Legislative violence is a very common occurrence in newer democracies. It even dates back to ancient Roman times where discourse in the legislature was settle with violence. Even America had instances of violence in its early years as an independent country. Despite being highly developed, South Korea is still a new democracy. It only had a handful of democratically elected presidents apart from dictators and colonized rule. Because they are still in their infancy, brawls like these and verbal abuse happen from time to time.
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This is a conversation script I had with Sarah. With the help of my language partner, I had to use several slang words in the conversation to talk about a new restaurant that opened. This lesson was very useful because I use Kakaotalk to talk to others in Korean a lot. While there is still a lot of new slang words that I am unfamiliar with, I learned a fair amount of new words to use in my everyday talking.
The last few days of meeting with my language partner were used as review time and a final assessment. I was really proud of the progress I made during this semester. I was able to improve as much as I wanted to because I put more time into studying Korean this semester. The final assessment was a good mix of things we learned throughout the semester. To study for the exam, I reviewed my past notes. For the exam, I was expected to show reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. Reflecting on the past semester, I think I have seen more improvement than the first time I took SDLC.
One of the cultural aspects of Korea I learned about was the presence of regional tension between provinces in Korea. This is formally called regionalism and is a deeply rooted issue in Korean culture. This issue can be traced back to former presidencies in the nation. Many presidential candidates were backed by their respective province and those elected presidents, often neglected the development of the rivaling provinces. An example of this extreme regionalism is between the Jeolla Province and the Gyeongsang Province. Such regionalism went so to the point of not hiring people from the opposing province. People from the Jeolla Province also faced heavy discrimination in government agencies as well. It was common practice to change one's family registry to obtain higher positions within the government if one was born in Jeolla. Despite being a deep rooted issue, regionalism appears to be on the decline with the new generation of Koreans.
Technology in Korea is one of the most advanced in the world. Specifically, South Korea boasts the highest internet speed in the world. A large majority of Koreans also own a variety of the latest electronics in their homes. With more than 90% of the population connected to the internet, South Korea is considered to be very advanced in terms of technology. Despite high personal computer ownership and high internet speeds, internet cafes have become increasingly popular in the last few decades. These internet cafes called, PC Bang (PC room), allow customers to pay hourly fees to get access to high end computers. Internet cafes have become a social meeting place for many young adults due to low costs and convenience. Many internet cafes offer food and drinks so people can stay as long as possible. Internet cafes were a big part of my childhood because it was my go-to place with all my friends.
Transportation in South Korea is very much different than that of the United States. Unlike the US, most Koreans utilize public transit. Because of how efficient the public transportation is in Korea, many people opt out of personal vehicles. There are many advantages of Korean transportation that US lacks. First is that it is very well organized and efficient. Most railways are not privately owned so one doesn't have to purchase multiple tickets. Instead, people can load currency in one card and use it to pay for subways and taxis. Arrival and departure times are prompt, and facilities are very modern as well. In addition, many large cities are connected through high speed trains. These trains, called, KTX (Korean Train Express), connect several cities such as Seoul, Busan, and Jinju. Because of how well the public transportation is set up, it may be better to stay away from narrow roads and aggressive drivers.
While studying about particulate matter in Korea, I was reminded that it was a very big problem in Korea. Korea has been exposed to a variety of particulate matter from countries such as China. Due to worsening conditions, Seoul has one of the worst air qualities in the world. Because of this, mask usage as become a beauty trend to avoid the harmful smog. These surgical style face masks have achieved a fashion accessory status as one can purchase one in variety of styles. These masks are even modeled by actors, music artists, and more. These masks have another cultural facet to them as well. In Asian countries, it is common to wear masks when one gets sick. This is not for the wearer but for those the wearer comes in contact with. In consideration for others, many people in Korea opt to wear masks when they get sick.
These two weeks of Korean were focused on more casual speech such as slang. I was very surprised to find out that slang has dramatically changed in the Korean language. I had grown up in Korean and have many Korean friends so I thought I knew slang well enough to watch and understand reality shows. The first week was focused on learning the different types of slang used primarily by the youth. Next, we then applied what we learned and watched several clips of reality shows in Korean. Each instance of a slang term used, we paused the video to write down what it meant. Watching these shows were a lot easier than understanding some of the formal language used in the Bible because informal language is used more than formal language. However, I was surprised to see how much the language and culture changed around slang usage in Korea.
The first day of my SDLC meeting with my language partner was mostly planning out the rest of the semester. Not much has changed from my last time practicing Korean two semesters ago since I have not had much chance to practice Korean during the break. From this meeting, I had hoped to accomplish a few different goals. The first was that I wanted to make a road map for the rest of the semester so that I can stay organized in my studies. The other goal was to be more realistic about what I could accomplish in one semester. Last time I was taking SDLC, I had goals that were far too hard for me to reach in time. For example, I wanted to be able to watch the news in Korean without needing subtitles. This time, however, I was able to set a more realistic goal by reaching for fewer things but going in depth.
In the last two weeks my language partner and I studied the Bible in Korean. One of my learning goals was to be more literate when reading the Bible in Korean. Growing up in a Korean church, I was already familiar with the Bible and the many stories. However, I never read the Bible in Korean. Learning the Bible in Korean was difficult because the texts were in very old fashioned Korean. A lot of words and names are very specific to the Bible so they were very unfamiliar. Because of the many differences from the casual Korean I was used to, this was a hard process. My strategy for studying the Bible in Korean was to use a Korean-English Bible that had both texts side by side. By doing this, I was able to read the English version first before the Korean version to better understand the context and the summary. Learning the Bible in Korean was a frustrating task because everything I knew about the Bible in English seemed new and foreign in Korean.
These past two weeks were focused on environmental studies in Korean. This topic was particularly difficult because of the scientific language used in the articles. We first looked at an article about particulate matter. Reading this article, we learned about what particulate matter was in Korean and the many hazardous effects they can have. The Korean article had several graphics to illustrate its points but I had to ask about much of the text because I did not know the words. The next week, we were tasked to find a news article of our own about particulate matter. We had to read and annotate the text as best as possible so we can ask questions about it when we meet. Learning Korean in the context of science was particularly difficult because of the foreign language they used. Much of the words used in the English language did not translate directly to Korean in terms of phonology.
For my third artifact I went out to a local Korean Barbecue restaurant with my girlfriend. It was really fun talking to the waitress in Korean and ordering food in Korean, even though the waitress seemed significantly less impressed with me than I was feeling. Isla and I tried to speak in Korean as much as possible throughout the dinner, and stick to Korean customs. I told the waitress, 이인분 차돌바기 주새요, 도 갈비 돌솥비빔밥 주새요, which means can I have two orders of chadolbagi, and also an order of galbi hotstone bibimbap? Chadolbagi is my favorite type of Korean barbecue, its this very thinly sliced beef that comes rolled up and raw. When you drop the meat on the hot grill it starts to sizzle and then slowly unrolls. Bibimbap is a classic Korean dish, and this version had rice, chunks of galbi, and plenty of vegetables, cooking in a very hot stone bowl. Isla also descibed the side dishes that they traditionally serve you at Korean barbecue restaurants which she told me are called BanChun, and which can vary widely between restaurants. My favorite BanChun is called Gyu Lan Jjim, and which is like an egg souffle with green onions.
As the semester comes to an end I've been taking time to review what we've learned over the semester as we continue to learn new things. Youngmin and I have been reviewing vocabulary from introductions through dining and transportation, and even though I've been forgetting throughout the semester I'm making a real effort to remember the large sino-korean numbers and when to use each number system. While there are still many more things that I can't talk about than things I can, it is very exciting to be able to come up with a sentence or grammatical structure that hasn't been taught to me simply by recombining parts that I have learned. I feel like over the semester I've been learning different pieces of the Korean language but as the Semester comes to and end I'm surprised with how much those parts have come together to form an, albeit patchwork, whole language. From my discussions with Michael I have realized that I'm more of a feeling or sense based language learner, and I feel like I've started to develop a slight intuition about the language. While I still have a long way to go I'm proud of the step forward I've taken this semester.
- Third Cultural Post
- Teach someone using the activity you created in Week 9; reflect upon the effectiveness of the activity.
I tried teaching my roommate how to read Korean using the learning activity I developed and it worked with surprising success! The Korean alphabet is pretty simple and intuitive, and while some of the pronunciations can be hard to distinguish, learning the basics can be very intuitive. I taught my roommate Jake the basics of the alphabet and then asked him to match simple Koreanized pop culture names like Batman and Spiderman to their pictures, and he was able to sound out the words with the occasional assistance of the alphabet sheet very quickly. I'd say the exercise was effective and I think incorporating fun activities like this can make learning a new language more engaging and fun.
- In your learning journal, reflect upon your progress to date, consider the effectiveness of your learning plan and activities, and discuss what changes--if any--you will make to finish the semester.
I think my studies are progressing well and I have learned a lot and become more confidant in my listening skills. My goals of learning practical vocabulary and terms for finding my way around Korea and using public transportation have come very far and I feel confident in my ability to understand and even give basic directions and understand transportation names. One thing I would like to learn more about is the different levels of formality, as we have mostly been learning the informal tenses and I think it would be helpful to learn the formal tenses as well for my goal of talking to my girlfriends parents.
Recently we've learned how to talk in the past tense in Korean(숙제 했어요, which means I did my homework), how to talk about and describe food (i.e. 갈비 짜요, which means Galbi is tasty/savory), grammatical words like 이게 and 저게, which mean this and that,and 도, which means also, amongst others.
My learning activity was to teach someone how to read Korean, or at least to learn the Korean alphabet and be able to sound out words. I did this by teaching them the basic consonants and vowels and then trying to get them to sound out words like 바투만, which sounds like batman. I've used this tactic of typing english using Korean characters to practice my reading and writing skills while texting my girlfriend. 잍서 걸에잍!
We've finished reviewing the Korean alphabet and have been working on learning to count in both the sino-korean number system and the korean number system. The hard part for me has been learning when to use each system, as at times it can really seem arbitrary to me. For example, you use the traditional korean number system when you're saying your age or stating the hour, but you use the sino-korean number system when stating the time in minutes and talking about distances. I can now say 저는 스물둘살 임니다 , which means I am 22 years old. If I were to say 저는 이십이살 임니다 it would be grammatically incorrect Isla says people would laugh at you. We're learning how to count to even higher numbers and it is relatively simple in the sino-korean number system, where you just have to memorize the numbers for 10, 100, 1000 and so on, and then you can use the numbers 1-9 to make any number by combining them.
We have also been learning new vocabulary from the textbook and new grammatical structures. We've been learning about methods of public transportation, like 차, which means car. I've learned a lot of new grammatical structures and vocabulary like from and to, so I can now say I take the bus from home to school. You could say, 짐에서 학교가지 버스로 가요, which means I use the bus to go from home to school. I've also been working on typing in Korean, but it has been a bit of a challenge learning the mapping as my keys don't have the korean alphabet on them.
Youngmin and I discussed different sayings in Korean and English and it was really interesting to see the similarities and differences in sayings that shared common meaning. It was very interesting to learn about the culture of lending and borrowing money in Korea. I was really surprised by one saying she told me, which roughly translates to "if you have good enough words you don't need to pay your debts." I couldn't figure out what that meant at first because there is no english version of that saying, but in Korea it is apparently common for people to lend money to their family and friends, and then if they say the right things, like for example "I will always be there for your family," then apparently there is cultural pressure for the lender to forgive their debts. This apparently happens to the point that many people go bankrupt from lending money and then having to forgive the debt.
I talked to my girlfriend about it and she said that from her perspective its not that people are pressured into forgiving debt, its that when people lend their friends and family money they do that prepared to not get the money back. She said this was because Koreans are just good people, but I think she might be a little biased.
Artifact 1.
I recorded myself reading the Korean alphabet from just the characters, and then counted from 1 to 10 from memory in Korean using the sino-korean number system.
Throughout the semester I've attempted to learn more about Korean culture by talking to Isla, learning from Youngmin, exposing myself to Korean music and watching Korean television. Overall it was really interesting to look at both the many similarities and differences between the culture I'm used to in the states and Korean culture. Some of the big differences I have found are that people in America tend to be more individualistic, while I would say people in Korea seem to be more community and family centric. In the states it is not uncommon for people to place their elderly relatives in retirement homes and pretty much forget about them, but in Korea people give their elders much more respect. The whole language and culture has an age based hierarchy of formality and customs for honoring and respecting those older than you. Isla's grandmother lives with her parents and she is just the sweetest most amazing woman. She was one of the first female doctors in Korea and she worked in the emergency room for much of her life. Isla's grandfather was an aeronautics engineering professor at Waseda university. Whenever Isla talks about her grandparents she is always so filled with love and respect, and you can tell that she is really proud of their accomplishments.
