Reflecting back to the first day of the semester, I realized that I have come a far way in terms of communicative competence. I started to understand more of the Korean culture and the casual ways that Koreans communicate compared to the textbook method that we are usually taught. Having an actual high school teacher from Korea that teaches us the language helps me tremendously because of her use of colloquialism along with professional speech that is used in the workplace. Since Korea has a large amount of emphasis on respect, this class has taught me the proper way to communicate with elders along with those who are more experienced in situations such as workplace.
However, I still have a far way to go to be completely competent in my language. I think my biggest weakness is still my writing and professional speech. In order to improve my writing, I need to write and read more in Korean. I already started to read Korean business articles every week to try and improve my knowledge in the business field in Korea along with my vocabulary and spelling. My language partner also provides drills every class that helps me learn proper grammar along with spelling. Since the class size with my language partner is small, I get a lot of individual attention which gives me a chance to correct my spelling.
Although my Korean is still fairly weak, my knowledge in Korean culture is much stronger. Since I grew up in a Korean household, Korean culture is a lifestyle to me. Having a language partner straight from Korea also helped me to keep in touch with the modern culture that exists now. I was very confused about the Korean workplace and the different hierarchies that exist; however, the language partner explained it clearly and effectively.
I believe that I need to improve my vocabulary, speech, and writing. In order to accomplish these tasks, I have to speak in Korean more and write in Korean more. I believe that I can accomplish both of these tasks by keeping in constant communication with my parents. Since my parents are curious about my life here, it would provide me with a good opportunity to keep in touch with them while improving my Korean.
I can also improve my knowledge on Korean culture as well as the language itself by watching Korean television. Watching various television shows, ranging from reality shows to news, will give me a sense of how actual Koreans speak and how they live their lives. Watching the news will give me a sense of what current events are going on in Korea. Also, researching more about the culture in general will give me a better sense of traditional customs that occur in Korea. For example, the phenomena of KPOP is large in Korea, and I can research more on how it started and what made it become so popular, worldwide. Through researching more and all the other methods mentioned above, I will become more competent in Korean language and culture.
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