Biweekly Language Learning Journal

[Jiwon Kang]

In the past two weeks, I have learned a lot more about Korean writing and reading. Last week, Jenna my student teacher, brought in a weather news article and a large chart with different combinations of vowels and consonants (See attached). We went over the pronunciation of each word. We also started learning simple Korean words like dog and wood. These words are simple two-character words that use basic Korean characters. I also learned how to say, "I don't like/I didn't like" and "I like/I didn't like" in Korean. We practiced how to say it (formal) and how to write it. I used examples of myself liking watermelon and other foods. Furthermore, during that class, we read a news article about the daily weather forecast in Korea. I learned many new words such as highest/lowest, wind chill, dust particles, and north/east/south/west. One thing that was really interesting was that in the weather report, they reported the levels of dust in the air. In Korea, there are high levels of particulates floating around the air. Because of this, Korean news reports always include dust particle levels, in order to alert the population of harsh breathing conditions. This is fascinating because we don't have that in America. This is a clear example of how different cultures can have different patterns and problems. This past week, Jenna and I reviewed the chart again and identified my most common mistakes. She also quizzed me on the basic vowel/consonant alphabet to make sure I was reviewing it. We spent another 30-45 minutes reviewing how to write/say "I like/used to like" and "don't like/didn't like." Lastly, Jenna brought in an article about the Los Angelos Lakers NBA team. It was written by a Korean sports analyst and it was an eerily long article about the team as a whole. Jenna told me that this article contained lots of fluff and unnecessary information. As we read through the first three paragraphs, she helped me identify words I did not know. There were many words I didn't know but learned through context what they meant. I think this is a great skill to practice for the future so I can use context clues to understand a specific sentence. On my own time, I have been practicing how to read and write Korean. A game that I have played to improve my Korean writing/reading skills is to ask a friend to say any creative sentence in English. I would then translate it into Korean and attempt to write it out. To check if my sentence was written correctly, I would go on voice notebook and check. This was a great way to self-evaluate myself on a certain word or phrase I didn't know how to spell. I have also been watching Korean music videos to become familiar with pop music in Korean (https://www.ranker.com/list/best-korean-hip-hop-songs-2019/ranker-music) In the next two weeks, I want to be able to write a letter in Korean to my parents and grandparents for their birthdays or holidays. I've never been able to write a fluid thoughtful letter in Korean so that will be my goal in the next few meetings. I will also continue to practice reading and writing in Korean to become better at it.