https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OJxGCo_fIFHaOHkDIXEpmPjGoCtz_4Bm?usp=sharing

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/weaving-of-mosi-fine-ramie-in-the-hansan-region-00453

For my last cultural artifact, I’ll be discussing the weaving of mosi (aka ramie) in the Hansan region. This act of weaving clothes has been recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage and its history in Korea dates to the 9^th century. While it’s growing in popularity as a source in bioplastics to manufacture hybrid cars, it is not commonly used for textiles due to its labor-intensive process. The mosi is encased in resin and have a hairy exterior that need to be removed before obtaining the inner fibers. The Hansan region in particular in the western region of South Korea is known to have great conditions to grow the mosi. The mosi is harvested, processed, and weaved by incredibly skillful women. This process is traditionally a women-led family operation and encourages the daughters and daughters-in-law to join in.

The rough skins of the mosi is peeled off using a special knife. This knife cannot be too sharp, or else it can cut through and shorten the fibrous strands. The shoots are sundried until the mosi changes colors from green to brown. Afterwards, each strand of the plant is separated using the women’s front teeth. This method is much quicker than separating by hand because saliva is used to make the process easier. Unfortunately, because these women pass the strands across their teeth and against their lips, many of these professionals have frequently cut their lips to the point of building up calluses. After this separation, the strands are twisted into their desired length and are placed into a yard guide. Finally, the starching process allows the fibers to strengthen by brushing them over a burning flame.

Using a loom contraption, the women manually weave the strands to make larger square pieces of cloth. Ultimately, the cloth is used to make dress suits, military uniforms, mourning garments and bojagi (a wrapping cloth). These garments are extremely light-weight and are mainly worn during the summer. Due to its long process, only the elite were able to afford these clothes. Unfortunately, decades ago, many of the women who were skilled in creating this garment came from families of low socioeconomic status and were not even able to wear the garments they were trained to make.

There’s even a Hansan Mosi Museum located in Seocheong-gun, Chungcheongnam-do Province that hosts an annual Hansan Mosi Festival. It features a reenactment of Gilssam-Nori (a traditional Korean play) and other experiential programs. I think the coolest event is the fashion show that offers traditional and modern outfits created from mosi. This incorporation of using traditional garments, but in modern styles is quite interesting. I like how mosi weaving, although labor-intensive, is still kept alive. Even the dyeing process is done naturally to preserve the traditions. I don’t recall ever owning garment made out of mosi, but I hope to try one in the future so test if it really is that comfortable. Hopefully, I’ll have an excuse to visit Korea soon so that I can experience even more than my last times.

While I talked about my experiences, goals, and activities I’ve done in my previous journals, these past couple of weeks have been more information dense. So, let’s get into it!

While scrolling through my For You page on my social media, the algorithm suggested a short preview of a new Netflix series called Korea No. 1 featuring one of Korea’s top MC Yu Jae-seok, popular entertainer/actor Lee Kwang-soo, and Korea’s most famous volleyball player Kim Yeon-kyong. I began to watch it out of curiosity and quickly realized that for a variety show, it was incredibly informative. With the focus on the rich culture of Korea, the cast visits and learns from the best traditional masters and even helps them with the labor-intensive projects. Some of these projects included giwa (clay roof tile) molding, makgeolli (rice wine) brewing, and anchovy catching using methods that are over 600 years old. The episodes were hilarious and enjoyable to watch and I learned that many Korean idioms and proverbs stemmed from these traditional skills.

Additionally, in my history class (Art & Asia), we finally made our way to Korean art. Although I know the gist of Korea’s history and have learned from my parents over the years, this was my first time learning any sort of Korean history in a formal educational setting. We started from the first piece of historical artwork we discussed originated in 736 during the Unified Silla Period and we made our way all up to contemporary art in 2022 where we even discussed the K-pop group BTS and their impacts on spreading Korean culture. We also discussed the artwork of Shin Yunbok and Kim Hongdo who were known for their genre paintings that depicted the everyday lives of people. For some reason the names “Hongdo” and “Yunbok” sounded familiar and I later realized that those were the names of the characters of the twin medical students-turned-residents in the popular K-drama Hospital Playlist. I loved how the producers incorporated such historical figures in a 21^st century drama and now I can also notice and appreciate that too!

Lastly, I was able to meet my family and a close family friend this past week due to Thanksgiving break! The family friends stayed with us and because they mostly speak Korean, it was some good practice for me. They also had a 3-year-old son who had an impressive vocabulary bank, so we had some very interesting conversations about cars, animals, nature, and… the concept of patience and gratitude. He is a wise one for sure! My sister and her roommates also came, but we ended up talking more in English than in Korean. I thought this was quite interesting because while I am older, my sister had more Korean-speaking friends during our youth and therefore was much better at understanding Korean vocabulary than I have. But oh, have the tables turned because it only took a semester of college for her to forget to have a full conversation in pure Korean. So of course, Konglish was the way to go.

Overall, I really enjoyed this semester of learning Korean. I learned more about Korean culture, its rich history, and I also got to practice some skills I wasn’t as confident in during the beginning of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGhKwCq7SZk&ab_channel=Maangchi

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6893577/

In my last cultural post, I discussed the importance of onggi and mentioned that this earthenware was used as a storage container for kimchi and soybean paste. Today I’ll be focusing on the process of making Korean sauces. Recently, jang damgeugi, the making of sauces such as gochujang (red chili paste), doenjang (soybean paste), and ganjang (soy sauce), was noted as a cultural asset as it was chosen to be documented as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in South Korea. Specifically, fermented soybean paste has been around since the era of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and the customs of passing down this traditional method has since been going on for centuries.

To begin this process, workers boil down the soybeans and mash them into solid bricks. These bricks are referred to as meju. The technique used to dry the meju can be different depending on the region one lives, but essentially, they are naturally air-dried by hanging them up.  Once dried, the meju are carefully placed in an onggi such that they do not break apart and covered with brine (salt water) and chilis. As the mixture marinates, the fermentation process allows the brine to become ganjang while the meju later become doenjang. Although China and Japan uses fermented soybeans in their cuisine, the process in Korea is distinguished by its capability to make ganjang and doenjang simultaneously.

Some of Korea’s well-known condiments are ganjang, sesame oil, doenjang, and gochujang. I’m glad I researched more into this because I wasn’t aware of these processes and got to learn about them. I think that food is one of the most important things about a culture and it is always interesting to learn how my ancestors prepared food so that I’m aware of doing the same for my future descendants.

Although most people have used ganjang aka soy sauce when preparing food, doenjang is not commonly used in cultures outside of Korea. It possesses a strong, rich smell that cannot be missed and is used as the base of doenjang jjigae (stew). Flavor-wise, it is similar to miso soup but a bit more on the pungent side. If you’ve had Korean BBQ, doenjang was likely used in the ssamjang, aka the red dipping sauce as a flavor enhancer.

Furthermore, I’ve ran across a research paper related to doenjang. The scientists wanted to see whether doenjang caused health troubles due to its high salt content or had benefits because it is a fermented food. They experimented and found that although doenjang is high in salt, the intake improved (lowered) blood pressure and decreased renin and aldosterone levels in rats compared to high salt intake. The conclusion was that eating traditional fermented food does not directly tie in with hypertension and can even be beneficial for those are normally healthy. They also confirmed that kimchi also is not associated with anyone getting an increased risk for hypertension. This is wonderful news to me as I have just had some kimchi on the side during lunch.

Hello and welcome back to another journal~

I’m continuing to study and research more about Korea, but instead of regurgitating all of the information, I thought I’d share more about my progression and some of my “highlights” from the past couple of weeks!

I mentioned previously about how I was a guest speaker for my art professor’s upper-level class and that I got the opportunity to teach the students about the Korean alphabet to form their names. Afterwards, the professor invited me to lunch for the following week and I responded with an excited “yes”. At first I wasn’t sure if our conversations would be in Korean or English since, of course, we use only English in class, but as our discussions proceeded, I found that we smoothly transferred from English to predominantly Korean. It was very nice to be able to speak in my first language with a professor for the first time since even with my friends, we tend to mix the languages into Konglish. We got to know each other a little more and she even shared her academic experiences from Korea.

I also noted that I wanted to get used to texting in Korean and it’s been going pretty well so far! I actually attempted this same goal in previous years but never really stuck with it because I type so much faster in English. I told my mom my goal for using only Korean when I’m texting her so that she could keep me accountable and correct any of my spellings or grammar. She has a teaching background so she’s been patient with me and my slow thumbs, but I can see the progress already. Whenever I want to say a particular word but don’t know the best translation, I’ll text the English word in Hangul and she’ll respond back with the Korean word. I’ve also found myself “speaking” differently when I text. If we were speaking in person, I’d naturally speak in a formal yet casual way, but due to the formal vs informal language in Korean, I found myself being more conscious of using formal language when texting. Additionally, I’ve been texting my aunt in Korean too! This just happened to occur without any particular goals because I was used to texting with my mom. While I attempted to do this with my dad, he’s been wanting to get better in English, therefore, most of our texts are in English with him attempting to use some new internet acronyms.

My sister’s now a first-year in college and with roommates and hallmates in her room and lounge, we’ve been communicating in Korean whenever we FaceTime. This is actually very unlike us because although we know and use both languages, we communicate in English. I’ve noticed that it’s when we want a more private conversation we use the language that the surrounding people can’t understand well. It’s funny how we did this in Korea by using English and now we do this but with the scenario flipped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlwnBy16W0E

After arriving in Korea for the first time after 12 years, our family headed straight for my maternal grandparents’ house in the countryside north of Seoul. When we arrived, I saw beautiful fields, an old storage building, and many odd-looking jars that were so big that I could probably fit in them. I asked my parents about the interesting containers and they responded by telling me that the onggi (옹기) were traditional Korean earthenware mainly used as storage for fermentation processes. I was able to open a couple of them with my grandparents and saw kimchi and some soybean paste. My parents mentioned that we could also call these jars hangari (항아리) which reminded me about an old Korean tale called Kongjwi and Patjwi where a hangari was used as part of a chore.

As I was looking back at some old pictures, I came across the picture above and decided to do some more research on onggi and how they’re made. I also found a video that goes through the making process of onggi which is also included at the top.

Although the origin of onggi can be traced back to 4000-5000 BC, the current form’s popularity rose in the 18^th century. Since the materials to make the vessels (clay and sand) could be conveniently found near the mountains, onggi was affordable and was not limited to just the upperclass. There are four types of onggi which are classified due to the different firing and finishing processes. The oji onggi is the preferred style that is glazed after the molding of the onggi. A jil onggi is one that is unglazed which helps with air flow and can be used to store water. The ban onggi is salt-glazed before baking at a high temperature. The reaction with the salt creates a lighter yellow-brown color. Finally, the phu-rae onggi is one that is salt-glazed and involves a reduction-cooling process. (Who know there would be so much chemistry involved!) This style creates an even more durable vessel but was not commonly produced do to the long, tiring process. Due to the porous material, all onggi are cleaned with just water. Other factors such as soap could get into the microscopic holes and affect the next material placed inside. Furthermore, onggi are traditionally kept outside together in a common area called a jangdokdae. In the picture above, one can see that inside of being scattered around, they are on top of a mini underground storage room. The kimchi is usually located in an onggi that’s underground to prevent it from freezing. Onggi can still be bought today, but due to the advances of technology, the traditional ways that require physical labor of creating an onggi is slowly disappearing. According to the video linked above, there are only about 20 people in Korea who are certified to create a Korean onggi that follows the traditional, proper guidelines.

Now that I understand the history and process of making an onggi, I’m excited to check them out again once I visit Korea… hopefully in the next 3 years!

What an eventful couple of weeks :)

During a fire drill run through, another RA and I realized we both speak Korean! We’ve actually known of each other since freshman year, but I never asked her if she spoke Korean with her family. We were the first ones to arrive to start the drill and she asked me if I regularly spoke Korean and we were both surprised to learn that we were quite proficient. We proceeded to speak in Korean and bonded for a while until the fire alarm blared at us.

Maybe it’s because I’m socializing a bit more this year, but I’ve been meeting many new Korean speakers these past weeks. Whether meeting the new international students or getting to know others I didn’t meet in the previous years, I noticed that I’ve been speaking in Korean to more friends and course, my language partner. This has been a great way to introduce myself and welcome the new students across campus.

This past week, an interesting opportunity came up. My art history professor asked me to be a guest speaker for her Korean Art course to talk about the SDLAP program and to teach the students how to write their name in Korean so that they can sign their paintings. It has been some time since I had to teach writing at a beginning level, so I did lots of research and watched videos on the best way to explain the pronunciations and the word building concepts. Thankfully, the students were wonderful participants and engaged well with my small talk. Reviewing the actual step by step procedure on writing in Korean was also beneficial to me. When I normally write, I don’t think about how to place my consonants and vowels- I just do it. But now, I am aware of it and writing in Korean feels more intentional.

Additionally, my professor asked the class to attend the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) for the class. Since we had to attend the East Asian exhibit, I also toured the ancient Korean art section. It was quite small, so there was not as many paintings or sculptures as I hoped, but it was obvious that I had entered the Korean art section by looking at the minimalistic styles of the vases and chests.

In addition to the general speaking of the language, I thought about journaling in Korean. Many of my friends do a 5 minute daily journaling session, so I want to start writing down my thoughts in Korean. Hopefully this will help me reflect on myself while continuing to get comfortable writing in Korean every day. I frequently do small researches of both significant people in Korean history and of interesting cultural facts throughout my weeks. One fun example was researching Kyung-Chik Han. He is the only Korean who received the Templeton Prize (equivalent of Noble Peace Prize but for philanthropists). I was having a normal conversation with my dad and his name came up, so I decided to do some more research while my dad shared the info he knew.

I find that the celebration of birthdays- especially the first birthday- is a unique and interesting aspect of Korean culture. Most commonly known as doljanchi, dol means first birthday and janchi means feast. Due to the high infant mortality rate in Korea in the 19^th century, a child’s first birthday was an incredible milestone that was celebrated to wish them health and longevity. Surviving the first 365 days was a bright sign that the child would continue to grow up healthy. Although there are many traditions within this grand celebration, I wanted to highlight two aspects: dolsang and doljabi. The infant wears a hanbok, a traditional style Korean clothing, and sits on top of the head "sang". Sang means table so dolsang includes all the food and symbolic objects that is intended to wish the infant a life without adversity. This includes fruits (prosperity), different types of ricecakes (knowledge and wisdom), silk pouches (vibrant life), and flowers as decorations. Doljabi is a tradition where a variety of objects are placed in front of the child and the object they choose represents their particular future profession or fortune. Some traditional items are the pencil/brush (scholar), money (wealth), rice (plentiful life), thread (long life), or bow and arrow (military career). Nowadays, I have seen items such as a microphone (entertainer), sport balls (athlete), gavel (lawyer), and stethoscope (doctor). Of course, there is only a small pile of items that the parents lay out in front of the baby, so there are limited options, but I always enjoy the doljabi section of the party because it can often be amusing. Attending a doljanchi can be incredibly entertaining and is an important celebration that the parents spend a considerable amount of energy into.

An example of a recent event was the celebration of my lovable neighbor’s first birthday. The doljanchi was held at our church and he seemed to have had a blast. When the time came to do the doljabi, some of the items were a tennis ball, guitar, and money. The adults thought it would be extra amusing to have both a $20 and $100 bill. When he was encouraged to grab an object, his hand immediately dived in for the $100 bill. This made the entire crowd laugh while the baby smiled and waved his prize around. I’ve attached the picture to the blog! I didn’t have many, so I included the photo where the infant grabbed the $100 bill.  

I have always been curious about what I grabbed for my doljabi, but it turns out that my parents didn’t set one up for either me or my siblings. I guess I’ll never know what object my infant self craved for that day. On another note, I do have a recording of my doljanchi which a family friend edited for us. In the video you can see the piles of fruit and ricecakes, flower and balloon decorations, close friends and family, and a younger version of myself and my parents in hanbok.

 Wahoo~

It’s great to be back to actively learning a language again!

This week was mainly about planning out a rough idea on what I wanted to learn about this semester. Although I am a native speaker, there is so much information about Korea I don’t know about since I grew up and attended school in the U.S. I hope I learn a lot about my home country and can also share what I learn with others in the future.

It’s been about a year since taking an SDLC course and this will be my first time taking Korean after having the experience of also “teaching” Korean through the SDLAP program. While most of my language partners focused on learning the Korean language as an introduction, I want to focus on learning Korea’s history and the roots of the culture’s unique traditions. I enjoy watching Korean variety shows such as Sixth Sense or Running Man, and I realized that I didn’t quite understand some of the jokes or references. They frequently play games to “guess the saying/idiom” and although I could participate occasionally, I found that I needed to actively study to get a better and broaden my knowledge of Korean culture.

 Another reason I wanted to take this course again was because of the influence of another course, Art & Asia. When I tried looking for a history gen ed, I was encouraged to take this course and discovered that the professor was Korean and studied art history, mainly that of China, Japan, and Korean. When I think of the “arts” in Korea, like many people, I think about the popular music or dramas that are recognized internationally. While those topics are relevant and interesting, I also want to dive into learning about Korean art history and how it shaped its culture.

This semester, I will mainly do my research on Korea independently, but use my community language partner (Vivian Shon) to continue conversing in Korean and help me keep accountable. Although this might seem simple, I understood the large impact of frequently using Korean while being a language partner. I find that when I come back to school after staying home, I sometimes am unable to find the right words in English. This also happens when I return home but seems to be more extreme such that I sometimes need to use a translator or describe the word I’m looking for. I haven’t informed Vivian about my plan yet, so that’ll be the first thing on my list I’ll have to do this week!

I’m looking forward to study the unique traditions in Korea and to explore both traditional and modern art. And since the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is close by, I plan on visiting too! This semester I hope to compile my weekly study in a Google Docs so that I can keep track of the topics I covered throughout the months. Since I’m also a language partner for others, maybe I can use this compilation of information and share them with my partners next semester!

Since I am learning ASL, doing a podcast was very difficult since I can't speak English to communicate with my partner. Nevertheless, here is a clip of my partner Reba and I during a session and practicing some ASL! (Please excuse my overuse of "uh huh" and "ok" especially during the mid-section!)

https://richmond.box.com/s/ld7xwmbeg814q2jaxy6f6racvyt335mo ;

For my last cultural artifact of the semester, I dug into how someone can become an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. As the child of two Korean immigrants, I’ve been around many interpreters, and even attempted to interpret for my parents, whether it was for a doctor’s appointment, school teacher conferences, or just general conversations. Because of this, I’ve appreciated all the interpreters and sat in on appointments just to learn from how they interacted with the people. From those short meetings, I learned a couple of important keys. First and foremost, I learned that interpreters must fully understand the meanings and intentions of both sides they are communicating for. They also have to do a good job in expressing the emotions. Lastly, they must be prepared for pretty much anything. When I “interpret” for my parents, I know exactly what situation they are referring to and can communicate easily. On the other hand, for interpreters, it is their job to help people communicate with others, but they also work with many different people and may not fully know the context of the situation for everyone. They have to be able to work quickly and efficiently to do this.

I also chose this topic because during one of our sessions, Reba told me that she was the sign language interpreter at her church! I thought it was really cool and asked her to someday share a story from the Bible (we did not do it this semester, but I still hope I get the chance in the future). After some research, I found that to become a sign language interpreter (SLI), many work towards receiving the Registry for the Interpreters of the Deaf (RID) certification and the National Interpreter Certification (NIC). Having a certification opens many great and challenging opportunities. If they feel passionate about a certain field or industry, SLIs can also obtain specialized certification in those areas to focus and broaden their skills on that topic.

Although there is an interpreter for many languages in the world, something that makes interpreting ASL unique is that the SLIs mainly use just their visual sense to obtain all of the information they need to interpret. While Korean-English interpreters listen for the information and read the person’s facial expression for the emotional aspect, SLIs must be able to complete the task all at once. This is one of the main things I found difficult when I first started because trying to match eye contact with the person while comprehending the signs was like an information overload. Just imagine, blinking too long or glancing away for a moment have the ability to break communication. SLIs actually do get tested on is their expressive and receptive signing, sign-to-voice, and their voice-to-sign skills.

I think SLIs and interpreters in general are such rewarding jobs because the results are immediate. They have the ability to relay a conversation between two sides despite the language barrier. Even though I probably won’t become an SLI anytime soon, it’s very interesting to think about!

https://www.nad.org/resources/american-sign-language/interpreting-american-sign-language/

In this cultural artifact, I wanted to discuss about the controversy of cochlear implants in the Deaf community, but first, I think some background would be beneficial.

Deafness is incredibly unique. Although many perceive being deaf as a disability, there is a whole culture, language, and history behind this community. The word “deaf” is referring to the “audiologic lack of hearing” while “Deaf” is referring to the cultural identity. This is why most deaf people prefer identity-first language (“I am Deaf”) and not the person-first language (“I am a person who is deaf/hard of hearing”). Of course, this is still a complex issue that depends on the individual. Instead of looking at deafness as a disability, it is looked at as a welcoming, supportive community.

Now, let’s get back into talking about the controversy. This actually comes up a lot in TV shows and other parts of the media. People record babies, children, spouses, and friends get their cochlear implants activated and upload them so other can react to it too. Those in the hearing community can be naïve and think “wow this is amazing”, “so heartwarming”, or even, “I’m so glad they got cured!”, but this is not the case. Those in the Deaf community who read these comments can be shocked and horrified by the responses. Some even say that this is sugarcoating everything. When the implant is activated, some might think the reason the child is crying is because they are filled with joy. The reality of this is that many young individuals are surprised by the sounds and cry in shock.

Cochlear implant surgery does not miraculously cure deafness for each individual. In fact, it doesn’t fully restore hearing to the average level. It also takes time and experience for the brain to comprehend this new input and make sense of it. This means that those who choose to make this medical decision must adjust to it and will most likely go to therapy to learn what all of the new sounds mean. For children, there is another obstacle. Parents could assume that their child can comprehend the surrounding sounds as well as they can and not teach them American Sign Language (ASL). This can result in delayed language acquisition and make it difficult for the children to communicate well with others.

Another reason is that those in the Deaf community can take this as an offense. Since being Deaf means that you are part of a culture, they do not want to be “fixed” because they are proud of their identity and like being Deaf. But still, many others think this technology is an advancement that can help create opportunities for Deaf folks.

I don’t think we can categorize and say that cochlear implants are a “good” or “bad” thing, and I don’t think the world can ever come to that decision because there are so many factors in consideration from many different viewpoints. Taking ASL and reading about Deaf culture has definitely opened up my mind and I’m excited to keep learning!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6913847/

What a semester!

I have always been interested in ASL because I wanted to communicate with more people and because I enjoyed the thought of communicating without words. Now that I’ve had one semester of learning ASL from the wonderful Reba, I am very satisfied with how much information I absorbed. Of course, I am still at a novice level and nowhere near fluent, but I do think I have come a long way since the beginning of September.

Since we did have our break during these two weeks, I wasn’t able to meet with Reba all four times. Instead, I reviewed some old recordings our lessons. This way, I wouldn’t lose too much of the vocabulary I tried so hard to remember and learn. Some things I did notice as I analyzed these videos were that I would overuse the words “uh huh” and “yes” throughout our lessons. Even though I did understand at that time, I feel that this made it difficult for me to interpret the situation when I watch the videos again. I wish I had narrated some parts of the lessons so that in the next year, I can watch and understand immediately, or I could show this to my family, and they could also learn right away. That being said, I guess I do have to realize that doing so would’ve been too difficult for me to understand and explain at the same time.

An activity I do very frequently whenever I remember and have time is just fingerspelling random terms I see. Whether it’s during lectures and I see a complex word on the slide or if I’m watching a show and I see a cool word in the subtitles, I will try to fingerspell it to myself as quickly as possible without making any mistakes. This is good practice since I am can use letters such as “q” and “x” which are not as common as “e” or “s”. Another practicing tool that Faith introduced to me is asl.ms. I haven’t been using it often, but I will make an effort to do so because it will help me find the correct word when I see someone fingerspell. I am still on the slow level, but I can sometimes get the medium level speed too!

For our last session, Reba and I did some more review and just practicing overall. Even though I did review by watching the videos, I still was very much out of practice and her signing seemed much faster than before. A new thing I learned was a short, mini introduction to ASL grammar. In English, we would say that “the cat and dog is asleep”, but in ASL, the words “the”, “and”, and “is” are not used. This was a challenge because when I sign, I still speak and directly sign my words. We didn’t dive deeply into sentence structures, but I hope to learn them in the near future. Although my official classes with Reba has ended, she welcomed me to email, text, or call her to check in and practice ASL with her!

Hello everyone!

It’s almost Thanksgiving, so to prepare to discuss what kinds of food we enjoy eating with our friends and family, Reba and I have been going over some more food terms and expressions we use. “I’m thirsty”, or my favorite, “I’M HUNGRY NOW”, are both I will be teaching my family members soon.

First, we went over the types of meats, seafood, and methods of preparing food (baking, cooking). My favorite word was “potato” because we can have so many variations of potatoes by attaching the signs for “bake”, “sweet”, or “salad” onto it and create new meanings.

We also reviewed some drinks. While there is a particular sign for “coffee”, some words such as the specific types of sodas require that we use fingerspelling. This is mainly to avoid confusion. Reba told me a funny story about how when she was a child, she though ketchup was catch-up, so she would sign “catch” “up” to refer to the condiment.

Later, we did a review of silverware and other materials that can be seen on a dinner table. Furniture was also a big topic I found useful. We talked about the furniture in my dorm room and I told her that even though I have my own room and bathroom, it can get pretty lonely and boring living by myself. On the other hand, Reba said that she had 2 roommates her first year at her university and that it was a lot to deal with since the room was packed.

The next week we talked about technology and went over terms such as “computer” and “program” and learned how to describe how good the internet is. We talked about the computer mouse and how that was a different sign for the animal mouse. I added on that my friend recently got a mouse as a pet and Reba shocked to say the least.

When Reba was teaching me difference between England and English, I was surprised to see how subtle it was. If she was to sign it quickly, I’m not sure if I would notice right away. Then I noticed that many of the signs also have this similarity. The motions for sugar and sweet are exactly the same, but for sugar you do it once and for sweet you do it multiple times.

This wasn’t during a lesson but as I was scrolling through YouTube I came across a trailer for the movie “A Quiet Place” which came out a couple years ago. It’s a thriller movie where the characters have to stay quiet to avoid the mysterious creatures that have extraordinary hearing abilities. Therefore, instead of talking, the characters communicate through sign language. One of the main actresses, Millicent Simmonds, is actually deaf, so it was interesting to hear her thoughts on the movie. Although this movie seems intriguing, I am not sure if I can watch it without squealing throughout the whole film. Maybe I’ll watch it over winter break!

Also, a quick update: I am improving a bit on reading fingerspelling, but I still find it helpful for it to be repeated.

Welcome back!

Nowadays, Reba and I are reviewing and continuing to practice so that I’m more comfortable using sign language. We primarily went over using numbers in situations such as when talking about money in terms of dollars and cents. Terms and phrases such as “credit card”, “you owe me”, and “no money” were fun to learn too. Furthermore, I learned fractions! I don’t know how to sign 1 over a large number, but ½ and ¼ are fair game. Numbers are interesting in ASL; at first, I thought they were fairly easy to learn, but now I think they are one of the more difficult topics to master. Signing numbers themselves are simple, but when you put them in context such as “two months”, it is not the sign for “2” and “months, but one motion that combines both the signs. Since there are these variations in sign for numbers depending on the situation, it can be challenging when deciding on how to sign it.

This particular topic has interested me for some time. In Korean, there are two number systems and one or the other is chosen depending on the context. On the other hand, English is very simple when it comes to numbers because there is just one system that stays constant throughout.

When we were going over the seasons and holidays, Reba asked me how they compared to Korea. I told her that the seasons were the same as in America and that Korea also celebrated religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas, but not others such as St. Patrick’s Day. I also mentioned that Korea has a Parent’s Day and even a Children’s Day. When Valentine’s Day came up, Reba showed me that the sign was drawing a heart with your fingers on the left side of your chest, then the sign for “day”. I thought it would be a fun to jump in and teach Reba something too! I showed her that in Korea, many people make a small heart sign with their thumb and index finger. She didn’t really understand it at first, but her face lit up right when she realized it.

In our last session of these two weeks, Reba taught me some signs for fruit. We told each other our favorite fruits and I told her about the difference between the grapes we eat and Korean grapes. Now that I’m reflecting on these sessions, I am realizing how much we talk about and compare American and Korean cultures during our lessons.

Throughout these weeks I’ve also noticed that I’m starting to understand the jokes Reba makes. At first, I was confused to whether she was serious or not, but now I’m excited that I progressed enough for us to joke around and have fun sometimes. There was also a moment where I trying to say “no” so I shook my head side to side and had my serious face expression on, but it turned out that I had switched the sign to “yes”. Reba and I had a good moment laughing about it. Next week, we’ll be diving deeply into more food terminology. Stay tuned!

During these two weeks with Reba, I learned how to refer to different people. In our previous lessons and conversations, “I” and “you” were the only pronouns used since we only referred to each other. It really has been easier to communicate since I don’t have to fingerspell “our” or “you all” each time. These signs are very easy to learn because people who don’t know ASL actually make these gestures! It’s also important to note where your fingers point because that determines who you are talking about. Another example in which where you finger are point at is the difference between “look at me” and “look at you”. For “look at me”, you hold up two fingers are point them to your eyes while for “look at you”, you do the same sign with your hands, but point them away from your face. Reba also explained that in this case, you can imagine that the eyes are on the tip of the fingers, so whichever direction they point Is what you look at.

We have also been going through more expression terms! These are actually my favorite type of vocabulary to learn so that I don’t have to say “good” or “fine” each time I get ask how I’m doing. I like to put in an occasional “tired” or “excited” to jazz things up a little now! Sometimes I can even guess what they mean before Reba goes over it with me. It’s honestly one of the best feelings when you get it right and you see the joy on her face.

Even though Reba has her lessons planned out for me, we are starting to make random conversations here and there. Over the week, a friend told me one of her distant relatives was both deaf and blind, so people would communicate with him by signing into his hand and by taking his hands through the movement of the signs. I did my best to bring up this connection when she mentioned that one of her friends was also both deaf and blind. It was a fluid conversation with both of us sharing back and forth. I actually forgot for a moment that I was even signing. A couple days later I watched the recording and noticed that I was fingerspelling much quicker than the pace I usually sign!

Lastly, I wanted to mention that although I am getting better at understanding the context during our conversations, fingerspelling has still given me some trouble. (It is much easier for me to do it than to understand it when someone else fingerspells). I was never really good at spelling bees because I needed to see the letters on paper; I would just lose track of the previous letters. For ASL, I still need to translate the sign to letter, but doing that for each letter, keeping track of them, and putting it all together to form a word is not as simple as I thought it would be. I usually need the word to be repeated again and if I still don’t understand it, Reba would write it on a whiteboard for me.

I am definitely starting to see more and more progress, so hopefully I can keep this up!

During these past two weeks, Reba and I have had many great sessions together! We are continuing with using Zoom so I can record and refer back to the signs. We continued to work on vocabulary and just had random conversations so I could get more practice.

I have been learning the signs for who, what, when, where, and how so that I can start asking questions. Reba usually asks me multiple questions using these signs, so I get the practice of recognizing them. This past week I have been practicing signing opposite words. When Reba signs “right”, I have to remember and sign back “wrong”. We have been doing this for a couple of sessions, so I am pretty good at responding quickly, but I will sometimes only understand one of the words and forget its opposite. This is where the perks of Zoom come in because all I have to do to review the material is to just replay the recording. When learning a new language, repetition is key. Even though we repeat the same words and its opposites each class, some of the signs are still difficult to remember, but I do improve each time!

After learning more vocabulary and trying to teach my friends a couple of signs, I realized that there are many unrelated signs that are so similar to each other. It makes sense that the sign for mom and dad or for sister and brother are similar, but the signs for “deaf” and “home” are also quite similar but are not related.

I also learned new feeling words, which were so helpful! Every time Reba and I meet, we ask each other, “How are you?”, but my vocabulary was limited to good, fine, and okay. Now I am able to express my emotions in various ways such as frustrated, angry, or embarrassed (although I hope I don’t have to use those).

The highlight of the two weeks was this past Thursday near the end of our session when Reba and I shared funny stories from when we were younger. Her stories were so engaging and even though I couldn’t understand each detail, I had so much fun watching her share it. When it was my turn, I was a bit anxious because I only knew general vocabulary. I shared my go to story about falling through the ceiling of my church and my attempt to make carrot juice. I did my best with the signs, but if there was a word I didn’t know, I would fingerspell my way through and Reba would show me the sign for that word. Through those short, 3-minute stories, I was able to practice and learn valuable conversational signs.

When I rewatched this recording, I noticed that I tend to look away from the computer when I fingerspell. Although I do this unintentionally to think about the sign for the letters, I know that I have to work on keeping my eyes on the screen so that I do not miss anything if Reba tells me something. I also want to practice fingerspelling more often during the week so that the letters come more naturally to me.

In the recent years, I have been paying more attention to how public schools support students who need more accommodations. Since one of my family members has low vision, I learned that finding reliable technology and resources to have similar school experiences as the other students can be difficult. We have moved from different states in the past years, but we were fortunate to be able to attend the schools that had access to resources such as magnification systems and large print materials each time. Knowing about the accommodations schools are required to provide for students with low vision and for those who are blind got me interested in researching how the school system supports those students who are hard of hearing or for those who are deaf.

Although there are certain schools for the deaf and for the blind, over 75% of deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) students attend the mainstreamed public schools in the United States. There are many pros and cons for each system, but the decision should be made with the child as the top priority. Although mainstream schools can better prepare students for the hearing world, there won’t be many DHH students and deafness can be seen as a disability. Deaf schools accept and embrace Deaf culture, but people may have trouble finding a school close to them.

Unlike most mainstream school students who attend the full day with their designated school teacher, DHH students have slightly different schedules. They receive assistance from a teacher of deaf or hard of hearing (TODHH) for about 50% of the school day, a portion of their day attending the routine general education class, and the remainder of their day receiving instructions from the TODHH. DHH students can also have professional sign and oral interpreters to help them communicate with the people around them depending on how the school is funded. For this system to succeed, the students must be academically and socially be integrated in school. This would mean that they must participate in class activities, have access to the learning materials, and be accepted by their peers.

We know that appropriate support such as classroom sound field or FM systems can be provided by the schools so that the students are able to understand the speaker better, but this will only apply to those who are hard of hearing and not for those students who are completely deaf. The academic integration has also been found to be more successful. DHH students academically perform better when they spend more time in a general classroom setting compared to those in a self-contained room. Still, it has also been found that it was more difficult for these students to communicate during group discussions compared to communicating with the teacher.

Even though we know a lot about the mainstream school structure for DHH students, there are still many unknowns such has the specific instructions of the TODHH and if it is actually effective and beneficial to be taught by a TODHH. Furthermore, though students can receive assistance during school, they can find it more challenging to participate in extracurricular activities and therefore can miss out on social integration. I believe that many schools do try their best to accommodate all their students in school, but I think there should be more resources so that these students can also fully experience the social aspect of school.

Sources:

https://hearmeoutcc.com/mainstream-school-vs-deaf-school/

http://www.raisingandeducatingdeafchildren.org/2014/01/01/deaf-and-hard-of-hearing-students-in-the-mainstream/

This past week we finally overcame the technical difficulties and Reba and I had 2 1-hour lessons! Since we used Zoom for our classes, I was able to record the sessions so that I could go back to reference if I forgot a sign. Since I only had a handful of sessions with Reba, we are mostly working on vocabulary and learning new ways to ask questions.

One of the most interesting things I learned were the sign for our family members. As we are trying to get to know one another, Reba asks me questions and I try to reply back by fingerspelling. She would then teach me the sign for that particular word. She always tries to make a connection to the sign so that I can remember it more easily. For an example, when talking about family members, the signs for males are above the nose near the head while the signs for females are under the nose near the chin. An easy way to remember is that a while back, men would wear hats while women wore bonnets and tied it under there chin. I really enjoyed learning about family members because I knew it’d be useful and also because all the signs made sense.

This also meant that I had to make sure to sign in the right place. The signs for “right”, “sister” and “brother” are the same and the signs for “fine”, “mom”, and “dad” are also the same but are referred to different parts of the body. It was interesting to see words that had different meanings could have such similar signs. After a couple of lessons, I taught my family some of the new words I learned during our FaceTime calls and they also enjoyed it.

Reba and I also spent a good chunk of our time working on numbers, time of the day, and days of the week. We did an activity together where she would sign a number then I would have to sign the next number. Afterwards she would ask me questions that involved numbers just so I could practice more. I will still occasionally mess up the sign for three. The proper way is to hold up your thumb, first finger, and middle finger, but I keep holding up my first, middle, and ring finger. Although most people use them alternatively, in ASL, it must be signed correctly, or it can be confused with the letter “W”.

Some of the most useful signs I found during the sessions were “understand” and “slow”. Since we communicate through sign and I am still very new to the language, I have to ask Reba to slow down when she fingerspells. I still have to practice more because I need to translate each letter and then put them all together to make the word. Whenever I do understand something, I can sign that to her so that she doesn’t have to elaborate. Occasionally, there were some questions I couldn’t understand even after some repetitions. In that case, Reba will write it down on a white board to clarify. I’m excited to continue learning more vocabulary words and recognizing the questions she’s asking me.

Over the past week, I met with Reba once on Monday for an hour. We were planning on meeting on Thursday too, but there were some technical complications that made meeting that day difficult. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my first meeting with Reba so much! Eli was also there to help interpret for me. Although he said that he was still learning, it was so encouraging to see how quickly he was able to sign with Reba. The first thing I learned was signing the alphabet. We went through each letter and said it out loud. I remember seeing some ASL alphabet posters around my elementary school, so I knew the signs for some of the letters such as c,e,l,m,n,o,y, but had forgotten most of them. The most difficult letter for me was k because I was unsure on how to orient my fingers at first. Afterwards, we introduced ourselves and whenever Reba asked a question, I would reply by fingerspelling what I wanted to say. I definitely made some errors such as signing h instead of g but as we kept spelling, I was able to catch my mistakes quicker. Next she told me the sign for cat and for each variation of the sign, she told me to guess which animal she was referring to. In you don’t count my first attempts, I did pretty well! She asked me what I wanted to learn so I thought a good introduction would be greetings and telling someone about the weather, so I’ll be learning those signs in the next meeting.

As we were going over yes and no, Reba told me the importance of facial expressions in ASL. When I talk, others can use the tone of my voice to determine how I’m saying something. For those in the Deaf community, facial expressions are sort of like their “tone”. If I am telling a funny story but my face is serious, my signs and expressions contradict one another and make it more difficult for people to understand me. I have a tendency to just smile all the time, so I was saying “no” with a smile on my face, but now I know that I need my expressions to match my signs.

Since I am just beginning to learn ASL, I was trying to catch some signs as Reba and Eli were communicating. It was much faster than I was used to, but I caught the sign for “slow down” and “see” for when Reba was going too fast or when her hands were out of the camera frame. I also learned that the sign for “student” was actually a combination of the sign “to learn” and “person”. I’m also very curious about how the grammatical structure is for ASL because so far, it seems exactly like the structure for English.

In the future, I want to use Zoom instead of FaceTime so that I can record our lessons. I found it a little difficult to recall particular signs because I couldn’t necessarily draw each sign I learned. I did however pass Eli this week and we greeted each other, and he helped me remember some signs!