Learning journal #3 – SDLC 105

[Ziwei Liao]

In order to know about the structure of Korean, I should learn at least three things: phoneme, semantic, and syntax. From my previous experience of English learning, I figure out the way to learn the structure of a language is to start from the smallest element. I should first learn the phoneme, which would be the alphabets in English, so that I can read. Then, I try to form the letters into words and understand what each word means. Lastly, I will learn about the order and arrangement of those words. When I finish this process, I’ll get the whole structure of Korean. In accomplishing this process, a reference grammar is definitely a useful tool for me although it might not be useful for kids. Kids, with undeveloped language system, can acquire a language through listening and speaking. However, for adults who have already formed a language system in their brains, mother tough can significantly influence the process of learning a new language. Therefore, a reference grammar is especially important. For instance, when I learn English, I have to use a reference grammar to understand tense because tense does not exist in Chinese. For Korean, a reference grammar will be equally important because Korean is a subject-object-verb language, which is different from Chinese. If I do not learn grammar, I will know only the pronunciation and the meaning of each word but the meaning of the sentence.