Felicitas G. Heinzel's Posts (28)
Sort by
Overall, I had a very positive experience studying Korean this semester. Being able to focus on the things I am interested in and utilizing my own learning strategies has helped me to make quick progress in a language that is very different from any other language I have studied before. The resources and concepts learned in SDLC105 helped me to become a better language learner and to make more sense from structures within the language and with connection to the culture. I am very happy about how this semester went and am looking forward to continuing to learn Korean. I am also planning on using these new strategies and resources in a few years to learn another language in a self-directed way.
South Korea has a lot of very important cultural landmarks. The majority is located in the capital of the Republic of Korea, Seoul. All five Royal Palaces of Joseon are located in Seoul and hold high cultural significance and serve as popular tourist attractions. These palaces feature a throne hall, a royal council hall, sleeping quarters, the prince’s residence, and a garden. The construction features wood, a tilted roof, and pillars with colored paintings (“The 5 Palaces of Seoul.”, 2012).
The Gyeongbokgung Palace was built in 1395 as the main royal palace. It was burnt down during the Japanese invasion in 1592, but built back up in 1867, just to be destroyed again around 50 years later. It was renovated in the 1990s and now serves as the National Palace Museum of Korea and the National Folk Museum. (“Historical Heritage of Seoul.”) The Changdeok Palace was built in 1405 and also burnt down during the Japanese invasion. However, it was restored in 1609 and became the new state palace. Its garden was named UNESCO World Heritage in 1997. The Changgyeong Palace was built in 1483. During the Japanese invasion a zoo, botanical garden, and museum were added, but these features were taken down after the restoration of the palace in 1984. The Gyeonghui Palace was built in 1623 as a royal villa, rather than an official government building. Lastly, the Deoksu Palace was originally called the Gyeongun Palace, but was renamed by the Emperor Gojong in 1907. This palace differs from the other palaces because it incorporates both traditional wooden Korean, as well as Western features (“The 5 Palaces of Seoul.”, 2012).
“Historical Heritage of Seoul.” Historical Heritage of Seoul : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea, www.korea.net/AboutKorea/Tourism/Historical-Heritage-Seoul.
“The 5 Palaces of Seoul.” The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea, 24 Jan. 2012, english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/01/24/2012012400190.html.
One of my friends from Missouri State University, Minki Kang, was born in Korea and moved to the US with his family in high school. We always talked a lot about the cultural differences between the US and our home countries and it was very interesting to hear his stories and points of view. When I enrolled for this class, I told him immediately. He was very excited to hear that I am learning Korean and very eager to help. The other day we just chatted on snapchat when I suggested us talking in Korean instead. We had an easy conversation with a normal greeting and asking how the other one is and then we talked about our plans for after this semester. Even though I had to look up some words, the conversation went pretty smooth and he was impressed with how much I knew after just one semester. I was great to actually apply my learning outside of class and to learn new vocabulary through talking to him.
Exchanging gifts holds a high significance in Korean culture. It is important for “Kibun” and shows respect. Guests are expected to bring a gift for the host, including the host’s pre-school children and elderly family members. In addition to this, business gifts are also an important gesture. They are usually given at the first meeting, with giving the person with the highest rank the most expensive gift. This is done to build a relationship, influence decision makers, and are reciprocal. Gifts are always given with both hands and are never opened in front of the giver. Brands are very important in gift giving and a gift from a luxury brand is seen as more important than the item itself. The wrapping of a gift is also a major aspect of gift giving. A common gift within families is money. Thank you notes are not sent in Korean culture.
Korean culture and language are very sensitive to respect and etiquette. Simply by addressing someone in the wrong way or by using a less formal word when speaking to them, it can hurt that person’s pride, or “Kibun”. Hangul has many different forms of many words, representing different levels of formalities. Directly saying no in Korea is also seen as very rude, therefore, telling so called “white lies” is better than rejecting someone outwardly. The professional title of a person should always be used unless told otherwise by that person. Greetings usually consist of bowing, which gives the other person some personal space and shows respect. Invitations to someone’s home are a great honor and certain rules should be followed. The guest should arrive on time, bring a gift, and take off his or her shoes upon entering the house. The host will seat and serve the guest, and an invitation for drinks should never be declined. Feet should also never touch any furniture because this is seen as rude and disrespectful (South Korea Guide).
“South Korea Guide .” Commisceo Global, www.commisceo-global.com/resources/country-guides/south-korea-guide.
This week we wrapped up the class and took the final. When I studied I was impressed by how much material we have covered. Thinking back to the beginning of the semester, I had never even tried to learn any Korean characters and I did not know that Hangul was pretty much structured like our alphabet. Even though I still have a lot to learn, I am proud of the progress I have made and the things I have learned. It did not feel like I learned all too much at first, but when I looked back at all the different topics we have covered and the things I am now able to read, write, say, and hear, I can tell how much I learned and how much material we have covered. Even though I wish I could continue taking the structured, small group sessions here, I am very determined to continue studying Korean and getting better at the language. I will try to do this with the help of an app, different textbooks, through my friend Minki, and hopefully through a class back in Germany.
Hanbok is one of Korea’s oldest and most visible traditions. It is the traditional clothing worn on a daily basis, as well s for special events. Hanbok is made up of a top, called jeogori, and a skirt, chima, for women or pants, paji, for men. There are many accessories to be worn with hanbok, for example jewelry and hair pins. Lower classes traditionally wore white or tan colors, while the upper class wore bright colors. Hanbok can be made from many different materials, which are determined by the temperature and the wealth of the person owning it. Traditionally, the sewing and embroidering of the hanbok carried a lot of meaning for the wife and the family.
https://coreesud.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/korean-traditional-clothing/
We are currently working on action items and on building sentences including the action we are taking, for example to work or to study. This, in addition to the things we have learned before, allows us to have short conversations with each other. We have also learned a lot of new vocabulary, including verbs, nouns, and descriptive words. I am hoping to be more confident in building sentences utilizing these words and structures by the end of the semester. Now that we only have two weeks left, I am really trying to learn as many new words as possible, so I can continue studying them after this semester is over. I have not tried any new learning strategies recently, but I feel confident in my learning and my skills have improved a lot. I just want to get in as many reps with my language partner as possible before the semester ends.
I would like to investigate the history of Korean. Most languages have very similar sister languages and clear parent languages, but Korean seems to be a language isolate. I am very interested in learning more about the way the language came about and was formed. Furthermore, I would like to learn more about the origin of imnida (입니다). Even though I am able to speak three other languages, German, English, and Spanish, I have never seen a sentence component that is used in almost every single sentence. Every language has recurring themes and words need to be conjugated which might lead to similar sentence structures, but none of the ones I have seen so far are recurring as often and are as easily spottable as imnida (입니다). Lastly, I would investigate morphemes in Korean. There have been multiple occurences of me asking my tutor whether two similar word endings were related, but they were not. Being able to spot recurring partials would help me to better understand the meaning of some words, therefore, I would like to learn more about recurring partials, especially in comparison to insignificant recurrence.
I would go about investigating all of these interesting aspects of Korean by becoming more fluent in the language. This would help me to increase my understanding of the language and the culture. I would then study old Korean artifacts that hopefully shed some light on the origin of the language and even some patterns, like imnida (입니다). Lastly, I would like to conduct in-person research by living in a Korean town, interviewing people, and learning more about the language from them.
The song ‘IDOL’ by the K-Pop band BTS was released on August 24, 2018. It features different traditional Korean instruments and is inspired by the Korean genre pansori as well as John Woo’s move Face/Off. According to Rolling Stone India, the song combines the Korean instrument “gakgung, with African rhythms, trap rap and electronica.” This leads to the global sound that is culturally rich and diverse. A lot is going in the music video, with different bright colors, animations and dancing. The official music video broke multiple records on YouTube, including the most viewed music video during the first 24 hours and the fastest music video to have 100 million views in 2018.
The most I have written in my target language so far are a few words or some very simple sentences, like “My name is Feli”. I am still in the process of learning new vocabulary and grammatical rules that then allow me to form proper spoken or written sentences. We read a lot of sentences and say them, but I do not form those myself yet. I prefer to write words and sentences by hand because it helps me to better remember the spelling. However, I have a Korean keyboard on my phone to help me to write words and sentences for online assignments, like this one, and to be exposed to the language more in my daily life.
There are some important structures in Hangul, for example the usage of imnida, 입니다, and imniga, 입니까, after almost every sentence or question. Furthermore, there is a number of different particles that are used to make a noun function as a subject or an object. We practice the usage of those particles a lot with the help of pre-written sentences where we have to select the correct particle based on the meaning of the sentence and the ending of the word. Korean also uses a very different sentence structure than German and English do. Instead of saying “I am from Germany”, in Korean you say “I am German person” (저는 독일 사람 입니다). Similarly, asking “Where are you from?” is “What country person?” (어느 나라 사람 입니까). “Are you a student? - Yes, I am a student.” in Korean is “Student? - Yes, student.” (학생 입니까? - 네, 학생 입니다.)
Korean has a lot of different levels of politeness. It is important to be aware of whom one is speaking to and how polite to be. I have mainly learned the very formal version of Korean words and sentences. I believe that one utilizes the most formal version of Korean in proper written context. Therefore, it is important to know this form and to be able to properly use it in written and spoken context.
Some of the writing exercise we have done in class are the following:
1. Build the sentence based on these words 빌리 (Feli) 대학생 (university student)
빌리씨는 대학생 입니다. (Feli is a university student.)
2. Select the right particle.
저는의사 (이, 가) 아닙니다. (I am a doctor.)
During the past two weeks, I have made a lot of progress in my learning. We have read the longest block of sentences so far and have incorporated many descriptive words, like big, small, many, few, good, and bad. This is a very important component of language learning because it allows for more accurate descriptions and conversations. Furthermore, I learned sino-Korean numbers. I am very excited about this because even though it is a fairly basic aspect of every language, it is also a very important one that is used in all different kinds of contexts.
However, I am a little disappointed with my ability to write. We had a quiz during the first week after spring break and I felt very prepared for it. I was also able to read and understand everything on it, but when it came to writing I realized how insecure I was. This triggered me to practice my writing even more, to put a heavier emphasis on it, and to revise my strategy for learning how to write in Korean. Even though it helps me to write down the romanized version of a word in order to understand and say it, I will have to be better at actually writing the word. Especially because some Hangul characters are not fully pronounced or sound different in certain contexts, I have to practice writing the Hangul version more to be secure in this aspect of my learning. Even though taking the quiz and realizing the difficulty of writing was frustrating, I am very glad that the quiz clearly showed me my abilities and made me realize the area that needs further work.
The major issue languages are facing is globalization. Due to increased interaction between cultures, the “big” languages are becoming more and more prominent. Even though there are around 7,000 languages currently being spoken, around 85 languages are spoken by the majority of world’s population. Around half of the current languages will most likely go extinct within the next century. Furthermore, when different tribes mix, they adopt features of culture and language from the other groups. This can lead to a loss in the original language. Many languages only have a few fluent speakers left and these are often elderly people. This can hinder the preservation of a language, especially if they are losing their ability to hear or speak clearly. Many smaller languages also have no writing system, but are solely oral in nature. This can lead to great challenges in preserving the respective language. In addition to this, small groups oftentimes face oppression and pressures from the outside to learn a different language rather than their own indigenous tongue. One of these examples are former boarding schools for native American people that aimed at getting rid of traditions and the culture.
Linguists are making an effort in preserving language through spreading awareness of the crisis languages are facing. Studying different languages and recording fluent speakers can help to preserve the language for a long time because these materials can be made available to everyone and especially to the people and their ancestors. Furthermore, linguists are working with indigenous people to build online dictionaries in order to find people globally that are interested in learning the language or about the language. This can help to prevent languages from going extinct, however, it is not very likely to completely revive a language after it has gone extinct just with the current strategies in place.
It is very important for linguists to preserve language because of the vast knowledge that is relayed through language. Different people have a different knowledge of the world around them, the environment, and the living species. Therefore, it is important to preserve different languages and learn about the way they see the world. However, differences in gestures and words can make it hard for linguists to correctly interpret languages other than their own.
During my trip to Toronto I stayed in Chinatown and decided to look for an authentic Korean restaurant that is not too westernized. I wanted to try authentic Korean food to get to know Korean culture better. I ended up going to a restaurant called Biwon, or 비원, which means “taste of secret garden”. It was very authentic and run by Koreans, soley speaking Hangul with each other. I received six plates with small portions of various side dishes, called Banchan, as well as a pot of Korean tea, Boricha, upon ordering the food. The side dishes included Kimchi, Sukjunamul, Kkadugi, Japchae, Mu Saenghae, and Gaji namul. As a main course, I ordered Dduk Bokki and Bulgogi, or marinated sirloin beef and rice cakes. The person accompanying me on my trip to Toronto ordered Bokeum Bap, stir fried rice with chicken. It was a great to experience an authentic Korean meal, including Banchan and Boricha, to get in touch with the culture related to my target language through this experience, and to hear people speak Korean in a natural setting.
At the time of the recording I was very broad about my goals and strategies. I have since become more specific in defining my objectives for each week, as well as for the entire semester. This has helped me to more accurately track my progress and to be better at assisting my language learning out of class. Overall, I have incorporated the general goals and strategies from my original learning plan to improve the quality of my learning plan and my learning itself. The insights and experiences other people have shared during our class discussions have helped me a lot to have a better view on how to best learn a language and it has helped me to develop new strategies myself. The material covered in class itself is helpful as a foundation of language, but it has not directly furthered my learning yet. Especially because I am not very far in learning the target language, I have not been able to incorporate a lot of the materials covered in class. So far, in my tutor sessions, we have not talked about a lot of cultural aspects of Korean, so I have not been able to draw a lot of connections between culture and language. Regardless of this, I am aware of the incredibly important combination of language and culture and will ask more questions in order to understand this link. This will help me to understand the structure of the language better, as well as learning concepts and vocabulary necessary to be culturally competent when visiting the country. I am currently in the process of learning more about grammatical competence in Korean and am slowly also moving toward discourse competence. These are fundamental in learning sentence structures and being able to have a coherent conversation. In addition to this, I am emphasizing sociolinguistic competence, however, I am still lacking some of the basics I need to properly learn about and execute this competence. I have added learning more about these competencies as goals in my learning plan.
We are currently working on becoming more comfortable with building sentences, utilizing the right grammatical rules, and expanding our vocabulary. We have learned how to ask questions, answer accordingly, and use sentence structures utilizing particles. In combination with learning these important structural aspects of Hangul, we have learned ten new verbs and ten new nouns. Since the sentences are getting more complex and the words are getting harder to understand and say, I asked Seonghye to send me recordings of them. This helps me to have more repetition and to be exposed to Korean more. I also added a Korean keyboard on my phone, so now I try to write different words to practice whenever I am having some downtime or when waiting for someone. These two new tools have helped me to get more used to reading, writing, speaking, and listening to Korean and they have been very effective in improving my progress and helping me learn. I am planning on attempting to read a children’s book in Hangul over spring break and to eventually move to books about traveling Korea, because that is what I am most interested in.
Overall, Korean is seen as a language isolate belonging to the Koreanic language family. However, Chinese has had a major influence on Korean writing and reading during the beginning of the common era. Chinese characters used to be the Korean writing system, called Hanja, for more than a millenium because Korea did not have its own. The majority of the population was not able to read and write during this time period. King Sejong the Great developed the current writing system, Hangul, in the 15th century in order to increase literacy among all social classes. Over time Hanja was slowly phased out. Furthermore, there has also been research about possible common structures of prehistoric Korean and old forms of Japanese, stating that Korean belongs to the Altaic family, but these theories have mostly been declined.
I think it is very interesting that Korea did not have its own writing system for a long time and even once they introduced it, the higher social classes still used the writing system that most people did not understand. This shows a wide power distance in the culture and the importance of social class. In my opinion, it was a very big step for a king to introduce a new writing system serving the entire population. It is also very interesting that Korean is a fairly isolated language with little influences from other countries on the actual language, despite the major influence on the writing system.
Languages change a lot over time, which can also be seen in modern day English. Many “in-words” get added to the language, as well as abbreviations and symbols, like emojis. As languages become more isolated from other languages and people, they develop their own characteristics. In a language family, it is apparent that the languages are connected to one another, but a daughter family can be clearly distinguished from its parent and sister languages. Language trees are utilized by linguists to track the relationships between languages and to identify parent, daughter, and sister languages.
I am very interested in traveling to South Korean. Therefore, it is helpful to know Korean customs and etiquette. It also relates to my language learning because Korean language has many different forms, from informal to highly formal. Addressing someone older, someone of a higher social status, or a host in an informal way can lead to many issues. For example, it can hurt their Kibun. Kibun is comparable to a person’s honor and pride. Hurting this can be detrimental to a person. Relationships are based on harmony and telling a “white lie” is better than hurting someone’s Kibun. Furthermore, it is very important to address a person with their professional title until given permission to being more informal. Social status is determined through “family, upbringing, wealth, education and occupation.” When meeting someone, you are supposed to bow. Men oftentimes also shake the right hand while supporting their forearm with their left hand. While this is the traditional way of greeting and saying goodbye, personal space is a sign of respect. Touching someone, getting too close to them, long direct eye contact, or finger pointing is insulting and should be avoided. In addition to this, direct refusal to a request or an offer is very rude. The word ‘no’ is barely used and patience is crucial when negotiating or meeting. Also, feet should not touch furniture, the number four should be avoided due to the similarity with the word for death, and eating and drinking in public places while walking is frowned upon. Family has a high value. It is also the central aspect major celebrations, especially New Year’s Day and Chuseok, the eighth full moon. Being invited to someone’s home is an honor and should be treated with a lot of respect. A guest should be fairly punctual, a gift for the host should be brought, and shoes should be taken off before entering the house. The guest will be seated and served by the host, elders will eat first, and conversation usually happens after the meal. An invitation for drinks upon the completion of dinner should not be declined ("South Korea Guide").
There are a lot of rules and customs in Korean culture that Western cultures do not have. It is important to be aware of these rules in order to maintain good relationships and to respect the people around one. Knowing these etiquettes is crucial when visiting Korea. Furthermore, knowing the language and the appropriate vocabulary can help to conform with the norms and values. It is also important to learn the formal Korean language, rather than informal words and phrases that then make one appear disrespectful. I have not incorporated this into my learning plan yet, but I will add wanting to learn more formal phrases and important vocabulary for traveling. Specifically, I would like to be able to properly have a short, but formal conversation with a host, as well as being able to navigate a bus system, asking for directions, and knowing the terms for the most common dishes and drinks.
Works cited
“South Korea Guide .” Commisceo Global, www.commisceo-global.com/resources/country-guides/south-korea-guide.
My target language, Korean, has some words that do not exist in American English. That is one of the reasons why my tutor, Seonghye Kim, wanted us to learn the Korean alphabet, Hangul, first. She said that it is easier to properly pronounce the letters and words when reading it in Hangul rather than the romanized way. The letter that stands out most to me is ㅡ. It is very difficult to pronounce that letter because it sounds like “eu” in cook. I personally have to bite my teeth to say it properly so, therefore, it helps to have the phonetic and Hangul symbols. The IPA symbol for ㅡ is [ɯ], a back close-mid vowel. A whole word containing that letter is juice: 주스. In phonetic alphabet it is written as [ʝusɯ].
Furthermore, there are some letters in Korean that sound very similar. ㅓand ㅗ are two very similar sounds. ㅓsounds like ɒ, while ㅗ sounds more like o. Two word examples for this are manners and cutting board. Manners is written like 매너 and sounds like [ɱæɢɒ] in IPA. Cutting board is written like 도마 and sounds like [toɱɑ] in IPA.
It is crucial in Korean to know the box structure of words. Depending on where in a word the letter appears it can have a very different sounds. The most significant one is 0. If 0 comes in front of a vowel, it has no sound and makes the vowel a pure vowel. However, if it comes at the end of a syllable, it sounds like [ɲ]. For example the word hello, 안녕하세요, has multiple 0, with the first and the last one not having a sound, while the second one sounds like [ɲ]. In IPA, hello in Korean sounds like [a̠nɲjʌ̹ŋɦa̠sʰe̞jo].
The main approach I am taking to being able to produce these sounds in my speech is to listen to as many recordings, videos and lessons as possible. The more I hear a word, the easier it is for me to imagine how I would write it for myself to remember and how to properly say it. I have already formed some techniques to overcome difficulties, for example, biting my teeth to say ㅡ.
