Blogs

-       Target language: Japanese

-       Japanese has a very hierarchical culture. The hierarchy is most distinctively shown in body gesture and language structure. Japanese act and talk in different ways strictly to show their respect to strangers, peers who are not intimate, and people who are elder or have higher social position. The main difference in the body gesture and language structure is the degree of politeness. For example, Japanese body gesture is not as dramatic, liberal or passionate as most western style, especially among different genders. Japanese’s movement range of anything in their daily life is often small, cautious, modest and self-constrained. This resonates with their conventional humbleness, low-key lifestyle, and attitude towards the relationship between different genders.

-       As for language structure, Japanese has two systems for ending the sentences. The ending of each sentence is the indicator of the hierarchy and politeness in the conversations. A present tense noun-based sentence that ends with “ です (desu)” is usually the politer way of speaking than one without. Other than showing respect when speaking, the politer system is also required to be used in formal writing such as papers, homework, emails, etc.

The reading basically helps me to figure out what should I pay attention to when I express and absorb/analyze the message when learning a target language. First, the view of the relationship between words and things influences how I express and absorb the language during the learning process. I could use a more of naturalist view to learn the basic meaning of new vocabulary at the beginning: to connect words to certain things in the real life. Later, however, I need to pay attention to the sense and the reference of the words I learn, because reference, such as connecting words with physical things, would not work well when the word has different meanings in different circumstances. Because words have synonymy, hyponymy, and antonymy,   it is critical for the learner to precisely sub-divide the meanings of the words. Reference can be vague and not specific enough. Sense in this case, by explaining words by words based on different language concept, can help me to distinguish the word better. Also, a lot of times, a word in the target language might not be directly translated to a single word in my native tongue, instead, it might be translated as a concept, a series of words, etc. Thus, it is also very important to be aware of that, and pay attention to the collocations words of the target language.  

        I have been learning and using English for about nine years, and I learned Spanish for one semester and Japanese for one year. However, I only manage to speak, read and write English at a professional level but not Spanish and Japanese. I can read a little bit Japanese but I almost lost everything about Spanish.

        One thing that I really enjoy when learning languages is to watch TV shows, movies and anime produced in the target language and learn about its culture. As the Basic Multiple Intelligences results show, I enjoy visual learning, things in motion and in nature, and interactions with people. I can see the interrelation between the top three characteristics in the result. I study environmental studies and geography, and I am attracted by the natural environment. I love traveling around, seeing and experiencing things that are new to me. Compared to reading and imagining in my head, I do prefer to have physical interaction with the new things and figure out how they work. Learning a new language is similar in a way that I am able to better engage with the content, the grammar and the culture by watching the TV shows, movies and anime. Those medias show me how the language is used, in what situation the language is used, with whom the language is used, with what kind of facial expression and body language, etc. The integrity of language and culture that the vivid images and videos has really help me in language learning.

        Also, for me, the purpose of learning a language is to learn the culture better, and to have the ability to communicate with people who have different cultural backgrounds. TV shows and movies not only provide the cultural context of the target language, but they are also very helpful in terms of learning the accent, the tone, the pronunciation of the language. I can imitate and practice the way of speaking the language when I am watching TV shows and movies. I can also learn those slangs, trendy words and phrases that are usually not included in text books through the watching the latest TV shows and movies.

        However, one thing I would not enjoy is the inconvenience and inconsistence when I try to speak the language with native speakers at the beginning. This happened no matter I was learning Spanish, Japanese or Danish: unless I am speaking with the professor who teaches the language class, either the other person or I will give up on using the target language and change to a common language like English at some point during the conversations. It is just easier to communicate and to understand each other by using English. It also saves a lot of time when the conversations are not in an hour long language class that is there for language learners. 

        Thus, overall, I think learning language through the media culture in addition to studying the basic grammar and language structure can be very helpful for me. According to the FIRE model, I think I am in between a factual and evaluative person. I do rely on practical and precise knowledge such as grammar, and task-oriented activities that build skill competency, to be the base of language learning. But I also need the interaction with people, share thoughts and stories, encouragement and recognition, and physical engagement with the language. As for practicing speaking the language, I think other than learning how to speak in class, I should find a partner or mentor who can dedicate the time and energy to practice with me. Talking with random native speaker may not be ideal for effectively learning the language, though it is a good way to make friends. 

I think my progress in learning Korean has been going well. The use of language partners and the sources provided through Diigo have been very helpful. Meeting bi weekly with my language partners and having constant interactions in Korean have been the most helpful in my opinion. I can sense that I am beginning to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to properly interact and speak in the Korean dialect that would be used in an average day.

With the help of Mingkyung, my classmates and I have been learning specific structures of grammar, vocabulary, and rules that are practical and would be used in everyday interactions. I have been using a source provided by Mingkyung called The Cyber University of Korea that has a large variety of lesson plans in the form of YouTube videos. These videos provide the tools to understand specific topics of the Korean language that can be beneficial in learning to become proficient in interpersonal interactions. The educational videos each have a main topic. The videos teach common expressions used in daily interactions, grammatical rules, and vocabulary that relates to that specific topic  

I noticed throughout the lessons that Korean culture plays a significant role in how the sentences are structured. The Korean language uses a hierarchy system that heavily influences how everyday interactions will be done. Due to the hierarchy system, one must use formal dialect when speaking to anyone who is older or is in a higher social status. It is very important to follow these cultural rules that are placed in society. If not practiced, it would be looked upon as very rude. It is a strong Korean value and should be respected if anyone is practicing the Korean language. Even if the person one is speaking to is only a few years or a few months older, formal language must be used.  

I realized my weaknesses during these past few weeks. I need to improve upon my skills in grammar and vocabulary. I realized that my knowledge of basic Korean words are very minimal and that I need to expand my knowledge on how much I know about Korean dialect. I realized this is what has been hindering me from fully comprehending many Korean interactions, whether it is in a Korean television show or in an actual conversation. I also found difficulty in the spelling of many Korean words because the Korean alphabet has similar sounding vowels. As a result, I get stuck in situations where I do not know which vowel is the correct one. I am also hoping to expand my knowledge on grammatical rules and structures. A lot of what I have been learning with my language partners is new to me, so some aspects of the Korean grammar has been difficult to grasp. I was having trouble applying some grammatical phrases with new words that we learned with my language partners. I thought learning new concepts would be easy because I had a basic foundation in my Korean skills, but I unfortunately found out that it is not.

Reflection Paper # 2

Maddie Philips

                  Since starting my language learning journey, I’ve learned so much about Basque that I was surprised to not have known before. I’ve even been able to teach my parents things about Basque culture, so I am really grateful to my language partner Amaia for being so open and willing to talk about what living in the Basque Country is like for her, as well as the cultural differences between the Basques in Spain and the Basques who live in France, which I was more familiar with. I’ve also been able to learn much more about the Basque language and how it’s used, including how to introduce yourself or talk about your family. This is particularly important because Basque culture is very focused on where people come from, particularly geographically, so that is one of the first things that Amaia taught me. For example, I learned that the French Basque country is called Iparralde in Basque, which I had not known before. That makes it a lot easier to talk about myself from a Basque perspective, because Iparralde, population wise, makes up only about a tenth of the Basque country. Because of that, by being able to make the distinction of coming from that area, people are better able to understand my own culture.

                  I’ve also found it funny coming from Iparralde that I’ve been able to teach Amaia new words, like “ttinka” for hug, “otto” for uncle, and “erreximenta” for jam, which are all words from a dialect of Basque that Amaia is not familiar with. Because of my own knowledge, my relationship with Amaia has become better, because I can truly show my own interest in the language by being able to teach her something too. As far as understanding the target culture, as much as I knew before, I’ve learned so much more. I had no idea that there were people who even had Basque as a first language, so Amaia has really opened up a world to me that I hadn’t realized existed. Ironically, a big part of the reason that I wanted to learn Basque was because I thought that it was a dying language, so to hear that it isn’t not only makes me feel a lot better, but also increases my desire to learn it, because now I have someone to speak it with.

                  As far as communicative competence goes, I definitely have a long way to go. My comprehension has gotten much, much better, but my speaking and writing skills are still lacking. Because of that, those are what I’m going to focus on this semester, and instead of trying to move forward, I’m going to try to review what I’ve already learned. Of course I want to continue working on my Basque and learning new tenses and ways to say things, but I think it’s more important that I focus on perfecting what I’ve already accomplished. This is a problem that I’ve had with every language that I’ve learned, and with French especially, I really regret that I can’t write a sentence without an error, even though I can understand and communicate with great fluency, comprehension wise.

This week Amaia was helping me tell time. My main goals though, were to try to work on the things I've already learned, as well as how to say them in the negative. Because I've been moving so quickly, there's a lot that I still struggle with, even though my comprehension is good. Because of that I set aside this week for a lot of review to try and work on my speaking, instead of just my comprehension. In order to accomplish this I looked at Aurerra a lot, as well as went on Memrise to work on some more vocabulary to make more sentences.

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I've actually made a lot more progress so far than I thought that I would, but at the same time a lot less. Because I've been moving so quickly, my comprehension has gotten to be really good, and I can understand almost everything my learning partner has asked me. That said, when it becomes my turn to respond, I've been having some trouble remembering the proper word order and verbs. My learning plan has been pretty effective in how I organize what to talk about for the week, but I've found that most of my instruction comes through Amaia, which is something that I need to work on. I think to finish the semester I might focus on perfecting the things I already know before I go on to learn more.

                Reflecting back to the first day of the semester, I realized that I have come a far way in terms of communicative competence. I started to understand more of the Korean culture and the casual ways that Koreans communicate compared to the textbook method that we are usually taught. Having an actual high school teacher from Korea that teaches us the language helps me tremendously because of her use of colloquialism along with professional speech that is used in the workplace. Since Korea has a large amount of emphasis on respect, this class has taught me the proper way to communicate with elders along with those who are more experienced in situations such as workplace.

                However, I still have a far way to go to be completely competent in my language. I think my biggest weakness is still my writing and professional speech. In order to improve my writing, I need to write and read more in Korean. I already started to read Korean business articles every week to try and improve my knowledge in the business field in Korea along with my vocabulary and spelling. My language partner also provides drills every class that helps me learn proper grammar along with spelling. Since the class size with my language partner is small, I get a lot of individual attention which gives me a chance to correct my spelling.

                Although my Korean is still fairly weak, my knowledge in Korean culture is much stronger. Since I grew up in a Korean household, Korean culture is a lifestyle to me. Having a language partner straight from Korea also helped me to keep in touch with the modern culture that exists now. I was very confused about the Korean workplace and the different hierarchies that exist; however, the language partner explained it clearly and effectively.

                I believe that I need to improve my vocabulary, speech, and writing. In order to accomplish these tasks, I have to speak in Korean more and write in Korean more. I believe that I can accomplish both of these tasks by keeping in constant communication with my parents. Since my parents are curious about my life here, it would provide me with a good opportunity to keep in touch with them while improving my Korean.

                I can also improve my knowledge on Korean culture as well as the language itself by watching Korean television. Watching various television shows, ranging from reality shows to news, will give me a sense of how actual Koreans speak and how they live their lives. Watching the news will give me a sense of what current events are going on in Korea. Also, researching more about the culture in general will give me a better sense of traditional customs that occur in Korea. For example, the phenomena of KPOP is large in Korea, and I can research more on how it started and what made it become so popular, worldwide. Through researching more and all the other methods mentioned above, I will become more competent in Korean language and culture.

• Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language.

Learning the language's history can be helpful in learning the language because of instead of memorizing you truly understand the language. For instance, for mandarin all the characters came from drawings and it can really help when trying to remember how to write it. In addition, in terms of Korean, many parts of the Korean words have similar parts and therefore knowing the history it can help in learning more words. Also, in many Asian languages there is a tendency to combine phrases or one word can be connected and mean something different. So, it is definitely helpful in knowing the history in learning the language. 

• Reflect on the Culture Shock video and your own experiences and expectations of culture shock

One of the biggest culture shock I had was when I went to Denver, Colorado for 8th grade camp. I have lived the majority of life in Taiwan and although I am American and was perfectly fluent in English, I had extreme culture shock coming to camp. I felt overwhelmed now that I was no longer the majority and was clearly a minority in this camp. I had a few days in the beginning to cry and freak out, but after I decided I needed to get out because I was here for one whole month. I really had to step out of my comfort zone and make myself socialize and make friends. Eventually, I got the courage to go up and talk to my roommates and from there I was slowly got over my culture shock. This experience really helped me in adapting to new places and adapting to different cultures. 

• Reflect on the presentations of your classmates.

I learned a lot more unique trends and cultures during the presentations. One that caught my attention was the one about the trend of Koreans telling people's personality through blood type. I had never heard about telling a personality from blood types, but heard about telling someone's personality from horoscopes. I was so surprised because the blood type personality fit perfectly with mine. I am type O and the traits for that blood type was ambitious, athletic, robust, and self-confident. I am someone who is very energetic and many of the traits were relatable. Another presentation that was very interesting was the one on the drinking culture in Korea. It made sense that even in the Korean drinking culture there was an importance of honor. For instance, when a younger person pours a drink for someone older they have to use two hands instead of one. In addition, the younger should not look at the older person when drinking their drink if the other is older. Overall, all the presentations taught me something unique I did not know about. 

• What do you need to know about the structure of your target language?  How will you acquire the knowledge you need?  Do you think a reference grammar can be useful?  Why or why not?

Similar to English, Korean sentences consist subject and verb or subject, object, and verb. However, where they are placed in a sentence is different. In Korean the subject come right after the verb and if there is an object it comes in between the subject and verb. The verb is often at the end of the sentence. I will acquire this knowledge of the Korean language structure through both my Korean language partner and research and practice from listening. I think reference grammar will help because it is better to understand why the language is that way as oppose to just memorizing because often grammar can have exceptions. 

The Culture Shock video explained experiences that were in ways similar to my own when I came to University of Richmond. The feelings of awe and excitement when first arriving in a novel place and then the feeling of uncomfortableness of the surrounding culture that consumes those experiencing culture shock were very relatable. Even though I am just from the west coast Richmond, Virginia, felt like a whole other country. The first shock was the difference in my surroundings such as the landscapes. I then noticed the more in depth differences such as the diversity of people, especially on our campus. California has a far more diverse population and the high school I attended had an almost equal percentage of all races. I lived most of my whole life surrounded by Asian people and it was easy to stay within that bubble like community. So when I came here, I was completely out of my comfort zone. I also noticed subtle difference in the way people talked here. However, as one of the people in the video stated, these feelings did not represent my overall experience here. As a I found my group of friends and became more appreciative of the school and the city in general, my experience here has been great and I am more than happy to be attending University of Richmond. 

My goals this week were to learn the nominative declensions, the nominative singular, commonly used adjectives and numbers 1-20. I worked with my textbook to get the basics of the grammar, I made flash cards for the adjectives and the numbers, and I practiced with my language partner. I found that many of the adjectives were similar to their Russian counterparts, but they just have slightly different pronunciations and declensions. The numbers were also very similar to Russian, but the pronunciation different. In my practice with Bohdan (my language partner), I was able to better hear the differences between Russian and Ukrainian pronunciations because he speaks both languages fluently. 

For my cultural project, I will talk about the intricate Ukrainian wedding traditions. Wedding ceremonies in Ukraine usually last hours to even days, and the traditions that still take place are amazing. In researching Ukrainian wedding traditions, I hope to gain a better understanding of Ukraine's overall culture, as weddings are a big part of any culture. Ukrainian weddings are not very similar to traditional western weddings, and the fact that these traditions in Ukraine still exist despite Ukraine's efforts to shift itself more westward is very interesting. 

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In this artifact, I say:

• Hello, how are you today?
• What is your name?
• My name is Brad
• Where are you from?
• I am from New York
• Can I ask you a question?
• Where do you live?
• I live in Richmond
• Good, and then this is my "family tree"
• My dad's name is Doug and my mom's name is Mary
• My name is Brad and I am the second child
• I have an older sister and her name is Taylor
• I am a student at the University of Richmond
• I am studying political science
• That's all, have a good day

Learning Journal 7:  Reflect upon your progress to date, consider the effectiveness of your learning plan and activities, and discuss what changes--if any--you will make to finish the semester.

I believe that I am doing great to date. So far, I have completed Task 1 (Greetings) which includes: “Greeting expressions: “asking” expressions, “thank you” expressions, “sorry” expressions, “leaving” expressions. 

I will also focus on introducing myself — name, age, where I am from, etc. — and introducing others (who are they, their age, where they are from, etc.) 

Personal identification: I am a student, what I study, basic hobbies, etc.”

Moreover, I have completed Task 2 (Family Tree) which includes: “Family tree, the meaning of family in Indonesia’s culture — especially in Bali. The hierarchy and social structure that tags along with the family. How to introduce them to others, how to introduce myself to them.” 

Lastly, I have completed Task 4 (Survival Language) which includes: “When your language breaks down: functional language. What kids of things do you need to learn when your language breaks down. Speak more slowly, I don’t understand you. Negotiation Language. How do you say this. Do you speak English, etc.”

With that said, I only have one more Task to complete: Telling Time, Date, and Counting.

Therefore, I do not plan to alter my learning plan and the activities that I have been doing. My learning plan is effective because the sources that I have been working with are organized and comprehensive. Moreover, to supplement my conventional sources, I am watching a good deal of videos so as to obtain an understanding of the day-to-day life/customs and history of my targeted language’s country. 

(a) My first artifact conversation consists of common greetings, introductions and farewells. I tried my best to shake the Russian pronunciation that I am so used to using, but I had a suspicion that I still made some mistakes. I let my language partner listen to the recording, and he said that I was pronouncing things better than I originally did, but I still made a few mistakes. Pronunciation will be an ongoing theme for my Ukrainian studies.

(b) For weeks 4-5, I wanted to learn the gender rules, the possessive pronouns and their uses in nominative case, how to ask "whose" questions with the correct gender, how to ask about someone or something's location, and how to use pronouns correctly. I expected this to be much more similar to Russian, and I was surprised by the various differences. Once I got past my preconceived ideas, I did not have much trouble mastering these topics.

I have been studying Korean on and off for about 10 months now. What I find most difficult is grammar; I am usually okay with memorizing vocabulary terms, however it is difficult knowing how to exactly construct a sentence, as well as making sure others understand your pronunciation. Throughout my learning experience, I realized that in order to learn the Korean language, it is important to be mindful of the culture, and it’s values and norms. It is impossible to learn the Korean language without having a thorough understanding of the culture, and the appropriateness of using certain forms of language.

The Korean Language uses a hierarchical system; even when someone is a year or a couple months older than you, it is important to speak formally. Often times, once you become close, it becomes more acceptable to drop the formalities, however, most of the time the rules of formality and informality are maintained. If one were to use the informal command of language in a formal situation or to someone much older (or someone in an authority position), it is assumed the person is rude and inconsiderate of Korean values. This is why it is important for foreigners learning Korean to recognize the values of the hierarchical system before learning the language. Usually, foreigners learn the formal command of language, because changing to informal is easy after having a grasp on verbs and conjugation.

I have a difficult time understanding Korean in a spoken context. I often find myself frustrated when I am watching a drama or listening to a conversation and not being able to understand what is being said. Since I am a perfectionist, I want to have everything right the first time, which is nearly impossible for a language learner. In order to learn a language, it is important to be flexible and open with your mistakes, so that you can improve and correct yourself, or easily accept corrections from others.

In order to improve my communicative competence, I will need to practice my speaking skills by formulating my own sentences. However, I am having a hard time finding this practice and gradually improving. Since I do not fit in either the beginning class nor the intermediate level with Minkyung, I have to self teach outside of class, which does not provide me the opportunity to speak with a language partner. Because of this, I feel as though I am moving backwards in the beginning course, since these are all things I taught myself during the summer. I feel as though I want to move quicker so that I can feel confident with my speaking, listening, and conversing skills, but I am unable to. The best I can do now is either find a time to meet with Minkyung separately  (if she has time available), or continue to self teach and make practice dialogue examples, so that I am prepared for my speaking examination come December.