Reflection Paper #2
David Kim
30262888
david.kim123@richmond.edu
Throughout this course and this semester, I have gained insights into different areas and different perspectives as a language learner and cultural explorer. A big proportion of the new insights I gained is actually based on the knowledge I earned through the readings of the course. I got to learn that there are detailed parts of the brain when you are learning a new language or even when you are communicating. I already knew that grammatical categories, part of speech, syntactic order, and much more are different between different languages. However, I never knew the concept of phonetic inventory. Phonetic inventory is an index of the different sounds and sound sequences used in a distinct language. I learned that each language has a distinct phonetic inventory. Because of that reason, some languages would have to use the same alphabet to represent sounds that are not in the phonetic inventory of the target language. I still find the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) difficult because it looks similar to the English Alphabet, which I am familiar with, but incorporates an entirely different system of pronunciations. Also, International Phonetic Alphabet is easier to forget because I would use it much lesser than any other language. I would use English and my target language Korean in real life, but I would only see International Phonetic Alphabet during this class or whenever I search for something in the dictionary. One of the most interesting topics that I have enjoyed was the language family. The fact that a group of languages has a common ancestral language was very fascinating to me. Different versions of the language family tree diagram are always inspiring to watch and study because they include the history of various languages and cultures. Some languages might have several descendants. Some languages are “dead” or disappeared because there is nobody else left who uses or spokes those languages. There was a question that I used to have since I was a young child, which was solved through the course. ‘Why would Korean words have similar pronunciations with the same meaning as Chinese and Japanese words?” I had a hypothesis that it would be caused by the short distance between countries, but I would actually never think about it deeply. When I became a college student at the University of Richmond, my question was solved through SDLC 105. Language can change or become similar to the languages that are used or spoken in the closer areas, implying the idea of sprachbund. Sprachbund is also known as the linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area. As a person who experienced sprachbund in real life and questioned about it, I felt complete after knowing the idea of it. I was also surprised that this phenomenon was not only happening in Asia but all over the entire world. I know how languages die or disappear, but I am not sure how languages start. In the future, I want to learn more about how languages form. I will be continuing my learning based on the knowledge and insights I gained through this course.
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