For my last artifact, I will be taking parts of a sports article and translating the main ideas. 

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2016/12/05/0200000000AKR20161205104900007.HTML?input=1195m

"NBA- 웨스트브룩, 27년만에 5연속 트리플더블…OKC 5연승"

This is the title of the article, which states "Westbrook, in 27 years, for 5 straight games a triple double.. OKC 5 game winning streak."

"NBA에서 5연속 경기 트리플더블이 나온 건 1989년 마이클 조던(당시 시카고 불스)이 기록한 뒤 27년 만이다."

In the NBA, the only other person to have had a 5 streak triple double was Michael Jordan(of the Chicago Bulls) in 1989, it has been 27 years. 

"웨스트브룩은 개인 통산 47번째, 올 시즌 10번째 트리플더블을 세웠으며, 역대 최다 트리플더블 5위 래리 버드(59개)를 12개 차이로 추격했다."

Westbrook has total of 47 times, this season alone 10 times he recorded a triple double. He is 12 behind Larry Bird who is 5th on the list of all time players with the most triple doubles in their career. 

"그는 올 시즌 21경기에서 평균 31점 10.8리바운드 11.3어시스트를 기록하고 있다."

In 21 games, he is averaging 31 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 11.3 assists.

"웨스트브룩은 6일 애틀랜타 호크스와 경기에서 6연속 경기 트리플더블에 도전한다."

On the 6th (of December), he will be looking to record his sixth straight triple double."

"오클라호마시티는 경기 막판 상대 팀 버디 힐드에게 연속 3점 슛을 허용하며 96-92, 4점 차로 쫓겼다."

Oklahoma City (Thunders) game in the last quarter/ last couple minutes, the opposing team member, Buddy Hield, scored back-to-back three pointers to get to 96-92, cutting it to a 4 points difference. 

Because I love basketball, I was interested in seeing how Koreans would review the NBA, and what kind of words they would use to describe it. These 6 sentences are relatively straightforward, and use language that I would not normally use in an everyday scenario. I noticed that a lot of English words are sounded out in the Korean language which I found interesting. Words such as "rebounds" and "assists" were not translated into Korean words that meant such things, but rather it seems they put together a Korean word that sounds like the actual English translation. I did have a rough time translating word for word, but I believe I got the main idea of the article, along with its main details. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu4y7ysXeU0

This is my dad's favorite song, so I decided that as my artifact to reflect a growth in listening and understanding, I would try to translate the general idea of the song. So the title essentially means "If I were.."

It's a romantic song, expressing that if the singer were something, he would do good things for his lover. 

The first verse essentially means "if I were the sky, I would want to be colored as my lover's face, like the bright red evening sunset, I wants to be colored like that. "

The next verse goes "if I were a poet, I would make a poem/song for you. Like a child happily snug in his mother's hug, I want to sing happily." 

The chorus is essentially "In the whole world, whatever it is, I want to be that for you. Like today we are together, this is a huge happiness for me. My loved person, do you know this mind of mine?"

The next verse goes "If I were a cloud, I would become rain for you. Like a cold refreshing shower in a hot summer, I want to be that refreshing rain for you."

goes back to the chorus and repeats it twice and ends. 

The reason I did this for my artifact is because I figured I have heard this song multiple times with my dad, but I had never known what the song was about. I think it tested my listening skills, because I don't normally listen to any songs in Korean. The song wasn't too hard to understand, although a couple words were a bit tough to understand. 

할머니 할아버지 안녕하세요 

어떡해 지내세요? 

본지 벌써 7달이 지났어요. 

저는 이제 학교 3학년 반을 끝나가요. 요번 스메스터 예 한국어를 베웠어요. 연습하면서 할머니랑 할아버지 위에서 제가 한국어를 완벽하게 배우겠습니다. 

한국은 이제 엄청 추워지는 시간인데, 따듯하게 입고 다니새요. 

진하누나랑 저는 건강하고 있으니 너무 걱정하지 마세요. 누나는 요즘 일 하늘아 엄청 바빠요. 근데 언쟁 가 시간을 내서 누나랑 아빠랑 엄마랑 다 같지 한국 갈깨요. 작은 아빠랑 작은 엄마 한태도 인사를 전해주세요. 

할머니, 할아버지 많이 사랑하고 많이 보고깊어요. 안녕이개세요. 

This is my letter to my grandparents. 

I am asking them how they're doing, and letting them know it's already been 7 months since I last visited. 

I am letting them know that I am finishing up my first semester of my 3rd year at college, and that this semester I took Korean. 

I am telling them that in order to communicate with them better, I am going to perfect my Korean.

Because Korea is getting cold now, I am respectfully reminding them to dress warmly. 

I am letting them know that my sister and I are safe and healthy so they don't have to worry too much. But that my sister has been working recently so she has been very busy. 

I am letting them know that hopefully sometime soon, my whole family and I will be able to visit.

I am asking them to send my greetings to my uncle and aunt as well. 

And telling them that I love them and miss them very much, and telling them to essentially be well. 

The last word is a common farewell to older people. 

This week I wanted to learn Korean aspects that are not everyday basics, and so I decided to study the government a little bit. I used certain popular Korean websites that contain articles and blogs, and endless media resources about any aspect of the Korean culture. I typed in government, and learned the different terms that indicate the two parties of Korea. Bringing this to my meeting with my language partner, I was able to further understand some of the words that I initially didn't know, and learn about the Korean government history. This both advanced my reading skills, as I had to reread portions of the article and allowed me to learn a bit more about Korean culture in ways that I normally would not learn. This allowed me to approach my culture in a way that I had never been able to before, and it opened up a little bit more about Korea's history and culture. 

This week our language partner suggested looking up articles that we could bring in to class to present. This would require us to understand what the article was about, and be able to give the general outline of what it talked about. I personally chose an article about a certain Korean game that is played often on New Years as a tradition. It was a lot tougher than I thought, and contained a lot of Korean words that I had no idea the meaning. But we took a paragraph and broke it down, looking for context clues and trying to piece together the information to get an idea of what the article was about.

This week's goal, as suggested by my language partner, was to study a cultural aspect of Korea. I studied the use of trendy vocabulary in Korea which appears to be quite popular among the younger generation. To study this, I looked up examples of the most common trendy vocabulary words in 2016 and took a few and broke it down. I was able to learn that most, if not all, of these Korean slang terms come from a combination of multiple words by taking either letters or just the first part of the word. I was able to practice the use of such terms with my language partner, identifying when it would be appropriate to use certain words and when it would not be appropriate to do so. 

This week's video lesson focused on expressing regret or a sense of sadness. Again following the same pattern of following along with the video's lesson plan. This week's video presented a situation of a student who didn't do as well on a test that he had hoped to do well on. The student then went on to use a certain phrase added at the end of a verb to indicate a sense of regret. Translated he said "I wish I studied harder." This is most likely a common phrase all around the world, as regret is a very common thing, so I felt that this lesson was extremely practical and helpful to have in my bank of Korean expressions. 

This week's video covers the phrase to express surprise, or a certain emotion of perceiving an unexpected state or event. Again I went through the same process, following along with the video's lesson plan. The video's lesson was focused around a situation where the person was a bit thrown off by the traffic on a normally light traffic day. The teacher in the video pointed out the use of a certain phrase that helps indicate this emotion, and the video provided examples where I could practice it. 

This week's video lesson was focused on expressing doubt or uncertainty. I followed along with the video lessons that I have been following, and just continued the same process. I was able to learn the certain ending phrases that are added to verbs to suggest uncertainty. It also introduced different phrases that are used to express suggestions, such as translated: "What should I do?"; "What do you think about- ?"; "It would be better to- ". Then I practiced using these phrases with my language partner and fixed the little mistakes that came along with using them for the first time. I also learned a couple more vocabulary words that indicate a state of being such as "to be neat; to be cool; to be chubby.." and so on. This ties into the lesson through the example the video provided, which was a conversation between two friends where one states he/she wants to be something(using one of the vocabulary words taught), and the other friend suggesting something. 

This past semester in this course as a language learner has allowed me to discover the lack of depth in my knowledge of my native language. Previous to this class, as a Korean-American, I had believed that I was relatively knowledgeable of my native country having visited Korea a couple times throughout my life here in America, and speaking the language with my parents on a regular basis. But I have come to realize that although I may know enough to get by, I am still on many different aspects a foreigner.

Previous to this class, I had merely spelled as I heard, and in the Korean language that is error-prone. Therefore as a language learner, having the opportunity to take time to learn the language, practice it, and work on the fundamentals of spelling, I have definitely improved. Although a majority of the class was studying the Korean culture, the few that studied other cultures such as Turkish, and Basque, widened my perspective. I had never been greatly interested in learning about different cultures before, perhaps because I had never pursued it, but after being exposed in class, I find them quite interesting. Living in America, it is easy to settle into a bubble and remain in the comforts of the inside. So discovering a culture such as the Basque culture was fascinating. 

As a student learning a language and a cultural explorer, I found difficult just the habit to practice what I learned. I found it difficult to get into the habit of self-induced practice. I also discovered that the goals that I had set at the beginning were actually quite harder to achieve than I had initially thought. Outside of the general difficulty of practicing on my own, I enjoyed being able to learn about my language. As a native from Korea, I have family members living out there, and so this class will help me in communicating with them easily. It was enjoyable to learn more about my country. My ultimate goal would be to be able to speak Korean almost as fluently as I am able to speak English. And so I aim to continue to practice with my parents, and perhaps start writing letters or emails to my family in Korea.

The learning activities that I found most useful were the videos that I found on the internet. The video provided information about certain circumstances, but went deeper by providing vocabulary one would use in similar situations. This helped increase my knowledge of Korean vocabulary and has reinforced the appropriate use of grammar. This alongside the practice that I was given by my language partner helped me retain the rules better.

Aside from all of that, I would love to learn about my culture as a culture. I had a couple opportunities to pick a certain aspect of the Korean culture and dive into that, and that definitely helped me discover that I don't really know too much about my own culture. And having multiple students also studying the Korean culture widened the range of aspects of Korea that I was introduced to. So apart from studying the actual language and the rules that I had initially come to class wanting to learn, I leave now with a desire to learn more about Korea as a culture and all of its little details that make Korea how it is today. 

SDLC%20110-%20Cultural%20Presentation.pptx

My presentation was focused on the use of trendy vocabulary in Korean. Otherwise known as Korean slang, the use of shortened words , or the use of letters to represent words has become a popular trend in the past decade in Korea and is growing rapidly. My presentation answered how these words come about, the lifespan of such words, and gave examples of a couple trendy vocabulary. It also addressed how this type of texting/speaking can convey a sense of formality and informality in the Korean culture, and explained how the Korean culture is affected. 

Despite a majority of the class's presentations being about the Korean culture, I was surprised to discover and learn about a couple new things of my native culture. 

James had presented about the cinema culture of Korea which I had never really before considered, or thought about. Being someone who isn't too concerned with the technicalities of film, I had never thought that there would be differences in the cinema culture between other countries and America. It was interesting to discover all the history behind film making in Korea and how the nation's circumstances affect the genre and actual storylines. Just in a broader sense, James' cultural presentation really exposed the amount of impact a culture has on cinema. 

Tia's presentation raised up another issue that I had never thought about before either. With her firsthand experience with English learning in Korea, she explained the downside of Korea's English teaching classes. I learned for the first time that the goals of those teaching and learning English in Korea was not to be able to communicate with English-speaking people, but rather as a certain type of skill. It seemed more like memorizing certain phrases, and regurgitating a proper response. It seems to me that Korea holds the skill to "speak" English as a valued skill, and Koreans will use that as an advantage to be in a better position to get a job. I personally think that this kind of defeats the purpose of learning a language if they are unable to communicate fluently in an English-speaking environment, as demonstrated by one of the videos that Tia showed in class. 

Outside of the Korean cultural presentations, it was very interesting to learn about the other cultures as well. 

Zeno's cultural presentation about the process of a Turkish marriage was very intriguing and fascinating to learn about. Never having attended many marriages, I didn't think there was a very complex step-by-step process in marriage globally. But Zeno's presentation definitely widened my perspective, and revealed to me the role that marriage plays in a Turkish culture. It was interesting to learn about all the different processes required for a man and woman to get married in Turkey, and to learn about the intentions behind each different process. 

Madison's cultural presentation about the surnames of Basque countries was very interesting as well. The fact that all surnames of any Basque people are somehow related to a certain 8 is intriguing. It's crazy to think that essentially all Basque people somehow are related in a sense. I think that reflects just how small a culture Basque has. Never having heard of Basque before this semester, I've enjoyed learning bits and pieces of the culture through Madison's presentations and it has been very fascinating just learning about the Basque culture. 

Overall, just learning about the different cultures and even diving deeper into my native culture, I just find it fascinating to see all the little differences between each one, and just understanding what a culture entails. I think culture is something that we often brush by, and people don't often take the time to understand a culture or learn a culture, but I think in learning a language, it is a crucial factor. To understand why a country is a certain way can help immensely in learning a language and all of its rules and technicalities, and can be explained through learning about the culture. 

In order to practice conversing with an older person, I had  a conversation with my uncle who lives in Korea. Although my spelling isn't perfect, I was able to practice tenses that reflect a sense of respect and formality. Despite the fact that my uncle is part of my family, the kind of language I use to communicate with my parents is vastly different because I can be more informal around my immediate family, so having this opportunity to practice the formality of conversing with an older Korean family member has allowed me to practice what I learned. 

%2522I%20can%2522%20Statements.docx

SDLAPFinal%20Learning%20Plan%20-%20Jinhoo%20Bong.docx

Family plays a big role in the Korean culture. As I may have mentioned before, Korea is not an individualistic culture, but rather a group-oriented culture. Often members represent their family name, and others will judge the family based on that one member's personality, behavior, and etc. Stating to be from a certain family line creates a pre-set generalization of the person's identity. In this sense, Korea can be seen as a little pre-modern as the world moves towards an individualistic society, but I think this aspect of their culture sets them apart and creates a different, possibly more bonded environment. Although it gives room for certain judgments, and has a negative connotation, I think this aspect also has its upsides. Being part of a family brings great care, and a very intimate relationship with each family member. Even if individually, two family members do not get along, at the end of the day, because they are family, they will do whatever for their family. I believe this insight comes from having been born in Korea, but growing up in America, because in America, I'm being taught to fend for myself, and all about individuality, and becoming my own. But when I go to Korea to visit my grandparents, or my dad's side of the family, I am no longer just Jinhoo, but rather Jinhoo Bong. And this difference brings about loving grandparents, and a close-knit family line. I meet with family members who I either have never met before, never knew existed, or met when I was very young and therefore they essentially don't exist. But each encounter has always been welcoming and inviting because we are family. Maybe America is like that as well, and I just haven't had an opportunity to experience it firsthand, but from my personal experiences, I enjoy Korea's take on family, and what it brings about. 

Coming from a Korean background, and coming into this class with a relatively well-versed knowledge of Korean, I can't say I struggled immensely. However, the process of learning the language in a formal setting and actually practicing weekly has helped me to build a stronger foundation, and has helped me fix some of the common mistakes that I had previously always made. Before this, I have not really had a formal class to learn Korean other than when I was in pre-school which I do not remember any of, so having the opportunity to learn in a formal setting has helped develop my knowledge of the language much better. Reading has become a bit smoother as I got more practice. And writing as well, as I sat down and wrote sentences and wrote in a formal setting. Before this, the extent of my knowledge was whatever interactions I had with my parents, which was mostly speaking. I had little experience with reading and writing although if forced to, I could have done it. So with just the opportunities provided through this, I have been able to definitely improve in my reading and writing of my native language. Although I do have to admit, I had much bigger goals in the beginning. Mastering the language has proved harder to do than I had previously imagined. But overall, I think I've improved in the use of the Korean language in more formal settings, which had been essentially a main goal of mine. 

I thought the readings were quite interesting as I have never questioned whether being bilingual makes one smarter or not. But the articles brought up interesting points. I have concluded that although being bilingual can make you seem smarter or eventually make you smarter through certain learned traits, the act of being bilingual on its own does not make one smarter. Although it may make you smarter in the sense that you know another language, I don't think it can be use so broadly as to say that bilingualism makes one smarter in a general sense. I do agree with the points that the article pointed out such as that being bilingual can help one to exercise their executive function and therefore create a stronger mental strength in that aspect. And that executive function can assist in deciding quicker and with the ability to switch between two languages quickly creates a sort of seamless interaction within the two, allowing a bilingual person to be able to multitask more easily than those that only know one language. A negative factor that the articles brought up that I agreed with to a certain extent was that by having to learn two language simultaneously, one is limiting their depth of knowledge in one language. That is something that is very plausible, but I still don't think this fact alone is sufficient to overcome the benefits of being bilingual. Maybe in the early stages, such a fact might play a role in the growth of that person's knowledge of both languages, but in the long run, I don't see it playing as big a role. Overall, I found it interesting to see the scientific backings as to how bilinguals think differently, even if it is in the slightest sense, than those who know only one language, and to see how that can lead to one claiming that bilinguals are smarter. 

I have learned roughly 25-30 new words in my target language which is Korean. I learned them through the videos that I have been watching which teach a couple words related to a certain subject, some of which I already knew, and some of which were new. Also, I have been learning some trendy vocabulary which is a cultural use of slang in Korean with my language assistant. I don't think that I'll be able to use these newly acquired words as seamlessly as I do with the words that I already know, but I do hope to incorporate them into my knowledge of vocabulary so that I have it ready to use whenever an opportunity may come. 

In the Korean culture, the use of trendy vocabulary is a popular aspect of the culture. Trendy vocabulary simply means abbreviated words used to refer to a certain meaning, making it easily accessible for the use of usually younger generations. It provides a sense of intimacy between friends, or girlfriends/boyfriends. It is an extremely popular use in the Korean culture, and it quickly moves on in the sense that not many abbreviated words stay popular for every long; more often than not, the words will change quickly over time as Koreans think of new ways to say certain phrases in cooler or shorter ways. When possible suitors meet up at a blind date, they will often start with language that reflects respect as respect is a huge aspect of the Korean culture, and in order to appear courteous and proper. This will continue on for quite some time until the couple feels close enough to start joking around and teasing each other which is often when the use of trendy vocabulary will be incorporated into their communications. This reflects a sense of intimacy because when they are able to joke around and tease each other, they are feeling comfortable enough around each other to start abbreviating their language, which can often seem a bit less professional and proper. The practice of abbreviating certain phrases is a very common thing among the younger generations in Korea as older generations are more focused on appearing respectful and professional, while younger generations are still able to keep their playful spirits which is reflected in their use of such language.