Esther Kwon
SDLAP
105 Learning Journal #2
Based on the amount of Korean I know from growing up in a Korean household, I am most definitely more knowledgeable and familiar with basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) compared to cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP). However, I am currently attempting to improve both since I am working on improving my speaking abilities in casual or formal speech while also attempting to better my grammatical competence since that has always been the main obstacle keeping me from speaking more proficiently. In order to improve my overall communicative competence, I believe I need to improve my understanding of Korea’s “respect” culture towards elders in order to really grasp not only how my speech towards older people should be oriented but also by behavior and actions. Furthermore, I believe I must gain more awareness of my generation’s culture in Korea since there is a difference in speech and language between generations that I need to distinguish.
Although I was raised in a family in which I spoke a mix of Korean and English, I was never properly taught how to speak towards elders. I realized from an early age that there was indeed a clear difference in speech, but my parents did not bother to teach me the significance of the Korean “respect” culture nor did they make me speak or treat them with this attitude. Thus, I grew up talking to my parents in Korean in a very casual manner; the level of formality at which they would be considered friends rather than elders. I realized as I grew older, that some of the things I say to my parents in Korean would be considered extremely rude to any other Korean elder. But even when I tried to speak more formally, I was not sure often times how to structure a sentence into the formal style of speaking since I had almost always used the casual form. Thus, my main focus in SDLAP was to improve my formal speaking abilities by speaking with a language partner. Though I do not have a language partner yet, I have attempted to improve by messaging my parents only in Korean and using an app called Hello Talk which allows me to speak with native Korean speakers. Furthermore, I have gained more insight of Korea’s respect culture by reading about the history of the country and learning how Korean culture integrated Confucianism, the main influencer for the strong age hierarchy.
Another factor I believe I must learn more about in order to have more communicative competence is not only improving my knowledge of the grammatical aspects of the Korean language but also my understanding of my generation’s culture. Like many other countries, Korea consists of differences in language between younger and older generations simply due to evolving culture and the influence of modern global trends, particularly that of Western culture. I have learned many interesting colloquialisms from speaking with a few native Korean speakers around my age through the Hello Talk app and also from watching Korean dramas that consisted of “outdated” slang. For example, a Korean drama I watched recently called “Answer Me 1988” often used the phrase “cap” to describe something as awesome or great since the drama is set in the era of the 1980s. But “cap” in present day Korean society would be laughable since it is considered old-fashioned.
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