While I talked about my experiences, goals, and activities I’ve done in my previous journals, these past couple of weeks have been more information dense. So, let’s get into it!
While scrolling through my For You page on my social media, the algorithm suggested a short preview of a new Netflix series called Korea No. 1 featuring one of Korea’s top MC Yu Jae-seok, popular entertainer/actor Lee Kwang-soo, and Korea’s most famous volleyball player Kim Yeon-kyong. I began to watch it out of curiosity and quickly realized that for a variety show, it was incredibly informative. With the focus on the rich culture of Korea, the cast visits and learns from the best traditional masters and even helps them with the labor-intensive projects. Some of these projects included giwa (clay roof tile) molding, makgeolli (rice wine) brewing, and anchovy catching using methods that are over 600 years old. The episodes were hilarious and enjoyable to watch and I learned that many Korean idioms and proverbs stemmed from these traditional skills.
Additionally, in my history class (Art & Asia), we finally made our way to Korean art. Although I know the gist of Korea’s history and have learned from my parents over the years, this was my first time learning any sort of Korean history in a formal educational setting. We started from the first piece of historical artwork we discussed originated in 736 during the Unified Silla Period and we made our way all up to contemporary art in 2022 where we even discussed the K-pop group BTS and their impacts on spreading Korean culture. We also discussed the artwork of Shin Yunbok and Kim Hongdo who were known for their genre paintings that depicted the everyday lives of people. For some reason the names “Hongdo” and “Yunbok” sounded familiar and I later realized that those were the names of the characters of the twin medical students-turned-residents in the popular K-drama Hospital Playlist. I loved how the producers incorporated such historical figures in a 21st century drama and now I can also notice and appreciate that too!
Lastly, I was able to meet my family and a close family friend this past week due to Thanksgiving break! The family friends stayed with us and because they mostly speak Korean, it was some good practice for me. They also had a 3-year-old son who had an impressive vocabulary bank, so we had some very interesting conversations about cars, animals, nature, and… the concept of patience and gratitude. He is a wise one for sure! My sister and her roommates also came, but we ended up talking more in English than in Korean. I thought this was quite interesting because while I am older, my sister had more Korean-speaking friends during our youth and therefore was much better at understanding Korean vocabulary than I have. But oh, have the tables turned because it only took a semester of college for her to forget to have a full conversation in pure Korean. So of course, Konglish was the way to go.
Overall, I really enjoyed this semester of learning Korean. I learned more about Korean culture, its rich history, and I also got to practice some skills I wasn’t as confident in during the beginning of the year.
Comments
I remember at the beginning of the semester that you had said one of your biggest goals was becoming more familiar with Korean art and continuing to delve deeply into different aspects of Korean culture. It is so exciting that you have been able to accomplish this through a formal art history class, a Netflix TV show, and through time with family. So incredible.
Hello! I think a show is a really great way to aid in language learning! It helps you acclimate to different accents of native speakers and also helps with your listening comprehension. It seems the show you mentioned is more on the educational side, but I also definitely recommend watching shows more for the purpose of entertainment-- like the K-drama you mentioned!