I thought when I started learning Korean I thought as long as I can read and pronounce the alphabet and memorize words that it wouldn’t be that hard. However, I quickly learned that I would need to develop a kind of second brain for Korean. I would need to start learning the language like I was a baby. I thought it was very interesting when we talked about articulatory phonetics. There are some words in different languages that I can’t even pronounce. This is wildly interesting because it makes me think about how other languages came to be. Also, I thought it was very interesting to study grammar. Grammar varies very differently from language to language. At first, I thought it wouldn’t be that hard to wrap my brain around different grammar rules. But while learning Korean I quickly realized the simple switch from English’s subject, verb, object order to Korean’s subject, object, verb order compelled messed with my brain. So it was good to learn how grammar exactly works. I also enjoyed reading and watching how different cultures function differently and American cultures. I will most likely continue studying different cultures rather than their languages. I will expose myself to different media from different cultures and hopefully travel out of the country more often. 

I think the most engaging activity we did was when we shared different aspects of the languages we were learning. For example, one time we shared the differences in weird sounds in Korean, French, Spanish, and Oromo. I thought that was the most helpful because it created a more personal connection to what we were learning and helped me remember the concepts better. Also, learning by engaging with classmates and the teacher is always my favorite way of learning. I wish to continue learning about the evolution of languages. I always wondered how languages evolved over time. I would like to understand how and why English spoken in the 1700s changed to what is spoken present day. And in general, I would like to study how other languages transformed over time.

Korean martial arts date back to the prehistoric era. It was originally used for military purposes and has changed and evolved throughout the years. Some of the most popular Korean martial arts practiced around the world today are Taekwondo, Hapkido, and Taekkyon.

The history of Korean martial arts is closely related to Korea’s history itself. Korea has a very long history of invasions and war from other countries constantly badgering them. Because of this, Korean people began to create combat skills for survival and self-defense. During the Joseon dynasty, martial arts became much more official and formalized. The Korean military would establish martial arts schools and training programs. During this time martial arts developed into the popular martial arts we see today such as Taekkyon. During the 20th century Korean martial arts had a resurgence throughout the whole world. Taekwondo became a widely popular martial art practice across the world. Taekwondo was officially recognized as a sport by the Olympic Committee in the year 2000. 

Korean martial arts aren’t all about the physical aspect. It also had a large philosophical side. In order to fully recognize your true potential Koreans believed you needed discipline, self-control, a sense of responsibility, and respect toward one another. It was very important to grow the body’s strength alongside the strength of the mind. Many Korean martial arts also incorporate traditional Korean values, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. For example, Hapkido, which means "the way of coordinating energy," incorporates principles from both Confucianism and Taoism, emphasizing the importance of balance, harmony, and humility.

Taekwondo is one of the most popular Korean martial arts. Taekwondo translates to “the way of the foot and fist.” The part “Tae” means the use of the foot or legs. The part “kwon” means the use of hands. And the part “do” refers to the philosophical and spiritual aspects of the art, emphasizing the importance of personal growth and development. Taekwondo trains focus on kicks, sparring, and self-defense. In Taekwondo you are expected to be able to kick high, fast, and with strength. Also, in a normal Taekwondo training session, you are expected to ”spar” against a classmate. “Sparring” is a simulation of a real fight using Taekwondo techniques. Both people sparring would wear equipment such as a helmet, gloves, and shin guards. Sparring is necessary in order for students to fully understand how to implement techniques they learned and to develop their other athletic skills such as strategy, timing, and reflexes. Self-defense is another skill learned in Taekwondo. Students will learn how to escape “grabs” from an opponent. They also learn how to properly fend off enemies using their bodies or nearby objects.

Hapkido is another popular Korean Martial art. Hapkido is a more practical martial art. It focuses primarily on self-defense. And it uses the enemy's strength against them instead of relying on brute strength. Also, in Hapkido you learn how to disable an opponent by using joint locks, throws, and attacking pressure points. Hapkido was created in the 20th century by a group of martial artists. They wanted to create a form of martial art that was more effective and efficient than other forms of martial arts. They drew inspiration from Judo, a Japanese martial art, and Kungfu, a Chinese martial art. Hapkido was invented primarily for self-defense. You would use an opponent's “energy” against themselves. Thus, this martial art was much more applicable to all people who needed a form of defense. 

Taekkyon is a form of martial art that is much more different than the other two. Taekkyon is often called the “dance of martial arts.” In Taekkyeon you utilize your whole body and move in dance-like patterns. Similar to Hapkido, Taekkyon is more about using an opponent's energy against them. You would move your body in a way that redirected an opponent’s attack. Taekkyon’s primary philosophy was to resolve conflict peacefully and without harm. 

Korean martial arts have a deep history dating back thousands of years ago. Also, Korean martial arts have undergone many changes into what it is today. The different forms of martial arts may be different however they share a similar philosophy of self-defense and discipline. These attributes display what general Korean philosophy is about.

I am still writing a few sentences every day making sure to include new vocab. I am currently trying to use a lot more conjunctions and advanced adjectives. This helps me sound more fluent and natural in my writing. For listening I am listening to a lot of Korean music. I try to stay away from K-pop music because it is harder to hear the lyrics and also get lost in the music and lose focus on the words being sung. I am listening to 80’s Korean music. They sing a lot slower so it is easier for me to understand what is being said. By listening to music I am able to pick up on repeated words and every time I listen to a song again I understand more and more of what’s being said. I am continuing to read short paragraphs in Korean. I make note of sentence structures that confuse me and take a few minutes to fully understand what is being said. Then I try to write my own sentences in the same structure. For speaking practice, I call my parents every other day and I try to talk in Korean as much as possible. However, talking to my parents in Korean isn’t the best practice because they are fluent in English too so whenever I am stuck I am tempted to switch over to English. However, I call my grandparents every few weeks and they only speak Korean. Thus, speaking to them in Korean is much better practice because I am forced to remember all of my Korean knowledge. Over this semester I have improved my writing skills. However, I wish to improve my speaking skills. My language partner gave me a few tips to help me accomplish this. She told me over the summer while I am home I could dedicate part of my day where I would only speak Korean to my parents. During this time English is forbidden and I can only use Korean. One new strategy I used was solely using Korean when speaking. This has helped me strengthen my “Korean brain” because I am forced to think in only Korean. It is difficult but I have found myself using words and grammar in new ways to help me convey what I want to say. Also, switching to only a “Korean brain” has helped unearth old Korean knowledge and skills I had when I was younger and spoke Korean. For example, the other day I was talking to my Korean friend and I used a conjugation that I have never learned before. He pointed that out and complimented me and I realized that I knew that conjugation because either my parents used that conjugation a lot when speaking Korean around me, or I used it in my speaking when I was younger and spoke Korean. I will continue to use transitional words and advanced vocabulary in my writing and speaking. Also, I will continue to speak and write only in Korean.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1viRfduACrUD_tapgGCOJ86WpwAWjIwWX/view?usp=share_link

I am still writing daily journals. However, now I am writing much longer paragraphs including more details about the weather, what I ate, and activities I did. Also, I have learned a lot more conjunctions and transitional words. This has helped me advance my writing and connect sentences. Right now I am heavily emphasizing learning vocab. After I memorized the large amounts of vocab in each category, I am now writing example sentences for each word. I am basically creating my own dictionary. This has helped me solidify the vocab in my brain. Also, creating a self-dictionary allows me to go back and see what words I can use in my writing and speaking. On top of this, writing my own example sentences helps because I apply the words in ways that I would already use them. Also, I am speaking as much Korean as I can to my parents and they have been correcting my grammar and also teaching me some new words which have been helpful to my overall knowledge. I hope to practice my speaking skill as much as I practice my writing skills. Also, I hope to keep watching more Korean media so I can be exposed to the language more and more. Also, I hope to be able to read more complex writing than just the simple stories I have been reading. My language partner has continued to help me correct my writing and help me find relevant vocabulary, and she has given learning strategies that have helped me retain the vocabulary I have learned and expand my vocabulary and grammar. I have been using a quizlet a lot to help me memorize vocab. Also, I have been using textbooks to help me find vocabulary. The textbook has organized vocab into categories so it has helped me pick relevant vocabulary. One strategy I use is when I am writing my daily journals I keep my self-made dictionary open. Every time I want to add more complex sentences or feel like I could use more advanced vocabulary I look over my whole dictionary. This is helpful because my self-made dictionary consists of words I know and not words I don’t. Also, I organized the dictionary into categories so it is very easy to find words. Another strategy I use is to remind myself of Korean particles. A few weeks ago I often found myself misusing Korean particles, so now every now and then I will watch a youtube video or read an explanation online of particles and grammar rules that I have already learned. This helps me not forget how to use Korean particles and strengthens my knowledge of their use every day. I started this a couple of weeks ago and had to remind myself every few days. However, now I only have to look it up only once a week. The self-made dictionary and my daily journals are the best representation of the accumulation of my Korean knowledge. I will build upon my Korean skills by continuing to add more Korean words and more advanced words and I will continue to write in my journal every day and write a little bit more each time and use more descriptive words. For my strategies, I will continue to learn vocab by topics. These words I will have to either find online, in a textbook, or from native speakers. I usually learn new grammar rules from my reading so I will continue nothing new grammar rules and use them in my daily journals.

I would like to study the different dialects of Korean and I would like to study how Korean evolved over the years. Even though Korea is a much smaller country compared to America Korea contains many different dialects. The dialect changes greatly from the northern part of Korea (Seoul) to the southern part (Busan). Also, I would like to study Jeju’s dialect, an island south of Korea. Jeju’s dialect is so different it shouldn’t even be labeled as a dialect. Most native Korean speakers can’t understand the language spoken there and often need a translator. I would also like to study how Korean changed over the years. Similar to how there is old English and modern English, in Korean, there are traditional Korean and modern Korean spoken today. Native speakers have to think a little bit more when reading traditional Korean. I would want to study how Korean changed throughout the years into what it is today.

A language goes extinct when it is either not spoken or used in a community, or if another language is used within the community thus making the original language useless. When a language dies so does its culture and perspective on the world. It is very difficult to revive a dead language; however, linguists will often work with historians, anthropologists, and other professionals to understand the culture and the people that spoke the dead language. This helps linguists decode dead languages by being able to see what meanings they derived from the world and what was most important to them. However, it is often hard to translate the exact meaning because words often have different definitions. Linguists will also work with languages that are endangered. They will document writings and video and audio recordings for future generations to study the language if there are no more fluent speakers left alive.

Traditional Korean Games

Korean traditional games are a big part of Korean cultural heritage and even modern-day Korean culture. Some of these games include 제기차기(Jegichagi), 윷놀이(Yutnori ), and 투호(Tuho). 

제기차기(Jegichagi), also known as Korean footbag, is a game where players have to kick a shuttlecock-looking bag as many times as possible. It is very similar to keep-ups when you kick a soccer ball in the air as many times as possible. This game can be played either individually or in teams. The winner is decided based on who kicked the bag the most times. Jegichagi requires intense focus, skill, coordination, and balance. This game has been around for centuries and is often played at festivals, cultural events, or just on the playground at school.

윷놀이(Yutnori) is a game played with four sticks called Yut, a game board, and game board pieces. The yut are basically like dice and the game board acts just like any other game board like monopoly or life. The yut sticks are round but flat on one side. The flat side shows 4 x’s or dots depending on what sticks you have. The sticks can either roll on the flat side with the four x’s or they can roll on the opposite side rounded side with no marking. The combination of rolls you can get determines how many spaces you can move your pieces. For example, if you rolled four sides all showing the x markings that is called a yut and you get to move 4 steps. If you rolled four sides all showing no x markings then you get to move 5 spaces. The game board is in the shape of a square with an x in it. And the game board pieces can be whatever you want. They can be pebbles, buttons, or pieces of candy. The objective of the game is to move all of your game board pieces around the whole board back to the starting place before your opponent does. One of the unique aspects of Yutnori is that it is not just a game of chance - players can strategize and work together to block their opponents or gain an advantage. For example, landing on certain spaces can allow a player to knock their opponent's game piece back to the starting point, or move their own game piece ahead several spaces. Yutnori is another popular game played during festivals. 

투호(Tuho) is a game played with sticks and any narrow tubes like a vase or a basket. The object of the game is very simple. You have to throw more sticks into the narrow tube than your opponent. It’s kind of like darts where you want to aim for the middle. The scoring system can be manipulated to whatever the players want to do. For example, instead of staying in the same place and throwing a stick players can say each stick they throw must take one step back. Thus making the game more difficult. Another popular addition players make to the game is by adding additional holes next to the main hole. These other holes make it so the hole in the middle is worth more points and the holes on the side score the player fewer points. This game again requires skill, concentration, and hand-eye coordination. Again, this game is another popular game played at festivals. 

A lot of Korean traditional games such as these are very simple but require lots of physical and mental skill in order to be successful. These games show how underdeveloped Korean people were centuries ago. They did not have much other than what they had around them and made use of what they had and turned them into fun games that can still be enjoyed to this day. 

제기차기(Jegichagi)

윷놀이(Yutnori)

투호(Tuho)

Links

https://youtu.be/LZ6gbtLBkPU

https://peteachers.tistory.com/42

https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0059493

Jeju island’s original name was actually Tamna, and about eight thousand B.C. the first people inhabited it. At first, Jeju island was its own state, but later on, around the 5th century Jeju island combined with mainland Korea and ended up becoming a trading post between Japan and Korea. However, during the twelfth century, a group of rebels called the Sambyeolcho overthrew the government on the island and took control. However, once again in the fourteenth century, mainland Korea regained control over Jeju island. Korea used Jeju island as a prison that held criminals and political prisoners. Many of these political prisoners were intellectuals or of the higher class. Thus, they contributed heavily to Korea’s intellectual and cultural development. During this time Jeju island’s culture began to flourish. Many new folk traditions such as music, dance, and shamanism began to form. However, once again Jeju island yet again was taken control by another country. From 1910 to 1945 Japan annexed or took control of Korea. During this time Japan would use Jeju island as a military base. At the time Japan was trying to suppress Korean culture and even get rid of it and integrate the country into the Japanese empire. However, the people of Jeju island heavily resisted Japan. Many factors allowed the people of Jeju island to put up a tough fight. Some of these include a long history of dealing with outside forces trying to take control of them, knowing the physical environment better than the Japanese, and being geographically isolated from mainland Korea. Despite all their efforts the people of Jeju island could not regain control until 1945 when Japan lost World War 2 and was forced to free Korea. However, there was still more conflict to come. In 1945, Korea slowly separated into two different states. One in the north and the other in the south. The north was in control of the Soviets and the south was in control of the Americans. On Jeju island communist rebels coordinated attacks on government facilities all over the island. South Korea responded to this attack with mass arrests, extrajudicial killings, and forced deportation of suspected rebels and their families to concentration camps. There were estimated thirty-thousand deaths in the aftermath of the events.

Many of these deaths included civilians. Despite all Jeju island’s terrible history, today the Island is doing well and is a very popular location for Koreans to visit, attracting millions of tourists each year. The people of Jeju island have a culture and language that is very different from the culture of South Korea. In fact, the language spoken on Jeju island is so distinct that many consider it its own language rather than a dialect of Korean. Even my own dad who is a Korean-born citizen said he needed a translator when he visited Jeju island. Today Jeju island is most famous for its volcano landscape, distinct culture, heritage sites which pay homage to Jeju’s long history, and its beautiful beaches some of which actually have black sand because it's a volcanic island. Jeju island is basically Korea’s version of Hawaii.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/the-tragic-history-of-south-korea-s-jeju-island/4509004.html

https://ijto.or.kr/english/?cid=27

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/south-koreas-jeju-island-paradise-with-a-dark-side/2012/04/19/gIQAVlFaVT_story.html

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jeju-do

Right now I am writing in Korean freehand. I don’t like typing it because I don’t have the Korean keyboard memorized also it takes me longer to type because I have to first process which letters to write then I have to look for them in that order. I prefer to write by hand because first, it allows me to write each character properly, meaning the right strokes in the right order. Also just like writing in English, writing on a physical paper allows the Korean language to create a stronger connection in my brain because I have to process what to write and actually take my time while writing it. Korean sentence structure is in the order of subject, object, and verb. At first, it was a little difficult to get that order in my brain because English is in the order of subject, verb, then object. But now it is easier than before to write and read Korean because my brain has gotten used to it. I realized transitional words are essential in order to make complex sentences. I only know a few but even those few words allow me to write much more complex sentences. Korean has these grammatical rules called particles. I started off with three particles. The topic, subject, and object particle. You have to use these to mark the topic, subject, and object of a sentence. These don’t exist in English so it was very difficult for me at first. Therefore, in order to understand how to use these, I first started off with examples from the text book. Then I moved on to writing my own sentences with the help of my language partner. Then I started to read more Korean texts. Writing and reading have definitely strengthened my Korean skills.

I have made great progress so far in my language learning. I have been able to do most of what I had planned so far. I am writing daily journals, reading short stories, memorizing new vocab, and watching lots of Korean content. However, I am lacking in the speaking portion of my language learning. I do speak with family over the phone in Korean from time to time but I don’t practice my speaking as much as I do with my reading, writing, and listening. Learning about a language's family and history has helped me a lot with Korean because it allows me to identify where the majority of Korean words come from which in turn allows me to connect words to their meanings. For example, in Korean, a lot of root words, prefixes and suffixes can be traced back to Chinese. After I recognized this I began to recognize the pattern in other words. Recognizing these root words, prefixes and suffixes has allowed me to quickly pick up new vocab or has helped me interpret words I don’t know in my readings. Also, knowing the history of a language has helped me understand Korea’s culture as a whole. Korea was largely impacted by the Chinese; therefore, there are a lot of similarities between Korean and Chinese culture. Daily exposure to Korean through writing, reading, and listening has helped me develop a “Korean brain”. This means that I am not translating everything in my head from English to Korean every time I write or speak. Instead, I am developing a brain that thinks in Korean. Thus, I only use words and grammar rules that I know so far. This makes life a bit more difficult when using Korean because it’s like I have the proficiency of a baby in Korean but when learning something new I do have to start off with baby steps. Something I can do to improve my communicative competence is by reading and listening to media that is produced in Korea for Koreans. This will help me pick up words, phrases, and slang used in the present day in Korean. Therefore, reading old children's stories isn’t always the best solution because they contain many words that are not used at all in the Korean language.

Right now I am writing daily journals. In these daily journals, I start off by stating the date and the time. Then I write a sentence or two about the weather. Then I write a few sentences about what I ate. And lastly, I write a sentence or two about something I did that day. I am also reading short stories from a book I bought. These stories are only a paragraph long, each about a topic such as cooking or going to the movies. I underline words and grammar I don’t know and take the time to reread the sentence until it becomes a little more coherent. I am still learning new vocabulary. I am learning at least one hundred vocab words in specific topics. For example, this week my vocab words are adjectives so I will learn a hundred or more adjectives before moving on to a different topic like verbs or cooking. Also, for listening practice, I am watching Korean dramas and also watching Korean videos on social media. My goal for writing is to be able to expand upon more about the topic I am already writing about. For example, instead of saying what I ate, I wasn't able to describe how it tasted. Also, I would like to be able to write about different topics than the weather and food. My goal for reading is to be able to re-read the old stories I read in my book and understand them without having to look up certain words and grammar. My language partner helps me find vocab that is necessary for my learning. Also, she also helps explain sentence structures that I come across in my reading so that it makes more sense to me. Also, she checks over my daily journals and corrects them if it’s wrong or she changes my sentences to sound more natural. One strategy I use for my writing practice is repetition. When I come across a word I don’t know or a grammar rule I don’t understand. I make sure to include it in my writing every day until it becomes clearer. Then I ease off of the word or grammar rule and only use it every now and then. One strategy I use for reading is to break a sentence down word by word. I do this with sentences I don’t understand. Taking a step back to understand each word helps me understand the writing as a whole. Taking small steps into my reading helps me efficiently understand what I am reading. By writing every day my language skills get stronger because not only am I remembering vocab better I also am getting used to the Korean language structure. By reading every day I am exposed to vocab I have learned and new vocab that is relevant to me. Also, reading allows me to see what native Korean actually looks like in written form, so this helps me with my writing and helps me with my speaking because being able to visualize what I want to say helps me speak more coherently. Taking small steps and repetition is definitely key to learning anything and I will continue to apply these methods to new vocab words, grammar rules, and other important parts of Korean I need to learn.

Korean is argued to be from the Altaic language family. However, Korean did not descend from a single-language family. Korean evolved mainly from Chinese and neighboring languages such as Mongolian, Japanese, and Turkish. Korean started off as a spoken language and did not have an official script. Instead, Koreans would have to learn how to write in Chinese. However, the Chinese language system could not accurately represent all Korean words. So in the 15th century, King Sejong created the Hangul alphabet. He did this so the Korean language could have an actual alphabet and become its own language. Another benefit of making the hangul alphabet was that now everyone could learn how to read and write. Previously, only the elites learned how to read and write in Chinese. But now everyone has learned the hangul alphabet together. Because Chinese was the dominant language for Koreans before the hangul alphabet was created, a lot of Korean words used today can be traced back to Chinese roots and sometimes are the exact same word. In fact, in Korea students are taught some basic Chinese so they can understand where and why certain words and grammatical structures came from; thus, allowing them to better understand the language. Other two big languages that impacted Korea are Japanese and English, more specifically American English. Just like Chinese, a lot of Japanese words can be found in Korean too; however, Japanese is not as deeply rooted in Korean as Chinese is. So studying Japanese will only help you understand Korean better to a certain extent. After the Korean war. South Korea opened up its borders and became a big trading partner with America. Because of this, Korea became very westernized and now in the Korean language there are tons of cognates. For example, even though Koreans have a word for “ok” which is 네 (pronounced “neh”), Koreans will often say 오케이 (pronounced “okehee”) which is just supposed to mean “ok” like “okay” in English. Knowing that a large part of Korean derives from Chinese allows me to see that studying some Chinese might help me improve my general understanding of Korean a lot better which will help me understand why the language is what it is today, and know that there are a ton of cognates with English will help me a lot because now I know that I most likely know hundreds of Korean words just from English.

In Korean, there are many cognates in its language. For example, 피자 is pronounced pija. The word translates to pizza. The reason why Korean has so many cognates is because of Japan. Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945. During this time, Japan forbade Koreans to speak and learning Korean. Instead, Koreans had to speak Japanese, and Japanese is full of cognates. The reason why there are so many English words is that the U.S. traded a lot with Japan. Thus, a lot of English words got incorporated into Japanese. And this translated into Korean because they were never able to create new words for new things introduced to them. Things like pizza. Because there are so many cognates in Korean this will help me learn Korean because I will already know so many words in Korean it's just a matter of if I am pronouncing them correctly.

I was born and lived in Georgia for my whole life. As a kid, I learned to always respect my elders. I had to say yes ma’am and yes sir to all my elders. I would say thank you to everyone everywhere. I would say thank you to the Publix cashier and always thank my mom after making dinner. But I was also raised as a Korean too. Similarly, I was taught to bow and say hello whenever I met older Korean people and say thank you to speak formally to all adults. I never really thought about it because there were formalities in the way you spoke and acted to elders on both sides of my life, American and Korean. But it wasn’t until I started to learn Korean that there was a reason why I spoke a different way when addressing my Korean elders. While other languages have things such as gender that dictate a large part of the language, Korean emphasizes formal and informal speaking the most. Words are written and spoken completely differently when speaking formally compared to when you speak informally. Anytime you speak to an elder or stranger you must speak formally or else you are seen as rude. People will even apologize profusely if they accidentally say something informally to an elder, and sometimes elders will even get mad if you don’t speak formally. For example, you wouldn’t call your siblings brother or sister, you would call them Korean older siblings or younger siblings. However, everywhere in the world people tend to speak formally towards elders, so it’s nothing crazy hearing that Koreans also have a deep sense of respect towards their elders shown through their culture and language. However, something different about Korean compared to English is that In English there are different words you use when speaking formally. For example, a formal way to address someone in English is to say hello. An informal way would be to say something like what’s up or yo what’s going on. There are completely different words used in English. In Korean, the same root word is used. It’s just conjugated differently. For example, the formal way to say hello would be 안녕하세요, and the informal way to say hello would be 안녕. Even if you don't speak Korean you can see the same characters are used. It just looks like the formal one has more characters added to it. So for almost every word in Korean, without changing the word, there is a formal way to say it and an informal way.

Although I have not learned a lot of Korean yet I can assume the importance of the sociology and anthropology of the Korean language. For example, the benefit of studying the sociology side of Korean is understanding certain phrases, words, tones, and pronunciations that Korean people use in order to properly communicate with each other. There may be certain phrases that are specific to the Korean language that can’t be easily translated into English because the semantics of that certain phrase has more meaning to Koreans than to Americans/ other English speakers. The benefit of approaching Korean in the subject of anthropology is understanding how and why the language came to what it is today. In the old times, I know Koreans used to speak in a different way similar to how when we think of American English during the revolutionary times it sounds and looks a lot different than modern English used in America.  Understanding how Korean got to its modern-day form may allow me to better understand the importance of words and phrases than weren’t used in the past and why they are used now.

Food is a huge part of Korean culture and any culture in general, but I think Korea has one of the most diverse and interesting foods in the world. There is so much to Korea’s food culture that makes it so interesting. For example, Koreans film themselves eating Korean food and this is not only big in Korea but became very popular in America. These videos are called 먹방 (Mukbang). In a mukbang there is a wide variety of food and the video consists of usually just one person eating all the food. There is usually no commentary just a video of someone eating food. I don’t find these videos interesting but millions of people all over the world love watching mukbang. Nevertheless, I thought it was very cool because people were recognizing and enjoying a part of Korea’s culture which makes me happy. After all, my food is known to other people in other cultures in the world. Another branch of food culture in Korea is Korea’s food delivery system. In Korea, it is very common to have food delivered to your house/apartment instead of cooking at home. Families will often have food delivered instead of cooking a meal at home. Even though in America delivery services such as GrubHub and uber eats deliver food from all restaurants, food delivery is offered by almost every. A third major part of Korea’s food culture is 김치 (Kimchi). Kimchi is a staple of all Korean food. It is a side dish that is eaten with almost every meal and is often eaten on its own. Kimchi is simply spicy fermented cabbage. Kimchi was created roughly 4,000 years ago. It was made so that the people could have something to eat during the harsh winter. An interesting fact about Kimchi is that it did not always have its famous spicy flavor. It was made without chili flakes and only changed during the 19th century. Thank God because the spice makes it taste way better. As I mentioned earlier, Kimchi is often eaten by itself. In America the classic school lunch is a sandwich; however, in Korea, the classic lunch is Kimchi and rice (and other foods but kimchi and rice are always the main foods). My dad told me that when he was in school his go-to meal was Kimchi and rice every single day. I asked him if he ever got sick of it and he said no, but to be fair I ate a sandwich almost every day from kindergarten to my senior year of high school. I even see him eat Kimchi and rice to this day. This shows how prominent and loved Kimchi is in Korean culture. The final food culture I want to discuss is Korea’s street food. When I went to visit Korea in middle school my dad made sure that I had the full Korean food experience. Thus, he took me to a random street where there was a street full of food vendors. Similar to New York, there are street food carts all over the place, but they don’t usually sell meals only quick bites. The main foods that are served are called 떡볶이(Tteokbokki, spicy rice cake), 순대(sundae, blood sausage), 김밥 (gimbap, seaweed rice roll ),만두 (mandu, dumplings), 오뎅 (Fish cake), and many other delicious foods. I would love to describe each and every food, but I will only pick one to describe. 떡볶이 romanized as tteokbokki is a dish that primarily consists of spicy rice cakes. Rice cake is most popular for its chewiness. It is a one-of-a-kind food that I can’t compare with other food. Tteokbokki include fish cakes, egg, and sometimes ramen noodles with it. Its taste differs from person to person. Some people will make it spicy beyond anyone’s spice tolerance and others will lean more toward the sweeter side. This dish is a nice snack to have after school or late at night. 

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20201217-how-kimchi-rekindled-a-decades-long-feud#:~:text=%22Kimchi%20is%20a%20traditional%20Korean,many%20Koreans%20died%20of%20starvation.

https://www.qustodio.com/en/blog/what-is-mukbang/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQfWxm9oQpk&ab_channel=JanandAnn

The task I worked on this week was memorizing basic vocab words. I started off with groups of words. The groups of words I memorized were food, weather, colors, numbers, activities/ hobbies, and family. What I hoped to accomplish was to memorize the vocab words not only from Korean to English but also from English to Korean, and my language partner would then quiz me at the end of the week to see if I was able to memorize the vocab words from Korean to English and English to Korean. I created flashcards on quizlet. Quizlet reads the word to me in Korean which I think will help me with my auditory skills. I didn’t sit down for an hour and memorize the words. On my walks to class, and dining halls, to meet friends I would work on my flash cards. Also, I would try to point them out in the physical world to help me create a real-life connection. After I memorized from Korean to English I would memorize it from English to Korean. After I would memorize the word both ways I would continue to review and then try to use the words in my normal day-to-day speaking. I think my learning strategies were very effective. Spitting up my study session into multiple short sessions a day helped me retain the information much better, rather than sitting down for an hour each day and running through each vocab word. Also, memorizing the vocab words both ways allowed the Korean words to flow through my brain much more fluidly. If I only memorized them from Korean to English then I would only be developing my Korean brain and not my bilingual brain. Each week I will continue to memorize more vocab words until I reach the point where I have enough vocab memorized that I can move on to the next step which is writing sentences. I will use the words I have memorized and write sentences describing an event that happened in my day. What I liked the most about how I learned the vocab words was a number of things. The main learning strategy I liked was the small consistent efforts I made throughout the day. Having many short study sessions spread throughout my day allowed me to be more concentrated on what I was doing and not lose focus and retain the information better. I was constantly reminding myself what the vocab words were so that by the end of the day I would not forget. Rather, if I just sat down for an hour and studied the words I would have most likely forgotten them within a few hours. Also, I like how the words were applicable to my daily life so I could use the words immediately after memorizing them. Therefore, when I move on I will pick activities and resources that interest me personally. Another strategy I like is how I would randomly think about the vocab word in my brain and then if I couldn't remember it then I immediately searched it up and repeated it to myself. For example, I was walking to the dining hall and was looking at the sky and saw some clouds. I remembered that I had to memorize the vocab word for cloud but I couldn’t remember what the word was in Korean, so I searched it up and then repeated the word in Korean out loud to myself until I felt confident it stuck in my brain. Another example of this strategy was when I dedicated a day to learning colors so as I was memorizing the flashcards I would also look for the color somewhere in the real world and then say the color out loud so that I could build a visual/ physical connection between the Korean word for that certain color and the actual color. Another learning strategy I used was learning one group of vocab words at a time. I would dedicate one or two days to learning only one group of vocab words at a time. I did this so that I could focus on one set of vocab words at a time instead of flooding my brain with all of them at the same time. This allowed me to learn all the words much more effectively.

Figuring Foreigners Out splits cultural values into five categories. The first one is about being either alone or belonging to a group of people. If you are alone then you must take care of yourself by yourself. However, if you are in a group then you rely on others to take care of some of your needs. The second one was about communication verbally or non-verbally. In a culture how do people primarily communicate with each other? Do they say everything verbally or rely on physical cues or both? The third is about how cultures view time. Is time limited or is time unlimited? Do you have to make use of every second of the day or believe that you have tomorrow to finish a task? The fourth area that is talked about is internal vs external. Are the results in your life directly correlated with your actions or do some things happen to you randomly without reason? And the fifth and final subject that is talked about is how well people communicate with each other. How well can people in the same culture understand each other indirectly? Hofstede also puts cultural values into five categories one of the categories Hofstede mentions is masculinity. How strongly does a culture put emphasis on masculinity? I personally like Hofstede's cultural values more than Figuring Foreigners Out. Hofsteded examples such as masculinity are much more prevalent in cultures I have seen. In Korean culture, men are required by law to join the military but women are not. However, in American culture men and women are treated the same. I feel like the categories in Figuring Foreigners Out can be seen in all cultures at all sorts of ranges. For example, the value of indirect and direct communication. In America and Korea not all of the population is on the same level of understanding. The people in each country are on a wide range of direct and indirect communication. One culture doesn't act all the same.

My learning plan

The first step in my learning plan is learning vocab words. In order to understand a language you need the basic building block of vocabulary, and I lack a lot of vocabulary in my speech. Then, I will test my vocabulary and write a sentence or two describing my day.  After this, I will test my language skills by watching a Korean kid's video and seeing if I can understand it. Then I will read a Korean kid's story and do the same. After, if my skill is proficient enough I will also start an audio journal and transcribe what I say and see if I can recognize and correct my mistakes. This will make the learning process a lot more personal and enjoyable. Enjoyment is key to learning that is why I will not approach learning Korean like any other academic class. After, I will expose myself to more Korean media such as reading a Korean news article, listening to Korean music, translating it all, and watching a Korean show without subtitles. Finally, to see how fluent I've become I will record a short conversation between and native speaker and me and transcribe our conversation. I will see if I can recognize and correct my mistakes and also compare how the native speaker and I speak and try to see what I can do to sound more fluent.

I chose music and tv shows because those are forms of media I consume daily so including them in my daily life would be hopefully less stressful for me as I wouldn't have to add something new that I possibly might not enjoy as much into my life. Also, I picked journaling because first I already journal normally and second journaling allows a lot of self-learning to happen because I am doing all the work myself and I also use the words I would use most frequently because I am speaking. The practice is coming from myself not a textbook that might have words in it that I possibly would never use.