Xiwei Gu

"What strikes me the most is how these Confucian values still play a role in everyday life, from family dynamics to attitudes towards education. It’s a beautiful reminder of how tradition and modern life can blend together. Reflecting on these…"

"The Seokguram Grotto is truly a remarkable piece of history! It's fascinating how it reflects the cultural exchange between Korea and India, showcasing the artistry and architectural skills of the time. The attention to detail in the sculptures,…"

"It sounds like you’ve been doing some amazing work in your Korean studies! Your upcoming presentation on the influence of Buddhism in Korea sounds fascinating. It’s great that you’re starting with the origins and spreading of Buddhism and…"

Chinese primarily follows the same subject-verb-object structure as English, but I am still learning the different ways in which words can be arranged. For example, in some cases, I can signify having completed an action by adding the word “le” after the verb (and sometimes the rest of the sentence), but I don’t know if this applies to all cases of the past tense. One of the other concepts I am coming to understand is the way characters are combined to create new words with complex senses. The words for “stairs” come from the characters for “building” and “ladder”, and a part of the character for ladder means “wood”, as it was used in early building structures. Tracking ideas like this might relate broadly to the “language”, “anthropology”, and “sociology” areas of Aitchison’s linguistics. As a beginner, I will probably focus mostly on applied linguistics, but I am also interested in literature, philosophy, and psychology, so I hope to consider and learn more about how Mandarin has…

Russian has several structures within the language including but not limited to phonetics, phonology, grammar, semantics, and physical forms. Currently, I am working on looking at Russian from several perspectives. While I most rely on the basics found within semantics, grammar, and the “medium of linguistic transition” which consists of phonology and phonetics (Crystal), I also look into how learning Russian affects my brain– psychological linguistics– and how Russian can be used in a broader setting– anthropological linguistics. These various perspectives allow me to explore my target language through multiple lenses and gain even more motivation and personal achievement from my studies. Since I am a beginner in the language, I naturally lean toward the most simple (to me) approaches. Mostly, I am studying vocabulary and syntax, which are levels of semantics and grammar respectively. Through the readings though, I am expanding my directory of how to approach language learning. I…

Xiwei Gu

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Discussion 3 Spring 2026

Discussion #3 (Spring 2026)

Discussion Post #2

Main ideas behind Figuring Foreigners Out Summary/Analysis

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