Discussion post #10

[Jiwon Kang]

If I got a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would first create a financial plan. I would create a budget for what I should do with the money and find the most efficient uses of funding. I think the biggest thing would be traveling to Korea to immerse myself in the culture and language. Just as we learned in the beginning of the semester, immersing yourself in a culture is the best way to learn a new language. I would find a place to stay in Korea in order to learn all about the culture. Culture and language have a strong correlation between one another, so learning about the history and culture of Korea would help me significantly in understanding and learning the language. My main topic I would be most interested in studying would be the music industry in Korea. I would go to as many different concerts in Korea across many different genres of Korean music. It would allow me to learn about the different fan bases, genres of music, and the culture of Korean music. I would want to study the differences and similarities between the Korean music industry and the American music industry. How has history impacted and influenced the music industry in Korea? For example, Jazz began in New Orleans by the African American communities in the early 20^th century. I would try to find any historical influence in Korean music and how it has impacted and shaped the music industry. Learning about different musical genres in Korea would definitely show structural components from class such as syntax, grammar, mood, voice, etc. Music is more complicated then spoken language across different cultures because of the artistic creativity and flexibility that music allows. A singer can change the pronunciation of a word or structure of a sentence to fit the flow of a song. Investigating words in songs that I learned to speak and write would be a very fascinating topic to research on.