My main motive to take this linguistics course was to learn about different strategies that would help me learn languages in the future. I have always related culture and language together because I believe that they are very intertwined. I am currently only enrolled in SDLC 105, so I am not doing language learning like the students in SDLC 110. However, I grew up a native Korean speaker, so I have had the opportunity to see how different aspects of culture impact how language is used. In this course, I have been able to connect the dots and understand why certain cultures possess certain mannerisms and personalities. It is interesting to see the world from such a different view considering how Westernized my upbringing has been.
As I have continued to delve into Korean culture, I have had the opportunity to put more meaning to the Korean traditions I have participated in the past. For example, I have been celebrating Korean New Years for 22 years of my life, but never really grasped each tradition. In this course, I have learned about cultural norms and implications, which have helped me understand my culture much more adequately. It is eye opening to see where these major traditions stemmed from and how these traditions have evolved into the present. It has definitely given me a clearer outlook on my culture and upbringing.
In regards to communicative competence, I have always had the ability to communicate in Korean. I believe there is still room for improvement. Growing up, I went to Korean Sunday school and had the opportunity to learn the very conventional way to speak and write Korean. However, the way people actually speak Korean is quite different. Different regions have different dialects. I did not understand the different dialects until I got a little older. Just like in the United States, different regions in Korea have different ways that they communicate. For example, my grandparents in Busan have a different accent than my family members who live in Seoul. It is interesting to see how regional language can be in different countries.
Learning more about Korean culture has helped me become more adequate in speaking Korean. The major lesson I have learned so far is that understanding the culture is a good portion of learning a language. You can learn all the grammar, vocabulary, writing, and reading you want, but it will never fully translate into fluency until culture is understand. The main reason is because culture affects the way we interact and speak.
Overall, the language learning process has provided me an opportunity to explore another aspect of Korea. I had the opportunity to learn the conventional way of Korean when I was younger and now I am having exposure to the more qualitative aspects of language learning. The best advice that I could give myself for the rest of the course is to continue to expose myself to new information and to continue to connect language and culture.
Comments