it is relatively simple in the sino-korean number system, where you just have to memorize the numbers for 10, 100, 1000 and so on, and then you can use the numbers 1-9 to make any number by combining them. 

We have also been learning new vocabulary from the textbook and new grammatical structures. We've been learning about methods of public transportation, like 차, which means car. I've learned a lot of new grammatical structures and vocabulary like from and to, so I can now say I take the bus from home to school. You could say, 짐에서 학교가지 버스로 가요, which means I use the bus to go from home to school. I've also been working on typing in Korean, but it has been a bit of a challenge learning the mapping as my keys don't have the korean alphabet on them.  

Youngmin and I discussed different sayings in Korean and English and it was really interesting to see the similarities and  differences in sayings that shared common meaning. It was very interesting to learn about the culture of lending and borrowing money in Korea. I was really surprised by one saying she told me, which roughly translates to "if you have good enough words you don't need to pay your debts." I couldn't figure out what that meant at first because there is no english version of that saying, but in Korea it is apparently common for people to lend money to their family and friends, and then if they say the right things, like for example "I will always be there for your family," then apparently there is cultural pressure for the lender to forgive their debts. This apparently happens to the point that many people go bankrupt from lending money and then having to forgive the debt. 

I talked to my girlfriend about it and she said that from her perspective its not that people are pressured into forgiving debt, its that when people lend their friends and family money they do that prepared to not get the money back. She said this was because Koreans are just good people, but I think she might be a little biased.  

• Summarize your goals for this semester and evaluate your first artifact

This semester I would like to work on developing my practical Korean knowledge and vocabulary, focusing on my listening and speaking skills while also working on my reading. I would like to be able to have a simple conversation with my girlfriends parents in Korean, discuss and order food at a restaurant, and talk about locations/use transportation. 

In my first artifact I read the Korean alphabet out loud and then counted from 1 to 10 in the sino-korean number system. I had trouble pronouncing the numbers accurately, and often was closer to the chinese numbers that I am familiar with and which sound very similar. 

Artifact 1. 

AO_Artifact_1.mp3

I recorded myself reading the Korean alphabet from just the characters, and then counted from 1 to 10  from memory in Korean using the sino-korean number system. 

• First Cultural Post:  What are your cultural learning goals for this semester?
  • Which one or two topics will you explore during the course of the semester?
  • How do you expect to explore these topics?
  • What do you hope to learn through your exploration of these topics?

I would like to know more about Korean family and dining cultures and customs as I would like to know how to be respectful of my girlfriends parents and how to act at meals with them and at restaurants in general. One fun way to explore these topics could be going out to eat at a Korean restaurant with my girlfriend or my language partner and having a practice meal where we go over customs. 

Another aspect of Korean culture that I find really interesting is their work life. The difference between western self-centric life with a clear divide between work and personal life is very different from Korean work environments where coworkers tend to socialize together after hours. I think that this is a very interesting difference that is very telling of larger differences between the cultures. 

• Summarize your assessment and goals in a blog post in your learning journal.

From the levels of competence chart I have assessed myself as a beginning 0 for all 5 skills. In terms of reading I am able to recognize most letters and sound out most words, although I needed a refresher at first and some characters were a little trickier than others like the complex vowels ㅕㅑㅐㅔ ㅠㅛ, and I don’t fully understand the difference between ㅐ and ㅔ. I can sound out many simple words and recognize words that I have heard or used frequently. 

In terms of writing I can write simple words that are sounded out to me with some degree of accuracy, but as I mentioned above I have trouble with complex vowels and am unfamiliar with the advanced forms of character creation like double consonants. I don't think I could write out the full Korean alphabet but I can recognize most of them to some degree. 

In terms of listening I can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet when spoken and can recognize frequently heard or used words like hellos, goodbyes, and some very basic vocabulary like yes and no. 

In terms of speaking I am vaguely familiar with a few basic grammatical structures and could get through a few simple sentences such as introductions, saying thank you, and goodbyes.  

Over this semester I have learned a lot about myself as a language learner. I originally planned on largely avoiding the Korean writing system in favor of focusing on oral communication, but over the semester these goals have changed a lot. One aspect of learning Korean that I found very difficult is speaking the language, as due to my background in Mandarin I have been told that I often pronounce words in the Chinese style and with an American accent. On the other hand, I have found that I am actually very interested in the Korean alphabet and writing system, perhaps because of how surprisingly intuitive and simple it ended up being. Because of this I ended up shifting my language learning so that I have a stronger foundation of reading and writing Korean. I think this was the right decision overall as it allows me to use tools like language dictionaries to their fullest and really prepares me for a continued independent study of the language. Moving forward after this semester I will be able to look up new words and use websites and other resources that I initially wasn’t able to use as they require an understanding of the Korean writing system. Furthermore, it is also really helpful to be able to sound out words as in many cases the names of modern items in Korean are Koreanized American names.

Throughout the duration of the semester I felt that the resources my language partner provided were very useful and that our meetings were very productive. The competitions she held incentivized mastering the new vocabulary and the different challenges helped develop both my reading and writing skills, as well as my vocabulary.

As far as 105 goes I found many aspects of the class to be really interesting, like the class on the language tree and the history of language, and often enjoyed class activities like culture presentations and activities. The discussions were interesting and I learned a lot about languages in general. I also found the resources the class introduced me to at the beginning of the semester to be very helpful throughout the semester. It was also helpful for me to set language goals for the semester and to plot a course towards achieving those goals, and things like the learning journals did a good job of keeping me on course. I found the activities we did in class to be fun and engaging and would recommend that future classes incorporate more of these activities into the schedule. On the other hand, I occasionally felt like some of the readings were not as related to our studies. It seemed like there were two parts of the class, one where we were given instructions and resources for learning a language, and the other where we discussed languages as a whole, and while both were interesting I feel like it would be more advantageous to devote more time to the former and less to the latter. Overall I would recommend more activities and class time dedicated to learning about different cultures and presenting on our different languages, and less related to linguistics and language theory.

My Learning goals for this week are a continuation of last weeks, which is to continue reviewing the material I've learned and work on mastering these topics in preparation for the review. Recently I have been going over the Korean number system again as I'm still a little confused about when you should use the Traditional number system and when you should use the Chinese based number system. This also includes reviewing topics like talking about the time and introductions. Throughout the week I hope to do some review of the grammatical structures I have learned and also continue learning how to talk about my day. Last week I reviewed topics like introductions and food related vocabulary.

• Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.

While I initially thought that learning to read and write Korean would be one of the hardest parts of learning the language, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Korean was not the complex character based language that I had originally expected. The Korean alphabet is surprisingly simple and intuitive and I have really enjoyed learning it. The competitions my language partner holds have been really helpful for cementing my understanding of the basics of the alphabet. However, as I learned more Korean I came to realize that there are some strange rules that come into play on rare occasions. I'll see radicals in strange positions in characters or complex arrangements of characters that work together to create new sounds and I won't know how to interpret them. There are also many situations where slang in Korea distorts characters into new words which are hard to decipher. Overall I have found the Korean alphabet to be easy to learn but hard to master.

• Response to the readings on whether or not learning another language makes you smarter

While I thought that both articles on the effects of bilingualism on human intelligence were interesting, I found the second article, "Are Bilinguals really smarter," to have more of a foundation in science. As stated in the second article, when discussing the benefits of bilingualism it is important to define what you mean by intelligence. Personally I think Ossola's definition of intelligence as the ability for a person to absorb and apply information is rather limited. I believe that there are different types of intelligence and that while learning another language may provide an advantage in areas like executive function and decision making, it likely also introduces weaknesses in other areas.

• How many new words have you learned in your target language?  How did you learn them?  Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary?
  

It is hard to gauge how many new words I have learned in Korean because many of the words I have learned are part of phrases like 안녕하세요, where I know that 안녕 means hello and that the phrase overall means hello more formally, but I don't exactly know what 하세요 means. In general I have learned vocabulary relating to the following subjects: food, family, directions, introductions, greetings, farewells, professions, school, time, numbers, relationships, and basic conversational vocabulary, in addition to a foundation of Korean grammar and some random phrases. As far as learning new vocabulary I found meeting with my language partner to be the most helpful and effective. I also studied the character sheets  we were given and used websites like quizlet to practice. One surprisingly effective tool for acquiring new vocabulary was watching Korean Dramas, as you pick up a lot of commonly used phrases and words. My goals are still to be able to watch part of a Korean drama and be able to understand what the people are saying, as well as to be able to hold a basic conversation with a native speaker. While I may have to re-watch the scene a couple times I think it is still a reasonable goal to have.