April Journal Entry
As my final semester at UR comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on how fruitful my language learning journey has been in both SDLC 105 and 110. Over the course of the semester, I became more and more confident in my Korean, which significantly benefited my relationship with my parents and my international friends from Korea. Even though I do consider myself to be proficient in Korean, I always found it a bit difficult to connect with people on an even deeper level through the means of only speaking in Korean. However, I truly believe that this is something I began to overcome during my language learning journey with David. My vocabulary has increased beyond what I thought was possible in just one semester. Out of all of the strategies we tried to implement, I quickly learned that simply conversing in Korean was the best way for me to pick up new words and learn, as I was being fully immersed in the context of the conversation. I also learned that applying skills is the best way to have them stick, because if I didn’t use new words within a certain period of learning them, I would forget the words. I could still remember if someone else used it, but I found it difficult to recall it on my own. From what I have learned about language, I am realizing how powerful a tool it is to live my day-to-day life. Because I can speak both Korean and English proficiently, I think I oftentimes take for granted my ability to be able to switch back and forth, whether that is me speaking, thinking, or translating/interpreting. Having this skill has allowed me to form so many deeper connections with Korean people that I normally would not see myself getting along with at first. This semester, I especially reflected on how language can really connect people and bring them together, as well as how interconnected culture is tied with language. I grew up being pretty immersed in my culture, so I didn’t realize that it was as important because I always assumed it to be a given. However, I can not imagine being Korean without celebrating traditional holidays, eating traditional foods and dishes, knowing old tales, and more. Throughout this semester, I not only learned a lot about Korean, but I also grew a lot as a person, specifically as a Korean American individual. My key takeaways from SDLC 110 include, but are not limited to: there is no limit to language, hard work pays off, community and support are vital in learning, and more specifically, Korean is a beautiful language. Moving forward, I hope to continue implementing everything I learned in SDLC 105 and 110 into my daily life, and I hope to see more progress as I mature more and grow as a proud Korean American. Overall, I would deem both my fall and spring semesters in SDLC as a successful experience, and I would definitely recommend others to take this course.
As my final semester at UR comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on how fruitful my language learning journey has been in both SDLC 105 and 110. Over the course of the semester, I became more and more confident in my Korean, which significantly benefited my relationship with my parents and my international friends from Korea. Even though I do consider myself to be proficient in Korean, I always found it a bit difficult to connect with people on an even deeper level through the means of only speaking in Korean. However, I truly believe that this is something I began to overcome during my language learning journey with David. My vocabulary has increased beyond what I thought was possible in just one semester. Out of all of the strategies we tried to implement, I quickly learned that simply conversing in Korean was the best way for me to pick up new words and learn, as I was being fully immersed in the context of the conversation. I also learned that applying skills is the best way to have them stick, because if I didn’t use new words within a certain period of learning them, I would forget the words. I could still remember if someone else used it, but I found it difficult to recall it on my own. From what I have learned about language, I am realizing how powerful a tool it is to live my day-to-day life. Because I can speak both Korean and English proficiently, I think I oftentimes take for granted my ability to be able to switch back and forth, whether that is me speaking, thinking, or translating/interpreting. Having this skill has allowed me to form so many deeper connections with Korean people that I normally would not see myself getting along with at first. This semester, I especially reflected on how language can really connect people and bring them together, as well as how interconnected culture is tied with language. I grew up being pretty immersed in my culture, so I didn’t realize that it was as important because I always assumed it to be a given. However, I can not imagine being Korean without celebrating traditional holidays, eating traditional foods and dishes, knowing old tales, and more. Throughout this semester, I not only learned a lot about Korean, but I also grew a lot as a person, specifically as a Korean American individual. My key takeaways from SDLC 110 include, but are not limited to: there is no limit to language, hard work pays off, community and support are vital in learning, and more specifically, Korean is a beautiful language. Moving forward, I hope to continue implementing everything I learned in SDLC 105 and 110 into my daily life, and I hope to see more progress as I mature more and grow as a proud Korean American. Overall, I would deem both my fall and spring semesters in SDLC as a successful experience, and I would definitely recommend others to take this course.
Comments
I'm really glad that you were able to learn a lot of Korean during your time at UR! I also realized how much I had grown through this class, and I was surprised to realize that I had so much more to learn about Korean. Not only the language, but also the culture. As a Korean American, I feel like I have a distance from Korean culture, but I think spending more time learning cultural artifacts definitely helped.