My goals for this semester were to learn vocabulary specifically in the business setting, familiarize myself with trendy sayings in Korea, and to improve my speaking skills in a formal setting. I certainly achieved everything except my learning plan shifted from focusing on business and economics of Korea to studying the politics and its impact on the culture of Korea. I believe this was more relevant to our lives due to the popularity of Korean politics and there was just more to learn about politics than business. My language partner taught us several trendy vocabulary words used in Korea today. These words are not just used in casual conversations but in politics as well. Lastly, after reading so many articles and even watching some business and politics-related movies, I learned small little things Koreans do when they are engaged in a formal conversation. Overall, my skill level in Korean has definitely improved by being exposed to Korean politics every week and speaking to my language partner and classmate in Korean constantly.
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A few weeks ago, my language partner told me a story about the recent earthquake in Korea. This was one of the worst earthquakes in Korea's history and it's even more significant because of the timing of the disaster. The earthquake happened on 11/14 but the day after, 11/15, was supposed to be the national "holiday" for Korea's college entrance exams. Unlike the US, Korean students can only take this test once and everyone in the nation takes the exam at the same time. As a result of the earthquake, the test date was postponed with less than one day notice. This caused outrage among the Korean students because they most likely planned a post-exam relief-party or was looking forward to the test date for months or even years. If this happened in America, students would definitely be happier because of the extra time to study. However, the case was different for the students of Korea.
Korean%E2%80%99s%20Perceptions%20of%20South%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Politics%20and%20Presidency.pptx
My cultural project was on exploring the ways Korean's perceive and view politics in South Korea. I mainly talk about the political regionalism between the southeast region and southwest region. I also discuss the significance of some of Korea's former presidents and how they affected the rise of regionalism in Korea.
For my fourth cultural post, I learned and analyzed relationships within families in Korea. Unlike America, Korea has different names for relatives. For example, Americans call all of their parents’ siblings aunts and uncles. In Korea, there is a different name for all your aunts and uncles depending on which side of the family they are. This is the same for cousins, great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and distant relatives as well. Additionally, women in Korea traditionally go live with their husband’s family right after marriage. In the old days, women were literally sent off to their husbands’ families and barely had contact with their own family. Koreans are also less likely to get divorced than Americans. This statistic is slowly changing as more Koreans are getting divorced due to a rise in liberal minded individuals but it is still lower than that of America. Certainly, there are a lot of differences between the culture of families in America and South Korea.
For my fourth artifact, I decided to have a text message conversation with another student, Jacob Park. As you can see in the attached pictures, we said hello to each other and set plans to go out for a drink later in the week. This was our first-time texting in Korean in a long time so it was a bit difficult. We also tried our best to incorporate Korean-style emojis and abbreviations. For example, the way of texting “lol” in Korean is either “ㅋㅋㅋㅋ” or “ㅎㅎㅎㅎ”. I believe our spelling throughout the entire conversation was correct but we will check with our language partner for further review.image1.pngimage2.png
-During these two weeks, we watched several Running Man episodes to learn how to talk in an informal setting. Running Man is a reality TV show that features 6 main celebrities with guest features every week.
-We learned that in Korea, sarcasm is used slightly different than in America. Americans love sarcasm and it is a main source of humor for many individuals. However, in Korea, it can seem rude depending on the delivery. Of course, in America, sarcasm depends on delivery as well but it is used much less in South Korea. In addition, due to the formal and informal speech in Korea, it may seem awkward to see a celebrity joking around with someone older. However, using polite grammar and respectful tone of voice, these celebrities still succeed in joking around with their elders without coming off as disrespectful.
-There were many times in the past where I wanted to make a joke around Korean adults that were older than me. After viewing these videos and learning from my language partner, I think I can have casual conversations with respectful humor that will not disrespect my elders in any way.
-This week, we focused on our reading skills using Korean news articles. We read some business news articles regarding Samsung and its current state with its CEO in jail for bribing the president.
-Aside from learning about the current news in Korea, I improved my reading skills with the help of my language partner. My partner corrected me on pronunciation and pauses. I never thought I had trouble with pronouncing Korean words but getting advice from my language partner helped me realize my weaknesses in reading Korean. For example, in Korean, there is no “r” so I often found myself pronouncing the “l” words in Korean as “r”. The more practice I had with reading the article helped me correct this issue. I definitely should practice more by reading articles every day in Korean to improve my weaknesses.
-For my third artifact, I decided to improve my speaking skills in the business environment. For this exercise, I found a video of interviews for a prestigious hotel position in South Korea. Being someone who has gone through the interview process with several accounting firms, I was able to figure out the differences between interviewing for a job in Korea and in America. One thing I noticed right away was how formal Korean candidates are when interviewing for positions. In the US, especially in accounting, interviewees are looking for casual conversations to get to know the candidates better in a casual setting. However, this particular Korean candidate sounded very formal and a bit tense compared to interviewees in America. By watching this video, I learned how to structure my sentences in a way for the interviewer to understand my better. Organization was a key factor in a lot of the responses by this interviewee. I feel like Korean candidates like to use lists and organize their responses to put emphases in their answers. I have attached the video below.
After learning about the history of the Korean presidency, I decided to watch a movie called The Lawyer which is based on the true story of the former president Noh-Moo-Hyun. Once just a lawyer trying to move up the ladder, Noh became a civil rights lawyer after seeing the corruption of then president Park-Jung-Hee who falsely arrested student protestors and tortured them because they accused them of being North Korean. Although this movie does not show Noh’s rise in politics, it focuses on Korea’s history of dictatorship and military brutality that not a lot of people outside of Korea are aware of. One thing I learned about when researching about this film was that former president Park-Geun-Hye, who is the daughter of Park-Jung-Hee, had a secret blacklist of key individuals in the entertainment business. This blacklist was for banning artists expressing political propaganda that went against Park’s views and ideas. The actor who portrayed Noh-Moo-Hyun, Song-Gang-Ho was in this blacklist because of The Lawyer. Although this movie took place in the 1980’s, a lot of conservatives are still against this type of political opposition. Many Americans may think the political divide between the Democrats and Republicans of the US is terrible but it is even worse in South Korea.
-In class, our teacher gave us a brief history lesson on the former presidents of South Korea. From what I’ve learned, I decided to read more about the presidents and see what kind of impact they had on South Korea’s people and history.
-I mainly focused on president Noh-Moo-Hyun. He was a civil rights lawyer who became president in 2001/2002. Many Koreans, including my relatives, told me that Noh was one of the most popular presidents in South Korea because there was really nothing corrupt about him. He truly fought for the people and was not interested in accumulating wealth and power for himself. Unfortunately, after his 5-year term, he committed suicide due to extreme pressure from the opposition party. The opposing party continually harassed him and his family by accusing them of briberies and such.
-I learned that Korean government was and is corrupt, even more so than politics in America. I especially wanted to learn more about Korean politics because a majority of the population in Korea follows politics. I want to be able to have intelligent and relevant conversations about politics with my parents, other adults and friends.
-I decided to gather a list of trendy vocabulary and phrases used in Korea today. These words and sayings are popular among teens and young adults so I thought it would be helpful to learn these new trends to keep up with what’s current in South Korea.
-Some examples of these trendy vocabulary words consist of words that are abbreviated. In America, there are a lot of abbreviations but those are only used in writing or texting, not in personal conversations. In Korea, these abbreviated words are used in writing, texting, and speaking. For instance, the Korean word for “part-time job” is 아르바이트 (pronounced ah-reuh-bah-eeh-teuh) but it is abbreviated to 알바 (alh-bah). Basically, barely anyone uses the full word. Often times, when I use full words that are usually abbreviated, people correct me with the abbreviated word. Learning these words will definitely prevent any breaks or pauses during conversations in Korean.
-I want to utilize what I’ve learned in texting my parents and friends that I made when I studied abroad in South Korea. There are so many of these trendy words that I will be able to learn a new phrase or vocabulary every day. I will always be on the lookout for these new words.
-We completed translating the ASSETS portion of the balance sheet within the financial statements of Samsung Corporation. The attached document shows the translated words next to the Korean words in the balance sheet. I also examined these words to figure out the roots of the words. In Korean, a lot of the words have Chinese roots so if you know a decent amount of Chinese characters, you’ll be able to figure out the meaning of many difficult Korean words. Translating and analyzing the financial statements of Samsung has helped me incredibly to improve my vocabulary and understand the reasoning behind why certain words are used in certain ways in business. Samsung%20Balance%20Sheet.jpeg
-For this week, we watched a movie called Inside Men (2016), a highly-acclaimed Korean political drama. This movie explores corruption in politics and corporations in Korea with dialogue that fits the current trend in Korea.
-While watching the film, I hoped to learn new vocabulary and observe how Koreans converse in formal settings using trendy words and phrases.
- I jotted down words and phrases that I did not understand. I was able to easily translate them on the spot because we watched the movie with English subtitles for support. In addition, the other student and I asked questions during the movie about certain things the characters did in the movie that were not typical in America.
-I definitely learned a lot of new words and familiarized myself with the interconnections between the governments, conglomerates, and the media in South Korea. I hope to utilize what I gained from watching this movie to hold intelligent conversations with Korean adults in the future.
-For my first cultural post, I decided to explore the recent presidential scandal in Korea involving former president Park Geun-Hye and conspirer Choi Sun-shil. South Korea has always been a victim of political and corporate scandals involving almost all former presidents and huge corporations like Samsung and Hyundai that dominate the Korean economy in so many ways. To summarize briefly, insiders found out that a mysterious woman, Choi, was basically controlling Park by advising her with presidential decisions without having any authority to do so. This was possible through Choi’s lengthy, dominating relationship with Park that was eventually revealed through connecting many dots and finding shocking evidence. Americans probably believe that their government is the most corrupt organization in the world. However, after learning about this case as well as other scandals in the past, I am convinced that no government surpasses that of Korea when it comes to corruption and bribery. Because I’m a Korean who has a general knowledge of morals and ethics of South Koreans, I know far well that Koreans are driven by jealousy, money, and power, especially in politics. Koreans tend to live selfishly and seek connections for benefits. I really hope Koreans would gradually transition into a nation of people who help one another rather than feeding off another for selfish gains. Luckily, president Park was impeached and Choi is still on trial. This resulted in the election of a new, progressive president who many are hopeful that he will reduce South Korea’s political corruption and boost morals of the general public. I can confidently say that Korea is definitely heading in the right direction.
-In the first two weeks, my language partner and I set forth two specific tasks to achieve my goals. One of them was to have as many conversations as we can to get to know each other and get familiar with having formal conversations in Korean. We also decided to learn Korean terminology involved in financial statements, a document that lists all financial information for a company (in this case, Samsung).
-We had conversations about the differences of growing up as a Korean in Korea versus growing up as a Korean in America. My language partner also printed out the financial statements for Samsung and we went over all the terms in the statement and translated them to their respective English words.
-Through our conversations, I learned so many new vocabulary words that my language partner used. My partner did not even realize that these words were difficult until I mentioned it to him. Also, by going over the Korean words displayed in the financial statements, I was able to dissect parts of the words to figure out the meaning myself.
-To build on what I have learned, I will continue to have conversations in Korean with the other students on campus and take a look at financial information for other Korean companies and try to understand what’s displayed in the statements.
This is a conversation I made myself talking about Samsung's financial statements. I talk about the four different types of documents that are included in financial statements (all in Korean). In addition, I talk about some of the aspects of the financial statements and explain its significance in Korean.Korean%20Recording.m4a
-I am going to explore topics in business and corporate culture of South Korea and the cinema of Korea.
-I will read Korean news regarding business, economy, and finance. I’ll learn terminology used in the business setting and get familiar with the corporate culture in Korea. I will also watch movies and interviews with directors to learn trendy vocabulary and sayings. I plan on watching these movies and discussing with my language partner and other students.
-I hope to learn how to have conversations in Korean with business professionals in a formal setting. I also want to be able to read Korean business news without any difficulty in order to learn about current economic news in Korea. As I mentioned before, I want to familiarize myself with how Koreans talk today because trends in grammar and vocab always change in Korea.
-My interpretive and interpersonal skills are advanced but my presentational skills fall under the intermediate level. I am very competent in speaking, writing, and reading generally and especially in the informal setting. However, I lack knowledge of advanced vocabulary and grammar when it comes to speaking and writing in a formal manner.
-My goals for this semester are to learn vocabulary specifically in the business setting, familiarize myself with trendy sayings to be able to converse with Koreans in society today, and to improve my speaking skills in a formal setting.
My first artifact was texting my mother in Korean who I normally text in English. Although it was a bit difficult, I managed to use correct grammar and vocabulary with no abbreviations. This is usually not how Koreans text. Koreans love to use abbreviations and shortenings but I kept it formal not just because I'm speaking to my mom, but also to get better at formal writing in Korean. This also helped me get really used to the Korean QWERTY keyboard. I wouldn't say I'm the worst at it but I certainly can improve more. Texting my mom has increased my skills and familiarity with the Korean keyboard.
Taking Self-Directed Language with Professor S and Ms. Jung was enjoyable and helpful form Korean-language learning experience. I have learned a lot about the culture and language of Korea and I gained a lot of insights about myself as a language learner. I realized that when it comes to languages, I learn the best through having conversations with others and trying to come up with personal stories that relate to a word or phrase I’m learning. The most difficult part about this entire process was time management and developing a passion for studying Korean. Time management was a big issue due to my Junior year classes, interviewing for internships, campus jobs, and what not. It was also an issue when it came to me planning to do a task for the language class. I sometimes just forgot to do what I was going to do to improve on my Korean. I believe this all ties into how much passion I have for the Korean language and preserving my heritage. Even though I’m Korean and consider myself a patriotic individual, I do not have a passion for studying the Korean language further than what my skill level is at the moment. However, this class has helped me change that because I learned to enjoy learning Korean and learning new vocabulary that will be extremely useful when I visit Korea in the future. Obviously, this entire process was enjoyable as well. I really liked learning Korean with one of my close friends who I have never spoken to in Korean. Korean-Americans like myself never usually speak in Korean to each other. English has become our prioritized language and Korean just seemed to be slipping off as we grew more accustomed to the American life in the US. However, studying with my friend was enjoyable and helped me appreciate the learning process. Additionally, I loved giving presentations and seeing others present about their own countries and mine. I gained a lot of new knowledge on cultural facts that I would have never came across if it wasn’t for this class. As I have learned a lot this semester, I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to continue learning Korean next semester when I study abroad at Yonsei University. There, I will be able to learn Korean by speaking it with natives and Korean students who live in Korea. Additionally, I’m going to try my best to talk to my relatives a lot more so that I not only learn more about my culture but the language as well. A lot of the readings done in the class were very interesting especially the one about how being bilingual is the same as being intelligent. I truly want to believe this but I feel that this article is taking away hope from others that might want to pursue learning a new language in the future. If I could take this class again, I would have liked to learn more about each individual students’ perspectives on the various languages we studied and on the culture and traditions of the languages’ countries as well.
