Blog Post 7

[Benjamin Reilman]

As far as my four areas I wanted to explore as a way to practice Korean and engage with the culture I am only really succeeding in the area related to gaming. I have been forced to engage with Korean daily due to my video game clients being in Korean, and despite not knowing what I am reading all the time it does make me sound things out, and try to comprehend what I am reading. I have been incorporating the IPA sometimes when I am thinking about sounds in Korean. Especially vowels when I am comparing how a similar vowel in English is different on the IPA vowel chart. I think I need to put more effort into the grammatical areas of Korean specifically. The song breakdown idea in my learning plan hasn’t really been explored yet, but it would present a good opportunity to engage with the grammar and spelling of a lot of unique words and phrases, and then when I listen to those songs it can better stick in my mind as I can translate and think about what I am listening to. As far as the cultural aspect is concerned I can’t say I am learning too much more than I already know from living there. I am enjoying some of the preliminary research on the research presentation I am planning to do on Korean E-sports. I definitely emphasize pragmatic competences in my learning so far because I have been exposed to a lot of abbreviations, niche lingo, and even Korean adapted English words and phrases. All of this has helped me get a better handle on some of the cultural references and how different tones and patterns of speech are employed based on the social circumstances.