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.
2019 (11)
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.
