I have learned a lot about the Korean language this semester. But I think I have also learned a lot about myself.
I started off wanting to just learn about the Korean language. But gradually I found that I’m deeply interested in learning Korean culture as well. I especially enjoy hearing Professor Kim talk about different aspects of Korean culture in class. I remember that there was one class we talk about the philosophical concepts behind hangul characters. It’s related to Confucianism. The key ideas are sky, ground and people. And these three elements formed the hangul characters. I think it’s at that moment when I realized how deeply related Chinese culture and Korean culture are. Professor Kim then explained that Koreans used to use Chinese characters in writing, but they have been almost completely replaced by Hangul. People only use it when they are using sino-korean. That reminded me of how much I love my culture but I feel that I’m losing touch of it. I haven’t written Chinese by hand that much since I came to the U of R. Frankly, I have to say that I have forgotten how to write some of the characters. When we talked about a Korean poem, Professor Kim asked me to write down a famous Chinese poem. For a second I couldn’t think of any. I used to love Chinese poetry and Chinese history, but now I’m gradually losing that part of myself. I want to find that part of myself back, starting this winter break.
The difficult part of learning Korean has to be grammar. There are so many exceptions to the grammar rules I have learned. Also, the sentence structure of Korean is different from Chinese and English. Korean is subject+object+verb while Chinese and English are subject+verb+object. So I still have to go through a “translating” step in my head every time I want to say a sentence. Since Korean also use honorific particles in contexts of showing respect to older people or people with more power. It’s hard to decide which particle to use in what sentence.
I would still want to continue learning Korean next semester with Professor Kim. We had some really useful exercises in class I enjoyed. One is that she starts every class with some basic daily conversations. And it really helps me practice talking with others in Korean. Another great exercise I enjoy a lot is transcribing the corresponding Korean characters when she reads the lyrics of a song or some short sentences. That is a great exercise to practice my listening and writing skills.
When we did the final interview podcast together, she recommended some useful websites and tools to help me learn Korean over the winter break. I think I’m gonna make good use of it and try to learn more Korean and also Korean culture over the break.
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