Gargi Vyas's Posts (19)
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Dear Dr Sharon and Dr Grove,
I have done my Artifact evaluations as comments to the artifacts. Also, my artifacts are the three I have uploaded on my blog (a song, introduction, and comic) and my last artifact is on Azmain's page (dialogue of asking a guy out). My Teaching Activity was based on vocabulary hence I have done that as a comment on my blog about vocabulary (Journal 5). Thank you!
Best,
Gargi
Studying Korean has been a great experience so far. I had a great group to work with and an amazing and very helpful language partner. We started off with learning the Korean alphabet, or the Hangul. The Hangul is character based where there are several letters with different sounds, and a letter on its own does not have a meaning. Letters have to be combined to form meaningful words. Therefore learning the Hangul helped me a lot with pronunciation because if I know the sound of every letter in the word, I am able to connect the sounds and know how to pronounce the word as a whole.
Sun taught us the alphabet and their pronunciation by making us re-read the script she printed out for us in bright colors.
Our language partner taught us how to introduce ourselves and greet people next. She also taught us about the family tree and the use of honorifics in the Korea language. Next, we practiced introducing and greeting each other. We practiced two more conversations (how to ask a guy out, and order food at a restaurant). I was studying vocabulary and grammar on the side, and would ask her doubts and questions during every meeting session.
Sun's way of teaching us basic conversations involved making a dialogue that we would all participate in in turns.
With my language partner's guidance and my learning plan goals, I developed a structured plan to learn the Korean language. I am quite pleased with my progress so far, and believe I have developed a stable base which I can build on over the summer to better develop my Korean skills.
It was an interesting and a good learning experience reading about cultural competence. The first type addressed in the reading was grammatical competence. It is language competence with regards to sentence structure, syntax, and vocabulary usage. With regards to Korean, if I know how to write words in Hangul and know the subject-verb placement in a sentence, that means I have attained some level of grammatical competence.
The next type was discourse competence which deals with the ability to connect sentences to express a tangible meaning as a whole. With discourse competence in Korean I would be able to have at least a basic conversation with a proficient Korean speaker.
The third type is sociolinguistic competence. It involves understanding the social context of language usage. This competence is essential especially while communicating with a native speaker. Sociolinguistic aspects connect a language to culture and show that it is more than just an abstract structural method of communication. For example, how I interact with someone in Korean depends on the age and social standing of that person.
The fourth and the last type is strategic competence which is the ability to communicate despite having insufficient competence in the other three types. If I had to speak with a Korean speaker but did not have enough competency in the other types to put my message across, I could try to make them understand by using hand gestures. These competencies allow a speaker to perform the seven functions of a language given by Halliday.
Being bilingual myself (in Hindi and English), it was interesting to read this article. I had always felt like being bilingual provided me with more opportunities and experiences but had never thought that bilingual people can actually have better brain development. But the reasons given in the article to support their statement did make sense. For example, when I hang up after talking to my parents on the phone in Hindi, I have to suddenly switch back to English. It was harder in the beginning, but now with practice it comes naturally. English and Hindi are very different from each other, whether in terms of grammar rules or speaking styles. Therefore, I agree with their argument that bilingualism exercises the brain and its cognitive functions. Korean will be the third language I am learning, and even though I am far from having a trilingual status, I can understand the article's points about the improvement of the brain's executive function and the heightened observation of environment. Since Azmain is older than me, I have been calling her Unnie (Korean term for a female to address an older female) for quite a while now. It is getting more and more difficult day by day to not call her that while sitting with our non-Korean speaking friends. Also, it is difficult to get my brain to stop thinking in English while studying Korean. In the beginning I would write down romanized versions of Korean in order to better my pronunciation and remember sentences and words, but now I have started to use only Hangul to prevent the mix up of the two languages. Also, especially during my vocabulary development period, I am extra aware of my surroundings in case I find something I can say in Korean, and practicing that in real life helps in retention of knowledge.
I have known for a long time that languages are like species- new ones are created as old ones die out. But while reading this article the issue became more real in my eyes. It is scary to realize how ages of culture and history die out with the language. Every language is unique and its development runs parallel to its native population's traditional growth in terms of music, art, historical artifacts, and what not. Death of a language would mean losing all of that and the breaking of ties with all the previous generations that spoke the language. The article helped me understand the great importance of language preservation and why it is essential to maintain a speaker population. Since native populations reduce due to globalization and multiracial relationships, the best way to preserve a language is to use the language speaking population's culture as an attracting aspect. My attraction to Korean culture was what made me motivated to learn the Korean language. In a world where languages like English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, etcetera are taking precedence over other languages due to job benefit provisions, less-spoken languages have to use culture and tradition as motivations for people to learn them. At this point, learning Korean will help me become better acquainted with the culture, and even though I might not end up settling down in Korea, I am glad to be learning the language. Who knows, with the changing political and economic dynamics in Asia, South Korea may develop a rising importance on the international platform and Korean might become the next 'big thing'. But until then, I will groove to my Korean pop and binge eat my Kimchi. And even if Korean does not become the next 'big thing', at least I will be glad to be the part of a multi-racial Korean speaking generation, and do my part in ensuring the preservation of the beautiful language.
My learning plan for the Korean language is as follows:
1. Hangul script- reading and writing
2. Introducing oneself
3. Greetings (includes honorifics)
4. Family tree
5. Numbers
6. Basic sentence structure formation
7. Basic vocabulary
I can:
1. Write Hangul
2. Read at a slow pace (due to limited vocabulary)
3. Introduce myself
4. Greet someone
5. Use honorifics
6. I know the family tree and usage of terms for different family members
7. Numbers
8. Basic vocabulary
9. Order food at restaurant
10. Bonus: I know how to ask a guy out (did not plan this haha)
Ancient Korean had several Chinese characters, and the script was called the Hanja. Hanja's assumed association with aristocracy made it prevalent even after the invention of an absolute new script called the Hangul. But with time, Hangul has now replaced Hanja. Korean as we know it now has Hangul as its script. Hangul was invented in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great. He aimed to create a minimalist, smart language that could be understood by the masses, since people not belonging to noble families could not read the Hanja. Invention of the Hangul led to a high increase in the literacy rate, and also increased the Korean people's political awareness.
While learning a language, especially one like Korean where the script is so systematic, I end up memorizing vocabulary and writing styles in a very (for lack of a better word) mathematical way. For me, Hangul was more a puzzle and equation to solve, until I began studying its culture and history. Studying the history of a language indirectly connects you to the native speakers and their experiences with their language. Learning how a language came about helps you better understand your own growth with the language. And history also provides an emotional aspect to language learning and prevents it from becoming an analytic exercise rather than a culturally immersing and growing experience.
In this artifact, Azmain and I present a conversation that includes greetings and introduction.
Azmain and I decided to cover a Korean pop song by our one of our favorite girl groups, 2NE1. The song is called 'Come Back Home' and this is its unplugged version. We both have no music training at all, but singing this song was still a very fun and educating experience. Hope you all like it! Come%20Back%20Home%20Cover.mp3
As an international student in the United States, I am aware of the culture shock phenomenon, and could therefore greatly identify with the 'Culture Shock' video. It was heartening to hear other students voice concerns which I faced (and sometimes still face) but did not talk much about. Away from family, friends and culture, all of us international students try to ignore any sort of 'shock' we might be feeling as a coping mechanism. We often confuse denial of this understandable feeling with a way to enable a better fitting into the new culture. The differences that made me feel alienated were not only cultural, but academic as well. That threw me of a bit, because I used to think that even if it took me a while to find a close group of friends, I would at least have a good understanding of my studies. Therefore, the students from the video were very relatable when they were talking about their academic struggles.
Just as there is a big difference between Indian and American culture, there is an equal if not bigger difference between Indian and Korean culture. Both countries have unique cultural and social practices, and I also lack interaction experience with many native Koreans. Since there is not a very big Indian population in Korea, this problem might be mutual. As I progress with my Korean language learning, I realize how different Korean is from either Hindi or English, and therefore I went through a sort of culture shock when I had to adjust my brain's methods of dealing with languages to accommodate a learning plan for such a different language. A good quality of the self-directed learning course is that it encourages not only learning the structure of a language but also the history, culture, and society of the language's native population. Therefore, my culture shock towards Korean is limited to not only learning how to speak and write it, but also its usage in Korea. I plan to go for study abroad to South Korea next year, and I believe my early experience with Korean language and culture will incredibly enhance my experience there and help me deal and reduce the culture shock I may experience.
I began learning Korean vocabulary starting with adjectives. Since I am a visual-imaginative learner, I tried to remember the adjectives by speaking them out aloud and then visualizing scenarios where I could use them. For example, while eating something spicy, I could say, "mae un" which means spicy in Korean. At this point I can remember about 25 adjectives off the top of my head. Some of them are colors, others are emotions, and then there are some descriptive adjectives as well. I am trying to learn at least 2 new words everyday, and then revising them at the end of a week. Vocabulary building is one of the toughest parts of learning a language, and therefore I am doing it slowly and steadily, and with repeated revision.
Examples:
Colors- (saek means 'color')
Blue: parang saek
White: hin saek
Yellow: norang saek
Red: balgang saek
Black: geomjong saek
Emotions-
I am-
Happy: hangbokhaeyo
Sad: seulpoyo
Excited: Shinnayo
Nervous: Bulanhaeyo
Afraid: Museowoyo
Descriptive adjectives-
Beautiful: yeppeun
Easy: sheowoyo
Difficult: eoryowoyo
Boring: jiruhan
Mysterious: shimdihan
The Class Presentations were a very fun and educating experience. I had never consciously thought about it, but the presentations made me realize how intricately connected culture and language are. Fatima's presentation demonstrated likeness among cultures with languages that are derived from similar roots (Urdu and Hindi). Nirshiee's presentation made me think hard about a deeply rooted issue in India- obsession with fairness of skin- and how us Indians do not realize what a grave problem this is developing into. Azmain's presentation gave a new perspective to my interest in the Korean pop culture, and also showed a dark side to the industry hidden behind the flashing lights and extravagant outfits. Fionna complemented Azmain and Nirshiee's presentations by talking about the popularity of plastic surgery in South Korea, especially among celebrities. Oliver's presentation made me dearly miss my country's food, and I also became aware of facts I never knew about Mumbai's 'dabba waalas'.
Social hierarchy is an important part of Korean culture. Therefore, titles and everyday words have variations that are used according to the level of formality required. In this journal, I will use three basic words as examples. Starting with 'hello'- Annyeong hasimnikka is the most formal way of saying hello, followed by Annyeong haseyo. The most informal way to say hello is Annyeong. In case of 'thank you', the most formal way is either Kamasamnida or Gomapsamnida. Gomawoyo and Kamsahaeyo are semi-informal, while Gomawo and Kamsahae are informal. The word 'sorry' differs by formality as well. In formal settings, Jeusonghamnida is the preferred term. Mihanehamnida is less formal, and Mihane is the most informal among the three.
My first step towards learning Korean was memorizing the alphabet. The Korean alphabet consists of 24 characters and is straightforward to read. At this point, my reading is quite slow, but it is mostly because of my unfamiliarity with the script. I can pronounce words in my head when I read, but due to a limited vocabulary, I do not understand much of what I try to read. I am a big fan of Korean music, and therefore I try to read some of my favorite songs' lyrics in Korean. Before doing so I read the English translation of the lyrics so that when I finally read them in Korean, I am able to get an idea of some vocabulary. Reading has enabled me to develop my pronunciation too, and it feels good to finally be able to belt out (however out of tune it might be) the chorus of your favorite Korean song knowing for sure you're saying it right!
According to the work division between the two hemispheres of the brain described in 'How the Brain Handles Language' reading, I feel that in language learning the left hemisphere would be dominantly involved in understanding sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary. The right hemisphere would be involved in the creative and emotional usage of the language, for example, using the words in a non-traditional way like in song lyrics, poetry, etcetera. I believe that the right hemisphere would have a role to play in the vocal delivery of the language too (since "the right is said to be dominant for... emotional expression"), for example, a happy person might say a sentence quite differently from an angry person. I understand it is not entirely correct to divide language understanding into two halves of the brain, but also believe that one half may be dominant in handling a specific part of language comprehension, but in the end a collaboration and connection of processed information is required for complete understanding. For example, both hemispheres work together to connect memory, visual information, and sound perception, and thus associate the meaning of a word to an object.
Different information coming together to make complete sense was analyzed under a different context in the 'How to investigate language structure' reading. While learning a language, there are always multiple perceptions in, let's say, a statement that a learner might not understand without advanced training as well as cultural immersion. A learner begins with learning the components separately and then with experience, they come together to form a sentence with complete meaning and consisting of several layers, each a result of cultural and social aspects of the language.
From the reading 'How We Mean', I realized that there were so many day to day things that describe the nuances of languages but I never paid direct attention to them. I thought about my own experiences, and remembered how my Mother dislikes when I conversationally and playfully say, "I'm going to die!!". Also, in my first language, Hindi, we have different words for uncles and aunts from mother's and father's side of the family. So far in Korean, I have noticed that uncles are addressed by the same term irrespective of which side they are from, but this is not the case for aunts.
Also, the description of how the word 'chair' came about and could only mean 'chair', went down to the very detail of the brain processing a visual image and connecting it to the sounds in memory, and made me realize the complexity of language and even though I knew this all along, actually sitting and thinking about the fact that languages evolved when a group of people decided to associate and remember that some sound represented a thing is just mind-blowing.
In the 'How We Analyze Meaning' reading, it was interesting to note the sentence structure and difference in word usage in different languages, and how they would mean the same thing in the context of that language. The association of other sensory information other than sound, such as colors, in languages was also very intriguing.
I believe these readings will aid me in my self-direction in Korean, because understanding the roots of a language, not only in a cultural context, but also in the processing of a language in our brains should be helpful in developing accuracy and multi-layered comprehension in the language.
