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Recently, I was exposed to a Korean traditional song by accident. It is called “Arirang”. Its melody is very beatiful and attractive, so I did some research on this kind of song.
Arirang Folk song (아리랑) is a famous Korean traditional song, also is the most representative Folk songs of the Korean peninsula. Its full name is 아리랑타령. Arirang is known as the Korean nationality "the first national anthem" and "ethnic songs". There are different versions of it in different places, the most commonly heard version being "original tone Arirang", which is popular around gyeonggi province in South Korea. This one is popular because it became the theme song of the 1926 film of the same name. It was later used as the entry music for the delegations of the republic of Korea and the democratic People's Republic of Korea during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Also, Arirang has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list of the People's Republic of China.
Arirang is a love story from the koryo period. The main plot is about a loving couple. Their life was hard. The husband wanted his wife to have a good life, so he wanted to go out to work to earn money. But the wife didn’t let him to do so, saying as long as two people were together she was satisfied. The husband did not think so, and left one night quietly. The wife was famous for being very beautiful in the village. After the husband left, the village ruffians came to harass and let her remarry. The wife refused, but the ruffians always came and harass her. A year later, the husband came back with money, and the couple were happy. The local ruffians came again, and the village gossiped about the wife and local ruffians. The husband had a suspicion, thinking that the wife was not faithful. He wanted to leave again. The wife tried to expalin but cannot stop the husband. He left and the wife chased him and sang. The content of the song was about her grievance and concern and yearning for her husband. His wife sang "my husband", also known as Arirang, and finally her sincerity melted his cold heart. The couple's love was restored and they left their hometown to live a happy life in the capital. Later this story and the song Arirang spread, and became the representative of the Korean national classic song.
Although the Arirang music is not the same everywhere, it shows the ancient women's fortitude and indomitable spirit.
This song "Arirang" tells the story of a Korean woman who misses her husband and longs for love. The melody is euphemistic and lyrical, and the rhythm is brisk and smooth. The whole song is composed of two musical phrases and changes and repeats, forming a double complex phrase with chorus. "Arirang" has a 3/4 beat and subsonic melody. Being slightly sad mood, Arirang is a representative Korean folk song.
Recently, there is a popular talent show in China. The program invited more than 100 trainees and qualified star instructors. In the program, the trainees work in groups, compete, and eventually the nine trainees who get the most votes form a group and debut. In fact, such shows first began in South Korea. Chinese talent shows are also imported from South Korea. Among the star mentors was a member of a south Korean girl group. The member's own nationality is neither China nor South Korea, but Thailand. Such diversified combination makes me realize more that South Korea is a country with a very developed entertainment industry. In the Korean entertainment industry, there are also many foreign stars and idols. This made me start to think about why so many young people, no matter what country they come from, keep on going to Korea as trainees to make their debut.
Many people call South Korea as a star factory. There are lots of idols and idol group in South Korea, and most of them have lots of fans all over the world. On the contrary, in China, it can be said that before the import of talent shows, China did not have as influential as South Korea's idols or idol groups. But how can South Korea be so developed in entertainment industry? I made some comparisons between China and South Korea.
China: The professional selection of dance vocal is not particularly strict on the selection of appearance.
Korea: When selecting trainees, they will examine them from multiple dimensions, such as appearance , body type, artistic ability, politeness, attitude and strength.
China: mainly train themselves, without professional company packaging, not have a lot of charm to attract fans, look like ordinary people on the road
Korea: there are special courses to teach you how to walk well, how to exude charm, plus regular skin management, and company packaging, it is easy to attract fans
China: requires tuitions to learn vocal or dance
Korea: free training and have living expenses for trainees.
China: graduation oneself and seek for a job, the future is uncertain
Korea: domestic Korea usually pay attention to the debut of new idols, high possibility of becoming popular
To sum up, young people who want to debut are more willing to go to a mature entertainment industry, so that their future is also guaranteed.
In fact, it is not only China cannot do the same star factory as South Korea. Such a mature industry requires long time and some corresponding support. After all, South Korea began to build its own entertainment industry very early, and other countries have not been able to catch up for a while. So young people are more willing to go to South Korea to exercise themselves.
Apart from the early start, the training for trainees in Korea is also very strict. A recent set of photos of former Chinese idols of SM entertainment, one of South Korea's top three entertainment companies, has caused a stir. In the photo, the three stand in exactly the same position, even holding the microphone on the same side. People looked for photos of other SM idols and found that everyone was standing in the same pose. This also shows that South Korea has strict requirements and training on every move of trainees, so that after many years they still remember.
Here is the podcast with my language partner Brenda Lim.SDLC112 podcast.m4a
These two weeks were the last two weeks of this semester. So Brenda and I did the podcast and some research about North Korea which is also the topic of my final presentation. During the podcast, we discussed the topics we have learned through the whole semester. We talked about each other’s favourite Korean slangs and new words. We also made up sentences using those grammar rules and suffixes we have learned this semester. When we were making up sentences, I think I was using it fairly fluently. It didn't take much time to think. Moreover, we recalled the movie and TV drama we have wathced this semester. We talked about those classic senses of the movie and drama. Overall, the podcast was good.
The research we did about North Korea was very interesting. We learned about the language difference first. It was bery interetsing to hear those North Korean people speaking their language when I already know how South Korean lanugae sounds like. For me, it is still difficult to hear exactly which word or part of sentences is used differently in North Korean lanuage. But I can hear the difference of tone of North and South Korean. I found that the unique tone of North Korean is very strong and strict, which can also reflect their rigid national characteristics. I would include more details about the difference between these two Korean lanuage in my final presentation.
Another thing we researched about North Korea was North Korean food. The biggest difference between North Korean food and South Korean food is that North Korea does not have as many different kinds of food as South Korean does, and the North Korea has different name for food that appear in both country. For example, North Korea does not have 치킨（fired chicken）which is a very popular and famous food in South Korea. Also, North Korea does not have김밥(Kim bab), it only has 인조고기밥 (rice rolled in fake meat). The original kim bab is made with differet kind of real meat and vegetables. More interestingly, North Korean call coca-cola 미제단물 (American sweet water), where in South Korea it is 코카콜라(the transliteration of Coca-Cola). These also reflect that North Korea is not very receptive to foreign things, languages and so on. They prefer to do it in the most local way. Again, I will include more details about this in my final presentation.
Since this is the last biweekly jounal of this semester, I also want to talk about the future plans and the future challenges I might have. My lanuage partner Brenda is going to graduate this year, which means that I will have another lanuage partner next semester. This would be a challenge because it will take some time for us to learn each other and catch up with my progress in learning Korean with Brenda. Before being partner with Brenda, I also have another partner. So, I believe I can still be on the right track very quick. For the next semester, I want to keep learning the formal written Korean lanuage and try to have every class completely in Korean.
Due to the delay of spring break and the fact that I recently spent three days returning to China from the United States, this journal will only contain one week of Korean learning. Since we were in different time zone, and the Internet in my quarantine hotel in China was not very good, Brenda and I had some difficulties in our online class. However, fortunately, there are only three weeks left before the end of the semester. Brenda and I decided to save the last two weeks for the podcast and the final presentation. Therefore, this week, we summarized the knowledge we learned in the whole semester and reviewed the knowledge points that are easy to be confused and easy to make mistakes. I've been ignoring the importance of summaries. In previous semesters, I learned new language knowledge with my language partner until the last week, and I never made a formal semester summary. This will undoubtedly allow me to learn more, but it also increases the likelihood that I will forget something. At the beginning of the term I found that I had forgotten some of what I had learned. I think this situation should be addressed and avoided in a timely manner so that the foundation is solid. So this week's summary I think is very necessary and helpful.
This semester, I pay more attention to the application of grammar rules and formal written Korean. In the class, Brenda and I spent more time practicing making up sentence and situational deduction than simply learning how the rule works. By learning two formal Korean articles, I also gained a general understanding of the structure and rules of formal written Korean. At the same time, I also did a timely search and understanding of Korean events and recent trends. For example, I watched the Oscar-winning movie “parasite” and talked to Brenda about the gap between rich and poor that the movie reflected. Brenda and I are both bilingual and culturally proficient, so we discussed the similarities and differences between the three countries (US, South Korea, China) on this social issue. Inter-Korean relations is also a hot topic in South Korea recently, so I also watched some TV dramas and interviews about North Korea life and people and decided to make this the theme of my final presentation. I think these cultural learning is also an important part of language learning.
In addition, we reviewed the suffix which is something easy to be confused. There are 이/가 for topic, 은/는 for subject, 을/를 for object, 에/에서 for place/time, and 의 for possessive. We wrote a lot of examples to practice not missing them up. For example, 나는 니콜이 웃을때 좋아요(I like when Nicole smiles), and 니콜은 마크를좋아해요(Nicole likes Mark), which both use two of those suffixes. The conclusion I got was that always ask yourself two questions when using these suffixes. Which part of the sentence does the word you want to add suffix belong to? And does this word has a consonant or not? By thinking of the answers to these two questions, you will never mistake these suffixes.
This week's summary and review not only allowed me to check what I had learned in the past, but also gave me an opportunity to prepare for the podcast.
Because of the COVID 19 outbreak, we started the online course two weeks ago. As a result of the outbreak, our spring break was extended by one week, which meant that the course was delayed by one week. So Brenda and I, in our first online class, first talked about what we were going to do for the rest of the semester. As the number of courses decreased, we decided to make the course content more focused on the completion of the set goals and keep up with the pace of the syllabus. At the same time, Brenda and I both believe that the content of the course can be updated with the times, such as understanding the covid-19 epidemic in South Korea, and learning some language and culture from it. With that in mind, our focus for the last two weeks would be on the COVID 19 outbreak in South Korea. An important part of my goal for this semester is to learn more formal written languages through more formal Korean articles. Therefore, Brenda and I searched for a news report about the local epidemic in South Korea, and read the article in detail, had a deep understanding and learning together.
In the process of reading, I found that my vocabulary is still lacking, so my reading speed is relatively slow. However, considering that this is my second formal in-depth reading of a Korean article, everything is still in its infancy. As long as I accumulate the vocabulary, practice the different sentence pattern expression more, certainly I will have the enhancement. Since I have already studied an article about the Korean general trend movie “parasite”, I applied the structural characteristics of the Korean article I summarized last time to this reading. Therefore, in the process of reading, I quickly grasped the main points of the whole article and the refutation of the author to the holder of the opposite point of view. I think it is very important to master the main tone of the article when reading the article, because it can make us have a clearer and accurate understanding of the content of the article. This way of reading I think is also very helpful for beginners like me, because it prevents us from misunderstanding the main points of the article at the beginning.
Through reading this article, I learned how covid-19 became popular in South Korea and what measures were taken in South Korea. Of course, reading the article alone can only reveal one side of the truth. Brenda and I then looked for videos about the Korean coronavirus outbreak. As a Chinese student whose country has suffered the same pain before, I can well understand the feelings of the Korean people, and I am deeply impressed by the efficient drive-through test in South Korea.
Through these two weeks of learning about the local situation in South Korea, as well as the discussion with Brenda, I have learned more about the real situation in South Korea. I think it is necessary to keep abreast of the country's news and so on in language learning. This kind of study can let us know more about the country and the nation. On the other hand, I kept on track to achieve my goals for the semester by learning formal Korean articles. In general, although the time, form and schedule of our courses have changed to different degrees due to the coronavirus outbreak, we still keep on track through good plans.
My language partner and I only met once before the spring break. In fact, out last meeting was quite interesting. We did the topic of Korean slangs. Both Brenda and I believed that learning slangs is very helpful while learning a new language. By learning slangs, I believe that I can learn more about the development of language during modern times and how young people like to use their language in their daily life in a up-to-date style.
At the very beginning of our meeting, Brenda introduced her favorite Korean slang “꾸안꾸”. It is the short version of “꾸민듯 안꾸민듯”, which means that you tried to dress up but it looks like you didn't try. This is the highest level of fashion in people’s daily life. Everyone wants themselves to look fashion by wearing pretty clothes and make up. “꾸안꾸” means your well-thought-out fashion looks like something you've done very casually to others. This is exactly the highest level of fashion. South Korean people like fashion a lot. This “꾸안꾸” style of fashion is very popular among Korean people. If you search “꾸안꾸” on Instagram, you will see a lot of posts about what young Korean women or men wear in their daily lives. They like to tag themselves with “꾸안꾸”.
There are many more abbreviation-stylized slangs like “꾸안꾸” in Korean. A very popular one is “아아”, which is the abbreviation of “아이스 아메리카노 (ice americano)”. Ice Americano is Korean people’s favorite drink in daily life. So they use this abbreviation to order drinks in café. Another popular slang related to “아아” is “얼죽아” which is the short version of “얼어 죽어도 아이스 아메리카노”. It means that even if I freeze to death, I will drink ice Americano. This shows how much Koreans love ice Americano. In fact, “얼죽…” has become a fixed form of slang. We can add whatever we like after “얼죽” to express their enthusiasm and madness for something. Korean also have slangs in English letters. For instance, JMT is a Romanized acronym for the compound word “존맛탱” (jonmattaeng) and describes something that is “really tasty”. “JMT” appears frequently in Korean TV shows. Others like “TMI” and “TMP” are also Korean slangs, although they stand for “too much information” and “too much passion” which are totally in English. But actually, it is Korean people the first to use this kind of abbreviations.
Certainly, abbreviation is not the only style Korean slangs have. Korean people call these slangs “신조어” which means “new words”. Brenda and I also watched a interesting video about “신조어” during our last meeting. I want to introduce one of those new words I have learned from the video. It is so funny that I can’t stop thinking of it during and after out meeting. It is “뜨또”, which is Justin Bieber’s tattoo. The reason is Justin Bieber has a tattoo on his arm which is the Korean words of his last name Bieber. The Korean is “비버”. The interesting thing is that if Justin Bieber raise his arm parallel to the ground. The tattoo “비버” will change from vertical to horizontal, then looks like a totally different Korean word “뜨또” that is meaningless. Therefore, Korean people use “뜨또” to represent Justin Bieber’s tattoo.
Recently, the film Parasite won a leading four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. It became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition, as well as the first film not in English to win Best Picture. So for the past two weeks, Brenda and I made “Parasite” the theme of our class. We read a Korean news article about “Parasite” and watched the film Parasite.
The news article we read is about the social problem disclosed in the film Parasite, which is “불평등(inequality)”. The news article compared the inequality phenomenon in South Korea and that in the US. The main idea is that compared to South Korea, the inequality disclosed by the film Parasite is much more serious in the US. The article reasons this idea by providing scientific data and explaining those data in terms of metaphors that people can easily understand. But our purpose of reading this news article was not to learn from the context, but to learn more about the written Korean language. Brenda and I focused more on the structure of the article, the structure of a single sentence and the level of formality.
This news article is a formal article. After reading this article, the first characteristic I learned about formal Korean article is its structure. Usually, the main idea is provided at the very beginning of the article. The main ideas are always clearly stated in one sentence before the articles start. Then, the authors will give plenty of reasoning to support their main claims. In the last quarter of the whole article, the author will give the counterclaim. This section will only make up a small part of the article. And will be given the reason why the counterclaim does not justify itself as soon as the counterclaim is briefly explained.
As I was reading those formal written Korean language and trying to understand the meaning of them, I found that the structure of each single sentence was very complicated. In a formal style article, sentences are usually written in an inverted sentence pattern. In another words, I need to read from the end of the sentence, then back to the beginning in order to understand the meaning. This would be a challenge for me, while learning formal-styled Korean written language. Also, lack of vocabulary will be another challenge. So I will keep memorizing more vocabulary and practicing using grammatical rules in each Korean class. I will also keep reading Korean articles with Brenda, and I believe I will make progress at the end of this semester.
Keeping this article in mind, I watched the film Parasite. I paid more attention to the inequality between wealthy people and poor people the film was trying to expressed while watching. Before watching this film, I thought it would be a very heavy realistic film, making people realize the serious social problem by watching a painful and ironic story. But in fact, the movie is fun, but also full of anger, and a strong sense of injustice.
Recently, a Korean drama called “사랑의 불시착（Crush landing on you）” just ended. It was very popular, and I also watched some episodes with my language partner. The set of this drama was very interesting because it was set in North Korea, which was very different from other classic Korean dramas. This drama is about the love story between a wealthy woman who comes from South Korea and a soldier who comes from North Korea. This wealthy woman came to North Korea because she suffered from a hurricane, and her paraglider was blown into North Korean territory. She was found by a North Korean soldier, and this soldier protected her while she was in North Korea. She stayed in a village near the border. When she saw the village for the first time, the backwardness of the village shook both her and me. Also, later in the series, those north Korean soldiers who knew her and went to South Korea with her were all shocked by the prospect of a developed South Korea. The rapid development of South Korean society is something they have never experienced in their own country. This also made me think of the reason why North Korea is so different from South Korea. Therefore, I did some research on the difference and relationship between North Korean and South Korean.
The first thing made me interested and also the most obvious was the difference between language. Actually, South Korean language and North Korean language are essentially the same, but with subtle differences. So people can easily distinguish these two lanuages from two perspectives . Firstly, from the perspective of 음성(intonation), South Korean has a higher and softer tone, while North Korean is lower and harder. Secondly, from the perspective of 어휘(vocabulary), North Korean are much more “domestic” than South Korean. South Korean has a richer and more dynamic vocabulary because of the degree of social development. South Korean accept more loanwords. Foreign words like "와 이 프 (wife), 나 이 프 (knife)", which has the similar pronunciations as English, in South Korean language never appear in North Korean language. North Korean generally just said "안 해 (wife), 칼 (knife)".
Due to the differences in political and economic systems, the two countries also have great differences in the current culture. North Korea is relatively closed culturally because of its relatively closed political system. People's vision is limited and mind is not open. With little economic development, there is a relative lack of culture. But North Korea still values education even in tough economic times, and many of its children are versatile. South Korea is different. South Korea's economy is developing well, and people have a broad vision and an open mind. In particular, the development of literature and art in South Korea is remarkable. This is evident in industries such as film and television in South Korea. Such differences also have led to many 탈북자（North Korean defectors）.
As I mentioned in my bi-weekly journal, my final cultural presentation will have the same topic. I will include more details and comparison in my final presentation.
In the last two weeks, Brenda and I did both cultural learning and academical learning. For Korean culture, we learned about the relationship between South Korea and North Korea and the language people use in North Korea. For language, we learned several verbs with the same meaning used for different nouns and verbs with the same pronunciation but different meanings.
We started our culture learning with the latest Korean drama “사랑의 불시착（Crush landing on you）”. This drama is about the love story between a wealthy woman who comes from South Korea and a soldier who comes form North Korea. This wealthy woman came to North Korea because she suffered from a hurricane, and her paraglider was blown into North Korean territory. She was found by a North Korean soldier, and this soldier protected her while she was in North Korea. Since the story takes place in North Korea, the language those actors are using and the set in the drama are all in North Korean style. Brenda and I learned about how Korean language in North Korea is different from that in South Korea. We also watched a North Korean Youtuber, who escaped from North Korea to South Korea, talking about how her life was in North Korea. It was my first time to learn about how people live in North Korea. I was shocked because life in north Korea is very simple, even backward. This also inspired me to make the difference and relationship between South Korea and North Korean as my topic for my final cultural presentation. I want to research more about this topic.
The language learning class last week was very interesting. Brenda taught me several confusing verbs and we practiced by making up sentences using those verbs. The first group we learned was “to wear” for different clothing. In Korean, we use “쓰다” for things like hats or glasses, “신다” for shoes or socks, and “입다” for coats or pants. For better memorizing, I concluded the usage of these verbs by different body parts: “쓰다” is used for things wore on head and face; “신다” is for our feet; and “입다” is for our main body. Another group is “잊다” and “잃다”. Literally, they means “to forget” and “to lose”. “잊다” is used when you forget something you knew previously but cannot recall it at the moment. “잃다” is used when you forget or lose material possession. It is also used when you are unable to find the way to go your destination. In English, sometimes we use the same verb to express this two conditions. But In both Korean and Chinese, we have to use certain verb for “to forget” and “to lose”. As a Chinese native speaker, it is relatively easy for me to distinguish these two verbs and be able to know which is the correct one in different contexts.
In the past several classes, Brenda and consciously increased the frequency of our Korean conversations. The efficiency of our Korean conversations has been gradually improved. Although sometimes I was not able to express my ideas in Korea, I still try my best to give some words I knew instead of totally using English. Brenda also speaks Korean to me. She translates only if I am confused about what she was talking about. And the way she translate is using Korean I knew first, then guiding me till I getting the meaning myself. I think this is a very good way to practice my conversational skills in Korean, since it is not to convey Korean and English translation to me, but to make myself understand by guiding in Korean.
Last week, I learned three new grammar rules with Brenda. They were “-으니까/니까”, “-지마”, and “-을지/ㄹ지”.
As what I mentioned in my first journal, the plan for this semester would be more focus on my conversational skills. So Brenda and I spent more time on making up sentences using these three verb endings and tried to have conversations using those sentences. The class last week, I think, gave us a good start of making our class more conversational rather than simply learning those grammatical rules. Although we just focused on learning new rules, we would explore more interesting activities later this semester. Moreover, in this journal I want to include more about the first verb ending we learned.
The first verb ending, -(으)니까, is used when the verb before -(으)니까 is the reason for another action or the basis of a judgement. This verb ending reminded me of another verb ending I have learned before. It was “-아/어/여서”. It is also used to link sentences and show a reason/result relationship between them. To be able to distinguish these two similar verb endings and use them accurately in different conditions, I researched the difference between these two verb endings after class. Firstly, although both of these structures show the reason/result, or cause/effect relationship, of two verbs, -아/어/여서 cannot be used in imperative sentences or with “Let’s”. For example, “지금바쁘니까나중에전화해주세요. (I am busy now, so call me later.)” is the right expression. But we cannot say “지금바빠서나중에전화해주세요.” Secondly, for basic greetings and when talking about your own feelings or situations, you cannot use -(으)니까. -아/어/여서 must be used in this situation. For instance, “와줘서고마워요. (Thank you for coming.)”, which expresses our thanks to others, we should use “와줘서” instead of “와주니까”.
Learning these differences enables me to judge which grammar should be used more accurately in daily communications and helps me to understand the meanings and context in readings.
SDLC%20111%20culture%20presentation.pptx
Link for the video:
