I have learned a lot about the Korean language this semester. But I think I have also learned a lot about myself.

I started off wanting to just learn about the Korean language. But gradually I found that I’m deeply interested in learning Korean culture as well. I especially enjoy hearing Professor Kim talk about different aspects of Korean culture in class. I remember that there was one class we talk about the philosophical concepts behind hangul characters. It’s related to Confucianism. The key ideas are sky, ground and people. And these three elements formed the hangul characters. I think it’s at that moment when I realized how deeply related Chinese culture and Korean culture are. Professor Kim then explained that Koreans used to use Chinese characters in writing, but they have been almost completely replaced by Hangul. People only use it when they are using sino-korean. That reminded me of how much I love my culture but I feel that I’m losing touch of it. I haven’t written Chinese by hand that much since I came to the U of R. Frankly, I have to say that I have forgotten how to write some of the characters. When we talked about a Korean poem, Professor Kim asked me to write down a famous Chinese poem. For a second I couldn’t think of any. I used to love Chinese poetry and Chinese history, but now I’m gradually losing that part of myself. I want to find that part of myself back, starting this winter break.

The difficult part of learning Korean has to be grammar. There are so many exceptions to the grammar rules I have learned. Also, the sentence structure of Korean is different from Chinese and English. Korean is subject+object+verb while Chinese and English are subject+verb+object. So I still have to go through a “translating” step in my head every time I want to say a sentence. Since Korean also use honorific particles in contexts of showing respect to older people or people with more power. It’s hard to decide which particle to use in what sentence. 

I would still want to continue learning Korean next semester with Professor Kim. We had some really useful exercises in class I enjoyed. One is that she starts every class with some basic daily conversations. And it really helps me practice talking with others in Korean. Another great exercise I enjoy a lot is transcribing the corresponding Korean characters when she reads the lyrics of a song or some short sentences. That is a great exercise to practice my listening and writing skills. 

When we did the final interview podcast together, she recommended some useful websites and tools to help me learn Korean over the winter break. I think I’m gonna make good use of it and try to learn more Korean and also Korean culture over the break.

For the last two weeks, we only had one class since the last week was finals week. We learned some more grammar related to particles. -은 is topic marking particle used with words ending with a final consonant. -는 is topic marking particle used with words ending with a vowel. -이 is subject marking particle used with words ending with a final consonant.  -가 is subject marking particle used with words ending with a vowel.

We went through the examples on the sheet and some other examples we can think of to understand the difference between the particles. I think the difference between these two types of particles is the hardest grammar I learned this semester.

The confusing thing is that topic and subject are sometimes not clearly distinguishable. The person or thing that is the main focus of the sentence is called the topic. The subject of the sentence is not always the topic. For example,  in the sentence “오늘은 날씨가 좋아요.” subject of the sentence is 날씨 (Weather) while the topic of the sentence is 오늘 (Today). The subject of a sentence can also be the topic of the sentence and vice versa. In fact, in most of the situations 은/는 and 이/가 are interchangeable.  ‘이것은 책입니다’ and ‘이것이 책입니다’ are pretty much the same thing. There are some situations when I can use any one of these particles but even if I use the wrong one, it won’t affect the meaning of the sentence that much.

There are a couple good rules that helped me:

1 When it’s a negative sentence with verb ‘to be’ (아닙니다 or 아니에요 i.e. is/am/are + not), you always have to use 이/가 with the preceding noun. Ex: 이것은 책이 아니에요.

2 When you want to show contrast or emphasise a noun, you should use 은/는. For example – 품질이 좋은데 가격은 너무 비싸요. (Quality is good but the price is too expensive.)

3 If you are using 있다/없다 you should always use 이/가 with the noun before it. Ex: i) 펜이 있어요?  ii) 저는 내일 시간이 없어요.

4 Generally when there are two nouns in a sentence and a descriptive verb (or adjective) has been used, use 은/는 with the first noun and 이/가 with the second. Ex: 오늘은 날씨가 좋아요. 이 식당은 음식이 맛있어요.

InterviewPart1.m4a 

InterviewPart2.m4a

I went to the Saturday class again since I had to miss the Wednesday class. It was just me, Professor Kim, and Jeff there. So we were able to enjoy a small class. We started off with some basic conversation practices just to reinforce our memory. 

I think it’s always good to start with that because it’s the most useful phrases and sentences and I don’t get to practice much outside of the class. Relating to that, I want to try to get connected with a Korean gaming buddy during winter break. Because then I can have someone to practice Korean with and also play games together. 

We also learned the internet slang ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ, which is equivalent to LOL in English. ㅋ is pronounced as “k”, so it’s similar to the sound when someone laughs. 

I did some more research online about Korean Internet slang because I do see that a lot when I’m playing games online or watch Korean players stream. In addition, it’s also commonly used when people are texting each other, since I saw a lot of abbreviations in the show Cheese in the Trap when the main characters are texting.

ㅎㅎ→ laugh

ㅜㅜ/ㅠㅠ→ (crying) tears streaming down

ㄱㄷ(기다려주세요)→ wait

ㅇㅇ(응)→ yes

ㄴ/ㄴㄴ→ no

ㅇㅋ→ okay

ㅎㅇ (하이)→ hi

ㅇㄷ (어디?)→ where?

ㄱㅊ (괜찮아)→ it's ok

ㅈㅅ (죄송해요)→ sorry

ㄱㅅ (감사합니다)→ thanks

ㄷㄷ/ㄸ (덜덜)→ express amazement or fear

ㄱㄱ→ let's go

ㅂㅂ/ㅃ (바이바이)→ bye-bye

ㄷㅊ (닥쳐)→ shut up

ㅊㅋ (축하하다)→ congratulations

Some of these slang are based on sounds, but some are based on the writing. For example, ㅜㅜ/ㅠㅠ means crying. It naturally makes send because it looks like two crying eyes.  The famous Korean girl group Twice had a song called TT. I didn’t get the meaning of that name until recently one of my friends told me it means crying. 

In the class, we also went over a famous korean poem by Kim Sowol(김소월) called mother and sister. 

엄마야 누나야 강변 살자. Mother, sister, let’s live by the riverside.

뜰에는 반깍이는 금모래 빛. Golden sand sparkling among the garden grass.

뒷문 밖에는 갈잎의 노래. The song of reeds beyond the back door.

엄마야 누나야 강변 살자. Mother, sister, let’s live by the riverside.

It’s a beautiful short poem written about family with nostalgia. I think it’s another great piece of sample for me to practice pronunciation and writing on.

I went to Toronto for Thanksgiving with some of my friends, and we got to try a few of the Korean restaurants there. Toronto has the largest concentration of Koreans in Canada, so a Korea town was formed in Toronto with Korean restaurants and other shops. Richmond has a few Korean restaurants, but I feel that the Korean restaurants in Toronto are more authentic. One of the Korean restaurants that my friends and I went to is called Hanyang Jokbal족발. The name of the restaurant is written in Korean on the sign outside, unlike the English name on google maps, so it took us a minute to realize and find it. 

I did a little research on Jokbal before coming to the restaurant. Jokbal(족발) is a Korean dish consisting of pig's trotters cooked with soy sauce and spices. Jokbal is a common late-night snack in Korea but it has such a short history. It’s from North Korea but it got famous since someone who fled from North Korea during the Korean War settled in the South and started to sell this pork trotter dish.The hair is removed from the trotters and they are thoroughly washed. Scallions, garlic, ginger, (rice wine) and water are brought to a boil. The trotters are added, brought back to a boil and then simmered until tender. After this, additional measures of water, sugar and soy sauce are poured into the pot, and the contents are slowly stirred. Once the trotters are fully cooked, they are de-boned and cut into thick slices.

This is my first time eating Korean Jokbal, and I have to say it tasted so good. The restaurant seems pretty well known among the local Koreans, since most people eating there were talking in Korean and we had to wait an hour and a half after we put ourselves on the waitlist.

Everything on the menu is also written in Korean, but fortunately, there were only a few items on the menu so it’s easy to guess what the item is.  We ordered a bul jokbal to share and individual seafood soups. They brought out some soup base in a pot with no ingredients and some other Korean side dishes . We thought they made a mistake since we ordered three soups. But then we were told that the soup was a complimentary appetizer for jokbal. I have never tried any soup that tastes like this. Even though it is just pure broth without anything in it. I think it was the broth in which they boiled the jokbal. One of my friends tried the soup and didn’t like it. I personally fell in love with the soup. I guess it is just like Durian and other weird food, you either like it or hate it. The jokbal also came with a few side dishes and a plate of lettuce. To get the best flavor out of the jokbal, you need to wrap it with the lettuce leaves. Since the plate only have a few lettuce leaves, I was wondering that wasn’t enough. But the waitress brought us another plate right after we used up the first plate. The jokbal lettuce wraps tasted amazing because it was neutralizing the oil and meat with the refreshing lettuce. I think the Koreans love jokbal because it is a group food to share. It is fun to eat it together with your friends and family. It’s the same reason why I love to have hotpot together with my friends and family. It just helps to spice up the atmosphere and get people together.

K-pop is one of the biggest culture exports from Korea. It is a huge industry in Korea and many teenagers in Korea and other countries have the dream of becoming a K-pop star. However, the candy-colored sheen coats a sinister underbelly with ugly truths about K-pop. Sulli was a famous k-pop star in Korea who recently committed suicide. The death of Sulli turned the spotlight on the darkest corners of the highly pressurized industry. Sulli was a former member of the group f(x). She had spoken publicly about her mental health problems. Authorities said she was suffering from severe depression and are investigating suicide as a possible cause of death. Sulli had been targeted by online abusers, often from anonymous male fans enraged because Sulli refused to conform to social norms. Her “crimes” had included live-streaming a drinking session with friends and her decision not to wear a bra in public. She expressed her views about what was intrinsically wrong in our society about how female stars are supposed to behave. She broke other taboos including hosting a TV show about how online abuse had contributed to her anxiety disorder and social phobia, in a country with a strong cultural resistance to discussing mental illness.

Almost all k-pop stars are put through a gruesome training schedule as they pass along the procedure of debuting in new girl and boy bands. Younger stars and trainees are subjected to strict controls over their private lives, including bans on dating, restrictions on mobile phone use and expectation that they will be willing to sacrifice their health to achieve the desired image set by the company.

Sulli was 11 when she began her career as an actor, before making her K-pop debut in 2009 for f(x), who quickly became one of the country’s most popular girl-bands.

Many k-pop stars who debuted at young ages suffer from depression and anxiety because they go through adolescence without experiencing genuine friendships and stability with peer groups.

A number of k-pop stars and Korean actors/actresses have killed themselves in the last decade. Jang Ja-yeon took her own life in 2009, leaving a seven-page letter in which she claimed she had been the victim of sexual abuse and exploitation by influential politicians, business and newspaper executives, and industry figures.

The K-pop star Jonghyun, whose real name was Kim Jong-hyun, killed himself in December 2017; the singer and actor Goo Hara, once part of the girl band Kara, apologized to fans after being found unconscious at her home earlier this year.

Sulli’s death has intensified demands for government action against bullying on popular internet portals where users are able to comment anonymously.

Freedom of expression is a vital value in a democratic society, but insulting and hurting someone else’s dignity is beyond that limit. I believe that there should be harsher penalties for those who violate that law.

This week I attended both Wednesday and Saturday classes, so I definitely feel like I have learned a lot this week. 

First of all, outside the class, I have started watching a few Korean dramas, mostly romance dramas, since I think the words and sentences used in there are easier to understand and don’t contain too much jargon. I learned a few common phrases. For example, “여보세요” is what people say when answering a call. I was wondering about the origin of this word, so I did a little digging. I found a great youtube video explaining it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPL4V1eCGqo. This phrase means “Hello” but it is almost only used when you answer the phone. 여보세요 is originally the combination of 여기 and 보세요, which means “Look here.” or “Hey, look.” and even though it’s mostly used when you are answering the phone, 여보세요 or 여기 보세요 can also be used when you want to start talking to someone and show your frustration, like “Hey, look.”  

The youtube channel that posted this video has other similar video and I think this can be very helpful to learn some common phrases. Watching Korean dramas mostly have improved my knowledge and understanding of the Korean culture. The dramas I watched have settings in college and also working environment. Alcohol seems to be a very important part of all social life and networking in Korea. In the drama, coworkers would organize get-together after work and it’s usually at a beer place or Korean barbeque place where a lot of drinking is involved. Also, they would switch to a different place to start another round of drinking if the first round involves eating. When the characters in the drama get home, the first thing they do is to get a can of beer from the fridge and start drinking, especially the male characters. It seems like beer is a very important part of younger to middle-aged korean’s life, at least from what I see in the dramas. Also, hierarchy is clearly present in all the shows I have been watching, no matter what the setting is. In the college setting, students are not supposed to disobey professors or offer an opinion different from their professor’s because that would be considered disrespectful. The main character in the show Cheese in the Trap got an unfair grade because of the professor’s prejudice and ridiculous policy. But she gave up on arguing with the professor to get a better and fair grade. I’m currently in the process of trying to get the shows in Korean and English/Chinese subtitles so I can both understand and also see what the Korean characters are.

In this morning’s class, we did the 369 game in the class where we got to practice counting in Korean with both Korean and sino-Korean system. In addition, we did a new exercise I haven’t done before. We went over the song Arirang and then wrote down the song while sing/saying the lyrics. I’m actually surprised about how much I learned from this song. Even though I already kind of knew the lyrics, transcribing them down word by word from the phonetic sounds is actually quite different from reading the lyrics. I learned so much more about pronunciation in relation to word structures. I would like to continue doing similar exercises.

This week, we had a short test on vocabulary which helped me to review some words we have learned so far. And Professor Kim also helped us review some words from the Korean song Love Scenario we learned to sing. In addition, we covered some grammar related to verbs. Verbs in Korean have their verb stem, which is the original form of the verb. And we need to add different particles to the verb stems to use the verbs in a sentence. There are two general rules that describe how to do this. The first rule is that verb stems ending with vowels are followed by. The second rule is that verb steams ending with vowels other than are followed by. But of course, there are also special cases.  We went over 10 special cases that do not conform to the general rule. Additionally, we started learning a new song by BTS.

Professor Kim recommended us to watch the Korean tv show Cheese in the Trap(치즈인더트랩). I started watching that on Netflix. I am currently on episode 3. I think it was a great show to start with. The drama focuses on the life and relationships of a group of university students, particularly the difficult relationship between Hong Seol and her 선배(senior student) Yoo Jung. I can relate to their conversations and learn Korean words and daily conversations that are used by younger Korean people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKWEtdsXbuU

I found a youtube video that covers some Korean words and sentences from episode 1. 선배 (Sun bae)

Senior(higher grade/level)

2. 후배 (Hoo bae)

Junior(lower grade/level)

3. 망했어(요)/ 망했다

I'm screwed.

4. 같이 밥 먹을래(요)? 

Should we grab a meal together? 

The YouTuber also explained the Korean culture that appeared in the episode. For example, lower classmen in college can not call upperclassmen by their names because that’s disrespectful in Korean culture. They have to call them 선배 (Sun bae) to show respect. And they also have to speak to their 선배 with formal speech. However, when the upperclassmen talk to lower classmen or other students in the same grade, they can use informal speech. Therefore, you can see that the hierarchical structure in Korean is very strict, even among students.

I also found a page on facebook that select a conversation from Cheese in the Trap and analyzed it word by word. Below is an excerpt from the analysis.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=555204371354200

** Hong Seol: 용서해주세요. Forgive me.

용서하다 forgive

주세요 ‘주다’ means ‘to give’, however if you use this with a verb it means ‘do something for someone‘.

** Yoo Jung: 안되겠는데 I don't think I can't.

안되다 means that things aren't going well as someone thought

는데 used to illicit a response from the listener, while at the same time expressing the speaker's own surprise or interest. It can be used in situations when the speaker is responding to something (a comment, an observation, etc.

** Hong Seol: 왜요? Why not?

→ 제가 이렇게 열과 성을 다해서... 사과하고 있는데...

I'm giving you a heartfelt and genuine apology... I'm trying to say sorry...

이렇게 like this

열과 성을 다해 expression means heart & soul

~과/와 means "with" 과 If there is a 받침 at the end of the adj/verb stem

와 If there is no 받침 or if the adj/verb stem ends with aㄹin 받침

ps: 받침 is the final consonant which is written in the bottom/final position

사과하다 apologize

고 있다 it's used to describe an action that is going on at this moment

I think I’m learning a lot of Korean words and grammar, but also Korean culture from this tv show, and I will keep watching it.

In the last culture post, I discussed korean food and its cultural importance. In this cultural post, I would like to concentrate on Korean gaming culture since it’s a big part of contemporary korean culture and what I would like to focus on for the final research project.

The artifacts I am using for this post are an article from NewYork Times, an article from BBC news, and a documentary made by Red Bull.

Gaming is a huge industry in Korea. In some other countries, gaming is still in progress for getting recognized as a real sport and regulations are developing to support professional leagues, but South Korean esports has already made its progress that younger Koreans view gaming as a legitimate career path. 

“Pro gaming exists in its current form and size in large part thanks to the people who made it possible in South Korea,” said Manuel Schenkhuizen, a Dutch pro gamer. “Other countries took years to catch up and are to this date trying to mimic some of their successes.”

Esports players have become role models for younger people in Korean and as an equivalent of a  K-pop or K-drama celebrity. Gaming is THE leisure activity in Korea. Statistics show that 28.9 million people play games in Korea, more than half the population. Twenty percent of the Korean population watch esports tournaments several times per month, and sixty-four percent are permanent esports viewers. 

The bbc reporter was able to score an interview with Lee Sang-hyeok (이상혁), better known as his game id--- Faker. He is recognized as one of the best professional players of the game League of Legends. He dropped out of high school to join a professional league team-SKT and has won many awards and honors since then. Professional gamers’ life is actually not as interesting as people would imagine. Faker said in the interview that his day was composed of mostly just eating and repetitive practice. Players must practice relentlessly, spending their days in front of a screen. In the New York Times article,  the coach of CJ Entus, Kang Hyun-jong, said he tried to encourage players to enjoy themselves, the real goal was clear. “The best way for players to enjoy themselves is to know how to win,” he said.

One of the most famous members of CJ Entus, Hong Min-gi, said he still enjoyed playing the game, despite the commitment. In part, he said, it was because he usually won. “I still get motivated when I beat someone,” he said. What faker said in the interview also comfirms this. Faker started his career for the awards and prizes, but gradually, it’s more for the sense of achievement.

Though gamers and industry insiders have different theories about how e-sports became so popular in South Korea, nearly all versions start in the late 1990s.

At the time, in response to the Asian financial crisis, the South Korean government focused on telecommunications and Internet infrastructure. By 2000, a vibrant community of gamers emerged, largely thanks to PC bangs that used the new connections. South Korean currently has over 20000 PC-bangs, where people play games together and learn how to play games better. A lot of professional players’ career started with playing the tournaments hosted by these PC-bangs.

The government also became involved, creating the Korean E-Sports Association to manage e-sports. Cheap television stations took off as well, a result of the new infrastructure, and it was only natural that one, then more, would focus on e-sports.

Companies also started to sponsor teams since they see the potential for business profits.

sources:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180329-inside-south-koreas-intense-gaming-culture

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/technology/league-of-legends-south-korea-epicenter-esports.html?searchResultPosition=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FV_M6BHXgo

I practiced the lyrics of 사랑을 했다 by iKON. I have always liked this song and listened to it a lot of times. But before I started learning Korean, I did not know the specific meaning of each line in the lyrics. It was a great song with a mix of love and sadness. I think I learned a lot of new words by going through the lyrics.This song also have a lot of repeated words, so I can see the same word with different sentence structure. This helped me to learn more about the grammar and sentence structures in Korean. 

I found a great website called wattpad. https://www.wattpad.com/572623886-learn-korean-through-k-pop-lesson-6-ikon-%EC%82%AC%EB%9E%91%EC%9D%84-%ED%96%88%EB%8B%A4

This is a website that can teach me Korean through KPOP songs. The above link is the webpage for the lesson on 사랑을 했다 by iKON. It picked out a section in the lyrics and break it apart in a few parts to teach. 

This is the section it picked out of the lyrics. The website analyzed each line individually. It breaks the line into the corresponding sentence structure explains each individual part in terms of meaning and grammar. Here is the analysis of the first line in the section.

This website has been a help in terms of helping me learn this song. I think I can continue to learn more Korean using this website on other K-pop songs.

Yesterday, I went to a Korean restaurant with my friends and had bibimbap. Then I went home and wanted to learn the history of this dish. The name of Korean Bibimbap means “mixed rice.” A bowl is loaded with rice at the bottom, and topped with a selection of Sliced beef, a selection of sautéed vegetables called namul, and several sauces, usually soy, doenjang (a soybean paste that provides a salt and umami kick) and gochujang (chili pepper paste adding a spicy kick). An egg is then cracked on top just prior to serving. Bibimbap is only about a century old, but it derives from Goldongban, a dish involving the same concept, which emerged during the Joseon Period (14th-16th centuries). Goldongban had a ritualistic component. People ate it on the eve of the lunar new year, allowing people to clear out their pantries at the year’s end, throwing whatever was left over into their rice bowls, tossing it together, and considering it dinner. The first time bibimbap is mentioned by name is in a late-19th century cookbook, Siuijeonseo. Various theories suggest that it was a tradition dish for farmers during the harvest, as it could be easily made in large quantities to feed farmers. Most dishes seemed to be invented by people at the time because it best suits the situation. 

I have been reviewing Hangeul and learning some basic words and conversations in Professor Kim’s class. I didn’t go to class this week since I was out of town for most of the week, but I did go to both the Wednesday and Saturday class for the week before. I feel that by getting familiar with Hangeul, it is getting easier for me to read the characters even though I don’t exactly know the meanings. 

The practice of the basic conversations definitely reinforced my memory too. We practiced on self introduction, including saying our names, greetings, what we do(college student), our major, and our interests. Korean as a language has many rules regarding manners. That’s why there are polite ways of saying things and a casual way. Usually when you are talking to people older than you or people you are meeting for the first time, you should talk in the polite way. For example, when doing the self introduction, we will say 저는 instead of 나는. Some other words we learned for basic conversation include 남자 친구(boyfriend), 여자 친구(girlfriend),예쁜(pretty),귀엽다(cute),이름(name), 대학생(college student).I learned how to say yes and no, to say I have/not have something, like/do not like something. And we also learns some basic sentences like what, why and how. These kinds of basic sentences would really help to express a lot of things. 

We took a quiz in the Saturday class, and it made me realize that even though I am familiar with the sounds of consonants and vowels, I still do not know the written forms well enough. Another thing other students and I all discovered in that class is that some consonants and vowels have different forms of writing. And sometimes it really confuses us because what Professor Kim wrote on the board looked completely different from what the vowel/consonant is on the Hangeul handout. It took us a few minutes to clear this with Professor Kim, but we are all glad that we solved that problem.

On the Wednesday class, we were discussing that we would learn some Korean songs together as a class and maybe also watch a Korean movie. I recommended 사랑을 했다(LOVE SCENARIO) by iKON as one of the songs to learn because I think the song is really catchy and the words are easy to follow. I definitely like kpop but I have never really learned to sing a Korean song since I didn’t know Korean before. But I think right now learning one is a great opportunity to learn more about some Korean songs I love and improve my Korean skills.

I read a scholarly article named “Aesthetics of Korean foods: The symbol of Korean culture”. Food is definitely a symbol for many cultures, and Korean is one of those. An old Korean proverb says “What looks good tastes good.” It means, ancient Koreans carefully considered both the taste and visual appeal when preparing food. This is similar to a lot of other Asian cultures. In China, there is a similar say that means a good meal combines color, taste, and smell. Today I want to simply discuss a few famous Korean dishes mentioned in this article.

First, Bibimbap. This is probably one of the most widely known Korean food in the world. Bibimbap is a very colorful dish with various colorful vegetables and eggs, which

are mixed with the addition of gochujang (red chili paste), making its texture very different from what it was in the beginning. Its taste is very unique because the mixture of the ingredients gives this dish a taste that is of a different dimension altogether, and yet, also the tastes all of its individual ingredients. This dish truly reflects the character of the Korean people---mixing and harmonization. Some people summarize this Korean character of combining many elements and mixing them into one in an expression “Korean culture is of a bundle culture.” Koreans like to carry any contents in a bundle. Also, the paste gochujang that combines all these ingredients together is an

extraordinary food item. It is impossible to imagine bibimbap without gochujang. The beauty of gochujang is that it not only unites different vegetables into one taste, it also actually combines a variety of tastes with one another. In just this dish, we can see how it represents the collectivism and harmonium of Korean culture.

Next, I want to cover the one food that can represent Korean food----Kimchi. To make kimchi, cabbages need to be mixed well with all kinds of vegetables, Korean red pepper, and jeotgal (fish seasonings). When it produces beneficial elements such as Lactobacilli through the process of fermentation, it can then be called kimchi. Kimchi is food that embodies the concepts of mixing, a leading principle of Korean food. Vegetables are mixed with various seasonings and fermented anchovy or shrimp to make kimchi in a totally different form of food. That is why kimchi is called the best vegetable dish ever invented. Remarkably, only Korean red pepper, among hundreds of kinds of red peppers, can be used to make kimchi. Korean kimchi does not require a lot of salt because it uses red pepper powder to control harmful and beneficial growth. Kimchi could not be stored for a long time in ancient times, even though it can be stored for a couple of days. However,  it can be now stored for a long time in kimchi fridges.

In both of these dish/food I cover and many other Korean dishes, we can see that the concept of mixing emerges. It coincides with the major themes of Korean culture: collectivism, community, harmony. So, the food in culture can often reveal what the culture is like. 

Last week I took my first ever Korean class with Professor Kim. We had a quite small class size, which I like because then everyone gets more chances to ask questions and practice more conversation wise.  In the class, we started with a introduction video to Korean on YouTube. That video helped me to understand some basic information about Korean as a language. Professor Kim introduced us to IPA------International Phonetic Alphabet. IPA was quite a helpful tool for me when I started learning English because I could easily read out the words with IPA’s spelling by the side even though I don’t know the words beforehand. In the same way, IPA can also aid me with pronouncing Korean syllables.

            Professor Kim gave us two handouts in addition. The first handout is “Quick Guide to Hangeul”. It provides the consonants and vowels. The second handout is some more specific information to the consonants and vowels. The first handout additionally describes how syllable blocks (Korean words) are formed with certain rules. Each syllable block at least has a consonant and one vowel, and sometimes with a third optional final consonant. This is the “minimum two letter rule.” Every syllable is either structured vertically or horizontally, and it must start with a consonant and then vowel. The vowel will be in the middle if the optional consonant is present. There are some other rules about silencing the vowels’ sound given specific circumstances.

            I learned some other significant things about Korean. Korean is more towards unsounded voices. So that’s why it would sound softer than some other language which are more prone to sounded voices. And when Professor Kim gave us our Korean names with the closest pronunciation, I discovered that Korean doesn’t have the “l” sound so my Korean name will be pronounced like “Ranqin” rather than “Lanqin”. These details about the phonology and other structures in Korean will definitely save me a lot of time when learning Korean.

            This week, I will focus on mastering Hangeul, especially the sounds of the vowels and consonants. Right now I want to focus more on the speaking and listening than reading and writing. Professor Kim said that for starters in Korean like me, I should not try to memorize how the syllables are written, but on how to speak some basic things like self-introduction and short phrases. The resources I will use for these are the handouts given to me, YouTube videos that teaches the Hangeul. Additionally, I found the Chinese version of the book that Professor Kim recommended--- Yonsei Korean 1-1. The book uses some Chinese characters as approximates of the vowels and consonants in Korean. That can actually help me better than IPA in some ways. I think the best thing to do is to reinforce those sounds multiple times. Repetition of sounds for me is one of the most useful ways for me to remember them, especially if they are short sounds like the vowels and consonants. I want to use visual materials combined with auditory ones since I believe a combination of them will be more effective than just a single kind. So far, this method is working, and I am continuing this method with the Hangeul.

To make a learning plan, I would like to start with where I am in the learning process. I haven’t officially learned much Korean, although I did have immersions in Korean in terms of K-pop and gaming. I would still consider myself a novice in learning Korean. 

Next up is my goal for learning Korean. I follow a few K-pop groups. In addition, I’m watching professional Overwatch League games. Overwatch is a first-person game that is contested in 6 v 6. A lot of professional game players are from Korea, so are some of my favorite overwatch players. So when I watch their interview videos or their stream on Twitch, it’s hard for me to understand them. Even though during the interviews sometimes there are translators, but I think they don’t fully translate what the player means. 

By the end of this semester, my intention is to understand basic daily conversations and what the players talk about when they stream. Since I also follow k-pop groups, I want to be able to understand the lyrics of the songs. 

I do want to start learning the basics of Korean. And I want to focus on speaking and listening than reading and writing because I think the first two skills are more useful to me right now. Some basic tasks include: greetings / farewells, self-introduction(my name, where I am from, the major I am studying, a fun fact about myself), asking about basic information from other people, numbers, ask/tell time and date.

Jargon related to games and k-pop definitely is also a part of what I want to learn. But I think it’s more of a later thing to do. So in the next two weeks, I want to learn some basic vocabulary and daily conversation, also the Korean alphabet.

Some activities I can do later in the semester could be singing a Korean song or translate a short interview video of a korean overwatch player. I’m also planning to set the language in my overwatch gaming menu to be Korean so that I can learn the gaming Jargon sooner.

When I was learning my native language Chinese, I enjoyed reading books, even when I was a little kid. I started with books that have a lot of pictures because pictures can often stimulate my brain and help me comprehend the contents more easily. Chinese has a system called Pinyin that shows the pronunciation of Chinese characters using letters. I learned Pinyin before I started learning the actual Chinese characters. My mom bought me some more books after she saw my interest in reading, and she also helped me to subscribe to a couple of magazines for kids. Reading, or in other words, visual learning played a major part in my learning of Chinese in the early years. By reading various types of books on my own, I developed a large vocabulary earlier than others. The speaking and listening part of learning seemed to come naturally, also I do remember listening to tapes of children stories. Besides that, watching children cartoons was another way I improved my listening and speaking skills. Later on, when I started to learn English, reading books and watching videos was my preferred way of learning. In English classes, I also preferred to taking notes and reviewing them afterward.

            I have always been more of a visual learner. From the survey I finished, auditory takes up 20%, tactile learning takes up 35%, and visual learning takes up the rest 45%. The survey result defined a visual learner as someone learn by reading or seeing pictures, understand and remember things by sight, picture what you are learning in your head, and learn best by using methods that are primarily visual. Visual learners are usually neat and clean. They often close eyes to visualize or remember something and will find something to watch if become bored. I think this description fits me perfectly. If I’m only getting spoken instructions for learning, it is way harder for me to comprehends those because I like to visualize those instructions in my head in order to understand them.

            The survey also suggested a few tips that can help visual learners to do better. Use flashcards to learn new words: I personally already find this quite helpful when I am learning English. I like to memorize a picture or a scenario that I can associate with the word, so I can automatically come up with the word when I see the picture or vice versa. Try to visualize things that you hear or things that are read to you: I think this is also helpful when I read stories in the new language I learn because having a visual image in mind can be useful when I try to remember things. Write down keywords, ideas, or instructions: I always prefer having a lot of notes on my notebook because when I am writing down something, my mind is actually already trying to remember it. Besides this, I think having conversations with people who are fluent in the language I learn will also aid me with improving my skills.