https://vocaroo.com/i/s16ReJ8SNWYX

I recorded a conversation with  my mom talking about general things in life, making sure that I incorporated some of the vocab words that I learned. In addition, I worked on my pronunciation and my oral communication. I believe that this artifact is a good example of the progress I made in my language throughout this semester. 

우리 가족.

엄마: 열심히 일하는 아줌마. 시골에서 나왔던 여자가 열심히 공부해서 대학교를 졸업했다.

아빠: 대한민국 육군 특수전사령부 나와서  Ecuador 으로 갔다. 거기에서 이십년동안 있었습니다. 가방을 팔고, Casa Choi 해서 돈을 많이 벌었어요.  미국에서 비디오 가게 일하고 많이 노력했습니다.

큰누나: Ecuador에서 태어나서 열두 살 때 미국으로 왔어요. 지금은 Seattle 에서 초등학교 선생님 입니다.

작은누나: 미술을 공부 하고 나서 좋은 회사에서 일하고있습니다. 우리 엄마 철험 열심히 일하고 열심히 싸운다.

This semester, my study into the Korean language and Korean culture offered me a different perspective into what I was accustomed to my entire life. I was able to read up more on the history behind why Korean cultures act in a certain way, as I could relate to it in my own life experiences with Korean people.

Learning my language in depth and being able to constantly practice with it outside of my family members was a rewarding challenge for me. By being able to speak with native speakers, I had to constantly ask what certain words, or use my contextual skills to find the meaning of a word within a sentence. In addition, by exposing myself to large amounts of Korean media to enhance my Korean, I found myself picking up my pronunciation to be better as well as using phrases that I hadn’t used before.

I found it difficult to spell Korean. It still is a problem for me, especially since there are a variety of ways one could go about spelling a word and sounding the same. I did enjoy this experience in learning more about the language and the history behind it. I knew about Korean being linked to Hanja, the Chinese written form of Korean, but I did not know that Koreans did not actually use their own alphabet until the late 19th century, despite the language being created around the 1400s, nearly 450 years prior to its creation. I am impressed that it survived that long.

In addition to that, presenting about Korean hip hop, a topic that I am extremely interested in, especially since that was one of my resources to expanding my vocabulary, helped me understand more about the contrasts of Korean pop culture and its traditional culture.

The readings that I found the most useful were the bilingual articles. Growing up as a bilingual, I had constantly heard that bilinguals’ brains were wired differently than those who grew up with just one language in their household. But to actually read an article that confirmed that the way bilinguals brains were actually focused on different areas on the brain was a very interesting read. It was also useful to know that the brain patterns could mimic bilinguals even later in life, which gives me hope for when I want to learn another language later down the line. I would love to be able to become more fluent in other languages.

I would love to be able to learn more about etymology and the origin of languages. I always found that aspect extremely interesting. It was one of the main topics of the semester that I was genuinely interested in.

Luckily, being Korean and surrounded in Korean culture, I always have opportunities to continue my learning. During my winter break, I plan on continuing to learn the Korean language, since I have a lot more time, by using my Mango resource and hopefully picking up a Korean textbook. I also want to look for jobs in Korea, so that I can become fully immersed into the language and my language capabilities would expand dramatically.

First Artifact: Greetings, farewell, and introductions.

안녕하세요. 권오환 이라고합니다. 저는 스물한살 이에요. 사학년 대학생입니다. 제 전공은 경제학 하고 국제연구 입니다.

당신은 이름이 무엇입니까? 몇 살이에요? 남자 친구 있어요 없어요? 없으면 저랑 커피 한번 마셔 주세요.

좋아! 그러면 인제 붙어 반말으로 하자.

안녕! 다음에 보자.

As this was the week before presentations, and I was doing a deeper presentation on hip hop, I decided that my goal for this week was to enhance my listening capabilities and break down some of the lyrics that I was listening to in order to explain to the class the unique aspects of language these lyrics were using.

My goal for this week was to improve my reading capabilities. I did this by reading an article about a Korean hip hop artist that I liked, providing an interview with that Korean hip hop artist. Since I was interested in the topic, I attempted to translate some portions of it. I attached the translated portions into one of my artifact pieces. Not only did this improve my reading comprehension, but it expanded my vocabulary and helped me understand some grammar and syntax as well.

My goal for this week was to improve my writing, as I haven’t practiced that in a while. Thus, in order to fulfill that requirement as well as work on my artifacts for it, I decided to write a mock presentation about what I wanted in a girlfriend to be a future wife. I did this not only because I thought it would be fun, but also it would be relevant to me as my parents expect me to marry a Korean girl. By incorporating some vocabulary words that I had learned over the past couple weeks, I was able to correctly write a short essay about what I needed in my girlfriend. This definitely improved my writing ability.

My goal for this week was to expand my vocabulary again. I did this by testing myself on a list of ten vocab words for Korean Intermediate levels that I found online, and practiced how to spell them and how they are used in a sentence. I then facetimed my parents and practiced using these words, and asked in which contexts I would be using these vocabulary words. It is important for me to constantly try and use these words so that I don’t forget the meaning of these words.

My goal for this week was to improve my reading comprehension ability. I had been doing plenty of oral practice, so I figured it was time to improve my ability to read in Korean. Since I can read fluently, but slowly, I figured the best practice would be for me to read content that is similar to my level. I did this by continuing my practice in Mango, where I went to the advanced chapters and practiced my abilities. In addition to translating the English phrases, I noted the words that I didn’t recognize or was unfamiliar with so that I could incorporate for future use. For example, I had always used only one version of the word “very” in Korean, but now that I remembered there was another way to say it, I will start diversifying my vocabulary a little bit more.

My goals for this week were to practice my listening comprehension in Korean. In addition to that, to expand my vocabulary. Since I would be doing a presentation on Korean hip hop soon, I figured one way I could get ready was to listen to as much Korean hip hop in order to understand the meaning of some of these songs. This would have been helpful to my presentation. In addition, by constantly reinforcing the meaning of these songs, I would not only be able to expand my vocabulary, but I would have the pronunciation of these words engraved in my brain. Also, some syntax and grammar would be practiced by repeating along the lines of certain songs.

Although I have definitely been making progress in expanding my vocabulary and oral communication, I still feel I am lacking in taking the opportunity to really learn more Korean. I wish there was more of a classroom setting for me to be able to learn Korean in so that I could constantly challenge myself by having the pressure of quizzes or a professor evaluating my output into the course.

I feel as if I have not been utilizing Mango enough. Although I am doing my own individual methods to learning more of the language, I should use some form of textbook format to help me improve my capabilities towards the language. In addition, outside of the classroom, I will watch more Korean movies/television shows/interviews for my past time, as they can be both enjoyable and educational.

My goal for this week was to go about improving my listening skills in Korean. Sometimes if someone talks too quickly in Korean using too many vocabulary words I don’t know then I have trouble discerning the meaning of the statement. I accomplished working on this goal by listening to these Youtube videos dissecting films in Korean. Although these tasks were pretty difficult, I had the ability to slow down the video and to rewind or pause whenever I wanted. This helped tremendously for me to discern the meaning of the statement. Of course, there were still lots of vocabulary words I didn’t know, but by using the context of the statements, I was able to piece together the overall meaning of the video.

Goals: Expand my vocabulary in the Korean language; Practice speaking orally so I get the pronunciation of the words correctly

Resources: Korean-English dictionary on naver.com. Asking parents and other peers the meaning of some of the words. Practice speaking with them through the phone or face to face.

Evaluation: Ask them how I did, what I could do better speaking orally.

Tasks: Listen to five Korean songs, highlight words or phrases you don’t know, and look up what they mean; talk to my parents through the phone and make sure I incorporate these new words or phrases as well as practice speaking orally with them

I will evaluate my success in learning the new vocabulary words based on a quick vocabulary quiz that I can take for myself. However, since there is no grade, I will constantly be working at it so that I know how to spell it correctly, pronounce it correctly, and understand what it means. From now on, I will attempt to incorporate these words into my studies.

In practicing my oral communication, I will ask my parents at the end of our conversation how I improved in my Korean, and whether or not the way I spoke was any different from previous sessions. If it has, then I will assume that I was more successful than previous times.

Since I’ve been attempting to read and write in my target language most of my life, I will focus on my experiences that occurred this semester. I can undoubtedly say that this semester my reading and writing skills have improved tenfold. Although the spelling for my writing is still a bit iffy, I can definitively say that my increased vocabulary has expanded my ability to express myself in Korean. Whenever I talk to my parents or relatives, I can express certain things through written form. In addition to that, my typing in Korean is a lot faster, as I memorized where some of the keys are to be able to write. My reading has also gotten quicker. Instead of struggling slowly over words, I can now read a lot more fluidly without having awkward pauses in between. I can also understand what most of these words are, as I don’t have to devote as much brainpower as I once did in order to understand the meaning of the context of what I read.

Growing up as a bilingual, I was very interested in reading on whether or not bilinguals were actually smarter than those who grew up learning only one language. The reading discussed how bilinguals, while not necessarily more intelligence than their counterparts, had a stronger portion of the brain that dealt more with decision-making and control. This occurs because as children growing with two languages, they have to constantly switch over to the other language and decide which word, grammatical structure, or phrase they must use that is appropriate for the context of the situation. I know this occurred to me multiple times growing up, and sometimes I would accidentally use a word in other language than I intended. For example, when frustrated, sometimes instead of expressing my thoughts in English, it came out in Korean.

It is difficult to measure how many words I have learned in my target language, but I have constantly been attempting to learn more words whenever possible. During our SDLC sessions, our teacher occasionally offers us vocabulary guides with a fill-in the blank portion, as he teaches us the meanings of certain words. In addition, I try to write down words I don’t know in the Korean music that I listen to, and I look up the meaning of the word later on. Lastly, by changing the settings on my phone to all Korean, I was able to pick up some technical terms. Although I do have realistic goals for the acquisition of my vocabulary, I think it would be handier if I was in an actual class setting able to learn these vocabulary words. It would be helpful if I had someone quiz me every time and continued to quiz me so that I would be able to learn more words.

When languages die, a significant portion of the culture dies along with it. Many languages have expressions or words that are only available to be characterized by that certain language, and the death of a language results in the death of that expression or word. In addition, languages are often rooted to the identity of certain ethnic groups. To be considered part of a certain ethnicity, for example, one must be able to speak that language in the eyes of some ethnic groups. The death of a language seems to be inevitable for certain languages. Globalization has increased homogenization, allowing for a few languages to dominate most of the world. Although individual languages, especially those from native tribes, still maintain some relevance and attempt to save their language through the creation of dictionaries and online resources, these might remain to be the last of the languages. Actual verbal communication would be difficult to recreate, and would only be applied for scholarly text.

Korean is one of the more unique languages in that its written language was created by a former King designed to be so simple that even the commoners could learn it. Today it is still hailed as a near perfect phonetic language.  However, its language originates in Chinese. Thus, when learning Chinese, I find many similarities in words between the two languages. For example, the words for exercise, library, museum, sound relatively the same. In addition, Japanese colonization of Korea in the early 20th century affected its language considerably. Vocabulary from Japanese carried into Korean, where many words now have Japanese origins as well. Thus, learning the language’s history when learning Korean, understanding that Korean has many roots in Chinese and in Japanese.

The presentation that we did in class regarding some unique aspects of the cultures that we studied were extremely interesting. I learned some interesting aspects of Korean culture that I did not know of before. For example, one of the presentations highlighted Samsung's impact on Korean culture. It was extremely interesting to see how a company could have so much influence on a country's total economy and thus its identity. Samsung accounts for 15% of the country's GDP, an enormous amount for a company to own in a country as developed as South Korea. In addition, whenever Samsung has some embarrassment scandal, it is usually reverberated to the South Korean people, as they identify Samsung as Korean symbol.

The other presentation included the influence of Japanese colonialism on Korea, and how Koreans were restricted from using Korean during the years where they were colonized. This led to a lot of crossover words that were formed from Japanese culture. 

Even though the Culture Shock video was more focused towards international students acclimating to the environment in America, I experienced similar culture shocks when I first came to Richmond after living in southern California for the majority of my life. I grew up in a community that was made up of mostly immigrants and other ethnic minorities, so when I came to the University of Richmond, I distinctly felt like a minority. However, I was lucky enough to not have to go through the language barriers or even some of the cultural barriers that were described in the video. 

When I studied abroad in Hong Kong, for some reason, I did not experience a heavy culture shock. This might also be in part because I prepared myself for what was to come when I studied abroad, and I grew up in East Asian culture similar to the culture that was present in Hong Kong. The only time I experienced somewhat of a culture shock was how restaurants in Hong Kong treated their customers. Customer service does not exist in Hong Kong, as I've had many experiences where waiters yelled at me.