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Assessment of Ability:

I would say I am still a novice in ASL, but very close to intermediate

Goals:

I want to be able to sign in full sentences and put multiple sentences together. 

I want to learn more religious language and be able to participate more when I am at church. 

I want to be better at understanding others and I want to be able to answer questions and respond to comments without hesitation. 

I want to get better with numbers. 

I want to be able to talk about the seasons and the weather. 

According to the level of competence table, I am beginning 0 or below. I don't even meet the requirements for beginning 0 because I have yet to learn to recognize the alphabets of urdu. I have yet to learn how to say hi or good bye either. 

Here are the goals for myself:

1. Improve my understanding of the alphabet
2. learn numbers from at least 1-100
3. learn how to construct basic sentences involving greeting.
4. Learn about Pakistani culture and learn some things about their history.

My interest in Urdu arose from making many friends from Pakistan at University of Richmond. I major in computer science and many of my friends in computer science classes have been Pakistani's. I also noticed that many of them tend to be more logical than the average American and very eloquent in the way they speak despite some of them being unfamiliar with English. I also realize that when I enter the field of computer science outside of school, I will potentially come across many more Pakistanis and it would be advantageous for me to know their language and culture and better understand their roots. By the end of the semester, I hope to explore basic Pakistani culture and be able to have a very basic conversation(greetings and such). I don't have high expectations for myself since I've never spoken or try learning this language before but I am excited to find out.

     My experiences as a language learner are still vividly clear in my head. My family moved from South Korea to America when I was in 6th grade. I did not know much English previous to coming to the States. Looking back, I honestly can't find parts about learning English that I found enjoyable; I was a bit bitter at the world at the time because I felt as though I was forced into a situation with a big language barrier without my consent. However, there were triumphant and pleasant moments when I successfully carried out a complex conversation for the first time or did a presentation in front of a large crowd, feeling as though I've made big leaps in my ability to speak English. I definitely disliked the feeling of powerlessness that arose from my inability to speak the language. Looking back, my learning type was mostly rational and evaluative. The activities that suit my style the most was definitely applying learning to my real life and actually holding conversations with people using the language and also watching tv shows in that language. I think I should expand my learning activities by incorporating other learning style activities and not just stick to the rational and evaluative ones. Because I am going to be completely new to urdu and won't have as much opportunity to use it as I did with English, I will need to work with a lot of big picture conceptual things that won't require as much interaction with an urdu speaker. 

            Language has always been something I’ve been interested in because I used both English and Korean in my household. Growing up in bilingual household was more than just using two languages. It entailed learning the culture and cultural norms that exist in American and Korean culture. Initially, I was embarrassed about the Korean culture that I had adopted at home. I was nervous about what others would think about my use of chopsticks for every meal or the Korean food that I would eat for dinner every night. However, as I got older, my culture was something that gave me a different perspective and made me unique.

            Throughout my life, I have always been an active learner. I enjoy participating and actively getting involved in a topic. I do not mind learning audibly, but I have always learned more proficiently when seeing images. According to the Multiple Intelligence test, my three highest scores were interpersonal, bodily/kinesthetic, and naturalist. I believe that these characteristics align well with a more active learner. Furthermore, on the Learning Styles Test, I was characterized a kinesthetic learner. When approaching a new topic, it is recommended for me to take on a hands-on approach.

            Overall, I believe it is vital for me to constantly find ways to incorporate language into my life. Personally, I believe the best way to learn a language is finding new ways to implement vocabulary in day-to-day activities. I plan to utilize some of the new learning habits that complement my personality. 

     My first language is Cantonese but I took classes in Mandarin when I was a child. Therefore, transiting between Cantonese and Mandarin in daily life has gave me plenty of language learning experience. I started learning English in the third year in primary school with simple conversations. I enjoyed learning English from TV shows, drama and novels, which were more interesting and easier to focus on. However, as a Reading/Writing Learner, the best way for me to learn language is to write out the words again and again. I still remembered that the time preparing for SAT and TOEFL, I kept memorizing new words every days and also tested how many I could remember the next day. However, there were always some words that I easily forgot and I would write them down in the notebook or phone and re-read them whenever I was free. Hence, this time for studying Korean, I would like to write down favorite sentences or quotes in notebooks and read them when I have time. I strongly agree that writing and speaking are the best ways to learn a language. Besides, I think the alphabet is a good place to start when learning a language, especially if I hope to progress to reading and writing later on.

      Now I am going to learn a new language Korean, which I am in noive low level. The most noticeable difference in learning Korean than learning English is that I am going to learn this new language all by myself. When learning English, sometimes I felt so tired and sick of memorizing new words and grammar. In case of this situation will happen, I may need to set up goals and plans firstly in order to keep study in schedule. I also need to find a motivation for studying Korean because it is easy for a self-directed learner lose interests when facing difficulties. My motivation for studying Korean is taking a trip to Korea this summer. I hope that I can learn basic communication skills and then I can plan the trip by myself. Regarding to the learning activities, I would like to start learning Korean with alphabet. I will look up online resources and then learn alphabet first. Later, since my interest in Korean was raised from Korean drama so that I would definitely use them as my learning tools. It is important to immerse myself in the Korean in order to learn it. So I will get a Korean radio app or music on my phone and then I can listen on the go. In addition, there are so many resources online shared by self-directed learners in Korea. I will definitely take advantages of these resources too. Finally, based on my experience of learning English, practice is the most important part of learning languages, especially for speaking part of a language. I look forward to talking more with my Korean partner and try to improve my speaking while practice with him/her.

I am studying linguistics and Turkish is always used in the examples in textbooks. I know Turkish is an agglutinating language, which is different from every other language I have ever dabbled with. I am currently in Arabic 302 and I have heard that Turkish was heavily influenced by Arabic, but we will see just how many similarities there are as the semester progresses. I find the language, as well as the culture, beautiful and definitely unique. Turkey is interesting because it sandwiched in between the Western world and the Arab/Islamic nations. I am looking forward to learning Turkish on my own time for 110, as well as gaining valuable language learning skills in 105.

I am studying linguistics and Turkish is always used in the examples in textbooks. I know Turkish is an agglutinating language, which is different from every other language I have ever dabbled with. I am currently in Arabic 302 and I have heard that Turkish was heavily influenced by Arabic, but we will see just how many similarities there are as the semester progresses. I find the language, as well as the culture, beautiful and definitely unique. Turkey is interesting because it sandwiched in between the Western world and the Arab/Islamic nations. I am looking forward to learning Turkish on my own time for 110, as well as gaining valuable language learning skills in 105.

According to the Can-do Statements, I am on the novice low level. I do not know how to say anything in Korean. Therefore, I have a lot to learn. My goals are: 

1. Greetings / Farewells (formal/informal, for different times of day, etc.)
2. Introducing myself (my name, where I am from, what I am studying, something interesting about myself)
       --Eliciting this information from others
3. Identifying and talking about family members (names, relationships, professions, something interesting)
4. Telling time / asking the time
5. Asking / saying the date
6. Calling a cab / using a bus /taking a train / taking a plane
7. Asking for food / buying food / ordering at a restaurant / describing food
8. Asking someone to go somewhere (to a restaurant, a movie, etc.)
9. Describing clothes / shopping for clothes
10. Asking for / giving directions
11. Asking about past events and Describing a past event

During my previous experience as a language learner, I really enjoyed activities outside the textbooks that will help me learn the language better. I remember when I was learning Spanish, I would learn the grammar by playing specific games, and doing hands on activities. Once I became more proficient in Spanish, I continued learning by watching TV shows and movies. What I disliked as a language learner was only learning with a textbook. I think that learning by using only a textbook limit me from other helpful resources. I am more of a visual learner than anything else; therefore, being able to see pictures and videos of words or phrases spelled out helps me. Also, getting to watch and listen to videos of people explaining the words and acting out the phrase or word also helps me learn better. Underlining, using different colors, and using symbols, charts and arrangements on a page helps me in class. When studying, I can expand my learning activities by reconstructing images in different ways, redrawing pages from memory, and replacing words with symbols and initials will be helpful. I can also expand my learning activities by going to places such as restaurants that serve Korean food, and trying to see if I could read the menu in Korean or even speak to the server in Korean if he/she speaks the language. Besides practicing with my Korean tutor every week, I will practice speaking with my Korean friends who talk to each other in Korean all the time. I think my friends would be a very helpful tool because I will have motivation to learn more in order to understand what they are talking about among themselves, in other words I will feel more included in their group and culture if I practice speaking Korean with them. 

Thai was my first language because my parents spoke Thai to me from the day I was born. But as far as I remember, l was not fluent in English when I started school. Now, I am more fluent in English than I am in Thai. But I am able to speak both seamlessly. I think the consistency of being immersed, using the languages everyday have contributed greatly to being bilingual. Language acquisition for Thai and English has felt effortless. I started learning Spanish in 7th grade and I was able to pick up the language very easily. From then on, I always excelled in my Spanish classes through high school. However, that was not indicative of my abilities to use Spanish in the real world. I never practiced Spanish outside of class activities. After learning French, I felt that think I could ever hold an everyday conversation with a Spanish speaker, like I could with French.

French just fell upon me on my program abroad in Switzerland. I was put into a homestay with an elderly Swiss woman, who could only speak French. I remember not even being able to ask how I can get water and using a lot of hand signals with her. My Spanish background helped me pick up French fast. I think I had the advantage over my classmates because I had conversations in French everyday. I was speaking French more confidently without much processing in my head than some people who had taken French since high school. I valued the introductory French classes because I feel it is necessary to have a basic grounding of the grammar. However, I value much more learning it through immersion, where it feels effortless because I am just having a conversation. Having a native speaker correct me during a conversation, is more efficient for me to correct my mistakes than receiving feedback from a worksheet, so I really value having language partners.

Based on the surveys I did, I am an aural learner, but at the same time I need some visual and kinesthetic techniques to help me learn. I always thought I learned best when someone was explaining things to me, however in a class environment I find that I tune out very easily and it becomes difficult to pay attention especially if the professor is very monotone and the lecture is dry. For classes like that, I found myself having to learn most things myself, going through the notes was best. But conflicts for finding learning styles that suit me best are only a problem when it comes to science classes.

When it comes to languages I find I can easily pick up things from listening to people around me like their accents and specific words that native speakers use but we do not learn in class. Particularly with grammar, I find doing exercises in class, like through a workbook helps me. When it comes to beginning a language, I think I value more structure in the beginning. I like having a textbook or workbook that outlines the basic things that I need to learn. I also value having movies and other media to help me listen to what I am learning. Thus, with Korean I think I will learn best if I try to do activities like they would teach in a beginner’s class first. 

My interest in Korean began when I started middle school in 6^th grade. It was a new school in a new area called that was known as Korean town among locals. I had never met so many Asian students, especially Korean students before. I am glad I met a few really good friends who are Korean; they are a large inspiration for learning Korean. They introduced me to Korean culture and the language. I always found Korean culture to be very interesting, especially when it comes to behavior, what they perceive to be cool, and academics. I saw it daily and I liked to see the differences and similarities there were to Thai culture, being a Thai-American. I learned to read in Korean, but because I did not know how to speak the language I could not comprehend that. So I hope to be able to read basic words like what is on signs in markets, stores, on the street, etc. It would also be great if I could begin reading children’s books in Korean. My main goal is just to be able to have basic conversations like talking about myself, where I am from, what I am studying, for example. It would be nice to learn vocabulary for describing people, their physical features, so that I could talk about Korean celebrities with my friends, since a lot of them are into Korean dramas and music. I also really want to make sure I learn how to say body parts and describe my health, which is due to my goal of becoming a doctor. But you never know, I could get a Korean patient in my office and help him/her understand things better. 

           I am a Spanish and English speaker. Having attended a bilingual elementary school, I began to develop my English and Spanish. My family comes from the Dominican Republic, which is a Spanish speaking island. Transitioning to middle school, I began to learn a third language, French because I thought it was very similar to Spanish and English. From grade 6 to 12 (middle and high school), I was enrolled in French classes. I spoke Spanish and some English at home to family members, predominately English at school to my friends, and French in French class. If I had to rank the language from most proficient to least, then English would be first followed by Spanish and French. Currently in college, I speak English to most of my friends and a little bit of Spanish to those friends who understand it or taking a Spanish class. I am currently taking French with Professor Julie Baker. A three and half year gap (college) with no practice in French has made me rusty in French, but I expect after this semester to regain some of my confidence and knowledge in French. Despite Korean being entirely different from Spanish and English, I decided on this language for two reasons: the challenge and to be able to speak to some of my friends in their native language.

            As a language learner for Spanish, English and French, I definitely enjoyed learning the culture tied with the language. By culture, I am referring to the history, customs, and traditions of those countries. I dislike the technicality of grammar and syntax; however, I do understand the importance of it in speaking, writing and communicating properly. In middle school, I was learning French. The methods or techniques the teachers would implement to teach us French consisted of learning the alphabet, numbers and basic vocabulary. Then, we would learn basic verbs and conjugations, followed by children songs and movies. Throughout the years of French, we learned about France and Francophone countries, particularly the cultures. This helped make connections and learn rather than memorize the language.

            The surveys suggest I am a mix of Kinesthetic and Reading/Writing Learner. I need to have structure and organization in notes and practice activities. The survey mentions rereading and rewriting notes, words, and phrases for conditioning along with outside field trips for a hands-on approach as well as conversations and dialogues to facilitate comprehension. A trial and error method of learning would help my understanding and constant pictures and examples. Personally, from my past experience and based on the Fire model, I am a combination of Factual and Insightful thinking to initially learn a language. The more experience and understanding would lead to Evaluative and Rationale thinking. For this course, I thinking sticking to Factual and Insightful thinking would be more fitting. To expand my learning activities, I need a combination of online exercises and dialogue to practice. The use of Internet, textbook and videos would facilitate my learning of Korean. I can also practice with my Korean-American friends.

Esther Kwon

SDLAP 110

105 Reflection Paper 1

   Since both my parents are Korean, I grew up in a household where Korean and English were constantly mixed together. As a Korean American, my dominant and native language is English while Korean is a language I am partially fluent in. In total, I have had exposure to four different languages: English, Korean, Spanish, and Japanese. When I was very little, perhaps 5 or 6 years old, I attended a Korean language learning school that was connected to the church my family attended at that time. My mother also taught me during a few of my elementary years using Korean work books, story books, and flashcards. She also made me write in a journal every day to help me learn the Korean alphabet and understand how to create simple sentences. As I grew older however, my mother gradually stopped teaching me and thus, I am left only knowing the basic skills of how to read, write, and speak. The strongest skill I obtained over the years living in a Korean family is the ability to understand for the most part, what others say to me.

   As for Spanish, I learned the language for a couple years as an elementary student and went on to study the language three more years during high school. While I did take a decent amount of time learning this language, my Spanish classes were never rigorous enough for me to learn adequately nor consistently and thus, I have forgotten nearly all of the Spanish I learned. As I entered college this past semester, I decided to begin a new language and took Japanese 101, which was my very first experience with Japanese. Thankfully, Korean and Japanese have some similarities based on grammar and some vocabulary so I believe I had somewhat of an easier time learning this new language. I am also continuing with Japanese this semester and am currently enrolled in the Japanese 102 class. Though I have only taken one Japanese class, I feel like I learned much more of that language than I ever did throughout my years of Spanish. I believe that this is not only because my Japanese class was much more rigorous, but also because I had the passion to learn Japanese. Despite the many years of taking Spanish, I was never very interested and thus, I believe this is why I lost almost all the knowledge I had previously of this language.

   Although I do have a good basis for Korean to say and do simple and minimal things, I am determined to improve my skills in speaking, reading, and writing. Improving my interpersonal communication is my primary goal because I would like to achieve a level of proficiency in which I can talk to my parents much more easily and fluently in order to better our communication and understanding of one another. However, I would very much like to improve my other skills in reading and writing so that one day; I can become proficient in all three aspects and hopefully use this to my advantage in my future career.

  I am excited to be a part of this class since I have ultimate control over what I want to focus on improving and how I want to improve my skills. Not only can I narrow my focus on my weaknesses but also come up with creative and fun ways to develop them, which I think are key incentives to stir greater passion in learning the language. I believe I will learn the best by continuously conversing with my language partner, because in this way I not only learn how to structure sentences but also how to obtain the right tone of voice and pronunciation (since I have an obvious American accent). I can understand a majority of casual, everyday speech and therefore, I would like to be able to converse back to others with ease than simply listening to him/her speaking to me. I also memorize words more quickly by saying them aloud, so once I remember the word audibly I can extend my knowledge by learning the spelling of the word on paper. 

Esther Kwon

SDLAP 110

Learning Journal Post 1

According to the “Levels of Competence” document, I believe I am between Beginning 2 and Intermediate 1. I am able to understand casual, everyday conversation and around 75% of the dialogue in a Korean drama. I can read any text at an elementary level but for the most part, unable to understand what I am reading if it is more advanced. I can speak minimally using familiar, everyday phrases and words and construct simple sentences by myself but have trouble carrying a conversation. I know the Korean alphabet and can write basic sentences but I have trouble forming more advanced sentences due to spelling and grammar. The goals I have for this semester is listed below.

1. Improve my understanding of proper grammar usage in sentences
2. Proficiently learn the number systems
3. Learn how to write a letter in the proper format with correct grammar and spelling
4. Proficiently learn how to order at a restaurant
5. Learn more essential vocabulary (weather, seasons, food, colors, clothing, school subjects, etc.)
6. Gain a greater understanding of the necessary formalities when addressing an elder in terms of speech and actions
7. Proficiently learn the Korean currency system
8. Increase reading pace and flow
9. Better comprehension of Korean dramas/shows
10. Gain greater knowledge of the history of Korea and the Korean language

My%20Learning%20Plan.docx

    I have learned three languages in the past: Chinese, English and Japanese. My mother tongue is Chinese Mandarin, and we‘ve been kept learning simplified Chinese since primary school. Ancient Chinese prose is definitely the most difficult part for me. Memorizing those ancient vocabularies and grammars, and translating sentences to simplified Chinese were great challenges. I started learn English when I was in grade 3, memorizing words, watching Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, playing games. It was fun and a good way for kids to find interest in a new language. English is my second language. From the experience of learning English, I find I really enjoy collaborative learning, discussing in a small group, sharing and discussing problems together. Learning English was fun at the beginning, but later on I found it is hard because there are so many vocabularies and slangs we haven't learnt in China. So I keep studying English when I'm in the United States. 

    In college, I took Japanese since I like Japanese culture and language. In grade 6, I discovered Japanese through animation, Japanese drama and pop-music. From then, I travel to Japan every year. China and Japan have very similar cultures and writing characters in some cases, so it is much easier for me understand Japanese culture and this similarity also helps a lot when I learned Japanese language in college. I enjoyed this learning experience. We had a conversation every class in Japanese and different people played different roles. Everyone needed to say Japanese in class that is a good way to practice even for students who are shy. We all got practice and had a great time learning Japanese. 

   So in summary, I learn best when learning begins with the big picture concepts and works toward the particular applications. I dislike working on details at the very beginning when I have no idea about its culture and language history. Therefore, when I start to learn a new language, I prefer to begin from the language culture and build broad background and get a sense of how the language formed in the past. I will listen to the new language and feel its pronunciation which would be beneficial for future study.

  From the surveys, I learn the best from speaking. Listening real life examples, using hands-on approach and using pictures to illustrate are all good ways for me to study. Also, keep writing will help me to memorize the materials. I think I need to write down words and read journals to keep studying. In the study of Korean, I will watch Korean TV shows or dramas to get a sense of Korean pronunciation and some background about Korean language and culture. Also, I will try to talk to my Korean friends in simple sentences to practice speaking skills which is my biggest learning goal.  Having a language partner will be definitely helpful to build the language sense in Korean. Writing and reading would be the hardest part in the studying process, so I might send some time on that but it is not my biggest goal for Korean. 

reflectionpaperI.docx

Based off of the “Can-Do Statements”, in Korean, I am at a novice low level. Currently I can communicate on some very familiar topics using single words and phrases that I have practiced and memorized. I can recognize a few memorized words and phrases when I heard them spoken. There are many goals that I would like to achieve before the end of the semester and they are listed below:

• Greetings / Farewells (formal/informal, for different times of day, etc.)
• Introducing myself (my name, where I am from, what I am studying, something interesting about myself)
      --Eliciting this information from others
• Identifying and talking about family members (names, relationships, professions, something interesting)
• Asking for food / buying food / ordering at a restaurant / describing food
• Telling time / asking the time
• Asking / saying the date
• Talking about health
• Asking someone to go somewhere (to a restaurant, a movie, etc.)
• Describing clothes / shopping for clothes; learn how to bargain
• Asking for / giving directions
• Using the telephone (formal/informal, telephone numbers, etc.)
  Calling a cab / using a bus /taking a train / taking a plane
• Write short messages and notes on familiar topics related to everyday life
• Often understand words, phrases, and simple sentences related to everyday life
• Recognize some characters and understand some learned or memorized words and phrases when I read also understand simple texts related to everyday life and the main idea of what I have read.

       In the past, I have only studied two languages: English, French, and Japanese. I am a native English speaker, but there are times when I have to remember certain grammar rules, especially when I am looking over a friend’s paper. Even to this day, it still fascinates me that you can start a sentence with “but” and “and”. My time learning English as a language was not as influential in a way as my time learning French. I started learning French when I was in grade 6, mostly because Spanish was really popular and I did not want to be in a large classroom learning such a popular language. The first few months were not bad at all and I found out that I was pretty good at French and to me, it seemed as though I was quite the intellectual whenever I spoke it.

     The following year, in grade 7, I took Japanese and that was an experience I think back to from time to time when I come across languages that do not use the English alphabet. I learned how to write Japanese characters and how to pronounce them phonetically, and I had the chance to learn about a new culture and discover that there was another language that I would like to study in the future. Unfortunately, I was unable to continue studying Japanese and thus from grade 8 all the way to grade 12, I studied French. This was fine by me because it was a language that I was use to and I was doing well at it, but in grade 11, I discovered Korean through Korean pop music videos by accident on YouTube and from that day onward, I wanted to learn Korean. I have not had the chance to formally learn Korean until this year, my last semester of undergraduate studies, but prior to that, I mostly learned it by listening to Korean music, watching Korean dramas, reading traveling books, and speaking with Korean people. With all this past experience, that is why I am quite excited for the self-directed language learning class.

     Although I have studied three languages during my entire schooling, the one thing that I always enjoyed was the small class sizes because it allowed me to get personal one on one training from the teacher/professor and have the chance to get to know some of my peers better. What I disliked about the class was one of the experiences that I had with one my Japanese instructors during a meeting in his office. I was struggling with the language at that time and he told me, that I did not have the talent for learning languages. Although I did not react irrationally to it, I justified it by saying that I did quite well in French and that if I work really hard, I will eventually get the hang of it. But that experience did teach me that people will say things that may discourage you as you are on your language learning journey, by that you should continue to work hard and strive for the best.

    Based off of the surveys that I took, I learn best through reading and writing, so writing words out again and again and rereading my notes silently and in regards to learning activities, anything with games or music, will help with my memorization of material. In regards to expanding my learning activities with languages, I think that I have to write the language out often and read the text, as well as, watching dramas and movies in the language that I am learning.