Final%20Podcast%20SDLAP.m4a

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gaGigaiA-Nrl6gBclK7U8QUXPZEV33zG/view

The March first movement is a holiday celebrated in Korea to pay respects to the people who lost their lives during the protests on March 1^st, 1919. Back then, Korea was under Japanese colonization and there was a protest movement calling f nor independence from Japan. Thousands of students and civilians in Seoul protested in the city to show displays of resistance from Japan. During this holiday, people visit the Seodamun Prison History Hall to remember and pay respects to the people who fought for Korea’s independence and democracy. Furthermore, people go through spring season tours in Gwangyang and other villages to enjoy food and experience parades. Furthermore, many Koreans go to theme parks to enjoy and spend time with their family. Lastly, a lot of people go to Ski resorts to enjoy the last chance to ski before winter ends. The March 1^st movement is like Memorial Day in America. Jenna and I also learned fifteen vocab words related to the March 1^st movement. It was interesting to compare the March 1^st movement to holidays in America.

The blog that I read and learned about the March first movement was this link: https://blog.trazy.com/march-1st-movement-korea/

March 1^st movement is also known as Samil Jeol and is a public holiday celebrated in South Korea. On March 1^st, 1919 there was turning point in Korean history. There was a nationwide civil protest and an independence movement against the Japanese colonization of Korea. This led to the establishment of the provisional government of the Republic of Korea. In 1919, the Paris Peace conference caused many patriots of Korea believed in self-determination and independence from japan. Korean students studying in Tokyo demanded freedom from Japan.

The March 1^st movement is a very popular holiday in Korea and many Koreans take it seriously. It is a moment in history that changed Korea forever. It is similar to Memorial Day in America.

Last week, Jenna and I talked about Korean technology. South Korea is one of the best global innovation leaders. Samsung is one of the most popular companies in Korea and the company started in 1938. Now, Samsung is one of the most popular and successful companies in Korea. In 2018 alone, Samsung produced 15 percent of the nation’s GDP. Korean technology is very advanced and it’s crazy to think less than a century ago, Korea was a third-world country owned by Japan. This week, Jenna and I also went over my cultural presentation. I finished most of it and presented it to her. She said everything was really well made but told me to add sources for each picture I got and to add a design to the presentation to make it stand out more. Last week, we also did the podcast recording together. It was fun to talk about what I had learned so far this semester with Jenna. We talked about the political system I learned last month and the different historical events and holidays I learned earlier this semester. This week, Jenna and I met one last time. We talked about everything I have learned with her over the last four semesters with her. I am so proud of what Jenna and I have accomplished in the last few semesters. I have learned a lot about reading and writing in Korean. I accomplished my long-term goal of passing the COM2 exam last semester. Jenna was able to efficiently teach me the Korean language and Korean culture. Over the past few semesters with her, I have definitely learned a lot. I will continue to practice reading and writing in Korean in the future. I have read many articles in the last few semesters and I am excited to have had this journey with Jenna. I have watched many videos about Korean in Korean that has helped my skills in the Korean language. I am also happy to have learned so many vocabulary words with Jenna over the past semesters. It has definitely helped me expand my Korean speaking skills. One of the first goals in Korean SDLAP was to get better at speaking with my grandma in Korean. I am so proud to have been able to learn the Korean language and I have seen improvements in the conversations with my grandmother. I will preserve the Korean language as long as I live and uphold the traditions I was taught. I thank Professor Soloway for allowing me to embark on this journey with Jenna.

This week, Jenna and I learned about K-pop, also known as Korean Hip Hop. Kpop is mainstream music in South Korea and can be compared to artists like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. Kpop has many different musical genres involved in it. It can include genres like rock, hip hop, and electronic music. Kpop is a very new form of music when looking at the different genres in Korean music culture. Kpop was created in the 1990s and the roots of Kpop began in the 1950s. Since then, many western music and pop groups influenced Kpop in South Korea. The first Kpop group was Seo Taiji and The Boys. They were most popular in the mid 1990s and were famous with experimenting with many different genres of music. They were the pioneers for integrating rap into South Korean pop music. Growing up, I remember listening to K-pop with my family on long car rides. It was really nostalgic to listen to some of the old music I listened to as a child this week with Jenna. Furthermore, Jenna and I talked about our plans for the podcast at the end of the year. We reviewed the different topics I learned about in the past lessons so I can be prepared to talk about it with Jenna for the final podcast for class. I am excited to wrap up this semester strong and hope to learn more about Korean culture. Jenna and I also reviewed some of the terms we learned over the past few lessons and will continue to learn fifteen new words next week. This week, Jenna and I also talked about a big issue that prevalent in Korean culture. In Korea, men are considered to have more power than women. Many men have been caught for spy cameras and sexual violence towards women in South Korea. Women’s rights in Korea are a big topic issue currently in Korean culture. Feminist issues are becoming more popular and talked more about in the media. Korea has a lot of gender discrimination and it is violent and hateful. There are also many women who have died from sexual violence from men in Korea. Furthermore, there are many celebrities who have been caught for sexual violence towards women in the last decade. Women are taken advantage of in Korea, and it is a serious issue that must be talked about. Women are also having a disadvantage in obtaining a job in the hyper-competitive job market in Korea. Men have a better chance to get a better position and job than women do due to the unequal rights and the traditions of Korean culture. This is similar to America’s problem and issue of women’s rights in the past decade. America is definitely ahead of Korea in social norms for respecting women and giving them the same rights as men. There is currently still an issue in America, but Korea is definitely behind. Jenna and I also decided on what to learn about next week: Korean technology. I know that Korean technology is miles ahead than America, such as the WiFi technology and computer technology.

My third cultural artifact is a news article written in Korean about a basketball player in the Korean Basketball League. The basketball player, Deonte Burton, currently plays on the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. I was drawn to this article because the OKC Thunder is my favorite basketball team and Burton won MVP in the Korean basketball league the year after he graduated from Iowa State. This article talks about Burton's potential and future in professional basketball. The article also compares Deonte Burton as Michael Jordan in Korea. Because he is playing so well in the Korean basketball league, people think he deserves the MVP. They talk about his strength and skill set as a young basketball player and how he has quickly and efficiently adapted into the Korean basketball league. They talk about how he and his DB team defeated many teams and is currently playing in the semifinals in the playoffs. I thought this article was very interesting because Deonte Burton isn't as worshipped in America. They use words like "the best" when describing Deonte Burton and compares him to Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players in the world. I think this comparison is a little too much, but the fact that Korean sports writers use this comparison really shows how different the perspectives are in America and Korea. Furthermore, I thought that it was really helpful to learn words in the world of basketball and sports such as win and playoffs. I want to continue practicing and reading news articles in Korean about the Korean basketball league. I will begin to watch live broadcasts in Korean to learn more vocab and understand the phrases and language in sports. The article also talks about how Burton has the potential to become recruited by G-League teams in the NBA if he continues to grow as a player.

Reading and understanding this article was difficult at first. There were many words and phrases that I had no clue about, but with the help of Jenna, I was able to better understand the article as a whole. I read the words out loud and asked her what a particular word or phrase meant if I didn't know what it meant. We didn't go through the whole article though, and during my own time, I started to read and translate sentences as practice. I looked up specific words if I didn't know what it meant, and used context clues to understand and write the translation of the sentence in English.

I will continue to read basketball articles about the Korean basketball league and articles written about the NBA in America. I found these articles on naver.com. I searched for basketball and looked for different articles written in Korean about either the NBA or the Korean Basketball League. Jenna and I will continue to read through articles together about different topics I am interested in (music, food, and sports). The COM2 language exam is reading through an article and answering questions about the article, so doing this every week will help me become more proficient in reading and writing in Korean.

Last week, Jenna and I learned fifteen new vocabulary words about the healthcare system in Korea. Furthermore, we decided on my final cultural presentation topic. I decided to research on the different holidays in Korea and how they differ from America’s holidays. I want to study the origins of the holidays in Korea and how people celebrate it. I am happy with what Jenna and I have accomplished so far in the course this semester. I have learned a lot of Korean history and it feels like a class about Korean history more than a Korean speaking class. I also started watching a new Korean drama on Netflix and it is really fun. They speak in Korean, and I understand most of it, but sometimes I read the caption to better understand what they are saying. This week, Jenna and I watched a Korean documentary about food culture in Korea. I already know most of the foods in Korea, but this documentary showed me more about the street food culture in Korea. There are many foods that are from western countries that has moved to the streets of Korea. For example, corndogs are beginning to gain traction in Korean street food markets, and it is a very popular dish. Jenna and I learned 15 new vocabulary words about popular Korean foods. I think my favorite food is Galbi, a traditional Korean barbeque food. I don’t know what more Jenna and I will cover for the rest of the semester, so I brought that point up to Jenna in this week’s lesson. We decided to learn about Korean K-pop next week. There is a lot to learn about K-pop in Korea. it is becoming a very popular genre in Korea and all over the world. I am very excited to learn about K-pop next week and how it has integrated into western countries. We only have around a month left of school, so I am very excited to finish my last semester of college. I will start my cultural presentation next week and hope to get some feedback from Jenna before I submit it next month. I will focus on four or five holidays in Korea and talk about the origins of the holiday, the date the holiday is celebrated on, and the different traditions done in Korea for each holiday.

Last week, Jenna and I learned fifteen new vocabulary words about the healthcare system in Korea. Furthermore, we decided on my final cultural presentation topic. I decided to research on the different holidays in Korea and how they differ from America’s holidays. I want to study the origins of the holidays in Korea and how people celebrate it. I am happy with what Jenna and I have accomplished so far in the course this semester. I have learned a lot of Korean history and it feels like a class about Korean history more than a Korean speaking class. I also started watching a new Korean drama on Netflix and it is really fun. They speak in Korean, and I understand most of it, but sometimes I read the caption to better understand what they are saying. This week, Jenna and I watched a Korean documentary about food culture in Korea. I already know most of the foods in Korea, but this documentary showed me more about the street food culture in Korea. There are many foods that are from western countries that has moved to the streets of Korea. For example, corndogs are beginning to gain traction in Korean street food markets, and it is a very popular dish. Jenna and I learned 15 new vocabulary words about popular Korean foods. I think my favorite food is Galbi, a traditional Korean barbeque food. I don’t know what more Jenna and I will cover for the rest of the semester, so I brought that point up to Jenna in this week’s lesson. We decided to learn about Korean K-pop next week. There is a lot to learn about K-pop in Korea. it is becoming a very popular genre in Korea and all over the world. I am very excited to learn about K-pop next week and how it has integrated into western countries. We only have around a month left of school, so I am very excited to finish my last semester of college. I will start my cultural presentation next week and hope to get some feedback from Jenna before I submit it next month. I will focus on four or five holidays in Korea and talk about the origins of the holiday, the date the holiday is celebrated on, and the different traditions done in Korea for each holiday.

Last week, Jenna and I continued learning about historical events in Korea. We learned about the Gwangju massacre. Gwangju is a popular city in Korea, and in 1980, 600 people were killed. Citizens of Gwangju took up arms after some students at a university were demonstrating against the martial law government. The government troops fired upon and killed some of the protestors. Tbe uprising is known as the Gwangju Democratization Struggle. Jenna and I also learned 15 new vocabulary words in Korean. I was really sad to hear of the oppression that occurred in Korean history and I am glad that I learned a little bit more about my culture. Jenna and I also began talking about what topic to research on for the final cultural presentation at the end of the semester. I decided with Jenna that it was going to either be about politics or history of Korea. I will update on what I will research on by the end of the next month. Another thing Jenna and I talked about and I learned in this week’s lesson was the Korean healthcare system. I pointed out last week that I currently take a class called Intro to Healthcare Sciences. In that class, we learn about the political system in America and how it connects with the healthcare system. We learned about how politics, power, policy and payment. These “four p’s” are very crucial in healthcare and all of these influence and control America. The healthcare system in Korea is universally accessible. The Korean healthcare system is a lot more efficient than America’s healthcare system. The GDP spent in American healthcare is way higher than Korea’s GDP for healthcare. There is a lot we can learn from Korea’s healthcare system. Jenna and I also talked about our opinions of universal healthcare coverage in America and how it could potentially help relieve the issues of American healthcare. This week, Jenna and I also watched a video on YouTube about the history of Korean politics. It was based on the material we learned last week about the history of Korean politics. The video talked more about the different presidents and the different coups that occurred in Korean history. Next week, Jenna and I will talk more about what I will research on for my cultural presentation. I have to narrow down the two topics I have chosen or come up with a new topic. I brought up the topic of holidays in Korea. I will update on the next bi-weekly journal in which topic I choose for the final cultural presentation.

Today is ironically March 1^st and signifies the March 1^st Movement. Last week, Jenna and I learned about the political system in Korea. The Korean political system is based on a liberal democratic political system currently. The president is considered the chief executive. In America, the term for the president lasts four years up to one reelection, but in Korea, you are only allowed one five-year term without any additional terms for reelection. Currently, the president is Moon Jae In, and she is a part of the democratic party. In Korean, the democratic party is called 더불어민주당. The other political parties in Korea include the centrist, liberal party and the merging of the democratic party and the new political vision party. The previous president before Moon Jae In was Park Geun Hye. He was part of the conservative party or the liberty Korea Party. In Korean it is 자유한국당. The Conservative party is also known as the Saenuri party or the 새누리당. It was previously known as the Hannara Party or 한나라당. Conservatism was shown through militaristic government leaders like Park Jung Hee and Jeon Doo Hwan. Conservatism is shown through economic freedom, but some older generations of Koreans are in favor of economic interventionism from Park Jun Hee’s Presidency era. Jenna and I also talked about Sung Man Rhee, the first ever president of the Republic of South Korea and was part of the Conservative party. The constitution amendment allowed him to have unlimited terms. Protests were forced upon him to resign and he was then exiled to Hawaii. The third president of the Republic of South Korea was Park Jung Hee. He stressed on industrialization and economic growth. He was the De Facto Dictator. He rose to power through military coup. He also created the Yushin Constitution or the imperial role. In 1979, Park Jung Hee was assassinated by the director of KCIA, Kim Jae Gyu, who was one of Park’s best friends. Kim jae Gyu also killed Cha Ji Chul, the chief bodyguard. Jenna and I also talked about the three national intelligence service. The central intelligence agency, the presidential security service, and the defense security command. The three national intelligence services in Korean are translated to 중앙정보부- 김재규 (central intelligence agency), 대통령경호실- 차지철 (presidential security service), 보안사령부- 전두환 (defense security command). Jenna and I also talked about Jeon Doo Hwan. He was the investigator and prosecutor of Park’s assassination case. He was already the military leader. He became more powerful after internal militaristic attacks. He became the leader of both defense security command the the central intelligence agency. There was a lot of college protests all across the country and this pressured the president for martial law command. Next week, we will also talk more about the political system in Korea and other historical events.

For the second cultural artifact, my friend and I went out to eat at a Korean restaurant the past weekend for dinner. The Korean restaurant was called “New Grand Mart” and had a variety of Korean dishes that my family as made in the past. Before going to the restaurant, I studied the history and culture of Korean food. I found that Korean families traditionally have “bonchon” or sides that accompany their main dish. Similar to America, where we have mashed potatoes with our Turkey for Thanksgiving, Korean food culture always has many sides that accompany main dishes like meat or rice. For food, I decided to order Jja-Jang-Myun, one of the most popular noodle dishes in Korea. Derived and influenced by Japanese cuisine, Jja-Jang-Myun is a black bean noodle dish that had a sweet and flavorful taste to it. Attached is the picture of the dish. The food to the right of the dish is the “bonchon,” or the sides that come along with it. It came with Kimchi, pickled radish, and sliced onions. Ordering the food in Korean was very exciting. The conversation went something like this (in Korean).

Jiwon: Hello! How are you?

Cashier: Hello, what would you like today?

Jiwon: May I get one order of Jja-Jang-Myun

Cashier: Would you like sides to come along with it?

Jiwon: Yes please, and can I get extra pickled radish on the side?

Cashier: No problem! Total is 6.50. I will call your number when your food is ready.

It was very interesting to order food in just Korean by myself. Although there were some words that I couldn’t understand, I was able to understand the general sentences and ideas the cashier was telling me. The food was really good and filling. Most everyone in the restaurant was Asian and spoke Korean. I spoke to one individual on what they ordered and what their favorite dish was. It was really cool being immersed in a Korean environment. I also recognized the accents of the cashier and the other customer. They had a pure Korean accent that I couldn’t replicate. I also looked around the store for other Korean snacks and candy with my friend. There were really interesting, and I even recognized some of the snacks that I used to eat when I was young. The experience of going to the restaurant and Korean store was really fun and interesting. Learning about different foods and different Korean candy and snacks was cool and how they differed with American foods and snacks. Also, the radio station and music in the restaurant and store was in Korean, so I felt like I was fully immersed in a Korean community. The fact that there was a Korean community present in Richmond was really fascinating and I was proud to be a part of it. In the future, I will definitely revisit New Grand Mart for the food and the atmosphere. I may even cook some Korean dishes myself in the future. In conclusion, the general experience was very enjoyable. I felt like I was learning the Korean language without trying to learn specific vocab words.

This week we looked at and studied Chuseok in Korea. Chuseok is known as Korean Thanksgiving. Chuseok is usually celebrated on September 19^th but it lasts for three days. Traditionally, Koreans go to their ancestral hometowns to spend time with their family. They usually celebrate by making a lot of food. One desert food in specific that is popular is songpyeon. Songpyeon is made of rice and dough filled with sesame seeds and red bean paste. Chuseok is also a day of gift-giving. Koreans give gifts to family members and friends to show appreciation and respect. Some examples of gifts include fruit, meat, and gift sets of beauty products. Chuseok originated to bring luck to the annual harvest for farmers in colonial Korea. Jenna and I learned fifteen words this week that is related to Chuseok. We also watched a video on Chuseok. It was really cool to see the tradition occur as a documentary film. I was happy to learn about Chuseok and it will definitely help me understand my Korean culture better. I will be able to talk to my grandma about Chuseok in Korea and she will definitely tell me her stories. Jenna and I also had a discussion on the stuff we learned so far. We took around 20 minutes talking about the video we watched about Chuseok. There were some questions I had, like what a specific phrase during the video meant in Korea. We also took time to share what we found interesting from the documentary and how Chuseok was similar and different from Thanksgiving in America. Both holidays celebrate a historical event or tradition. I hope to continue learning new traditions and holidays every week with Jenna. She has done such a great job in helping me understand and learn new traditions in Korea. The other lesson during these past two weeks, we took it easy and watched a video about the basics of politics. We saved most of the details in politics of Korea for next week, but we went over the current parties in Korea and the current president in Korea. We also talked about conservatives in Korea, similar to republicans in America. Because a lot of Korean ideals are based on democratic ideals of America, the political system in Korea is similar to ours. I hope to learn more about the political system in Korea next week with Jenna in class. I will report on more in the next bi-weekly journal. So far, I am proud of what I have learned about Korean culture. I remember when I was young, my family would celebrate some of these holidays, but I would never really know what it was based on. Learning about traditions and Korean culture has taught me a lot about myself and my family. It is amazing to see how all of it connects. One thing I want to add as a goal for this semester is to learn more about the healthcare system in Korea. I currently take HCS100 and that would connect well with learning about healthcare in Korea.

This past week we focused on the March 1^st movement. The March first movement is a holiday celebrated in Korea to pay respects to the people who lost their lives during the protests on March 1^st, 1919. Back then, Korea was under Japanese colonization and there was a protest movement calling for independence from Japan. Thousands of students and civilians in Seoul protested in the city to show displays of resistance from Japan. During this holiday, people visit the Seodamun Prison History Hall to remember and pay respects to the people who fought for Korea’s independence and democracy. Furthermore, people go through spring season tours in Gwangyang and other villages to enjoy food and experience parades. Furthermore, many Koreans go to theme parks to enjoy and spend time with their family. Lastly, a lot of people go to Ski resorts to enjoy the last chance to ski before winter ends. The March 1^st movement is like Memorial Day in America. Jenna and I also learned fifteen vocab words related to the March 1^st movement. It was interesting to compare the March 1^st movement to holidays in America. Another thing I did with Jenna was talk about children’s day in Korea. Children’s day in Korea is celebrated in May and is a day to spend time with your children and family. Parents get to take the day off from work and they usually take their children to amusement parks and gardens. I think Korean culture emphasizes on family, and we can see so many holidays being centered around spending quality time with family. I am very happy I learned more about Korean culture and traditions. Jenna is doing a great job with me limiting the amount of work I have to do for this class because I have a lot of work in other classes. That is why one of my main goals for this semester was focusing on learning Korean history rather than continuing to read and write in Korean. Next week, Jenna and I will continue our lessons with learning new holidays in Korea. We decided on learning about Chuseok next week. Chuseok is one of the most popular holidays in Korea and is also commonly known as “Korean Thanksgiving.” I hope to continue to learn about Korean history next week with Jenna. More specifically I am excited for Korean politics and how it contrasts from America’s politics. One thing that didn’t work out during out lesson with Jenna was our original plan of reading an article a week. Before we started lessons, Jenna and I decided that I would read one article a week in Korean. This would allow me to refreshen up on my reading and writing skills. But after the first couple weeks, reading an article in Korean was way too much work for me on top of everything I must already do. I hope to continue to learn about the rich history of Korea because I was born there.

The article that I read was from: https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-do-korean-eat-for-breakfast-3970112

For my cultural posts, I decided to investigate breakfast in Korea and how it differs from traditional American breakfast. In America, we know common breakfasts are light and not too much food. Examples of this include pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, etc. After doing research, Korean breakfast is totally different.

In Korean, breakfast is “Ah-Chim.” Very different from Western cultured breakfast, Ah-Chim contains a lot of food similar to lunch and dinner. This includes soups, stews, rice, meat, and banchan. Traditional Korean meals are based on the main entrée with many sides called “banchan.” There are hundreds of different banchan in Korean culture that can supplement main foods like meat and rice. For Korean breakfast, I found the most common meals include soups and rice for breakfast. I never knew that Korean breakfast was basically the same as lunch and dinner. I thought there would be breakfast Korean foods, but Korean breakfast foods include many dishes eaten at other times of the day. The article I read also stated that around 20 percent of Korean people don’t eat breakfast. Furthermore, Korean breakfast is also sold on the streets. Some popular Street Food Breakfasts in Korea include breakfast sandwiches, sweetbreads, and rice cakes. These are very popular with tourists and taste very good in my experience!

In the picture above, there are three main parts to this traditional Korean breakfast. Firstly, the main entrée contains two parts: the rice and the fish/eggs. The second part of the meal above is soup/broth. This soup contains cucumbers and tofu. The last part of the meal is the three sides of the banchan. The first bowl contains pickled cucumbers seasoned with spicy sauce. The second bowl contains pickled yellow radish. And the third bowl contains the very popular Kimchi, which is fermented cabbage.

Korean food is very important to Korean culture. There are many different traditional meals and banchan that are pertinent to different Korean holidays such as New Year’s Day. There are also a lot of Korean meals and snacks sold in different street vendors. There are a lot of yummy snacks and meals you can get quickly from street vendors. Some of the most popular snacks include fried tofu and mandu.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot about Korean food and snacks, specifically Korean breakfast. Korean breakfast is a lot different from American breakfast and shows how different even the most common aspects of life can be from culture to culture. Although my parents grew up in Korea, they eat American breakfast foods. I know that when I was young, my dad used to eat soup and rice during the morning but living in America has assimilated him to eat cereal and toast. I hope I can continue to learn more about Korean food culture and begin to memorize some of the words in Korean for different meals and banchan. Another thing I learned from reading a couple of articles about Korean food is that many comfort foods in Korea are spicy.

This week, Jenna and I met up on zoom and talked about what we should work on for the last semester of senior year. My main goal in SDLC was to pass the COM2 exam. But because I passed last semester, Jenna and I decided on focusing on the history of Korean culture. In the past, Jenna and I practiced reading and writing in Korean. But now I want to learn more about Korean history and understand more about the culture and traditions of Korea. Jenna and I decided on looking in depth about the different traditions in Korea. Specifically, the different cultural holidays that are celebrated in Korea. Furthermore, I talked to Jenna about how I want to focus on the different politics in Korea. I know that Korean history is very rich and in depth. I want to learn all about the history of Korea, and I hope to focus on that this semester with Jenna. The first week with Jenna was just an introductory lesson and the basics of what my goals are for the semester. Some of the resources Jenna and I decided to use for the semester included YouTube videos and articles provided to me by Jenna. I think the strategies we decided upon were very simple yet effective. I think that learning about Korean history will be very fun and interesting. I am very excited to embark on this journey in learning about Korean history and politics. The second week, Jenna and I got together on Zoom and learned basic vocabulary on Korean history and holidays. 고구려, 백제, 신라 are some of the words that Jenna taught me. One of the study methods Jenna and I decided on learning 15 vocab words every week. Some of the vocab words we will focus on involving the tradition that we will be learning about that week. This week, we focused on the Lunar New Year in Korea. The Lunar New Year is usually celebrated in late January or early February. Common traditions for the Lunar New Year are to pay respects to your elders and celebrate the new year with a traditional rice cake soup dish called tteokguk (떡국). Teeokguk is a Korean rice cake dish that is meant to refresh your soul and give you a fresh start to the year. Another common Korean tradition for Lunar new year is to visit the beach to watch the sunrise of the new year. Korean culture is based on luck and respect to your elders. Luck is a big part of the new year and most of the things they do to celebrate it is based on good luck and fortune. A cool thing about Korean culture is that they celebrate both the Solar new year on January 1^st, just like America. But they also celebrate the Lunar New Year in late January or early February. I hope to learn more about Korean culture next week with Jenna and will learn 15 new words regarding the Lunar New Year.

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I took the COM2 exam two weeks ago and I passed! Jenna and I did not meet during Thanksgiving break because we had no classes anyway. This past week Jenna and I met on Friday to talk about what I want to do for the next semester. I talked about my short-term goals since I met my long-term goal of passing the COM2 exam. An idea that I had was to take the Korean efficiency exam to gain a certificate of bilingual language in Korean. I will definitely think about this before the next semester begins and decide whether I want to pursue this route next semester. Another idea I had was to focus on my writing and reading more by going over a short novel in Korean. I could read one chapter a week and every lesson I can talk about what I read and write a short summary of each chapter free hand to improve my writing.

Furthermore, Jenna and I talked about my cultural presentation topic. I had an idea in the past about researching Korean healthcare and how it differs from healthcare in the United States. I think this is a very interesting topic to research because of my background in chemistry and pre-med. I am excited to finish my cultural presentation and Jenna thought it was a great topic to explore. Other than that, Jenna and I did not spend too much time this week because it was the last class of the semester. We also plan on doing the recorded podcast in the next week before the semester ends. Overall, I am very pleased with the progress of my Korean this past semester. Jenna is a great teacher, and I am very excited to continue studying Korean next semester. I have seen huge improvements in my writing and reading, as well as my speaking and listening. I think the biggest improvement that I saw was in my Korean writing. At the beginning of the semester, I was barely able to write a paragraph in less than 10 minutes and I would usually make 20-30 mistakes in spelling, spacing, and grammar. As the semester progressed and I kept practicing writing in Korean with Jenna, I saw huge improvements in my spelling and grammar in Korean writing. I was making less than 10 mistakes, sometimes 5, in a whole paragraph response. I have learned many strategies and skills to more efficiently write and speak in Korean that Jenna has shown me in the past semester. I am a lot more confident in my Korean language abilities all thanks to Jenna. I hope to continue to improve next semester and can’t wait to see what I will learn.

For my last cultural post, I decided to find an article in Korean and read and understand the story. I went on google and searched up “Korean news articles” and found a website that had many articles in Korean. It is a popular news website for Koreans and there was no English anywhere on the website. Finding an article itself was a very educational task. I had to read through many article titles and understand what they were saying. I wanted to find an article that interested me, something about sports. So, I went to the top main subcategories of news and read each of them out loud. It took a couple of minutes, but I was finally able to find the category for sports in Korean. I knew exactly what it was in Korean but identifying it amongst many other phrases and words in Korean was pretty difficult. After finding the sports news articles, I read through a couple of the headlines to find an article that I was interested in reading about. After just a few minutes of looking through different article headlines, I found one about Maradona that caught my eye. Maradona, a very esteemed and respected Argentinian soccer player died recently. I thought this would be a great read for me and took about 1 hour to read through and understand the whole article. It was hard because there were many terms that I did not know such as heart attack and heaven, but after reading through it all, I learned many new phrases and words in Korean related to sports. The article talks about how Maradona died from a heart attack and how he was considered one of the most successful soccer players in the world and in the history of soccer. Maradona was only 60 years old but had many visits to the hospital in recent years. The article talks about how Maradona was the MVP of the 1986 world cup and other significant awards he has won in the past. It was really interesting to read about Maradona’s death and memorial article in Korean and on the Korean news website. I read an article the other day about this on ESPN and the structure and content are similar. It is cool to me how Korean articles and news channels talk about America and other nations often. While looking for other articles on the website, I saw many articles related to the United States as well as Trump. This was very interesting to see because of how often the Korean news articles are related to American news. This is not true in America, where we don’t have articles on Korea that often. Furthermore, I was very fascinated by how they cited CNN and ESPN in the article. This also supports my previous observation of how the United States in very important in other countries’ news articles. Taking time to read and understand every word in this article definitely helped my ability in writing and reading. I recognized many words, but I also learned many other words. I think the most important thing that this article helped me with is recognizing the bachims and the spellings of commonly misspelled words.

https://www.donga.com/news/Inter/article/all/20201126/104152590/1?ref=main

Last week, Jenna and I met and went over my reading comprehension section together that I did for homework. There were only 3 mistakes that I made in the whole section which I was very happy about. Jenna and I decided to start practicing for the writing section of the COM2 exam. We started off by going over some of the prompts that she gave me the other lesson a couple of weeks ago. Jenna and I looked over each prompt specifically and created a plan of action for how I should answer this question. First, I would read and understand the prompt fully. If I didn’t know a certain word, I would use context clues to fully understand the prompt and prepare for what I should write about. The next step in answering the writing prompt is to brainstorm 3 to 4 ideas pertaining to the prompt. For example, if the prompt asked what I did over the last summer, I would come up with three to four activities I did during the past summer and write down the Korean translation for each activity. If I didn’t know the word in Korean, I would simply change and find a new activity to talk about in the writing response paragraph. Next, Jenna taught me how I should start for most of the prompts. The first sentence should always or most of the time start with an introduction or a greeting. I would write “hello” in formal Korean or I would rephrase the question before I stated my answer. For example, I would start the writing response paragraph with: “Hello, some of the things I did in the past summer were…” This was a great idea because most of the times I can copy the prompt word for word in order to restate and answer the question briefly. Jenna then taught me what I should talk about next: expand upon each of the things I came up with before. So, I would write one sentence about going to the beach, one sentence about playing basketball with my friends, etc. Doing these steps and following Jenna’s writing response plan, I would be able to come up with around 5-7 sentences in less than 10 minutes. Near the end of the class, I took around 15 to 20 minutes and answered a writing prompt and Jenna helped me as I started writing sentences. She did a great job not telling me what I spelled wrong right away. She asked me if I think I spelled any of the words wrong or not and I had to figure out if any of my spelling was wrong. This was a great way to self-check my writing without her directly telling me what I spelled wrong. I hope to continue practicing in a similar fashion for the COM2 writing portion. For homework week, Jenna told me to do three more prompts and time myself. The prompts were, “write a letter to your parents about your college experience,” “what is a typical day for you in college?” and “what do you like to do when you are bored?” I was able to finish all three prompts by the last session this past week. Jenna and I went over each response paragraph and corrected for spelling, spacing, and grammar. We saw a huge improvement in spelling errors as Jenna emphasized the mistakes I commonly made in previous lessons. We decided that I was ready for the COM2 exam sometime around next week and I am excited to finally reach the long-term goal I have been working on for the past couple of semesters.

Last week, Jenna and I continued on to the next part of the COM2 exam: the reading comprehension portion. Last semester, Jenna and I focused on reading and writing so I was sort of confident in my ability to read and write. We agreed that we should spend one to two sessions on reading comprehension and the rest of the semester to practice on the writing portion of the COM2 exam. For the reading comprehension portion, Jenna provided me an article about the band BTS. The paragraph she gave me was just a portion of the article, but she timed me 10 minutes to read the article and answer a couple of accompanying questions regarding the paragraph on the BTS band. There were a couple of words that I did not know but I was able to use context clues for most of them based on the knowledge of other words surrounding it. The questions were fairly simple and easy to understand. The thing that I struggled with most is rewording and paraphrasing the answer. Furthermore, I had trouble spelling some of the endings of the sentences in my answers. I asked Jenna about this and we both agreed to focus on writing in Korean next session.

            This past week, Jenna and I met together on Friday via zoom. We agreed that I was prepared for the reading comprehension portion of the COM2 exam. Jenna also gave me another paragraph with a couple of questions for homework. I hope to get a pretty good result on the reading comprehension Jenna gives me next week when she grades it. Jenna and I agreed that if I do well on the homework reading comprehension in less than 10 minutes, we can start working on the writing section of the COM2 exam. I am excited that I am one step close to being ready for the COM2 exam. I think the goal I set for myself was perfect for my confidence and pride in Korean. I hope to be able to pass the exam with confidence and ease. Although I am a bit worried about the writing section for the COM2 exam, I am confident that Jenna will provide me with the right tools and abilities to pass the exam with flying colors. For my cultural presentation for the end of the semester, I am thinking about researching Korean healthcare and how it is different from healthcare in the United States. Next week, I hope to begin preparing and perfecting the writing section of the COM2 exam. Jenna and I met for a bit earlier this week to talk about what the writing section of the COM2 exam might look like. She gave me a list of around 10 prompts that might appear on the COM2 exam. Some of the prompts were something along the lines of, “what are your hobbies,” “write a letter to your parents talking about your college experience,” “talk about what you did in the previous summer,” and “what do you typically do during the day?” Jenna told me we will start practicing answer these prompts with full complete sentences in around 7 minutes. She told me I should aim to write around 5 sentences for each prompt. I am excited to begin practicing for the writing section of the COM2 exam next week.