Week 13

For week13, we had review class for what we learned so far. First of all, we reviewed alphabet and sentence structure: S+O+V+ending. Evelyn asked everyone to make a sentence so I wrote 데빈은 돼지 입니다.

And we also reviewed Korean number systems and used them to represent date, minutes, seconds, money, number of things, age, time, number of people. For instance, number of things used 개.

What’s more, we reviewed how to say day of the week, grammar and VOCABS we learned so far. At the end of class, everyone also did a self introduction again. Compared with the self introduction we did in the first week of class, we are able to give a much longer self introduction and we can speak more fluently. Our self introduction included my name, my birthday, my age , my nationality and my major in University of Richmond. We also introduced our favorite K-pop groups.

Week 14

Finals week – exam time!

Week 11

Since it is nearing the finals time, this week we are practicing our speaking skills. We did so by incorporating the different vocabularies that we learned this semester and formed sentences. We also learned how to say what our major is and what our favorite thing is as part of practicing self-introduction phrases.

We did the following:

Name: 저는 데빈 입니다 (jeun nun devin ibnida)

Age: 저는 스물 한살 입니다 (jeun nun sumul hansal ibnida)

Birthday: 제 생일은 천구백구십칠년 십이월 십파일 입니다 (jyeo saengil eun cheongu baekgu shipchilnyeon shibyiwael shibyiil ibnida)

Major: 제 전공은 PPEL 입니다 (jyeo jangunin PPEL ibnida)

Nationality: 저는 중국 사람 입니다 (jeun nun juonguk salam ibnida)

Week 12

No class. – Evelyn went to geography conference in DC

Week 9

No class – Spring Break

Week 10

During week 10, we started the class by discussing the film we watched last class and going over some of the common phrases that were said in the film. Watching a movie in Korean class was overall a good exercise because it helped with our listening abilities. For example, sometimes I can understand what the actors/actresses were saying and being able to understand that is really gratifying. Then, we watched another very popular Korean drama, called “Touch Your Heart” (진심이 닿다), It is the most popular Korean drama TV series right now. The show talked about a top actress suffering from a scandal that damaged her career, and was forced to step down from her job for two years. In order to get a role in a major upcoming television series, she had to agrees to get experience at a law firm, working as a secretary to a lawyer. The television was not very good and not quite as good as a listening experience compared to the movie film watched last class. This was because the actress tends to mumble a lot to act cute.

Week 7

For week 7, we learned:

 새벽: dawn.  아침: morning, breakfast.  점심: noon, lunch

 저녁: afternoon, dinner. 밤: night

 오전: AM  오후: PM

 그제: day before yesterday  어제: yesterday. 오늘: today

 내일: tomorrow 모레: day after tomorrow

 봄: spring. 여름: summer  가을: fall  겨울: winter

 날씨: weather. 춥다: cold. 덥다: hot

 And in the class, we had conversation practice such as 지금이 어느 계절인가(What season is it now)

        지금 몇 시예요(What time is it now?)  내일은 몇 월 며칠이에요(What date is tomorrow?)

Week 8

In week 8, we watched a movie called 극한직업(Extreme Job) which is a 2019 South Korean action comedy film. This is about a team of detective and police are given many chances, but fail over and over again. They are given one more chance, which is to catch a drug gang, before they all get separated into different police departments. They go into the chicken restaurant to go undercover, to find the drug gang. The restaurant was going to close that day, so they buy the restaurant, but somehow, after buying the restaurant, their new business turns extremely popular, distracting them from their actual job. A rich man, who is a part of the drug gang, which they later find out offers to buy the restaurant. Since their business is so popular, it gets turned into a chain, which is secretly selling drugs, disguising them in the products. Once they find out, however, they chase down the gang, and fight them, which in the end, they arrest. After a long fight, they succeed, finally ending the situation in Korea with all of the drug dealing. With doing this, their jobs are saved, and they are promoted to officer ranks, finishing the task they were given. The plot line is really interesting, and we were asked to act out the dialogue in the movie. I think it is a really good way for me to practice speaking.

Week 5

In this class, we did more vocabularies since they were a big part of what we set out to do in this semester.

Monday: 월요일 wol yo il

Tuesday: 화요일 hwa yo il

Wednesday: 수요일 su yo il

Thursday: 목요일 mok yo il

Friday: 금요일 geum yo il

Saturday: 토요일 to yo il

Sunday: 일요일 il yo il

Morning: 아침 a chim

Noon: 점심 jeom shim

Afternoon: 저녁 jeo nyeok

Night: 밤 bam

AM: 오전 o jeon

PM: 오후 o hu

The process has been pretty difficult with vocabulary retention. Since we don't use the words that often in real life besides during classes, they are often difficult to remember. I have tried just writing them down several times on paper to remember them better and that has helped.

Week 6

In this week, we reviewed everything we learned before.

Native (영/공,일, 이, 삼…십, 이십, 백, 천, 만, 십만, 백만, 천만, 억)

Dates: 이천십구년 이월 십칠일 (2019I년 2월 17일)

Minutes and Seconds: 일분 일초 (1 minutes 1 second)

Money: 만오천원 (15,000 won), 십오만원 (150,000 won), 천오백원 (1,500 won), 백칠십원 (170 won)

Phone $ 전화번호가 뭐예요? 나의/저의 전화번호는 팔삼이(에)사공사(에)칠일칠사 이야/이예요. (What is your phone number? My phone number is 832-404-7174

A class of review is really good halfway through the semester because it helped us remember all the material. We also used the vocabularies to build sentences and learned more about grammar rules.

 Week 3

In the beginning of class, we went over the homework assignment first. Then, we had also been assigned vocabularies to remember from last class. For example, we did Native: minutes(분(bun)), seconds (초(chu)), money(원(won) (백baek,천cheon,만man,십만shibman,백만baekman,천만cheonman))

Sino: things(개gae), time(한시hanshi), people(명myeong).

In this class, we also did the number system in Korean.

Week 4

We reviewed the Korea number system and learned more about how to differentiate usage in real life scenarios. The native system is used for dates, minutes & seconds, and money, whereas the Sino system is used for counting the number of things, age, time and number of people. For each of the usage, we made sentences out of each. So that means for sentences such as저는 스물 한살 입니다 (I am 21 years old).

Week 1

During the first week of class, we start off by setting some goals we want to achieve throughout the semester. We did so by first establishing what we remember from last semester, which are the alphabet, some phrases on self-introduction, the two systems of the Korean number. Then, we decided we want to learn more vocabularies this semester and more on sentence structure, grammar.

Week 2

Based on the goals that we established in the last class, we decided to first solidify our knowledge first. So this class, we reviewed simple concepts such as the alphabet, where Evelyn would say a pronunciation, and we write down the matching Korean letter. Then, we did the same thing but using words, and short phrases. Evelyn then assigned a short homework assignment for us to work on, which includes copying the alphabet and translating words.

The Chinese community is going crazy over a new Korean drama show called "Touch Your Heart" (진심이 닿다). I have recently started watching the show and it have been very funny and different from the past drama shows. The show is played by two very famous actor/actress, Yoo In-na and Lee Dong-wook, who have, in the past, played as a couple in the show Guardian: The Lonely and Great God. Their performance is also very good in this show. The drama is about a top actress who is experiencing her downfall due to a scandal and meets a lawyer, and the ensuing romance between them. 

I have been practicing Korean with my classmate Amber Shen, we use Korean keyboard to practice some basic greeting sentences such as how are you, and my name is .... This helps us reinforce our knowledge and practice even when we are not in class.

My love for Korean food grows everyday, yesterday I visited New Grand Mart again for a combination bowl of 탕수육 (sweet and sour pork) and 자장면 (a noodle dish with a sauce of pork, chunjang and vegetables)

Recently visited Gogi Bibimbap in Richmond. The food was really good and I prefer the bibimbap here because they allow me to choose my own vegetables and meat in the bowl. As most Korean restaurants I visited put kimchi or onions in the bowl, which I don't like eating as much, this option of putting my own choice is much better.

Some taboos in Korean culture are:

• Do not wear your shoes in places of worship or peoples’ homes
• Do not put your feet on furniture
• Do not eat or drink in public places while walking
• Do not place your thumb between your middle and index finger while making a fist as this an obscene gesture
• Do not use red ink. This is a symbol of death and is reserved only for writing the names of the deceased. It is considered unlucky and suggests you wish death to the recipient
• Do not use the number four if at all possible – if giving gifts, do not give four of something. It is considered unlucky due to the similarity between the Korean word for death and the pronunciation of the word ‘four’
• Do not stand too close to people you are meeting for the first time – keep an arms length between you

Some of these taboos are the same as Chinese culture, such as using red ink and using the number four. The number four taboo, I would consider to be the most important. I know that in some Chinese buildings, they avoid putting a fourth floor just to avoid the number. I don't know if the number four is to be avoided as much in Korea.

I have been reading about the proper etiquettes to follow when entering a Korean family home. There are some restrictions that are very different from Western culture. First, it is always the case to remove your shoes when entering someone else's home. Being invited to a Korean's home is an honor and politeness and respect is expected highly. Some ways of demonstrating this respect is to never pour your own drinks as the host will do so for you, and to bring a small gift as expression of your gratitude. Some of these restrictions are unsurprising because it is generally universal to treat the host with politeness and respect.

In class, my learning partner Evelyn gave me a Korean name that has similar meaning to my chinese name 경태 (gyeong tae), means admiration and sunlight. Like many other Asian culture, the Korean naming convention goes in the order of Family name first, and then given name. I recently read an article that states it is generally considered impolite to refer to people by his or her given name. Instead, they should be referred to by their professional titles, such as Mr, Mrs, Ms. etc, until permission is given otherwise. I think the extent to which this is true is another extension of the strict formality in Korean culture.

The sometimes burdensome formalities in Korean culture is largely influenced the strong ethics codes set out in Confucianism. Confucianism is one of the formal religions practices in Korea, among these major religions also consist of Buddhism and Christianity. But Confucian thinking influenced ancient Korean culture the most and therefore the fundamental values of Confucianism, such as filial piety, ancestor worship, and humanness, are most reflected in Korean culture. The formalities system, expressed through language and greetings, reflect these values. It is interesting to see a culture so dependent on Confucianism as guiding philosophy in politics and social live.

I have attached my end of the semester reflection paper #2 below. Thank you for the semester!

Reflection%20paper%202.docx

In Week 13, we discussed the top tourist attractions to visit in Korea. Since all of us have the goal of visiting Korea one day, we thought it would be appropriate to discuss the famous destinations. One of which is the Insadong Shopping District located in Seoul, containing everything ranging from clothes shopping, beauty products and souvenirs. Insadong is special because it has a lot of antique shops and intimate Korean tea shops that are great places for rest. Another location is the Gyeongbokgyng Palace, which was built in 1395 (over 600 years’ worth of history). The palace is a quintessential piece of Korean history. The complex is also home to two national museums with lots of artifacts and stories to tell.

In Week 14, we discussed the age system in Korea. It works quite differently than in the United States. Here in the U.S., your age is determined by your birthday. While in Korea, age is calculated by the first day of the year, and the day you are born makes you one year old. Age is very important in Korea as it related to issues of formality, which determines social interactions and how to speak to one another. The formula for calculating one’s age is: 1 + Current Year – Year of Birth = Korean Age. So my age would be 1+1997-2018, which makes me 22 years old in Korea.

In Week 11, our language partner showed us a popular Korean movie, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds. We watched the movie with subtitles but also was able to practice our listening skills throughout. I was surprised to find out that I was actually able to understand some of the phrases spoken by the characters. The action fantasy movie talked about the death of an ordinary fireman and three grim reapers who acted as his public defender in afterlife. The fireman was assigned 7 trials to complete in 49 days to find out how he lived his live and therefore where he ought to spend the rest of eternity. It was a very heart-warming movie with an interesting plot. I love Korean movies!

Week 12: Thanksgiving Break

During week 9, we learned about the different major holidays in Korea. One of which is the Lunar New Year, I was surprised to find the similarities and differences between practices in China and Korea. Koreans have an emphasis on kneeling on the ground to elders to pay respect while wearing formal hanbok, although Chinese also perform similar rituals, they seem less strict and less formal. Holidays are special ways to learn insight about Korean culture because it shows topics of formality and special cuisines eaten during these holidays.

In Week 10, we learned about the numbering system in Korea. There are two types of systems, used for difference purposes of communication. The first is Sino-Korean, or China System, it has words that sound very similar to Chinese numbers, and they are used for saying money, time in minutes, phone numbers, measurements, etc. The other is the Korea system, which is more modern and complex. It is used for time in hours, age, and counting.

Beginning of the seventh week, we started by recapping the complex vowels and consonants. And then we moved on to learning how to order food in Korean restaurants, this includes asking questions such as “what food do you recommend,” “How much is it?” But we also learned how to compliment the food, showing respect, etc. Ended the class with watching a foreigner visiting Korean street food in Myeongdong, introduced different kinds of street food. This week we visited a Korean restaurant inside New Grand Mart with our language partner to practice ordering food with Korean sentences we learned last class. I was able to communicate with the waitress. I ordered TangBok Bap, which is the sweet-sour pork with fried rice on the side.