I looked back at my learning goals that I had started off the semester with and reflected on whether I had fulfilled all of my goals. 

1. I have definitely improved my reading skills in terms of pronunciation and skills. Although I cannot read as fast as I can in french or english or arabic but I have definitely improved. 

2. Although I am able to write simple texts I make a lot spelling mistakes. Learning how to spell words should by my future goals. 

3. I have definitely started to using different more connecting words although it takes me some time to come up with them. 

4. I have started to use proper endings with words. Although I miss almost 40% of the time but I still try to use the endings. 

5. I have gotten practice of conversing on a topic without preparation. 

6. I can express my opinion and justify myself to a certain extent. 

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Throughout the semester I have looked at religions in South Korea, folk village, ettiquette schools and slangs words in korean. In the process of my research I had been able to draw several overarching lines connecting the the topics. Although Christianity is has the largest number of followers in korea, the ideals of Confucianism is still deeply rooted in the society and is the root of most of the social norms and ideals valued by the people. This is partly because Christianity came to korea after Confucianism. Therefore, traditions like respecting the ancestors, social hierarchy, age hierarchy and formality are strictly followed by the koreans. They are very inflexible when it comes to showing proper respect. I have also seen it in korean TV shows where foreigners would talk about properly greeting people being the most difficult getting used to when they first came to korea. The importance parents put in teaching their children proper etiquette is also due to their beliefs. In addition to respecting elders and proper greetings, the children are also taught proper table manners and overall behavior.

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The rest of the my tutoring sessions with JI Hae was spent mostly on conversations. We would start talking about how our day went and then we would branch off to other topics about our future plans. Having such conversations has very big advantages. Since we were talking about something more than just our common interests it helped me have a deeper conversation in korean. Compared to having Alvin or Suyeon as my previous language partners, I had a very different experience with Ji Hae. Alvin and I rarely had any conversation other than talking about grammar since we were not really friends. With Suyeon, although we frequently talked about different things other than grammar, the conversations were almost always about our likes and dislikes. But with JI Hae, since she has known me for the longest time, our conversations ranged from our likes and dislikes to future plans, anxiety, stress and many other aspects of life. It really helped me expand on my vocabulary and use different forms of sentences. 

I looked into korean phrases and words that are used by contemporary koreans. These are basically short forms of words which are similar to "bff". 

1. Namsajin: a male friend

2. Namchin/Yeochin: Boyfriend or girlfriend

3. Coolchaem: interesting thing

4. Nochaem: Something uninteresting

5. Soolkamal: speak honestly

6. Theorepkae: badly

7. Bhumcheolnam: man who just got married

8. Mossol: someone who never had a boyfriend or girlfriend

9. Keukhyeom: extreme disgust

10. Mildang: push and pull in relationships

11. Naega ssolkkae: I will pay/ it is my treat. Actually the last part of the phrase means to shoot. 

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As I have been practicing reading korean with Ji Hae, I am always looking for opportunities to read korean on a daily basis. Social media has been a great help in this case. I opened an Instagram account and started following my favorite korean celebrities. As a result, whenever they post anything on Instagram they almost always have their captions in korean or write comments in korean. Thus find myself trying hard to read and understand what they said not with the initial intention of practicing korean but simply out of the desire to know what they are saying. Another advantage of Instagram is that the words that are used are the words that are very frequently used in conversation and daily life. On the other hand, the words that are usually used in lyrics of songs, books and in korean language level tests are usually only used in written korean and contain words that would never be used in day to day conversations. In order to expand my knowledge of useful words I have also started watching korean shows without subtitles. This forces me to pay more attention to what is being said. I have started to notice the pronunciation of different words, looking for new words, trying to figure out their meanings and many little details that are usually missed while reading subtitles.  

I was watching a Korean variety show one day about kids and they showed how the children spent their day at a folk village school. It was the first time I heard about something like a village school. Therefore I did some research and found that there is a folk village in Korea in the city called Yongin. The village consists of around 270 houses which are designed like the houses in the Joseon era, different workshops and farms. There is also a village school where the children from the variety show had spent their day. Through the show I was able to learn a lot about the school. 

In the show, the children went to the school with their respective fathers. The school building is designed like a traditional korean house and is made mostly of wood. Once they arrived at the school they were greeted by their teacher who was dressed in a hanbok. Both the children and their fathers were made to change into hanbok once they arrived. The children were taken to a traditional classroom where there were several other children (3-4 years old) and were given lessons on good behavior and etiquette. They were taught how to be a good child such as how to greet parents and how to answer to their parents with respect and politeness. Next they were taught how to make ink and do calligraphy. They were taught to be more disciplined. From the show it looked like the parents of the children were very serious in their intentions for their children to learn good etiquette and proper behavior. It made sense because such values of respect and formality is very ingrained in the korean culture that parents teach their children such values from a very early age. 

After the previous tutoring session with Ji Hae I realized that I needed to be more organized in my thoughts and speech. Therefore, I decided to write a small text and if it would help me use the connecting words more naturally. I decided to write about the Korean drama that I was watching at that time. At first, I was facing the same problem as I was facing before. I ended up writing short sentences. But then I started thinking of ways to connect the sentences using different connecting words. I found out that I was familiar with a lot of connecting words which I had never used. I realized that if I took some time to think about what I was about to write, I could make better sentences. The next time when I had my tutoring session with Ji Hae I tried to think before speaking instead of saying what first came to my mind. Although it took me way longer than usual to say that same thing, the sentences that I said and my ideas were better connected as well. I showed the text that I wrote to Ji Hae and I she corrected it. As she was correcting I found out that I writing Korean was definitely my weakness. I tended to write words as it is pronounced and I still could not get used to way words are spelled in Korean. 

The next time I met with my language partner, we practiced speaking and writing. I talked about what I did all day that day. While I was speaking, I came to realize certain things. Firstly, I found out that I have trouble using numbers. I have hard time remembering numbers and keep forgetting with set of numerals to use for time and which one to use for counting objects. Moreover, I realized that when doing a monologue, I tend to say things as a string of short sentences and keep using the same connecting word 'and' over and over again. It was not as if I was not familiar with other connecting words. I knew them but I had difficulty using them spontaneously. Therefore, I asked Ji Hae to demonstrate the use of other connecting words and she talked about what she did that day using several different connecting words. Following her example I made a sentence using different connecting word. I realized that I needed to put in more thought before making sentences in order to avoid speaking in short sentences. 

In South Korea, all major religions like Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam exist. In addition, shamanism, the practice where someone interacts with the spirit world, also exists in Korea. According to 2005 statistics, 53% of the Korean population has a religion and in 2008 there were over 510 religious organizations in Korea. Among the existing religions, Buddhism and Confucianism have the most influence on the life of Korean people. Also, over half of the country's listed cultural heritage are related to those two religions. Of the people who have a religion, approximately 43% are Buddhist, 34.5% are Protestants, 20.6% are Catholics and 1.9% are followers of other religions. 

Confucianism was established during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Confucianism was more like a system of ethics than religion. It stressed on loyalty, filial piety and other such virtues. It can also be considered to be the source of patriarchy in Korea. Confucianism also values ancestral worship as it is believed that ancestral spirits can affect the lives of the descendants.

Catholicism came to Korea from China through the envoys of the late Joseon era who visited Beijing and the Western priests. However, the early Roman Catholics in Korea were severely persecuted. Protestantism came to Korea during the late 19th century by North American missionaries. It became popular very quickly through school education and medical services.  

There are also other religions in Korea. Cheondogyo is formed on the basis of the Eastern Learning (Donghak) of the 19th century. It maintains the doctrine that Man is Heaven, which exerted a strong influence upon the process of modernization in Korea. Daejonggyo was established in the early 20th century to worship Dangun, the founder of the first Korean state. It also affected the life of ordinary Korean people, boosting Korean nationalism. In 1955, there appeared the Islamic Society of Korea and the first Korean Imam, followed by the foundation of the Korean Muslim Federation in 1967. Islam currently has about 60 places of worship across Korea and there are about 100,000 Korean Muslims. In addition to the major religions, shamanism has also played an important part in the daily life of the Korean people, trying to help them connect with the spiritual world and making predictions about their future.

During the first session with my language partner I focused on reading and comprehension. To practice reading, I chose to read the lyrics of a song that talks about the daily routine and family relationships. I had to be very careful selecting a song since most of the songs talk about relationships, love and emotions. Such topics were not suitable reading material as they involve comparisons, abstract descriptions, and words which are rarely used in daily conversations. Even though it was difficult to choose a song, I still wanted to practice reading with lyrics because it would be easier for me to remember the vocabulary as I would be listening to the song frequently. Reading the lyrics I learned how to pronounce different words. Although I know how to pronounce different letters are vowels, there are always exceptions in the pronunciation of certain words. There are also different rules such as sometimes 'ss' is pronounced as 't'.

I also tried comprehension by working through the questions in an online Korean level test. At first, I tried the questions in the intermediate level, however, I found that my reading and comprehension skills were not yet at the intermediate level. As a result, I tried the beginner level questions and found them much easier to handle. Even if the level was beginner, there were several words that I did not know.

My cultural goals for the semester are as follows:

1. I would like to explore religion in South Korea. I want to learn which religions are the most prevalent and the influence of religion on the daily lives of the older and the younger generation. 

2. I am interested in learning about the most popular professions in South Korea. I would like to explore questions such as what are the dream jobs of most of the young people, what are the expectations of parents. 

3. I want to learn about slang words in Korean and what the young people in Korea do in their leisure times. 

4. I would like to explore different themed cafes that exist in South Korea and try to understand what it says about Korean views and principles. 

The previous semester my goals were to learn more grammatical rules and become more comfortable in conversational Korean. I also wanted to get a lot of practice in reading and writing. At the end of the semester, I felt that  definitely had a better grasp on grammar and was also being conscious of using grammatically Korean when speaking, using the correct endings with words and simply not taking two minutes to complete a sentence. Although I got a fair amount of practice reading Korean, I was still far from being fluent at reading. It would take me several minutes for me to read a few sentences. Moreover, I was terrible in spelling words. 

Therefore, as my goals for SDLC 113 I planned to do the following:

1. Improve my reading skills by focusing on correct pronunciation of words and speed.

2. Writing simple texts such as emails, texts or stories. 

3. Using more connecting words when I am speaking and writing. 

4. Be more grammatically correct speech. 

5. Being able to hold a conversation on a random topic. 

6. Being able to express my opinion. 

7. Being able to justify myself or a point of view. 

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My final learning plan is as follows:

Grammar:

1. Pronouns (formal/informal)

2. Conjugation of verbs in past present and future

3. Adjectives

4. Sentence structure and endings of words

Tasks:

1. Tell time

2. Count objects

3. Read easy texts

4. Write about someone

5. Describe actions and pictures

As I looked at the different national holidays the following things stood out:

1. The celebration of Chuseok and Seollal start off with ancestral rites. This shows how much Koreans respect their ancestors. Moreover, they also look up to them for blessings and for the well-being of the family. They also clean the graves regularly and also go through elaborate preparation for the rituals.

2. Food is a big part of such holidays where a wide range of traditional dishes, using natural and fresh ingredients. 

3. The preparation for these holidays usually start the day before which shows its significance in Korean culture. 

4. The importance of family in Korean culture is also very noticeable as they always tend to get together to celebrate holidays. 

5. The Koreans also value their traditions and roots a lot as they tend to play folk games and wear traditional clothes during the holidays. 

Korean Independence 

This holiday is celebrated on August 15th and it commemorates the liberation of Korea from 35 years of Japanese colonization in 1945. In Korean, this day is called Gwangbokjeol. "Gwangbok" means "restoration of light" and "jeol" means "a period of time". This day was officially declared as a public holiday in 1949 and it is one of the few public holidays that is celebrated by both South and North Korea. However, in North Korea it is called "Jogook haebang-ui nal" which means "the liberation day of the motherland". 

In South Korea, an official ceremony takes place at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan or at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. The South Korean national flag, Taegukki, is displayed in all buildings and homes. Most public museums and places are open free of charge to the descendants of independence activists on this day. They can also travel on public transport and trains for free. 

The Korean national anthem is sung at official ceremonies. The government also issues special pardons on the Independence Day.