- Reflect on your language learning so far and the relationship between understanding the target culture and the target language. What do you need to improve your communicative competence?
I have really enjoyed learning Korean so far. The process of learning Korean has not been entirely what I expected it to be, but I feel like the more I learn of the language the more I am interested in learning more. I initially expected learning to read and write to be the most difficult task, and for speaking to be easier, but I have found the opposite to be true. The Korean alphabet is very simple and intuitive and I enjoyed learning it. On the other hand, speaking Korean has proven more challenging. In order to correctly use the Korean language you need to have a solid understanding of Korean culture. For example, Korea has a very strict age hierarchy and this changes the way you greet different people. Thus, if you want to learn how to greet people, or introduce yourself in Korean, you need to learn several different ways of saying each phrase, with varying degrees of formality. Sometimes this can be as simple as adding or removing a character or two at the end of the sentence but in many cases you need to learn an entirely new way of saying something. In addition, learning Korean requires not only the use of the Korean language, but an understanding of Korean non-verbal communication. Many aspects of communication in Korea are made not just with words, but with gestures and actions as well. For example, when you greet someone it is expected that you will bow to them, with varying degrees of depth based on their age, position, and class. Another example is that of giving or receiving an item, where it is respectful to hand the item to someone with two hands instead of one. Furthermore, there are many language customs that Koreans have that are not present in English. One example of this is that when someone offers you something it is customary to refuse their offer several times before accepting. This custom was created when Korea was still developing and people were very poor, because Koreans are a very proud people and they did not want others to think they were not strong and that they accepted charity. I think Korean culture is very interesting and I am glad that I am getting the chance to explore it in depth. In terms of improving my communicative competence, my long term goals involve developing my ability to listen to and interpret spoken Korean, as well as working on improving my pronunciation and the fluency of my spoken Korean. In order to achieve these goals I will continue to practice speaking Korean with my girlfriend and watching Korean television. My personal goal is to be able to watch an episode of a Korean drama without English subtitles and to be able to understand the general plot of the episode.
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