I think that overall I reached all of my goals that I made in my initial learning plan and more.
I wanted to learn about the names of countries in Korean, and I was able to do this. I was happy to have learned how to say various countries because I felt that it tied my international and cultural experiences altogether. I was able to describe what countries I got to visit while also speaking in Korean. Furthermore, I reached my goal of how to describe others' personalities. I wanted to be able to talk about people in my life more in depth, and I felt that I got to do so. I also learned about the history of Korea. It is easy to think about the history of the USA because it was part of the curriculum in school in the USA. However, I did not have many opportunities to learn about the history of Korea. Therefore, it was really inspiring for me this semester to be able to learn about what Korea did to gain independence from Japan, such as staging a protest that continues to be celebrated yearly to this day. I also was happy to read short fables in Korean. It was fun reading these short stories and understanding the hidden messages behind them. Stories are fun to read because of their content, but they are also fun because they highlight what is important in a society versus what is not important. What qualities and actions are considered heroic, brave, and noble and what are considered negative.
Overall, there are so many concepts I got to learn that were not mentioned in my learning journal. I was able to learn new phrases, vocabulary words, and slang that I was able to use with my classmates and family. I am happy with my overall progress in learning Korean. As I am graduating, it is bittersweet to realize that I will no longer be able to learn Korean in a regular and consistent manner in a classroom setting such as at UR. However, I do not plan to stop learning Korean. I hope to continue from what I have learned from all of my teachers and continue to learn more about the language and culture.
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