Throughout this semester I have learned a lot about linguistics and about the value of learning languages beyond just furthering communication. I had understood some of the parts of grammar from learning French, and I was aware of how some languages used different aspects of grammar which weren’t present in another language because of learning Korean particles. I’ve also learned about the cognitive and neuroscience behind the acquisition of foreign languages. The videos on color recognition and the sound associations with children and adults demonstrated how languages shape our understanding and perception of the world. I have to admit though that my personal progress hasn’t been significant in the last semester. I think I benefit from the organized environment of a traditional language classroom because I have always enjoyed in-class learning and I tend to absorb the textbook vocabulary. I also realized that I really enjoyed mixing in the cultural aspects of language learning. Whether it was through the esports presentations me and Logan did in class, or simply responding to questions about Korean that were posed by Dr. Marsh-Soloway, and having that prompt a discussion between the class about how something works in Korea.

When looking at the future I see my language learning journey being centered around immersion. I plan to move to Korea in the coming winter to teach English at a public school or 학원. I know that I work best when I am forced to do something and be in a working environment, as opposed to asynchronous studying, and having to keep myself to a schedule. By being in Korea I will be forced to speak Korean every day, listen to it all the time, and I will learn new words constantly. I would also like to enroll in language classes while I am there to propel my language learning, and target my writing skills. I think after the class I am actually looking forward to trying to learn more languages than just French and Korean, and maybe claiming that polyglot title. If I go down the history academia route then I would learn Polish or Russian because I am interested in the history of Slavic Europe in the early 20th century. My learning here would targeted around reading, writing, and historical cultural study, whereas Korean I want to be conversationally fluent because I want to be able to communicate freely with my Korean friends and effectively live and work in Korea. 

In class I found the dialect discussion particularly interesting, and I enjoyed taking the New York Times dialect quiz. It was interesting how it was sort of accurate to my current location, but it also had a strong presence from the Southwest where my dad and his family are from. On a similar geographic note I thought the concept of a sprachbund was really interesting, and I liked learning about the language families and visualizing them on the various tree diagrams. One thing I would want to do more of was our grammar exercise where we tried to break down various languages’ structures. I find that comparing the grammar structures of languages is one, fun, but also very helpful for understanding what methods you can use in understanding your target language. It is also a really good way to understand how grammar works structurally, and can demonstrate how the way a language is structured can affect your understanding of the world because you construct sentences in a very different way. 

Thank you for the class Dr. Marsh-Soloway, I looked forward to class every Tuesday, and I found our learning consistently fun and enjoyable.

Sincerely,
Ben Reilman

The first thing I wanted to note was when watching David Harrison’s interview on his book “When Languages Die” I thought it was really interesting when he was interviewing Chulym speakers because it seems that in the modern day the language has been preserved. There’s a band called Otyken, a Russian indigenous band which sings partly in Chulym, and in general celebrates their roots. So in this case it seems like a dying language (as seen in the interview) has been brought back to health. So languages can go extinct when the last speaker dies, but through digitalization and general documentation we can preserve a language. In the New York Times article Siletz is a native language that is on the verge of extinction and is being documented digitally so that if the language dies it can be resurrected by future generations. In order to preserve a language it's a complex process because there needs to be oral and literary documentation of the language, along with a documented system of translation. It seems incredibly important to preserve a language because the languages on our planet are cultural products that take hundreds and thousands of years to develop. Even if we have the language documented we can’t truly resurrect the meaning behind some of the words because the future generations learning the language will interpret the language through their own mother tongue.

I started writing in Korea during my Korean classes while I was abroad at Yonsei. I enjoy it quite a lot because I think the construction of the syllable blocks is very different from a traditional alphabet script, and having to plan out the spacing of the letters requires more forethought than in English. As far as patterns go, every sentence ends in a verb, and more specifically a verb ending which denotes the verb’s conjugation and the formality level at which you are writing (or speaking). I prefer handwriting because typing in Korean is very difficult because I don’t have a bilingual keyboard. I had used one on occasion in Korea at a PCbang, but still I typed almost entirely in English. I am more comfortable typing on my phone in Korean where I can quickly change my display keyboard to Korean, and I have started to be able to memorize the placement of the various letters on the keyboard as well. I think knowing that Korean is an SOV language makes writing easier because I can think in terms of my nouns first and then the verb fits more neatly at the end of the sentence, rather than in French where the conjugation of verbs is challenging because of the relation to the subject and the words which follow afterwards. However, Korean particles of course present a continuous challenge in writing because I often don’t know which one to use and it slows me down. I attached an old verb worksheet as an example of writing I have done. (ignore the vous "n'êtes pas intelligente" s'il vous plaît)

As far as my four areas I wanted to explore as a way to practice Korean and engage with the culture I am only really succeeding in the area related to gaming. I have been forced to engage with Korean daily due to my video game clients being in Korean, and despite not knowing what I am reading all the time it does make me sound things out, and try to comprehend what I am reading. I have been incorporating the IPA sometimes when I am thinking about sounds in Korean. Especially vowels when I am comparing how a similar vowel in English is different on the IPA vowel chart. I think I need to put more effort into the grammatical areas of Korean specifically. The song breakdown idea in my learning plan hasn’t really been explored yet, but it would present a good opportunity to engage with the grammar and spelling of a lot of unique words and phrases, and then when I listen to those songs it can better stick in my mind as I can translate and think about what I am listening to. As far as the cultural aspect is concerned I can’t say I am learning too much more than I already know from living there. I am enjoying some of the preliminary research on the research presentation I am planning to do on Korean E-sports. I definitely emphasize pragmatic competences in my learning so far because I have been exposed to a lot of abbreviations, niche lingo, and even Korean adapted English words and phrases. All of this has helped me get a better handle on some of the cultural references and how different tones and patterns of speech are employed based on the social circumstances. 

Korean, like Japanese, shares very few similarities with any other language. Some scholars have proposed that it belongs to the Altaic language family, alongside Mongolian and Turkic languages, however, the connection between the two only originates from a distant shared origin in and around Manchuria. Proto-Korean developed over hundreds of years alongside Proto-Japanese, and modern Korea actually shares some similarities with modern Japanese. Proto-Korean eventually gave way to Middle Korean with the establishment of the Goryeo kingdom (the namesake of modern Korea), and a resulting period of internal unity. Some sources place the development of the Korean language farther back in the kingdom of Silla which predates Goryeo and is more renowned for its contribution to Korean arts and culture. With the fall of Goryeo emerged the Joseon dynasty of Korea. This dynasty would rule Korea until Japanese colonization in the 20th century, and it’s neutrality and general isolation would give it the moniker “Hermit Kingdom.” Korea’s most famous king, Sejong the Great ruled from 10 August 1418 – 17 February 1450. Until this point Korea has had its own spoken language, but its writing was done using Chinese characters. Sejong created the 한글 (hangul) alphabet which for many years existed alongside Chinese characters. But in the 20th century as both South and North Korea emerged they transitioned completely to using the 한글 alphabet. 한글 as a very modern alphabet was constructed so that it could be taught easily, and the language is entirely phonetic as opposed to English. It uses a hybrid structure where individual letters are grouped into syllable blocks instead of individually strung together to form words. 

The topic I am interested in exploring is esports in Korea. Primarily the game League of Legends, but also Starcraft II and Valorant. This topic relates to Korea because in Starcraft I and II Koreans have dominated the competitive scene for decades. In League of Legends Korean teams are almost always the favorites, and Korean players are often superstars on other foreign teams. For Valorant, despite not dominating global events, Korean teams are still very competitive. Overall, Korea demonstrates dominance across three games in three different genres, and they have the most developed esports infrastructure in the world. In a presentation I would like to look at the history of Korean esports, and understand how the industry became so much larger than in the US, despite the games originating in the US. Along with this I would like to look at some of the most impressive Korean players and teams.

Starcraft may be the focus of the whole presentation simply because it has the most extensive history as an esport. Starcraft birthed the modern genre as competitive video games moved from being an arcade tournament to a televised product with sponsors, clubs, and salaried players. During my preliminary research I found a televised game from 2000, and some more interesting clips of classic Starcraft games with huge crowds and cash prizes back in the early 2000s. I would like to make a change over time presentation, that demonstrates who Korea has had a massive head start, and also demonstrates how large the scene is over there. 

As esports is an internet phenomenon, there is a long list of Korean slang and abbreviations used in games. 

The most important one for me in Korea was 한국어를 못해요 (I don’t speak Korean)

For the 5 roles in League of Legends these abbreviations are used

ㅌ - Top

ㅈㄱ - Jungle

ㅁㄷ - Mid

ㅇㄷ - AD Carry

ㅅㅍ - Support

For the most part the game specific language is actually just a Korean transcription of an English word.

Sound is about the oral expression and pronunciation of words, spelling is about their written representation. This distinction is significant because it complicates the language learning process when a language’s spelling and pronunciation do not match. It can been seen easily in English with the professor’s Ghoti/fish example. Korean is phonetically spelled as far as I know and there are little to no words that are spelled one way and pronounced another way. Although certain sounds are often cut from words to make the pronunciation easier or quicker. Korean has a simple set of vowels that reflect the English vowel sounds fairly closely; however, Korea does have a set of diphthongs which act like a second set of vowels in Korean. Korean consonants also have plain versions, and then aspirated and tensed versions of those consonants which are written similarly to their plain counterparts. The Korean consonants are often difficult to pronounce and distinguish because they appear to be between sounds we use in english. Such as ㄱ being between a g and k sound. In order to distinguish between the two I am trying to hear the sounds more often through consuming media. I am also practicing with words that are common and I have heard a lot before because I can relate how I sound to how I am used to hearing the word or phrase pronounced.

In addition to posting your learning plan to the Ning, provide brief commentary describing how you have organized your self-directed learning plan. What have you learned so far? Have you identified resources and textbooks to promote your task-based objectives? How will your studies allow you to investigate your target language and culture more deeply? What first prompted your interest, and motivated you to start learning? What feedback have you received from your classmates? 

So my learning plan was organized around what exposed and interested me in South Korea. I began with League of Legends and the LCK specifically because gaming was what made me aware of Korean as I played Starcraft 2 and watched the professional games from a very young age. So nowadays as League of Legends is very popular in Korea I found that engaging with what I am passionate about would resonate with me. Music and film followed as I met a lot of Korean students at Richmond, and what keeps me invested is my friends in Korea and my desire to be able to communicate with them in their native language. So far I have only learned the basics. I like to say I can impress elderly Koreans, but I am lost in full conversations. For concrete and more academic resources I am utilizing my Yonsei Korean textbooks to review and practice. I want to gain a mastery of this level one material that I used to learn just enough to pass exams, but now I can gloss over things and take the time to properly pronounce and use the vocabulary I am learning. On top of this I have been using Korean streams for League of Legends games, as well as duolingo. I find that during my Kakao conversations with my friends I have found that google translate is my best friend, but I try to always use it for one word at a time and construct things on my own. Eitan and I have discussed how we need to speak to each other more often in Korean. Even if we are only exchanging simple phrases because it gets us used to the sounds and further familiarity with the basics of conversation so they will feel natural when we are watching Korean media and chatting with people in Korean.

Summarize some of the main ideas behind Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture. Do you predominantly agree with these assessments? Are there any statements, generalizations, and opinions expressed in the reading that you find problematic? How do these ideas relate both to your own native culture, and the target culture associated with the language you are studying?

I liked how the reading broke down things into four categories of understanding. I feel like I am too used to seeing only individualist versus collectivist comparisons that often erase other differences like the ones mentioned in the article: indirect vs. direct, internal vs. external, and monochronic vs. polychronic. However, I still take issue with the generalizing notion that these discussions promote other cultures because they are just an aggregate on a population and most people will not fall into the average values or temperament that we expect from their culture. Especially because inside of these “collectivist” cultures they have their own unique terms and subcultures for individuals who express their culture differently. Promoting analysis of these well defined boxes may give foreigners the wrong impression of a culture, and promote ignorance when they travel and engage with the subject culture. 

Despite this I clearly understand that we need to generalize and categorize when researching and interpreting cultures and they have a lot of useful information. I thought that the monochronic and polychronic distinction was particularly interesting and valuable because it doesn’t encourage any understanding of individuals in a culture as a certain way, but does prompt analysis and reflection on your own sense of time. Particularly I thought that the US and Korea do have monochronic understandings despite having more general differences on the other three categories. But I would argue that France is a much more polychronic culture as they have a different relationship with working hours than either the US or Korea. Hofstede does acknowledge that it is a spectrum, and this acknowledgment is key in my opinion to making more responsible generalizations about a culture. 

The part of the chapter "How the Brain Handles Language" by D. Crystal on Dominance was super interesting to me. In class we had mentioned how the learning types were pseudoscientific and that made me think about other ways that people describe themselves; whether it was personality tests like MBTI or how people described themselves as left-brained or right-brained. And it may be the case that one isn’t more dominant than the other but it is surprising to me that the science reflects the split of the right and left hemispheres as having different fields of use. Although the literature mentioned that this was different for left-handed individuals. It is also interesting that language is generally a left-brain dominant, but that this isn’t universal and there are individuals where language is a right-brain dominant activity. I am curious however if this left or right brain dominance changes how an individual learns or expresses language because the left hemisphere is more analytical and the right hemisphere is generally considered to be more pattern focused and creative. It would be interesting to see if left handed individuals who are right brain dominant for language if they acquire languages more often or they can acquire them more easily or whether they struggle more. 

Despite growing up in Washington, a predominantly white and English speaking state I was surrounded by non-English influences. My grandmother, who I lived with for most of my childhood immigrated to the US from the Philippines and was followed soon by most of her immediate and extended family. This close relationship has meant that I have been raised in a mixed Filipino-American household where Tagalog was often present. Despite this I failed to pick up more than a few phrases and a little profanity. It wasn’t until tenth grade that I enrolled in my first language course, French. I performed pretty well in French, and after one year I continued taking courses in community college during my dual enrollment program. My college French class was a large step up in engagement and teaching as the environment was full of students actively trying to learn French as opposed to the high school population fulfilling their mandatory one year. Unfortunately the Covid pandemic hit and my French courses moved online which incentivized me to rely on google for assistance, and the weekly skype calls with the professor did little to keep my oral skills sharp. Once I got the UR I picked French back up and the 221 course helped jump me back into the study. However as I was taking the 301 and 305 courses I didn’t feel like I was improving very significantly. The classes involved a lot of writing and the limited speaking felt like I was just falling back on repeated phrases and according to my French roommate Henry I still sounded super American when I spoke. 

However, Things turned around during my study abroad at Yonsei in South Korea. Before flying out I spent the summer trying to learn basic phrases and the alphabet which wasn’t great, but it made my arrival a little easier. Arriving in Korea I realized that learning Korean was going to be a necessity in my survival and ability to thrive during my experience abroad. I got regular practice outside of the classroom, and during my classes there was a stronger focus on speaking than in my prior French courses. We would repeat each word and sound that was shown on screen, which was tiring but did the trick as far as making us comfortable speaking. I do regret not making a stronger attempt to have friendships with Koreans who weren’t perfectly fluent in English because it meant that my learning outside the classroom became limited after the first month because I was just regurgitating the same phrases I needed at restaurants, shops and other contact with strangers. After coming back and reflecting on the whole experience I think that I need exposure to new words and uses of the language in order to grow my skills. I definitely find value in classroom learning, but I think that once I get to an upper intermediate level then it requires some further level of immersion. For French I try to get that through setting my phone to French and listening to French videos and reading articles, but I get lazy often and default to English media. Korean shows and movies have been a big help for me, but really only for reminding me of the words I already know and the common conversational phrases. I think I should expand my learning by putting the subtitles in Korean so that I am forced to stretch my knowledge to its limit, and take in new knowledge. In the future I plan to live in Korea, so I’ll take what I learn in this course to help me engage with Korean more, and hopefully be able to achieve fluency.