안녕하새요!!!
Here it is!!!
It's my final cultural presentation!!!
For it, I'll be talking about Christianity in South Korea!
The main focus of my time this semester with learning Korean was learning about the culture of the Korean Church so I'm very happy and excited to share with you information about it!
I'll also be sharing my own personal experience of Christianity in South Korea too! I hope y'all are as blessed as I was when I was studying abroad in South Korea, experiencing my faith!
안녕하새요!!!
Looking back on my learning plan I had written at the beginning of this semester, I would say that my learning plan was quite successful. I was able to not only do all of them but also add in a few other really cool last-minute topics that I wanted to cover or that Joora shared with me.
I think after learning languages for quite some time now, I've come to know the kind of pace which works well with my self-directed learning so my learning plan was not too ambitious. I'm glad that I gave myself enough room to really take the time to learn everything I planned to learn. Rushing doesn't help so I'm glad I spaced my time throughout the semester well with each of the topics I was able to learn through.
I'm very happy with the results I have obtained this semester and the progress that continues to grow!
안녕하새요!!!
I can't believe that it's already my last artifact!!!
Something near and dear to my heart this whole semester has been learning and slowly memorizing the Books of the Bible! I'm able to engage speaking, reading, and writing with learning the Books of the Bible so it's been really awesome! I mentioned this at the beginning of my posts, but I'll share it again! My heart for Korea is rooted in my love for the Church and it is wish to learn Korean to share my joy in Jesus with Koreans! For the whole nation of Korea! North and South!
I was really pleasantly surprised by some of the similar pronunciations of certain books and very much impressed of the different ways the Korean language adapted the meaning of the book into Korean!
This artifact is a really useful one for me and I think it's a success! I was able to write down some of the sounds I need to practice on the actual sheets too so that was a cool thing to realize! I still easily misread some letters ㅋㅋㅋ
Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying:
Ahhhhhh it makes me a little sad to reflect on what I've learned about the Korean culture while studying it this semester! Reflections always make things seem like they're actually coming to an end and as a senior, wow! I'm in such an emotional roller coaster of a ride with wrapping up my undergraduate career!
For me, learning Korean and about Korea and its culture has been such a dream! It's been a ride full of pleasant surprises, some upsets, and mostly a lot of self-discovery. I think what makes learning Korean even more special for me is that I was able to live and study in Korea for six whole months! South Korea to me, is truly a second home! It's also the place where I reconnected with my spirituality and where I recommitted my life to Jesus. I had such a beautiful and transformational time abroad in South Korea and I cannot wait to go back!
I guess for this semester, really learning about the Korean Church has been one of the most amazing experiences of my Korean language learning! I still remember when I was first learning how to pray my simple and short prayer to God! I was so nervous and it was such a great feeling to speak to God in a different language knowing that He knows and sees my heart in trying to connect with Him in a different language! I was just reminded of how scary language learning is and how I need to be more aware of my use of English when I go back to Korea. Really, whenever I travel to a non-native English speaking country, to be honest. So that was a really humbling moment for me, to be insecure in my language ability and realize again that this is the reality of many people living in my own country, the United States.
I think a big barrier [but that I've found to be quite beautiful] is that just like in English, there is a particular vocabulary when it comes to the Church. Certain Korean language is only used specifically in the Church and/or when speaking about the Christian religion. I've only really learned the standard form of honorifics so learning how to address God and elders in the Church was definitely an experience for me! But totally a good one!
This semester has really stretched me in growing more passionate and in love with this language! I've come to realize that learning Korean isn't as hard as I've mentally made it to be and I'm excited to dig deeper to cultivate an even more rich self-directed language learning after I graduate!
Thank you for an amazing two semesters of learning Korean when it was needed the most for my journey we call life!
[the beloved Korean finger heart ㅋㅋㅋ it was really popular when I was studying abroad there Spring 2017]
안녕하새요!!!
So for the last week of my Korean lessons, Joora and I spent time writing a letter! As I was thinking about who to write this letter to, who else than my very first Korean tutor, Suyeon!!!!
수연 언니 and I are still best of friends! When she was abroad here Fall 2016 we were able to bond so much more because we got to spend time learning Korean together! My semester with her really did change and positively impact my study abroad experience so I'm so thankful for the self-directed language program! When I was studying abroad in Korea 수연 언니 and I made such beautiful memories together! She was such a great help with continuing my Korean language learning as well!
So Joora and I spent time together coming up with a letter updating 수연 언니 about my time since I've last spoken to her! I wrote everything myself and I'm really proud of how much neater my writing has become!
I know that reading and writing were two weaknesses of mine from the beginning of the semester so I'm really happy that I've been challenged to grow more in these areas of my Korean language learning!
Check out my letter to her! I'm going to mail it to her soon!
안녕하새요!!!
For this cultural post, I'll be sharing with you what 삼일절 is all about!
삼일절 means March 01 commemoration and it commemorates the March 01, 1919 movement in Korea while it was under Japanese occupation.
Below is a short clip on Koreans commemorating this day, here's the link:
People commemorate March 1 Independence Movement Day
Joora and I also saw a video that described in Korean the main time line of historical events starting from this March 01, 1919 movement.
As Joora and I took the time to learn, I took notes from the video! Check them out here!
Notes about the movement pt. 1
Notes about the movement pt. 2
Some interesting facts about the movement was that it sparked the first mass revolt of Korean citizens against Japanese colonization. The Japanese colonization is usually divided into three main periods.
1919: The armed rule period, sparking the Independence movement because of Japan's forceful and violent rule.
1920-1929: This time of Japanese occupation was when the Japanese tried to make all the Koreans become pro-Japan so that Koreans would help the Japanese while in Korea.
1930: It's unofficial name is the Dark Period [Depression] as the fighting spirit of Koreans was greatly challenged. But some of the best trained Korean agents gathered with virtue and goodwill to show Korea its fighting spirit. This resulted in the armistice line [휴전선].
This was the short history lesson we had when March 01st was around!
I hope you've learned some cool historical facts about Korea the way I was informed!
안녕하새요!!!
One of the main things I wanted to do was learn how to sing a Korean church song!
As I am mostly unfamiliar with Korean church songs, Joora picked this song out for me. She said that this song was the unofficial theme song for her high school! It was really nice to hear stories she recollected just from hearing this song play as we first took a look at it. I'm thankful that we were able to share this moment with each other!
I'm super happy that Joora and I were able to do this activity together! It was such an amazing experience, I would even say more rewarding than learning how to sing regular K-Pop songs ㅋㅋㅋ I think because the nature of church songs tend to have simple lyrics, it was a lot easier to understand what I was singing. I loved the moment that as I was learning song, I understood what I was singing and therefore was able to sing it clearer and better. Better in the sense that I had all the right emotions to compliment the lyrics. This artifact is a super super success!!! I think learning songs and decoding the lyrics is always a fun and engaging way to learn the new language you're pursuing!
I definitely have gained confidence in speaking because I can sing along and comprehend what I'm saying when I sing this song! It's such a nice feeling to really understand ALL of what I'm singing and not a sense of what the song means! I think in the future as I continue to learn Korean, I definitely want to make learning songs a more common thing as I learn. I think it'd be super cool to start singing simple songs and then progress to more complex songs!
Music is such an amazing phenomenon!
Song Recording: 야곱의 죽복
Main Vocal: 정바나
Back-up Vocal: 백주라
안녕하세요!
So at this point in the semester, we were about mid-way through the semester! I can't believe that! It's so crazy how fast time moves! I'm not ready to graduate! I am, but I'm also not!
Some of the key things Joora and I have been able to work on during this time of our Korean language learning was writing, reading, and comprehension. We've spent a lot of time improving my reading and writing, so I'm really thankful. With Suyeon unnie, my first language partner when I began self-directed Korean, Suyeon and I spent a lot of time learning the alphabet and speaking the most basic survival language. She was preparing me for my time abroad in Korea and I will attest that learning Korean with Suyeon was so beneficial to my study abroad experience!
Anyways, Joora and I focused for a bit on my reading skills. I severely lacked in that department! I was able to find a children's book online and I printed it out! We spent a week going through reading and comprehending the book and from time to time after that week, I would review the book with Joora! It was so cool to see how at the beginning it was so hard to even pronounce the words and then by the end be able to read smoothly without any hiccups! And even more worthwhile that I knew what I was saying! ㅋㅋㅋ
I would say that reading a book (even if it's just a children's book) was one of the most rewarding moments during my self-directed Korean learning this semester. It was really a task that resulted from my own intentionality. And evening with reading, it combines speaking too! So I know that this exercise definitely helped me overcome some of fear of speaking!
I've attached a copy of my printed storybook! It has all the notes and vocabulary on it too so you can see some of the processing I went through trying to understand and get down on reading the story well!
After reading the book, Joora and I spent some time learning a church song too! More information about that whole process can be seen with my Third Artifact post!
During this interim time, Joora and I had also gone through all the books of the Bible and we focused on the book of Luke as well! We went through scripture and vocabulary!
안녕하세요!!!
So during a weekend a while back, I was spending time with friends and thought I would try out this learning activity I hashed out the last time I posted about teaching someone how to order food in Korean!
Maybe it was because these friends were really close friends, it was a bit hard to stay super serious as I taught them different phrases in Korean. But one good thing from the situation was that I was super relaxed and because my language partner wasn't there, they looked to me for everything. So I remember being quite surprised that I knew a lot more than what I was giving myself credit for.
That's always a pleasant surprise!
I would say that my learning activity was effective.
At the end of the role-play, my friends were able to successfully order food in Korean, even if it was super basic. Survival language skills are so integral though, so I'm happy with what my pupils were able to get out of the learning activity!
In the Korean culture, there are significant differences to the Korean language when speaking to family versus strangers. In the Korean language, formality is not only suggested for people who you don't know, but it's a sign of respect. Especially in the sense of you speaking to those older than you- seniority is a thing. You speak formally to those older unless they choose to drop the language and allow for the both of you to speak informally with each other. In that same vein, speaking informally to others usually only happens with family, close friends, and young children. While living in Korea, I spoke formally with everyone but my friends. As a foreigner, I think Koreans give more lee-way if you mess up and don't speak formally on the first meeting with them. Koreans are pretty understanding to foreigners who are learning their language- understanding that you're still learning. So there's definitely a different standard to Koreans respecting the language system dynamic and an outsider learning Korean.
This is a picture of the cast of Abnormal Summit. I believe it is no longer airing, but when it was, it was a variety show of different foreign celebrities presently active in South Korea. Each week, they would speak about different issues and provide South Koreans with a broader knowledge of different perspectives from all around the world.
This show represents a lot of what I spoke about earlier. How even though their Korean is impeccable and fluent, Koreans still hold them to a different standard from a native speaker. It's really interesting to experience and witness.
I've always loved the Korean language and culture and having had the privilege to study abroad in South Korea in the Spring of 2016, I definitely have such a big heart for this country!
For this semester, my main interest lies in the church. I've learned how to pray in Korean, how to interact within a small group Bible study, have read a few scriptures of the New Testament, and have also learned how to sing a church song in Korean! It's been a really beautiful ride of being introduced to the Korean church culture!
I'm hoping that the basics I have learned so far this semester will help kindle a greater growth into navigating the Korean church language. It is my wish to work with Korean churches when I return back to South Korea!
Something I would like to teach to someone else in Korean is how to order food! Joora and I spent some time going over diction and we used food as a category! Because of that, we practiced as well how to order and ask questions in Korean!
The activity I have lined up to teach someone else would be role-play!
I specifically want to teach someone else how to order in Korean, so for a change I will be the host/waitress haha.
Before role-play though, we'll start with the basics. Learning how to say hello, please, portions, excuse me, and getting the attention of the staff. I will also teach them short food phrases, like "this is delicious!" or "it's hot!" or "I don't like this."
After going through vocabulary, I'll focus on putting together a small script where the person I'm teaching knows how to interact in a role-play situation.
When they're comfortable with the Korean, we'll dig right into the role-play!
Here are the artifacts I mentioned in my second bi-weekly post!
I'm really proud with these learning activities! I had so much fun learning some of the basic prayer language in Korean and even more fun constructing my own simple prayer with Joora! I was able to practice it everyday!
I think my pronunciation is done well and I think because I wasn't so much anxious about the recording, I didn't seem too nervous in it. I think also that it was a prayer and I practiced it a lot, I got really comfortable with speaking this particular dialogue.
Overall, I deem this a super success!
안녕하세요!
The first month of learning Korean was good! I think the hardest part at the beginning of the semester was learning how to balance all of my school work this semester with three jobs on campus. I definitely felt the gap of being abroad for a whole year and just returning to finish off my undergraduate career.
Joora and I were able to start this semester with learning how to pray in Korean! We did a regular prayer and a food prayer so you'll be able to hear it in my artifacts post.
As a spiritual person, it was nice to start learning Korean off with a prayer. It seemed really fitting to just cover my semester learning with thankfulness and admire for a language that isn't my own, but that I can hold an intimate moment with!
안녕하세요!
정말 미안 해요 교수님!
I'm so sorry Dr. Scinicariello! I did not fully keep with the syllabus and did not arrange a meeting with you. But I hope you know that I have kept well with all of my work, it's just been a hard time remembering to post everything. As a senior too this semester has been quite difficult, so I hope you can extend some understanding!
Although we did not meet to speak about my progress, Joora and I have met for every week, twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. And we've kept to all the things I wanted to learn this semester as well, so that's a plus! We didn't always do it in order because sometimes I found my interest to lie in a different week's schedule. So that's the only thing that we really changed, just when we would go over certain things.
I've been able to be successful with all my learning tasks because Joora has been a great supporter of my learning and growth! She's so awesome! <3
And because what I'm learning (Korean church culture) is something I dearly want to continue learning, I've had a lot of fun taking initiative to learn it!
안녕하세요!!!
This was the first artifact I did for the semester! It's so bad! Re-listening to it, I could tell that I was so super nervous and I had probably tried my best to do a few takes, but I feel like frustration got the best of me! ㅋㅋㅋ ㅠㅠ
Speaking has always been my weak point with Korean. The funny thing is that with all the other languages I've learned (Arabic and Spanish) speaking was never a problem. I've reflected on it and I think it's because I have a more personal bond to Korean that makes messing up while speaking that much harder for me (?) maybe haha.
Anyways, I think for my very first artifact of the semester it was alright. Because I was super nervous, I know I misspoke about my family. But overall, I think my accent is not too bad.
Improvements would be nerves as I'm recording myself. Maybe there are tricks to fooling myself that I'm just speaking and not recording. The biggest way to improve would be to continue practice speaking each day so that hearing myself speak Korean doesn't sound so foreign to my own ears. I think allowing myself to hear myself speak Korean will help break down the wall I have with having a hard time to fully explore speaking Korean, without fear of mistakes. Because it's really only once you allow yourself to mess up from speaking that you really grow deeper in the language.
I'm excited for the day I can do that with the Korean language! It will have been a long-time in the making because of the self-directed language program! So this victory will be all the more sweeter!
안녕하세요!!!
It's been such a super busy semester for me! Thank you for being understanding, that while my posts are late, I've definitely been meeting with Joora and have had an awesome semester learning Korean!
잘 부탁드립니다.
I've posted my Learning Plan and having reviewed it, I'm always so amazed how flexible self-directed language learning is! This semester I focused on more Korean language and culture surrounding the Church. If this wasn't self-directed language learning, I don't think I would have been able to spend time learning this aspect of the Korean language that I'm personally invested in. So I'm really grateful for this flexibility! I love how even at my basic novice learning level, I can still learn about this, even if that means I have to stretch myself out of my comfort zone!
Most of my learning activities have been super engaging and it's been a really great time together with Joora! From taking time to read and dissect Scripture to learning a church song, I've had a fun semester with all the dynamic things we've been able to do together!
I remember at the beginning of the semester, I was really shy and hesitant with speaking Korean because it had been so long since I had spoken it with someone. I think I was also frustrated because my comprehension is better than my speaking ability. It's always annoying when you can understand well but you're stuck with not being able to express yourself properly. I also know that at the beginning of this semester, I had not gotten over my barrier of fear of messing up when it comes to speaking Korean. To be honest, I don't think I've fully been able to break that wall. Where I am right now is a lot better at just speaking, but it's so hard! I've always loved and admired the Korean language and I just want to be able to speak it perfectly. Making mistakes speaking Korean is so scary for me! But definitely re-looking at the progress I've made (even if it's not super significant) the progress makes me happy!
Hello!
It's been such an awesome final semester as a senior learning Korean as a novice beginner!
I've had a blast continuing to learn and explore more of this language and its rich history and culture with my super amazing language partner Joora!
Attached below is the learning plan I made from the start of the semester. Looking through it, we have been able to hit all of the things I was hoping to learn this semester! That's so encouraging and so cool!
Reflecting on this learning plan, I definitely feel more empowered with self-directed language learning! While progress may be slow and at my own pace, it's super cool that I can say I have learned how to do these specific tasks!
(105 & 110) How did you evolve as an autonomous/self-directed language learner? Did you develop your skills as an observer of other cultures? How did the cultural project help you relate the products, practices, and perspectives of a culture? Were you able to move from basic linguistic principles (language families, language structures, etc.) to the specifics of the language you are studying? (110) What was your progress in meeting the goals of your learning plan?
I feel that this semester really challenged me on autonomous/self-directed language learning. In the past, I have tried to teach myself Korean, but through this program, I have learned to be more disciplined with myself. It was easy in the past to just leave it on the side but this semester (I think also due to having a language partner) I was more intentional on being consistent with learning Korean by myself. I am also studying abroad in Korea in the spring, so I think my fear of not being able to communicate has been a real fear that has worked to benefit myself so that I have been on top of all my language goals and practicing everything I am learning.
From my time in SDLC 105 I would say that I did develop some skills as an observer of other cultures. I never thought about language in some ways my other peers had to learn their language so that made me aware of my own native language, English, and Korean even more. I found it really striking to see similarities and differences in all the languages I know compared to the way others were learning their own language. Also, just as an outsider learning the Korean culture was eye-opening. I’ve been immersed in Korean Dramas and Korean music since the 5th grade (from my older sister) and it was still just as eye-opening to be reminded and introduced to aspects of the Korean culture that’s immensely different from the US and Hmong culture.
The cultural project was actually more informational than I thought it would be for myself. Since I have been exposed to all things Korean entertainment for so long, I thought I wouldn’t mostly learn anything new. But I never too notice or questioned all the editing into the making of a variety show. I’m still so astonished and impressed of the different ways they edit variety shows. And most of all, the reflection of the Korean language is so strong in the variety programs in Korea. Most of the things I noticed, trends and stuff, I knew from years of watching variety shows but also just being to see that it has a history of the same trends is amazing. Meaning that those aspects are very valued in the Korean society. Whew, mind-blown with this cultural project.
I feel that I was somewhat successful at moving from the basic linguistic principles to the specifics of the Korean language. I didn’t spend too much time exploring the specific grammar of Korean and what makes it so special. I felt that I definitely learned simple equations that worked for most grammatical structures but it wasn’t an in-depth and rich learning of the Korean language. Just enough learning of Korean to survive speaking in Korean.
The progress in meeting the goals of my learning plan were so on point each week. Suyeon Unnie was also just such a great support, I can’t thank her enough. We finished everything I wanted to learn while also being able to do review twice (once in the middle of the semester and our last week together). I personally need review to make sure that what I’m reiterating to myself is correct and that I am keeping myself on top of all the work I need to do. So it worked out great, our week to week language goals. I also think that if Suyeon Unnie wasn’t my language partner, that I wouldn’t have been so productive. She also provided handouts and videos each week so without her support I’m not sure it would have been so productive if I had to bring everything I wanted to do to her. So I owe many thanks to her!
I am really grateful to this self-directed language program on campus to have the opportunity to learn Korean before going abroad. When I return in Spring 2017, I most definitely want to take another Korean self-directed class. I am excited to see the progress of my Korean when I return back to the States from studying abroad. It will be so interesting to bring back a different perspective of the Korean culture once I am able to live in it. Thank you for a great semester!
The learning activity I created for Korean was the Korean numeric systems. I just counted with my fingers both numeric systems and had everyone in class repeat after me. I also explained the differences in use of each numeric system. There are two systems, I guess you could refer to one as formal and the other informal. Mainly, understanding which number system to use is just something one picks up on so it is complicated for novice learners since there's no rule.
