- What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer?
As a language learner, I’ve learned that I am best motivated to be consistent with my learning when there is more structure and an outside influence controlling my learning speed and the topics that I study. Normally when I direct my own planning, I have learned that I am less consistent than I would be with an outside educational plan director with someone to strongly encourage me to improve my studying habits and stay on top of my materials to know. However, learning a language by myself was new and since I had an interest in it, I had hoped to be more committed throughout the semester for maintaining practice with Korean. However, that was not the case. I did not attain as much Korean language learning as I aspired to.
Regarding culture, I think that it is very interesting about the common cultural themes in Korean history as well as its tradition. I feel that in the United States since we are a relatively young country of different groups of people, there is not strong deep cultural values in typical American modern families. However, that is not the case in South Korea. They seem to be able to embrace the modern ways of living while conserving the important symbolism in traditions and rituals that have a long past and high importance. Furthermore, globalization has only brought value to these traditions as they die from infrequent practicing among today’s younger generations of Koreans.
- What did you find difficult?
In my learning, I had waves of difficulty for Korean writing and speaking. It was difficult for me to learn a whole new writing system and a whole new set of pronunciations. I had to manipulate parts of my airways and mouth in ways that I struggled with at first. I was also not too positive about the idea of having to memorize a whole new character system and which sounds they produced. However, after getting the hang of it, my next struggle was that I had to sound out each syllable and I could only identify the word from how it would sound, not from how it was written. It has been a slow process learning new vocabulary since I could only know it from its pronunciation instead of its written form.
- What have you enjoyed?
After learning the basic character system and common greetings and phrases, I liked being able to utilize my limited Korean vocabulary with my Korean friends. I also liked being able to identify Korean in real time. I was sitting on a park bench in DC near American University and thought how strange it was to find Korean on a bus stop instead of chinese. I didn’t realize there was a significant population to have public transportation with Korean writing on it. Especially since Korean originated from a very small part of the globe, it was more astounding that it was prevalent enough to be included with Spanish on the signs of a bus stop.
- How will you continue your learning?
I hope to continue my learning during the spring semester. I believe that the Talk To Me In Korean subscription will still be valid all spring, so I will try to utilize that as much as I can. I will also try to watch more Korean media like TV shows and movies that interest me.
- Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful?
I did not find any specific readings or activities the most useful since all of the little Korean I know is all jumbled in my head that one lesson has not left enough of an impact on me to be able to easily practice some phrases in this moment
- What would you like to learn more about?
I think it would be more interesting to learn more about Korean history and traditions. Since Korea has such a complex and long history, there is a lot to know about it and how everyone from the past contributes to the present economic state of Korea and how it has advanced so much in the past 20 years. Korean traditions seem to hold so much meaning, so I think it would be very enriching to learn all the values that Korean culture puts emphasis on. I would also like to learn more about how the split of North and South has affected the people especially those living close to the border as residents or those who worked in the military and their opinions on it.
Comments
Thank you very much for sharing this. I can relate to a lot of things that you have mentioned in your post above. Especially the fact that learning the new language together with its culture, and traditions significantly contributed to my ultimate success. I find it is very important to incorporate different aspects in the language learning experience to make it more diverse and successful.