Jan 19 Biweekly Journal

[Jiwon Kang]

This week, Jenna and I met up on zoom and talked about what we should work on for the last semester of senior year. My main goal in SDLC was to pass the COM2 exam. But because I passed last semester, Jenna and I decided on focusing on the history of Korean culture. In the past, Jenna and I practiced reading and writing in Korean. But now I want to learn more about Korean history and understand more about the culture and traditions of Korea. Jenna and I decided on looking in depth about the different traditions in Korea. Specifically, the different cultural holidays that are celebrated in Korea. Furthermore, I talked to Jenna about how I want to focus on the different politics in Korea. I know that Korean history is very rich and in depth. I want to learn all about the history of Korea, and I hope to focus on that this semester with Jenna. The first week with Jenna was just an introductory lesson and the basics of what my goals are for the semester. Some of the resources Jenna and I decided to use for the semester included YouTube videos and articles provided to me by Jenna. I think the strategies we decided upon were very simple yet effective. I think that learning about Korean history will be very fun and interesting. I am very excited to embark on this journey in learning about Korean history and politics. The second week, Jenna and I got together on Zoom and learned basic vocabulary on Korean history and holidays. 고구려, 백제, 신라 are some of the words that Jenna taught me. One of the study methods Jenna and I decided on learning 15 vocab words every week. Some of the vocab words we will focus on involving the tradition that we will be learning about that week. This week, we focused on the Lunar New Year in Korea. The Lunar New Year is usually celebrated in late January or early February. Common traditions for the Lunar New Year are to pay respects to your elders and celebrate the new year with a traditional rice cake soup dish called tteokguk (떡국). Teeokguk is a Korean rice cake dish that is meant to refresh your soul and give you a fresh start to the year. Another common Korean tradition for Lunar new year is to visit the beach to watch the sunrise of the new year. Korean culture is based on luck and respect to your elders. Luck is a big part of the new year and most of the things they do to celebrate it is based on good luck and fortune. A cool thing about Korean culture is that they celebrate both the Solar new year on January 1^st, just like America. But they also celebrate the Lunar New Year in late January or early February. I hope to learn more about Korean culture next week with Jenna and will learn 15 new words regarding the Lunar New Year.