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Today I want to recommend a Korean film named "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982."

On the plane back to Richmond from home, I watched the film called "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982." It is a story about a girl named Kim Ji-young who quit her job because of pregnancy. Since the born of her daughter, Kim Ji-young had to spend all her time taking care of her and housework, including cleaning, cooking, etc. She has been depressed for a period of time, but she is not aware of it yet. 

Kim Ji-young's husband has been trying to help her. He was looking around for therapists for her, and he tried to do some housework too, but it didn't work. The traditional views of a family from his mon and Kim Ji-young's dad had been stressing Kim Ji-young out for years. They represent the view of most people in the age of 60s, who cherish males more than girls. In their point of view, girls will be married and thus become a member of her husband's family (reflecting the change of the last name of the female when they get married). 

Kim Ji-young is not the only one. There are thousands of hundreds of women in this world that are pressured to quit their jobs and become a housewife. She has been fighting back as well, showing the realization of equal rights of women these days. Her husband, trying to help her out from such a devastating situation, represents the response to the women from the world. But it is definitely not enough. The self-doubt Kim Ji-young has had, the sacrifices she has made, the mental pressure that has been put onto her by almost everyone around her have been a lot. Even though she has been fighting back hard, they are still hurting her in different ways.

I highly recommend this film because I could see myself, my friends, my mom and even my grandma in it. It is more than a story about Kim Ji-young. I cried so hard for this film because I knew this kind of world exists, and the things that Kim Ji-young has experienced could happen to any of us, and they are happening right now. The story is not dramatic, but the message is not simple. It is one of those that are worth watching and thinking about. I hope you guys enjoy the film! (If you are interested, there is a book version too.)

Although I have been speaking Korean with my friends and family ever since I learned to speak, I still tend to hesitate occasionally when I am asked if I am “fluent” in Korean. I would explain to my friends that I consider myself proficient in speaking, intermediate in reading slowly and listening, and “okay” in writing. I would watch variety shows and dramas with my sister and mom and speaking to my parents was (and still is) a must because they struggle with speaking English and also because I do not want to lose the ability to speak my first language. Outside of my household, I would say that I am still comfortable speaking the language, but frequently run into situations where I cannot come up with the specific Korean translation to a particular word.

During this spring semester, I will be paired up with Jenna Lee as my language partner. We have not had an official class yet but met up to discuss our plans for the coming weeks. We decided that I would be in a class with Vivian and meet every Tuesday afternoons from 5 to 7. I have built a close relationship with Vivian, but I have not gotten the chance to really get to know Jenna, so I am excited to connect and learn from her. We discussed about my level of Korean, my strengths and weaknesses of the language, and what I would like to accomplish in the next few weeks. When I watch Korean shows, I have a tendency to turn on English subtitles, so this semester I want to purely work on my listening skills. I also want to expand my vocabulary because although I can communicate well through Korean, I will stumble over more elaborate words. My dream is to become an ophthalmologist and also interpret in the hospital. Expanding my vocabulary would be beneficial and would make interpreting much easier.

The most difficult part of learning a language for me is the writing component. In English, we put spaces in between words, but in Korean since we use characters, I have been having difficulty knowing where to but the spaces. Also, there are characters that sound similar, but are used in different scenarios. I attempted to learn the difference and even though I can read it, knowing when to use which version when writing still troubles me. When I first learned French, we started off with the grammar rules then how to create the sentences. When I learned Korean, I learned how to speak it and write simple words through the combinations of the characters. I didn’t have intense lessons on how to structure words and combine them to make proper sentences. I don’t intend on being perfect in grammar structure by the end of the spring semester, but with the weekly two hour lessons with Jenna, I want to improve on my writing skills overall, expand my vocabulary while speaking with both Vivian and Jenna, and hopefully read Korean a little more quickly.

This Friday, January 24, is the Chinese lunar New Year and the traditional Korean New Year. Korean New Year (설날), also known as the old festival  (구정), is a traditional festival in South Korea. Traditionally also known as "New Year’s Day" (원단), "Yuan Ri" (원일), Year First" (세수). The country provides three days off for the Spring Festival, which is the longest holiday of the year. In 1999, South Korea officially resumed the Spring Festival holiday. In both countries, the New Year's money is given to the younger generation during the Spring Festival. The difference is that the Chinese people use red envelopes, while the Koreans are used to using white envelopes. During the Chinese New Year, mahjong is the most commonly played at family gathering, South Korea has a similar game called Flower Card.

Korean flower card is also called Korean flower chart (English name “Go stop”), from the Japanese traditional card game Japanese flower pa (English name “Koi koi”), introduced to South Korea from Japan in the 19th century, quickly spread by the public, become the most popular entertainment game in South Korea, as popular in South Korea as "mahjong" in China. People who like to watch Korean dramas can often see the flower card in it. The size of the Korean flower card is much smaller than ordinary poker, but it is also much thicker, mostly made of plastic, the back of the card is concave and convex texture, the front is smooth. If you touch the flower cards, it feels somewhere between poker and mahjong.

The flower card is named because of the various patterns on the card. There are 48 basic cards in total, divided into 12 groups, each group represents a month, 4 cards per month. At the same time, these 48 cards are divided into 4 kinds according to the score and category. So, the game is a little difficult to get started. First, players must remember the card surface, because cards are divided by month in the horizontal and by category in vertical, and players need to remember the card combination when someone win, so players need to memorize a lot of things. Beginners, for example, tend to confuse May’s Orchids with November’s Wutong trees.  Then according to the number of players to take the starting hand cards, at the same time there will be public cards on the table, the game is in counterclockwise order. If there are cards of the same month on the table, you can take these two cards and pull one card from the top of the public card, if there are cards of the same month on the table, you can also take them away. Until the turned card and cards on the table are not consistent, then left that card on the table, the next player starts to play. When a player reaches the specified victory score, he must choose to GO or STOP. If you choose STOP, you end the game and become the winner. If GO is selected, the game continues. Add 1 point to the player who chooses GO, and the points continue to accumulate.

The design of Japanese flower card is much more exquisite than that of Korean flower card. Korean flower card is greatly simplified on its basis, more inclined to a symbolized thing, which is more conducive to people's memory.  Just as mahjong is important to the Chinese, flower cards are part of Korean traditional culture witness many happy moments of family gatherings.

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As the end of the second week of the semester approached, I thought it would be interesting to watch the Korean horror drama called “Kingdom”. It had recently been added onto Netflix and I thought that it was amazing to see a media service website with a diverse collection of shows that are representative of many cultures. I decided to watch this drama because I heard that it was popular among Korean youths and also because I wanted to try something new and watch a show that was set in the more traditional, old Korean times.

I cannot watch anything scary, so for some parts of the movie, I had to cover the screen so that only the subtitles were visible. There was one scene in particular that was shocking that I think is still a relevant issue today. The generals and soldiers were trying to get rid of the bodies of those who were infected by burning them. During that time period, the burning of bodies was disgraceful and showed a sign of disrespect. The wealthy people in the town rebelled and wouldn’t allow the officials to burn their family members. Another assistant came up with the idea that they should burn the bodies of the peasants and bury the high-class members. The difference between them could easily be detected through the material of their clothing.

As someone who does not have a high socio-economic status, it was difficult to enjoy watching the scene as the poor were treated like they were objects even though they were infected the same way as the wealthy. The idea of status is portrayed in every society, even on our campus. Those who are comfortable can afford a car and have the freedom to go to any internship site they receive while those who do not have access to a car are limited to the areas where the service shuttles travel. Another example are the sororities and fraternities that are a major part of UR culture. To be a part of the group, students must go through different stages of initiation and need to pay dues that could cost around 200 dollars every semester. The also attend events in which they must dress in specific clothing. Those who do not have an abundance of money will spend their money on food expenses and their tuition rather than clothes and joining Greek life. The students who want to join but are unable to will also be missing out on all the connections and new friends that the sororities or fraternities could bring.

I personally chose not to be a part of Greek life, but I would say that growing up in a family with low economic status, I had to overcome more trials and obstacles to prove myself than my peers who had access to more opportunities. Especially in Korea where parents strive to give their kids a better education, the wealthier families are able to afford for their children to attend more academies and provide better opportunities for them. Economic statuses of all people will be different, but they should all receive the same amount of respect because everyone had to endure difficulties to get to where they are in life.

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Charye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=oh2TdzdzB4g&feature=emb_logo

Sebae:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=dGbBr4TSQYs&feature=emb_logo

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My experience with the Korean language is one of confusion. Growing up, I lived with my parents who were both bilingual and grandparents who speak purely Korean. It is important to note that I was born and raised until the age of sixteen in the capital of South Korea. The content I encountered on a day-to-day basis were in Korean. I’ve been a fan of Korean dramas ever since I can remember and I enjoy Korean music more than I do songs in English. Up to this point, it seems like my childhood and upbringing are consumed with Korean media and language. However, the confusion in my relationship with Korean stems from the fact that I attended an international school that utilized the American school system. Students from a hundred different nationalities were prohibited to use any language other than English and academic material was entirely American. In addition, my parents were comfortable speaking more English than Korean at home. All of these factors lead to a nineteen-year-old Korean American who speaks two languages but fails to be fully confident in one because of a lack of formal education.
With the help of my language partner, Jimin, I hope to conquer my confusing relationship with the Korean language through SDLAP. On our first meeting last week, Jimin and I went over a list of goals I want to set for my SDLAP experience. Because I would like the option of working in Korea, or in affiliation with Korea, I hope to learn advanced vocabulary that are related to professional settings in addition to a deeper understanding of young, vernacular terms (aka slang). I also wish to improve writing, including spelling and grammar (specifically 맞춤법 and 뜨어쓰기). When picking up a language, there are certain phrases that are not clearly translatable to other languages, such as idioms and proverbs. So, I hope to learn Korean phrases that are widely used. Lastly, there are cultural aspects that a student should learn while diving into the language. I also plan on studying abroad in South Korea. So, I hope to learn and review Korean history and modern-day day college-life.
Learning a language involves a lot of perseverance, interest, and appreciation. I have experienced learning a new language in two different settings and understand the different strategies that worked and didn’t work in assisting my learning. Being able to craft my very own language learning curriculum allows me to specialize in certain academic strategies and language topics. I know I retain new content when I can interact with others and the content. I hope to create a learning space for myself that allows room for visual and kinesthetic learning. Luckily, SDLAP gives students the opportunity to interact and learn from community language partners. I am fortunate to have Jimin as my language partner because I have already spent time with her in a non-academic setting. In learning something new and most likely difficult, having a learning space that is open to mistakes and comfortable contributes to better learning. Therefore, I believe that being comfortable around my language partner will provide a better learning environment for myself as well as adding fun.

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          I believe there is a firm difference between being comfortable in speaking a language and actually being educated about the language. In other words, personally, I have always been a considerably proficient speaker, writer, and listener in Korean. I have grown up listening to Korean pop and watching traditional Korean soap operas which both enabled to keep my mother tongue in constant use. Although I have practiced Korean all throughout my life, and can confidently say that I can speak Korean in the comfort of my own home, I cannot say that I can use Korean confidently or comfortably in a professional workplace environment. 

          This spring semester, I will be working with my language partner and close friend, Jenna Lee. Currently, we had a quick meeting discussing about what I wanted to accomplish through this course with her and also talk about our schedules and when we can find a time to meet each week. After the first meeting, we decided to meet every week on Tuesday from five p.m. and 7 p.m.  Since we already developed a close relationship while attending Richmond, I believe we can avoid any awkward, uncomfortable tension and I can really be comfortable to ask her any questions. 

          For this semester, I hope to work on many different things. For instance, like I stated above, I would like to learn and speak the “professional language” of Korean where I can hopefully use it in the workplace in the future. Since I am a business administration major with a concentration in marketing and I hope to work in the Korean economy after I graduate, I believe learning Korean, especially Korean used in the workplace is vital for me to succeed in the future. 

          First, I let Jenna know that I would like to be a better listener of Korean news and media. Ever since I was young, I would always see my parents listening to Korean MBC news, however, although I knew the announcers were speaking in Korean, I still could not comprehend any of the information they were reporting. Back then, however, I was not interested in Korea’s economy nor their political standing, however, presently, I understand that being able to comprehend and interpret the data and information said in the news reportings are highly significant. With my partner, I hope to be able to listen to many recordings/videos of Korean news and ultimately be able to understand (even 80%) of what they are saying. Additionally, I hope to work on my writing skills especially for scholarly writings. Currently, I am a proficient Korean texter. I can write and use acronyms correctly and know of slang, however, I am far from perfect in terms of writing at an academic level. More specifically, I am still confused on how spacing works in Korean grammar since I have never officially learned Korean before. I know that the spacing happens after some nouns or phrases, but I am very confused on which nouns and predicates to use it in. With Jenna, I hope to become better at determining where to space my sentences/words. 

          A view that I find very problematic is the Naturalist View. I do not agree with the naturalist view (an idea mainly driven from Plato). Like what the article, “How We Mean” stated, we would have the ability to tell the meaning of words just by how they sound. 

          Furthermore, I believe language is mostly a biological phenomenon, but definitely not purely it. I believe it is a combination of biological and cultural phenomenon. In a biological sense, the human brain enables us to construct, think, and communicate through language. But in terms of what we speak and not how we speak, I believe an individual’s cultural environment is what impacts their language as well. A person’s family, background, religion, and ultimately culture also greatly influences language.  

          To answer the question about which anatomical parts of the brain are responsible for the production and comprehension of speech, the theory of cerebral localization which is the idea that a single area of the brain can be related to a single behavioral activity shed some light. This theory was supported by neurologists Paul Pierre Broca and Carl Wernicke who discovered that damage to certain areas of the brain could result in loss of certain linguistic abilities of an individual. For example, brain damage to Wernicke's area which is located in the upper back part of the temporal lobe results in the incomprension of speech. (though the ability to speak is relatively unaffected). The Broca’s Area which is located in the lower back part of the frontal lobe is primarily involved in the encoding of speech. 

          In the article, “How We Mean,” it states “It is the interaction between words and sentence structure which actually convey our meaning of ‘sense of sense.’ Words by themselves do not actually ‘make ‘sense.’ Only when they are used within a sentence do they make ‘sense.’ Sentences exist to enable us to ‘make sense’ of words.” I thought this quote from this article was interesting to think about, especially in terms of learning a language. Previously (and still presently), when I attempt to learn a language, I place great emphasis on memorizing as many vocabulary words as possible. Back when I was learning Spanish all throughout middle school and high school, I remember having to be tested for vocabulary tests in which we had to learn more than 200 different words about the topic of school. I took countless amounts of quizzes and exams to embed these words into my brain, and I successfully did so. However, by the end of the year, I still could not speak one single sentence in Spanish. I possessed all this knowledge about the Spanish lexicon, however, I couldn’t formulate any grammatically correct sentences. I realize more and more now that although learning lists of vocabulary words are important, it is definitely not the key to learning and speaking a new language. In the future, especially in this self directed learning course, I hope to be able to learn many new vocabulary words in Korean, but most importantly, work on being able to use these vocabulary words in sentences.

Although there is evidence to show the brain’s function on language using, I would argue it is not a purely biological phenomenon. Human beings did not born with language but developed it pushed by the need of communication. Furthermore, language differs vastly across region which shows that language is a product of culture.

The author claims that sentences exist to enable us to ‘make sense’ of words. I do not entirely agree with this statement. When I first started using Korean words and phrase to try communicate with my friends, they understand the meaning of those collections of words. For instance, if autumn, fall, and leaves are put together with out any grammar or sentence structure, they still ‘make sense’. However, if the speaker tries to convey conceptual meaning, it would be harder to understand. For example, ‘the college tuition is way higher than it should be’ cannot be conveyed through compilation of words like: college, money, high.

There is one sentence that I specifically agree with: ‘different languages talk about the world in different ways’. For example, in Mandarin, we do not have words to distinguish ‘lend to someone’ and ‘borrow from someone’. Moreover, just like in Greek, we have words for each family members indicating their relationships very clearly. From my point of view, the occurrence in those vocabulary comes from the culture where the ‘po jia’ (male side of the family after marriage) has a hostile position to the ‘niang jia’ (female side of the family after marriage). In order to distinct family members from each side of the family, the vocabulary is produced. Learning from this, I would spend time to learn about the Korean culture so that I can better understand and acquire the language. 

According to the reading materiel, collocation of lexemes and sense relations are two big parts of understanding in language. The connection between words, collocation, indicates the meaning. ‘You shall know a word by the company it keeps’ said J. R. Firth. Collocation differs across languages, for example smoke cigarettes in English and inhale cigarettes in mandarin. It has little correlation with the actual meaning of words (eg. Blonde hair). Sense relations show the relationships between words in four categories: synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy, and incompatibility.

As a mandarin speaker, I have questions about how Chinese analyze meanings. In mandarin, there is a multiple number of characters that map to one single pronunciation (even with tones). Besides, many of the characters have multiple pronunciations. Furthermore, Chinese is the only language that have little correlation of visual and sound. How can people remember and correlates the characters and their sounds? And how can we are not confusing about the meaning in conversations where no written form of language can be used to disambiguate different words.

The production of speech includes lobes and Broca’s area. The lobes located in the front and side of Brian are involved in speech formation and understanding. Broca’s area helps pass information to the motor cortex which controls the movements of mouth. It has an important role in turning ideas and thoughts into spoke words. For understanding speech, Wernicke’s area is mainly involved.

Over the past two weeks, I have thought about what my goals are regarding American Sign Language (ASL). Through the SDLC 105 course, I have learned that to simply learn all of ASL is a gargantuan and unrealistic task. When learning a language, one has to set a goal for the usage and implementation of that language’s use. This means that when an individual learns a language, they need to have a goal for that language in mind. The goal can not be to simply learn the entire language, but rather a smaller, more accomplishable goal such as being able to order food at a restaurant or ask for directions when lost. As an individual who would like to have a vocation within the medical community, I find that my goal with ASL is to learn how to communicate with the deaf community in a medical emergency.

            I took an emergency medical technician (EMT) course this past summer and as an EMT when you encounter a medical emergency, there are a series of steps and questions I would have to ask the patient (given they are responsive). Some examples of the questions I would have to ask are “How are you feeling? Do you take any medications? Do you have any allergies? When did the pain start? ” My goal of this course is to be able to go through all the required steps of an emergency medical assessment using ASL and to be able to understand my patient’s responses. To accomplish such a task, each week I have created a list of words that revolve around a common theme in a medical assignment. So, for the first week with my language partner, we will learn different signs for the body to build vocabulary, but we will also learn the most commonly used verbs, nouns, and sayings to help me understand the grammar and structure of the language.

            Because ASL is a sign/movement based language, taking notes about the vocabulary and grammar of the language proves to be challenging. With the lack of physical notes, I am worried about my ability to practice ASL without my learning partner because in the event I forgot a sign, I am unable to go back and read my notes. To counter this issue, I plan on, with the permission of the learning partner, to record the video of signs and phrases we learn, thus I can refer back to the information. I have also found several ASL dictionary-based iPhone apps that may prove to be useful in my language journey.

            Unfortunately, I have yet to meet with my set language partner, Reba, because of miscommunication. But this upcoming Monday, January 27^th, I have my first meeting with her! In the meantime, I have used the online website, https://www.italki.com, to become exposed to the language. Today, I have a 90 minute learning season with one of the instructors who I very much enjoyed. Although it was only the first lesson, the amount I learned was tremendous! I never realized the extent facial expressions played in the role of ASL, but after this session, I understand the necessity of it. When my instructor taught me the word for “enemy” and “opposite”, the sign was the same, but the facial expression is what differed. I am beyond excited about my meeting tomorrow and am excited to start this ASL journey.

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