https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pfwiv0XZaxb3d30H0E9thVhTzgOekgvy/view?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18S8napVtXWr46pElKXpiZnqkcGHqgyJVeuxJLE7U-TI/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GaVWEDTGdmumj_zGnUK5AuhRCrPTaP9/view?usp=sharing

During the last month of my Korean class I was able to continue with my reading of the book “Magic”. I continued writing my daily gratitude journal in Korean and tried to use different phrases or vocabulary to write my sentences. I find it very interesting how the way English is phrased and used is different from the way the language Korean is phrased. There is a side to the Korean language where it could be more poetic and have deeper meanings to the words and how it is positioned in the sentence. I feel like reading the book in Korean gave me more motivation and really touched me inside. 

Also my language partner Vivian and I and also one of her other students, Aliya went to have a cultural experience this month. We went to a Korean restaurant for Yewon Korean Barbeque. We all read the menu in Korean and ordered our meal in the language. I also started a conversation with one of the workers when they came to serve other food. It was a really great experience to meet someone who speaks the language fluently and talk to them about various topics. I had a conversation about the current situation in Korea. South Korea has recently removed the quarantine policy so that it would be a lot easier for people to travel. The worker is planning to visit Korea over the summer because of this change of regulation. But this also means the airplane price is increasing really fast. I am worried that I will not be able to visit my family that often in the future because of the high prices. The men worker who cooked our meat was very kind and started talking about his experience from Busan in his Busan accent. It was really cool to hear different dialects and how people from different locations have different accents. 

As my last assignment, I wrote an essay about my plans and goals for the future. In other words, I wrote paragraphs about what I wanted to achieve after I graduate from College and one of those goals is to get a Korean language certificate. I also wrote about the near future of what I will be doing in the summer. I am planning on traveling back to Korea for my brother’s graduation and spending more time with my family there. I think writing my goals in Korean was a lot harder than if I were to write them in english. It took me some time to make sure that I am phrasing my thoughts correctly and spelling all the words correctly. 

I would like to thank my language partner Vivian for spending time with me this semester to try to really grow in utilizing the language. I think having support and encouragement from her was very helpful. Looking back I think doing the assignments such as writing research papers and other writing assignments were very challenging. But as I overcame each challenge I was able to grow more as a student.

During Spring break I had the opportunity to visit my childhood best friend in Baltimore, Maryland. My previous language partner, Somyung, actually gave me a ride there on her way home for the break. We had a great conversation in the car in Korean and I learned a lot about her family.  I had so much fun and we did so many different activities that I decided to write down everything we did for each day in Korean. I later showed my writing to my language partner and even my parents to ask for feedback but also share with them the experiences and memories I had with my friend Saera. One thing I really love about Saera’s family is that they speak in a dialect in Korean that is located in Busan. The way they would say a certain word or the tones they used to speak is different from the Seoul dialect. I had so much fun learning and listening to this dialect and also found myself later using some of their words to speak. 

I continued with reading the “magic” book and wrote my ten grateful things to exercise in Korean each day. I also wrote a reflection about what I read in the book for the month in korean. I had a conversation with my parents and they wanted to help out with my Korean language learning. They told me to research and write about the famous figure skater Kim Yuna. They told me I had to research using the Korean language and I cannot use any American sources. 

This task was very challenging for me because I never tried researching things in korean. Also, although Kim Yuna was a famous figure skater, I think my parents chose this topic because I had no knowledge about her at all. They thought it would be challenging but also a fun prompt. 

It took me a couple of days searching for information about Kim Yuna because I had to do it all in korean and also read and interpret the websites in korean. I also took a while to gather my thoughts and write an essay reflection. I figured out how much harder it was writing about a prompt than actually talking about doing it. 

I wrote an inspiring essay that explained about Yuna’s life and her hard work that came from a lot of practice and dedication. I sent the essay to my language partner to get some feedback on grammar and then sent it to my parents. My parents read over it and commented on how to rephrase some of the sentences. But overall, they were very proud of the work I have accomplished. They even stated how I am becoming a true korean student which made me very excited.

I think I would want to continue to develop my writing skills by challenging myself to answer another prompt. Researching the information in Korean actually helped me to develop my reading skills and actually using that knowledge to write an essay helped me formulate a more educational writing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCdX7MKS6v4EilDC5NoKYCW0ftpQGvA0t66_KK2nIPw/edit?usp=sharing

This past couple of weeks, I continued improving my reading skills with the book called “Magic” translated into Korean. My favorite exercise this month was day 5. This exercise was about gratitude for health. It had short excerpts explaining how health may seem very simple and unimportant in our daily lives. But it is the main root to how we function and do our daily tasks. Staying healthy is very important and we should be grateful for it instead of taking it for granted. The book describes how there are so many people who were born with a disease or deal with health issues throughout their lives. Reading the list of possibilities that could have happened to me, made me realize how I also took my health for granted. This made me very grateful and started changing my routines to a more healthier lifestyle. 

Another exercise that I thought was fun was on day 3. The book instructed you to find a rock from outside and place it by your bed. Before you go to bed you would be thankful for finishing the day and reflect on what happened. When you wake up in the morning and see the rock you could be thankful for being able to start the day in a positive mood. 

I couldn’t find a rock on campus that was pretty so I used a heart stress ball that I got from the dean and carried it around with me. There were times throughout the week where I just wanted to complain and stay in the negative mindset. But the heart ball in my pocket helped me switch my thoughts. It was hard but I tried to stay positive. 

I continued to write daily the ten things I am grateful for in korean. I think writing in the language daily helped me practice a lot and get more comfortable with it. However, there were vocabs that I still was not sure how to translate yet so I had to look them up. I think to improve my writing skills even more I would have to try writing different prompts. I noticed that the list of ten sentences I write every day were very similar and used the same words. I asked my language partner to give me some prompts I could write about and enhance my thinking skills. 

Instead of doing diaries and reading books, I wanted to try something new and be able to think in the language to improve my writing and reading skills. I believe I could truly advance in the language when I can deeply think in the language and be able to come up with my own answers and thoughts that are different from the usual answers to prompts. 

I spent a lot of time with Vivian and also went to a korean church to keep practicing my speaking skills. Even though my goal is to improve my reading and writing skills, I thought it was important to not forget how to speak in the language.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZLH29mqL75uyloeBjgOk8NE7ZhUvP5zRjyKCeYUgy3I/edit?usp=sharing

During the past two weeks I met with my direct language partner, Vivian. In our first meeting we discussed what we did over the winter break in the language of Korean. She told me how she spent time with her family in Chicago and I told her my experience of going back to South Korea to visit my family. We decided to meet on Tuesday and Thursday right after our Accounting class. 

This semester I want to focus on improving my reading and writing skills for Korean. My end goal of college is to be able to test and certify for the Korean language. I believe that having the language certification will be beneficial for me in the future. In order to accomplish my goal, I want to be able to read Korean articles and short stories and be able to reflect on them. Instead of writing Korean from the everyday conversation and text scenario, I want to be able to write it in a more structured way. The texts/conversations and essays written in Korean are very different. 

It was interesting how I am also assisting as a language partner and Vivian became my student. She told me how she wanted to improve her vocabulary skills. I think through helping her learn new vocabulary I will be able to use those in my essay and writings. I am so excited to be able to see how we can help each other improve in the language. 

Recently, I read a book called “Magic” which was translated in the language of Korean. My mother has strongly recommended that I read this book. At first I was very hesitant because I preferred reading English books more than Korean books. However, I tried to take time to read it and noticed how important it was for me to practice reading various books in order to improve my Korean reading skills. I was frustrated at how slow it took me to read the first chapter and how the language built in the sentences sounded so deep with different meanings. 

After reading the first chapter, I wrote a short reflection on what I read. The book actually talked about the power and strength of gratitude. There were different stories of how being thankful changed a lot of people’s lives. How if one is not grateful for the things they have there will be more negative situations that occur. The power of gratitude is very important for success and a change in the way people view life. I thought these stories were very interesting so I decided to try some of their exercises. 

The book contains a 30 day of gratitude challenge where each day there is a different way to be thankful. On the first day, it instructed me to write down ten things that I was thankful for and the reason behind them. As I was writing the list of things I was thankful for I could see a slight change in my mind where a spark of positivity occurred. I was astonished by this moment and decided I would do each challenge and reflect about it by writing my reflections in Korean. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XaoYWOLgeOGLgG8zlCZR4eXwxN-LVi6vNMoVdJ-SmKY/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wnpCmgZqpGkdzcsX0q8ja_cdmBl1TUPI/view?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VABg3uLZEEK6ukhOl80HBz0rG6A-Nu8G2BVK9HY9v3A/edit?usp=sharing

During the last month spent with my language partner I was able to finish up some of my lesson plans and reflect upon my progress over the semester. We had weekly meetings with Ariana and Somyung where we would watch the short films of “XX” . During some of the videos I was very engaged because it got very dramatic and interesting. I made a reflection as I was watching these films because my brain was processing on how to act and how to not act when similar situations come. I realized that people gain knowledge from watching kdrama and I did not know how much influence it was giving me on how I behave with others. But I was amazed at how I was able to learn more about the culture of Korea. 

Last week my group recorded our podcast. I think I was able to reflect well as I was talking to my language partner about what we did over the semester. I achieved my goals in improving my writing and as I look back to my diaries I noticed how in the beginning of the semester I had a lot of errors and red marks but towards the end I barely had any marks to fix. I also reflected on how it is not just learning about the language because in order to engage in society or with the people you need to know their culture. A lot of teenagers in Korea would slang words and idioms in their daily conversations but these aren’t taught when you are learning about the language. I feel like just because you know the language and you visit Korea does not always mean you can blend in with the people. Since you know the language you can communicate with people in general but to be a deeper part of society you need to know the flow of the fast changing language. 

These days a lot of people shorten the words to where it would once be 응응 “yes, yes” in proper form people now just use letters “ㅇㅇ” It is even crazier how they would shorten not only words but sentences or groups of words “ㅇㅈㄲㄲㅂㄹ” that would be like “왜 자꾸 까불어” which is a word I heard from one of the korean dramas I saw it could be translated to “why are you messing around”. I am sometimes afraid because I am also falling behind with the language even though I lived in Korea for 4 years. It is fascinating how the language continuously changes and I need to keep checking in with the culture so that I do not fall behind. 

This semester my main goal was to improve on my writing skills and I saw clear evidence of my improvement so I am proud of my accomplishments. I would really like to thank my language partner for achieving my goals. I think if I were to continue taking Korean class next year, I would now want to write harder essays instead of short writing prompts and diaries to master the language.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xbrut1URmbIs8FSiK5pvbEWbcXV61f5H/view?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZaiGb_-6CuiAJ9-MQWuikfuz-HiynMtAAtocOwB6pdM/edit?usp=sharing

During the past month, I weekly met up with my language partner, Somyung and another student named Ariana Kim. This month I wrote my weekly diary and noticed that I developed more in reflecting my thoughts and feelings in Korean. Usually, I would have deep thoughts in English even inside of my head because I think I was training my brain through English for the past 18 years of my life. So I did not give room for my Korean thoughts to develop. These diaries really help me express myself differently since Korean and English have different cultures and ways to express things. 

This month my language partner and I had another lesson on proverbs and the idioms. I really like the proverb 우물안 개구리 this translates to the frog inside the well. This proverb has a meaning of how the frog when he is inside his well he thinks that is how big the world is but he does now know how the actual world is bigger. This is a saying that a lot of older adults say to us that the world is a lot bigger and we have more opportunities. A proverb that was new was 첫술에 배부를까 which translates to will you be full on your first shot? This has a meaning of how you can’t be satisfied from the start so there is no point in rushing. I had my own reflection off of this because it is kind of Korean culture too to get everything done fast and quickly so you can rise up faster in society. But doing everything fast and moving on does not mean that we are satisfied at that moment. An Idiom I really liked is 발이 넓다 which translates to “wide feet”. This word is usually used to describe people who know a lot of people. So it is like they have a wide range of connections with a lot of people. 

I also was assigned to write down the Korean National Anthem in Korean. I think I always heard the anthem in Korean dramas or on TV but I never really spend time actually reading the lyrics and seeing what the song was about. The song was written with the intention of love and allegiance to the country as well as the independence from foreign countries. My language partner also assigned me to research about 삼일절 which is the independence movement day in Korea. The holiday could break into three other words where 삼 is 3 in korean, 일 is day in korean, and 절 is festival day in Korean. So the direct translation would be the “3 festival day” and this day is remembrance of the public resistance on March 1 which is also known as the Manse demonstration. The way to celebrate this holiday the Korean citizens in South Korea would raise Korean flags around their homes and the streets. Now that I think about it there were specific days in the year where the streets lamppost would be filled up with Korean flags. Now I know the reason for that.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wVQZC0K1GnoQjJLH4h4LHS1Qj4oE_pVMuJrPP_hX5gs/edit?usp=sharing

During the past month I met my language teacher weekly. I wrote my weekly diaries and got corrections. I noticed that I am having trouble with when to space my korean words. So I looked up some rules for spacing korean words and found out that there should be a space between every word except for particles and auxiliary words. Subject particles come in two forms as 이 and 가. For object particles I would add 을 to words ending in a consonant and 를 for words ending in a vowel. For location particles I would add 에서 behind words so for example I had to write “I was sleeping in my dorm” which is 기숙사에서 잤다 I would add the 에서 behind dorm (기숙사). There are also topic particles such as 는 added behind a vowel and 은 added behind a consonant. Another rule is applied to numbers where numbers would be spaced every 4 order magnitudes. Lastly, for writing many single words, they are spaced in succession and are allowed to be grouped semantically. 

In one of my classes this month, my language partner and I went over some proverbs and idioms in korean. The first proverb we learned was (열 길 물속은 알아도 한 길 사람 속은 모른다) This means no matter how deep the water is we know how deep it can be however, we never truly know the heart of a person. The second prover is (동에 번쩍 서에 번쩍) which presents the action of moving just as fast as how the other person is startled. The third one we learned was (사촌이 땅을 사면 배가 아프다) this translates to “when your cousin buys land your stomach hurts” I think this is a popular one used in South Korea daily. The proverbs mean that you are jealous that your cousin or the other person got something. The fourth proverb I learned was (물이 깊어야 고기가 모인다) this means you have to be warm in order for other people to like you or your plate has to be big in order for others to follow you. Lastly, we learned the proverb (개구리 올챙이 적 생각 못 한다) this translates to “a frog can’t think of the time it was a tadpole” it has a meaning where people do not remember the time they were poor after they become rich. 

Out of the idioms we went over, I knew most of them because I heard it when I was living in South Korea. But one idiom that I learned was 눈코 뜰 새 없다 which translates to no time to lift your eyes or nose. This has a meaning that you are so busy in life that you don’t have time to look up. I really like this one because I am currently connected with the literal words. This month I was so busy with my college classes that I did not have time to look up and enjoy the things around me.  I think idioms are so interesting how they are just words or very short sentences that have a deeper meaning to it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qGR_X8LNPNSssX_AGqGahSMAyZ1o56Cn5a-ctFwQh2g/edit?usp=sharing

During the past two weeks I met with my language partner, Somyung. In our first meeting we set some rules and expectations we want to follow during our lessons. We decided to meet every morning on saturday and a rule we set was to speak only in Korean. I also told her the area I wanted to improve my korean this semester which was writing. We discussed some of our plans to improve my skills such as writing diaries every week. Also, my language partner will be providing me with some prompts to write about during our lesson. We will also be watching XX which are short videos in Korean to try to improve my vocabulary for my writing. My end goal for learning Korean is to be able to write essays or educational paragraphs in Korean. I really feel relieved and excited at the steps we are taking to get to my end goal. Usually, Korean tutors would overburden students with a workload of essays to write to improve their skills. However, I am more engaged in my learning since we are taking small steps and moving along with how I progress. 

Today, I met with my language partner in the morning. We went over my homework, the diary I wrote for this week, and fixed my grammar mistakes. I noticed that I would write my diary in a way I would speak. So I would leave out a lot of 을 behind words. I also made a mistake where I was saying I went to eat food. So “I went” is 갔다 but I misspelled it as 같다 which means “same”. My language partner noticed how my diary was written like the schedule of my day. She advised me to try writing more of how I felt about an event or activity because my writing felt very choppy. This is my first time writing anything in korean other than the alphabet or text messages. I have a lot of areas to improve in. Next, we watched a short video of XX episode 1 and I heard familiar vocabulary in this episode. By the end of the semester I want to be able to know some vocabulary other than the commonly understood words. The last assignment we did today was writing a page that answers a prompt Somyung prepared for me. The prompt asked to write about my favorite and least favorite food from the cafeteria. I had difficulty starting this prompt because I didn’t really know how to start. So I started by saying which school and I went and introduced the cafeteria we had here. While I was writing I noticed that I had some difficulty spelling out some vocabulary like 풍경 which means scenery. I became aware of the difference of knowing the vocabulary word from speaking to actually trying to write it and spell it out. My language partner let me look it up but later I want to make sure I reduce the amount of times I look up how to spell words.