JUNE%20STRUGGLE%20CULTURAL%20PROJECT.pptx

This was such an engaging historical event that conjured up so many emotions within me when I was researching about the events that took place in 1987. After I finished the project, I watched a movie called 1987: When the Day Comes, that deals with the events that led to the outburst from the Korean people in reaction to the corrupt political scheming of the dictatorship-like government at that time. My project focuses on what led to the June Democratic Movement that had over a million people participating in the demonstrations against the government. What made the project so engaging for me was because I was able to see through the lens of what my parents had gone through when they were around my age. My parents are scared to watch movies that deal with the events that took place in 1987 because it is just too real for them and they don't want to be reminded of the pain and suffering that the Korean people had to go through.  

This semester, our class had the opportunity to learn everything that we wanted out of the class. I wanted to focus on learning more vocabulary, grammatical rules, and Korean history. Thankfully we got to touch on all these subjects. With each topic, I got to learn new Korean words that I never learned. It was a lot of new words, but I was thankful because I got to expand my knowledge on Korean vocabulary. We got to learn slang terms that the younger generation in Korea uses when socializing. We also learned about Korean proverbs. Jimin also taught us common Korean grammatical and spelling errors and tips on how we can make sure we get it right. Through constant practice, it became a lot more easier to apply the rules and get a feeling of how things should be applied. My favorite topic that we got to learn was Korean history. Especially the modern Korean history because this is what my grandparents and parents had lived through. I felt a bit more closer to my family because I was able to learn their struggles. The language barrier in my family makes it really difficult to communicate, so I would never have really learned about these historical events through talking with them. It was a great semester and I am thankful for the learning opportunities I had through SDLC. Thank you Jimin and Professor Soloway!

Since we had Thanksgiving break, we didn't have class for that week. We focused mostly on reviewing everything we have learned so far over the semester for the following week. We went through each subject in chronological order on when we learned them. This allowed the class to have a review sheet that we can study for the final exam. We started off with kup sheek chae which, if translated literally, means young persons' slang. We moved onto Korean proverbs and then sa ji sung uhs which are korean proverbs that are abbreviated into one word. We followed up with grammatical rules that we learned throughout the semester and then finished with Korean history. It was a bit overwhelming reviewing what we had learned up to this point, but I was thankful that I had the opportunity to learn all these topics. They were practical and exactly what I wanted out of this final Korean course. 

For my cultural presentation I decided to research on the infamous demonstrations that took place in 1987 in South Korea. During my research I learned about the Gwangju Uprising, also known as the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. This movement occurred in Gwangju, South Korea, from May 18th to the 27th, 1980. An estimation of 606 people died during these protests. During this period, the citizens of Gwangju rebelled against the government by robbing local armories and police stations in response to the government troops' brutality towards a demonstration led by local Chonnam University students. These young students were shot at, killed, raped and beaten by government troops.

The students had gathered together and were demonstrating against the successful coup d'etat of the South Korean government by Chun Doo Hwan, who would soon become president. He forcefully overtook the government and took control of Korea like a dictator. Although Chun Doo Hwan was not officially the president during the time of the demonstration, he had become the de factor leader of South Korea since coming into power on December 12, 1979.

I was getting angered and frustrated when I was reading about Korea's political history. I think I would have joined the demonstrations myself if I was under a corrupt political leader who forcefully made himself the president and prevented the citizens of having a real democracy. My dad told me he was in college during Chun's reign as president and actually participated in the multitude of demonstrations that would soon occur in 1987. I now understand why my parents do not trust the Korean government. The political system is always found to be corrupt and no matter the change, something always goes wrong. Hopefully, the new president in this term will be different.

The past two weeks were a fresh change of pace and we focused on the history of Korea. We went through all of Korea's history and I really appreciated our learning partner for preparing such a large amount of information in a condensed manner so that it wasn't overwhelming. She literally started from the creation of Korea to the present. She presented us with a sheet of paper that presented the kingdom/historical era and keywords that are important to that specific time. She made sure to take more time on major historical events and people that made a large impact in Korea. Learning the history of Korea was depressing. They were constantly being invaded by other countries. There were a few moments of victory, but it was not long lasting. For example, after the end of the Japanese Colonial era, the Korean war soon happened. Once the war was paused and the republic of Korea was born, the Korean people still were not truly free. There was no democracy. Almost every president that Korea has had in office were almost like dictators. I remember my mom telling me how she has no hope in the Korean political system because they are corrupt year after year and it hasn't changed ever since she was younger. 

I taught one of my non-Korean housemates 7 common Korean slang words. I noticed that these words are very common in normal day-to-day conversations, so if my friend were to ever interact with Koreans and use the appropriate slang word, he would be praised. Koreans love it when a non-Korean speaks Korean. I think the lesson was overall effective. I didn't use too many words so he was generally able to recall which word to use in the correct context. There were a couple words where he got confused on which to use. This was because the meaning can be somewhat similar. For example, daebak means "that is crazy!" and jjang means "awesome." I didn't really know how to discern the differences between the two. There is a gut feeling I get that helps me pick which one to use in the correct context. I didn't know how to explain this gut feeling to him. Overall, it was a fun and enjoyable time for both of us. It was great that I was able to have my friend exposed to my culture. 

We watched a korean movie called Along with the Gods for one of the weeks. Thankfully, we watched it with subtitles because I would have had no idea what was being said. This is still an area that I have a lot of trouble with. I find it astounding that some of my non-Korean friends have learned Korean just by watching a lot of Korean entertainment. I think I should watch more Korean programs and movies. The following week we wrote a reflection on what we thought about the movie and reviewed everything we had learned up to this point. I think the lessons so far have been effective. We usually try to recall things we learned from past lessons and that helps reinforce what I learned previously. In previous classes, I noticed that a lot of things that I learned tend to slip away because there isn't continual practice throughout the semester. So, this has been refreshing and encourages me that I am learning and improving in my Korean vocabulary when I get things right.

For the learning activity, I decided on teaching Korean slang to my non-Korean friend. I think this would be an easy and fun topic to learn for someone who doesn't know any Korean. I plan on providing a list of the common slang words and provide the meaning. I would then provide an example of the appropriate use of the word. Since my friend doesn't know any Korean, I plan on saying an English sentence and ask what slang word would I use in this context to test if the lesson actually worked. 

For the past two weeks, we continued our lessons on Korean vocabulary. We specifically went over Korean proverbs and Sa Ja Sung Uh. For the Korean proverbs lesson, we watched a Korean variety show, but with subtitles this time. I think Jimin knew I had a hard time understanding during the previous lesson. However, this time, I tried to pick out words I understood from the hosts and was able to somewhat get an understanding of what they were trying to say. Although it was just a fun variety show, I noticed that there was some worth in learning by watching these variety shows. I was getting real world exposure to the Korean language and I had to practice deciphering what they were saying on the spot. We also went over a list of the proverbs to be used in the show beforehand, so Jimin used the show as a test to see if we would remember what we had just learned. Jimin helped us translate the proverbs and we took turns applying them into the right context. Sa ja sung uh is a one word proverb where each letter has a meaning. I found it interesting how there were a few sa ja sung uhs that were used in the English language such as "kill two birds with one stone".  

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I used 7 very common slang words and applied them in the appropriate context to be used in a conversation. 

1. Daebak (that is crazy!)

2. Jjang (awesome)

3. Hul (no way, oh my gosh)

4. Heck-no-jem (very not fun)

5. Heck-khool-jem (very fun)

6. Ppung-chi-ji-ma (stop messing with me)

6. Chimaek (chicken and beer)

For my next cultural post, I did research on the creation of the Korean language. Koreans did not always have their own language, but used Hanja, which was Chinese. There were many problems because of this. For example, the Chinese characters were too complicated for the common people to learn and understand. Using the language meant you were in the upper class and it was generally used by the educated. Another problem was that since the Chinese script was of foreign origin, Koreans were unable to fully express their Korean cultural thoughts and spoken language. The common people who had complaints had no way of submitting grievances. They were also unable to record agricultural wisdoms that were gained over the years. As a result, King Sejong, the king during the Choson Dynasty (1393 - 1910), created the Korean language called Hangul. It was very easy to learn, so the problems that existed with the common people began to dissipate. It is apparently so accessible that a foreigner can gain a working knowledge of Hangul after one or two hours of intensive studying. It even allowed children who were around 2 or 3 to be able to express themselves which was considered a rare phenomena throughout the world.

For the past two weeks, we focused on Korean vocabulary. This is an area that I am always struggling with because there is always more vocabulary words to know. Since I do not get enough exposure to the Korean language, my knowledge is very limited. We went over Korean slang for one of the weeks. We first watched a Korean variety show without subtitles where the hosts were playing a game. They had to translate the meaning of the slang. To be honest, I had a hard time understanding what the hosts were saying. They were speaking very fast and I didn't understand a lot of the words. Jimin had to pause the video and translate for me most of the time. Jimin gave us a handout of the words that were used in the show and we went over each one. She gave us the meaning and used them in a sentence so that we can understand the appropriate context of when it should be applied. I realized I was getting a bit overwhelmed because there was just so many different common slang terms. It is hard to infer what the words may be saying.

I think I am improving on my Korean based on the first artifact I posted. My knowledge of Korean words is slowly improving. My mom was very impressed that she didn't have to translate a few words for me when I had a conversation with her recently. She noticed that my Korean has been getting better so I think that is a good sign. I think I could definitely improve on using different types of sentence structures. I noticed that I repeat a lot of phrases to introduce a new topic in the conversation.  

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1. Introduction (family, what I am studying, where I am from)

2. My future plans (get a job in accounting)

3. What I did the day before

My%20Learning%20Plan%20113.docx

For our first class, we had a discussion with Jimin, our language learning partner, what our class wanted to get out of this course. We gave her our learning plans and she created a cumulative schedule for what we would be going over throughout the semester to make sure our individual and aligning goals would be explored. Afterwards, she went over a topic that most of us had trouble with, which was learning about certain common spelling errors. She would write down two words that sounded the same, but only one was correctly spelled. We were given a blank sheet of paper and had to choose the correct word and use it in a sentence to make sure we knew how the word applied in the right context. She taught us a really helpful trick to use when applying these two vowels. "ㅐ"and "ㅔ" sound exactly the same, so it gets really difficult to figure out which one to use. I have been applying them based on gut feeling from all the years of Korean I have learned, which is not a method that helps me be confident in what I'm spelling. She taught us to extend the vowel for "ㅐ" into a full word and if it sounds good with the word we are trying to spell, it is correct. This has been immensely helpful as these two vowels are one of the most difficult ones to correctly apply for me. The following week, she gave us a quiz on the words we went over in the previous class and then reviewed over the ones where we failed to get right. Throughout the class, she continued to teach us more common vocabulary errors through videos she found online and from her own experience of being in Korea.

The main two topics I would like to explore is the history of Korea and spelling. In my previous SDLC classes, we usually briefly touched on a small portion of Korea's history and I always found it very compelling because all the events contributed to forming the culture that is Korea today. I hope to explore this topic through my SDLC learning partner's method of teaching. In previous classes, we had used YouTube as a great resource for learning the history of Korea. There are channels dedicated to teaching major events that happened in Korea, so I think that will be a great place to start. Korea is my motherland and I don't want to be ignorant of major events that happened there.

I also want to get more exposure to more vocabulary and spelling. There are some Korean words that get tricky with the spelling because the words use vowels and consonants that sound very similar to each other. I hope to be able to get a better grasp of why words are spelled a certain way through my learning partner. I would like to get exposed to common spelling errors that tend to happen with specific Korean words. Through the exploration of spelling and other vocabulary words, I hope to grow more confident in my spelling and be able to write at a higher level of Korean.

Throughout this semester I learned a bit about the history of South Korea. My comprehensive outlook on the history is that it is kind of depressing. I learned about the concept of Han when I took SDLC 111 which denotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overcoming insurmountable odds. I think this perfectly encapsulates Korea's history and what the Korean people had to go through based on what I learned so far.

In the past, Korea has always been overtaken by other stronger countries such as Japan and China. Korea has always been on the weaker end of the spectrum and had to overcome overwhelming circumstances. There is also the Korean war where Korea became separated into two countries. The significant impact of this on the Korean people never really hit me until I watched Ode to my Father, which was assigned by Youngmin. In the film, there was a scene where the main character gets to reunite with his sister who was lost in the Korean war through a television broadcast. Before this emotional scene, the film shows real life broadcasts of separated family members reuniting through the television network. I had no idea this reunification happened until I saw the film and it was heart wrenching to watch. I imagined how I would have felt if I was separated from any of my family members for decades and finally being able to see them. The depressing part was that they were able to physically see each other, but only through the television screens. I was an emotional wreck after this scene. There is also the history of the demonstrations against the corrupt government where a college student was murdered in 1987.

All these events culminated together just make me feel sorry for all the things the Korean people had to suffer through. I can finally see why the term Han has been specially created for the people of Korea. Fortunately, South Korea now has a booming economy and is not suffering anymore. 

For one of the weeks, we were assigned to create the cultural project presentation. Youngmin gave a book filled with different cultural aspects of Korea and the topic of Tae Kwon Do piqued my interest. I decided to do my presentation on Tae Kwon Do out of nostalgia and my own curiosity. When I was younger, I used to practice Tae Kwon Do and really enjoyed my time learning the martial arts, so I wanted to go more in depth in how it came to be what it is today. The following class, Youngmin gave each of the students notecards so that we can provide feedback for everyone's cultural project. After I gave my presentation on Tae Kwon Do, Younngmin asked me some questions to follow up on some of the information I gave and provided me feedback to improve my project.

For the second week, we have been reviewing everything we learned so far using the workbook and textbook. She also explained to us the format of the exam, so that we can come prepared. I noticed that I had forgotten some of the important lessons, so I'm thankful that we have been going over everything we learned or else I would be terribly unprepared during the assessment.  

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TAEKWONDO%20Presentation.pptx

My cultural presentation is on the Korean traditional martial arts, Tae Kwon Do. I used to practice Tae Kwon Do when I was younger, so I thought it would be interesting to research on a topic that I am familiar with. Tae Kwon Do is a self defense martial arts that teaches not only how to fight, but how to improve character, self-discipline, and confidence that can be applied to any task. Tae Kwon Do took thousand of years to become what it is known today. It has influences from karate, Chinese martial arts, and indigenous Korean martial arts traditions such as Taekkyeon, Subak, and Gwonbeop. Tae Kwon Do aims to change one's lifestyle because it teaches to have a peaceful mind and synchronize your mind with your movements. This extends to your life and how one contributes to society. The principle of physical movements, mind training, and life become one and the same and it eventually becomes a way of life. 

For one of the classes we learned about the corrupt political situation in Korea in 1987. My dad had told me when he was in college he had gone to protests and demonstrations against the corrupt political climate in that era, but I didn't really understand the full scope of this historical event. We learned how Korean citizens basically had no power in electing a president that they desired and this was what caused the spark in protests. Many young generations were fighting the corrupt system and one college student was taken in by the government. He was interrogated and tortured severely enough that he had died. This caused even more outrage and thousands more decided to fight back. The government spread propaganda and stated that the cause of the young student's death was due to shock from one of the officials who was interrogating the student slamming on a desk. This was a ridiculous statement and the Korean public knew that it was all lies and continued pressuring the government to give them their freedom. Eventually, the government gave in and agreed to let the people choose who became president.  

I thought this was a crazy part of Korea's history and I had no idea how corrupt the political system was. When it was recently announced that the Korean president was just a puppet for a powerful cult leader's daughter, I remember being so shocked just as many people were in America. However, what shocked me more was my mom's reaction when I talked to her about this. She wasn't even disturbed and replied that the Korean government has always been corrupt and shrugged it off. By learning about what happened in 1987, I can see how her reaction was rational from her experience of living in Korea for most of her life.