SDLC 110: Learning Activity

[Christy Buranaamorn]

If I were to teach something to a friend in my target language, I would like to teach him/her about the family tree and the name for particular family members. I would teach them about the key words: halmeoni (grandmother), harabeoji (grandfather), umma (mother), appa (father), hyung (boy’s elder brother), nuna (boy’s elder sister), oppa (girl’s older brother), unni (girl’s older sister), and dongseng (younger sibling). The outline of my activity would include making a family tree on paper with the terms in English, Romanized Korean, and Hanguel written next to each designated member of the family. Then I would let my friend watch a YouTube video (which I have uploaded on the Ning) which showcases the spelling of the words in Romanized Korean and Hangeul and helps the learner to obtain the right pronunciation of each term. After teaching this activity to a friend, I found that my activity proved to be very effective. My friend Rubi found the video to be very interactive and informative as it also provided pictures to go along with each family member. Therefore this was a very helpful resource for a visual, novice Korean learner, in my opinion. The speaker in the video spoke very clearly and slowly which was great as well. Rubi also enjoyed the topic because she found it to be fascinating that the Korean language is so specific in regards to one’s age and sex. This relates to how Korean grammar uses an extensive system of honorifics to reflect the speaker’s relationship. Honorifics are used to differentiate between formal and informal speech based on the level of familiarity between the speaker and listener. This was a fun learning activity overall!