Regarding language learning, sociolinguistics is probably the most effective and appropriate approach for me. Because I want to especially improve my conversational skills, my speaking and listening/comprehension proficiency are what I focus on. Focus on sociolinguistics allows me to improve on these, because of how each culture implements their language in a social setting - like formality, proper addressment, and overall lingo. By connecting the culture and the language, I can get a better understanding of what I am learning, like implied meaning, passive/aggressive delivery, etc. I think this is especially important with the Korean language, as I think Koreans are generally more cautious with their social surroundings, to the point where they even have their own word - “nunchi”.
I think this also ties into psycholinguistics, as it is important to understand how the language connects with the mind. Sometimes, I think a certain phrase sounds much more casual when spoken in Korean rather than English, and vice versa. This probably also ties into sociolinguistics, but by understanding how language affects perspective, I can hopefully gain a better understanding of the language itself.
Moving forward with this knowledge, I think it will greatly benefit my learning by looking into the social/psychological influences of my target language. By looking into these social/psychological differences between English and Korean, I can also gain a deeper comprehension of English, which may help me in the future with other languages. I’m not completely sure on how to look further into the sociolinguistics/psycholinguistics of Korean, but I can continue to integrate myself into the culture, which has and probably will help with this.
Comments
Hey Joseph, this post was really well written and insightful, so thanks for sharing. I really think that learning the social influences would help you learn that language better and even tie into English as well. It's never a level I explored this semester, but seems like a great idea!