Discussion Post #10

[Kayla Wise]

If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would be interested in learning about words that exist in Korean but do not translate to English and how Koreans who speak English would try to explain it in English. I would examine the differences in the ways native Korean speakers (born and raised in Korea and first language is Korean) and Korean American speakers (born and raised in the U.S. but fluent in Korean) explain the meanings of these Korean words. In addition, it would be interesting to see if first-language acquisition and culture have an impact on how frequently these words are used by native Korean and Korean American speakers. Another area to examine would be between Korean Americans whose first language was Korean or English, as well as which language is primarily spoken in their household. I believe this would be an interesting topic to research as the words that one knows and uses can help explain one’s culture and everyday life experiences, which could be very different for Korean speakers who grew up in Korea vs. in the United States. In addition, if Korean Americans live with parents who are native Korean speakers, then I would think they would be more in touch with their Korean heritage compared to parents who are also Korean Americans. To get started, I would administer surveys to native Korean speakers in Korea and Korean Americans to get information about their parent’s background as well as the languages they speak at home and the language the are fluent in and which ones they learned first. I would then present Korean words and ask if they know what the meaning and to explain the meaning in English. Then I would analyze the results to find patterns of how words are explained and to see if there are any similarities and differences between native Korean speakers and Korean Americans.If you are interested, here is an example of Korean words that do not translate directly in English!https://www.optilingo.com/blog/korean/beautiful-korean-words/

[Susmita Adhikari]

Kayla your ideas sound fantastic! I love your approach of evlauting language skills of bilingual and polyglot speakers. I had previosuly read studies where in bilingual households, kids start speaking at a much later timeline than what is normal. Apparently, being talked to in multiple langauges makes it harder for infants to focus on one language. So, it would be interesting to see if infants exhibit a consistent pattern in whether they start speaking Korean or English first. 

[Amy Jeon]

I love your idea of examining words that exist in Korean but don’t translate into English! I also have been in situations where I have a word in Korean, but did not know how to translate it into English. One word I have struggle explaining in English is 눈치 (nunchi) and a direct translation doesn’t exist for it. I would be interested to see how other Koreans would try to explain it in English!