Hello! My name is Angella Lee. Last year in SDLC 111, I learned about the terms that are used at a Korean university. For example, I learned about major, exchange student, professor, GPA, and etc. This semester in SDLC 112, I want to learn about the cultural aspects of South Korea and that of the United States, so that I can compare them. Thank you!
I think I've made some substantial progress in my learning plan thus far through both my lessons with Jimin and my own independent study. The most important aspect of this was the communication between Jimin and I when we first started lessons. I explained what I wanted to accomplish by the end of the semester and gave a rough outline of activities I thought would be useful in achieving that goal, and Jimin helped me polish that into a structured learning plan. So far, we've watched clips of Korean variety tv shows that have really helped me understand the cultural environment around the usage of certain idioms and Korean slang phrases. Although I have a relative understanding of basic vocabulary of Korean, I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the colloquial language of Korean, and that makes it difficult to truly grasp the meaning of a conversation at times. By learning the contexts of certain sayings and their meanings, I was able to then use that meaning in the context of webtoons and other forms of media that I stated wanting to be able to understand in my learning plan.
I still have a long way to go before I fully accomplish all the goals I talked about wanting to achieve in my PanOpto recording, but I think that continuing on my current path will get me there. I think in particular, gaining competence in grammar along with a firmer grasp of colloquial language or slang language will really help in my attempt to reach these goals, especially when reading webtoons. While most of the text in webtoons are split into short speech bubbles, an advanced understanding of Korean grammar structure is needed to understand this, arguably more than regular sentences in a novel or any other traditional form of Korean text. The shortened forms of words, slang and irregular grammar structures used in many popular Korean webtoons may seem easier to understand than "regular" Korean, but in order to understand this abnormal Korean grammar and wording, I need to have a clear grasp of what "normal" Korean grammar and wording looks like and then work my way backwards.
So far into my learning plan, although I am not where I necessarily want to be, I'm surprised of the things that I've learned in the casual way that I've approached it. That said, I've realized how important and convenient having a learning partner would have been in terms of keeping me accountable in continually practicing my Korean and giving me more structure in my learning. With my schedule, I've been mostly learning Korean through language apps that practice writing and vocabulary and listening to Korean songs. These apps have been very convenient in their repetition as well as the verbal exercises. I feel that I'm gradually building my basic vocabulary such as days of the week, food, and people as well as pronunciation. In practicing, I've found myself trying more intentionally in my mind to think of Korean words in my conversations. However, this practice has been very scattered and not consistent. Because of this I will be signing up for a Korean course online and use a Korean textbook to give more structure to my learning plan.
As I try to learn Korean, understanding and immersing myself in Korean culture has shown me the great importance of it in order to learn Korean. As I listen to more Korean songs and watch more Korean shows, I find myself more interested and motivated to learn the language. You want to understand more of this culture in which language is a huge part in understanding it. It is an interconnected relationship.
I believe that my Korean class has been quite productive. So far, we learned how to fix commonly made grammatical mistakes, how to use and write Korean slangs, and learned some proverbs and learned a list commonly used four lettered idioms. It's mainly a lot of pure memorization, so nothing has dramatically changed, but I think I will improve later in the future once I start to apply those in everyday life by using them in daily conversations. I've been watching a lot of Korean variety shows and specifically the Korean language quizzes on those shows that include questions about grammatical mistakes, slangs, proverbs, and idioms. while these battles are entertaining, I felt that I was learning from those because the people on those shows were making similar mistakes to those of mine, and I was somewhat glad I was on the same boat as they were. The relationship between Korean culture and Korean language is quite prominent, and I believe it can be seen with slangs. The youth In Korea use a lot of slangs, and they are so different from actual Korean, and because the number of youths using slangs was so vast, it eventually ended up being a big part of the Korean language culture. In order to improve, I need to start applying what I learned into everyday conversations, since repetition is the best way to practice and memorize. I believe in order to make advances in my linguistic abilities, I need to approach the path of sociolingustic for my next goal, such as learning polite forms. It is very important on how you approach elders in Korea, and by attaining sociolingustic competence, it will be very helpful.
My initial interest in learning Korean starts from K-pop music and Korean TV series (of course). When I was in middle school, the first time I started to watch a Korean drama because all the girls around me were watching that. I can still remember the name of the drama is City Hunter. Girls call the main male character as “oppa” and that became our favorite chatting topic after school. Then I totally became a K-pop fan. My favorite K-pop band is CNBLUE. It used to be an underground band in Japan and then they successfully transferred to one of the most famous stars in Korea. I listened to its music, watch its show and even went to the live concert. At the same time, I watch other Korean dramas as well. Gradually I found out that these habits really help me to build up a good “ear” because I was able to catch several vocals and understood what they were actually talking about. Thus I decided to learn Korean at school. I hope I could be able to understand the lyric of my favorite songs. I hope I could be able to dive deeper into culture through the language learning .
There are 21 vowels and 19 consonants in Korean. When it comes to combinations, each syllable starts with a consonant and ends with a vowel. And vowels by themselves can happen too. Each syllable in Korean is pronounced for the same length with equal stress. This is quite different from English. For example, If you’re a typical American English speaker, you’ll say it as “Caa-me-ra.” Most of the stress is on the “Ca” and the least is on the “a.” When it comes to Korean pronunciation, the syllables in camera are pronounced with equal stress for the same length of time. So the way you’d say it would be “Kah-Meh-Rah.”
Compare Korean with Japanese, there are more vowels in Korean. (only 5 in Japanese). For me, the pronounce Japanese is easier than Korean. I don’t if it is because Japanese sounds more similar to Chinese so that they pronounce sometimes the same. However, for Korean, I could barely pronounce the sound eu perfectly as I could in Japanese.
A key goal that I have done well maintaining throughout my study Malta is better understanding the complex political and cultural influences that have impacted the language and society, as a whole. I expressed in my original learning plan presentation that I wanted to learn about the history and I feel as if I have done this through research in English and the target language. As I study the Maltese language, I try to pick up on linguistic subtleties that connect the Maltese to the Italians, French, and Arabs. When I write out the vocabulary words in Maltese, I try to compare them to the Italian words that I know. I have found that there are a handful of cognates in Maltese and Italian, which is very interesting, but one challenge I did not foresee is the unpredictable nature of the language. For example, some vocabulary words are the near-same to French and Italian counterparts, but other words have completely unfamiliar roots and sounds. I believe this challenge stems from the fact that I have not studied Arabic, but hopefully, it is a skill that improves over time as I see more vocabulary.
In addition, the last blog post I wrote really inspired me to do a lot of research about the Maltese political system and economy. My classes this semester focus on international business issues and the economics of developing nations, so I tried to apply what I have learned towards an analysis of Malta. Beginning to research the HDI, GDP, and natural resources of the country led me to want to become more of an expert on the subject. In order to continue this theme and apply the subject with my language studies, I am going to focus this week’s vocabulary on geography and basic economic terms. Conducting this type of research was really interesting for me because it is relevant to my larger college studies.
At this point, I have focused a lot on studying basic phrases, vocabulary, and culture/history. One element that I think I can begin to focus more on is understanding the grammar of Maltese language through reading. One problem I have run into is contradicting basic grammar structures online The language is not widely spoken, therefore there are fewer resources than I expected for learning. I have been able to memorize certain phrases for basic communication and recognize vocabulary, but I think the missing link is truly understanding the syntax. As I write this post, I am considering that this week I should read basic texts about the geography of Malta. This would be extremely interesting for me, considering I traveled to all parts of the island and visited the capital city. In addition, I mentioned in my learning plan presentation that I wanted to be able to talk more knowledgeable about the places I visited in Malta last year. For the presentation, I envisioned pulling up some of the many beautiful pictures I took of the country and being able to describe the history behind each location.
As I have discussed, in order to strengthen my Maltese linguistic abilities, I need to make a strong effort in improving my abilities to put together sentences. After reviewing some of the original language exercises I outlined in my plan, I want to start applying the idea of reading interesting texts in the target language to learn faster. I am making it my priority this week to find a couple of unique writings (poetry or historical) that highlight the geography or political climate of Malta. At the start of the semester, I identified myself as a very tangible and visual learner, so I want to continue incorporating learning elements that are unique and keep up my interest.
I am pleasantly surprised with how much I have learned from Turkish so far. Listening to my PanOpto recording, I listed a lot of goals I had that I thought were way too idealistic and impossible to achieve. I did not think I was going to reach a good number of them properly. I have actually achieved a lot of those goals already, though! I know how to introduce myself, know the numbers of the Turkish alphabet, etc. because of the same sources I listed in my recording and learning plan. Using those sources, my language partner, Turkish music, the website resources I listed, the Turkish textbook I am using, the Turkish dictionaries I listed, etc., as I had planned to actually helped me in achieving a good amount of my goals.
A huge part of my language learning that has undoubtedly helped is the repetitive exposure to and usage of Turkish. Hearing Turkish music and singing along (or getting the lyrics stuck in my head), going through the Turkish textbook with my language professor and fellow Turkish learners, studying the vocabulary and grammar, doing all of these several times a week has culminated into actual understanding of what I am studying, no matter how basic of Turkish it is. I want to continue this track in order to achieve my communicative competence, as I believe it is helping a lot. I do, however, want to gain knowledge of colloquial understandings in Turkish as Brown noted, in order for me to interact not only in the Turkish language itself properly, but in my actions and mannerisms while speaking to a Turkish person or being in Turkey as well. To do this, I want to finally achieve getting to know a close Turkish pen pal. I also want to connect with members of the Turkish-American community if possible.
Since I am not taking the actual self-directed Korean language class this semester, I am not learning Korean, so it's difficult to say whether anything changed or not. But, after watching my PanOpto recording, I think I realized how ambitious I was because realistically, the tasks I mentioned would be hard to consistently complete especially with other classes and work. Even now, I haven't been able to practice and keep up with learning Korean. It's difficult to call my parents everyday, and when we do call each other, phone conversations are usually not that long. Also, I just don't need to speak the language here. It's interesting how sometimes I think I speak more Japanese than Korean. Even though I'm not actively learning through textbooks or with a teacher, I continue to watch Korean dramas and variety shows to immerse myself more into Korean culture. I also frequently watch Korean YouTubers and attempt to read more Korean comments. I think passively learning a language through entertainment can help one not only understand more of the language, but also the culture because language is the core of culture. By watching funny variety shows, you can learn about jokes and puns along with Korean humor. Through dramas, you can see what family relationships are like while learning the terms people use to call each other.
Learning through entertainment is enjoyable, but to really improve my communicative competence, I want to focus on grammatical competence and discourse competence. Learning passively and only listening to the language will only get you so far. To really use it, speaking is essential, so I want to learn more grammar and have a stronger foundation in order to speak fluently one day. Because I have never learned that much grammar, I realized that I tend to make more mistakes, sometimes questioning myself if what I said made sense or not or thinking about a different, simpler way to phrase my thoughts. I think knowing grammar would be very helpful for creating sentences and going farther than just simple conversations.
I wouldn't say that I made any major changes to my learning plan, but I did find some focuses in my study and learned what I lack the most. I've noticed that I needed to work a lot more on my writing and proper spacing in grammatical sense than speaking and learning new vocabulary. In order to make the most out of my time, I chose to distribute more time towards my writing exercises and less on my speaking, listening, and vocabulary. I been having some trouble learning all the confusing vowel spellings and spacing rules which are common mistakes for most native writers as well. My tutor has helped a lot by giving me tips to remember those rules, and having those extra practice exercises helped me practice applying to my writing.
Other than writing, I have been watching Korean tv shows on Korean language battles where they have a competition on earning points by answering different Korean language related questions. I really enjoy using the TV show because it is really fun and effective in improving my listening, reading, and vocabulary. It hits so many of my learning objectives all at once. In addition, having to talk to my tutor only in Korean boosted my comfort level in speaking. I would always talk in English with my other Korean friends, but after having my tutor to practice my speaking skills regularly, I feel more comfortable speaking Korean to my other Korean friends as well.
Language is definitely a part of culture, and on the other hand, culture is conveyed through language. They seem to be co-dependent on each other. Many language conventions exist because of a particular culture element. For example, slangs in Korean expanded so much due to the way young Koreans talk. In addition, this specific language value was conveyed through language and became a big part of the culture. There is a cycle between culture and language and one affects the other all the time.
With prior knowledge in Korean, I think I need to focus on grammatical competence and sociolinguistic competence. I think there's always room for more higher level vocabulary and syntax mastering. By focusing on sociolinguistic competence, I can improve my sensitivity to dialect and naturalness. In addition, it exposes me to a lot of cultural elements which allows me to get to know different cultural references and figures of speech. Even though I am Korean, with little native experience, I'm not too familiar with different cultural references and my slight uncomfortableness shows through my unnaturalness. When I visited Korea two years ago, I had friends telling me that I definitely have a foreigner vibe and I hope to be more natural after being exposed to various cultural cues and standards in my study.
Study has been going well. Our class has finished learning the alphabet, and I feel somewhat confident remembering the basic vowels and consonants. Also, we learned several basic words for greeting people and making short conversations. Nothing has changed yet but I want to learn more about Korean cultures. I would say that culture and language are very much related, in Chinese, there are even new slang phrases as popular culture evolves. I think similar situation happens in Korea. To improve my communicative competence, I need to learn both the Korean language and the nuances that happen because of contemporary popular culture. Other kind of competence I want to attain is sociolinguistic competence. As I understand, Koreans care a lot about etiquette and addressing their elders properly in the correct suffixes, and that is important in knowing the language.
I am extremely interested in Korean K-pop music. I am also happy that K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon because of the distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography, and production values and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in grueling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection. Looking at the girl group and the boy group dancing on stage, I can feel their passion and energy. In China, the idol group does not attract public attention and there is a little stage for them to show their talent.
Besides K-pop music, I start to watch Korean shows when I was in middle school. In Korean, gagman is a respectful job for they bring joy to the audience in Korean tv shows. Korean shows are really funny and sometimes it teaches me Korean culture. For example, from the tv shows, I start to learn what food Korean eats, what is hanbok, what is Korean’s history and etc. I still remember in a tv show called ‘Two Day and One Night’, the gagman made kimchi by themselves and explain why Korean’s traditional dishes is kimchi. I found it fascinating to learn a new culture and understand it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFs81tAQhw
Ketawang Puspawarna is a famous gamelan composition from central Java, Indonesia, attributed to Prince Mangkunegara IV (reigned 1853-1881) of the Mangkunegaran Palace in Surakarta (known colloquially as Solo). Today the piece is played as the prince enters the palace, and at the end of an all-night Wayang, or shadow puppet performance.
"Ketawang" refers to the gong-structure format of the piece, and denotes it as having 16 beats between strikes of the gong ageng (meaning "largest gong"). The buka, or introduction, of the piece is played by the rebab, a two-stringed bowed lute with ancestry from the middle east. The kendhang (drum), who acts as the rhythmic leader of the ensemble, enters soon after and leads the ensemble to slow the tempo down. The pesindhen, the female singer, enters later on, accompanied by the gerong, the male chorus; they sing during the ngelik (chorus section) and add stylistic cries to mark the ensemble's position within the gong structure.
Within the context of the Javanese court, gamelan music is played in a Pendhapa, a large, open-walled structure similar to a pavilion (seen below). If you listen closely to the recording, you can hear birds nesting in the rafters of the pendhapa calling - in response to, or in spite of - the gamelan music below.
Gamelan music experienced a period of flourishing performing arts practice during the 18th - 20th centuries, as four rival courts in Surakarta and Yogyakarta (both in central Java) competed to refine the art forms of music, poetry, and dance. Today, central Java is considered by the Javanese to be a major hub for performing arts, even with the diminished feudal power of the courts. Indonesian performing arts - and their many regional and island variations - are a source of national pride for Indonesians, and today, government-sponsored events such as the Bali Arts Festival and Art Jog work to maintain popular interest in traditional and contemporary Indonesian arts.
I am extremely interested in Korean's interpersonal relationships in colleges and universities. Because I moved to America at such a young age, I can't really understand any of the school culture that my friends in Korea talk about. I've always had fantasies of what it would be like to go to a Korean high school or college. In between the Korean students, there are slangs that go around, and it is really interesting. Also, the relationships between friends and classmates is completely different than that of American schools. Korean students speak formally to strangers or people that are even one year older than you. Age plays a huge role in Korea as to how you talk to someone, what words you use, and how you deliver your message. To learn about this school culture, I have to know formal vocabulary and what words I can use or not. For example, there are three different ways to say the command "eat" in Korean. 밥먹어 is informal and used commonly to friends or people younger than you. 식사하세요 is formal and used commonly to strangers or people older than you. 진지드세요 is super formal and used commonly to your grandparents or someone that is significantly older than you. I've incorporated advanced vocabulary and preparing for Yeonsei in my learning plan to engage these topics.
This is a blog post I have been anticipating writing for some time, as my initial interest in Indonesian culture was through the traditional gamelan music of Bali and Java. Because of Indonesia's existence as an archipelago of thousands of islands, many styles and regional variations of ensemble music have developed, and there is huge variation as far as the instruments used, the socio-cultural context of performance, its relation to local dance styles, and the overall mood evoked by the pieces. As these styles of music have often been developing for centuries prior to the standardization and nationalization of the Indonesian language, the vocabulary related to performance - and, if applicable, the language used for singing - is often the regional/island language, such as Balinese, Javanese, etc.
In Javanese gamelan, the lyrics recited by the pesindhen (female singer) and the gerong (male chorus) are usually sung in Kawi, a standardized form of Old Javanese with a considerable amount of Sanskrit loan words. The Javanese language is hierarchical in nature, meaning that there are essentially three distinct languages within one - the lowest form is meant for speaking to a person of a lower social status, the middle form for speaking to someone of an equal class, and the highest form being reserved to speaking to priests or royalty. Kawi is considered the pinnacle language of this hierarchical structure. This language is largely esoteric in modern Java, so most Javanese listeners do not understand the lyrics being sung; rather, the music is meant to promote a pensive, meditative state for those who do not understand.
Through my participation in the gamelan ensemble throughout most of my time at UR and my education with Indonesian music teachers, I have been immersed in the introductory language used to describe Balinese and Javanese music. For pretty much every note or sound played by the gamelan, there is a vocal representation for it, especially for the drum patterns and the cyclical "landmark" instruments, like the gong, kenong and kempul. I plan to research Javanese sung poetry at some point in the future, but I consider it most important at this point to study Indonesian, as this is likely the language that will be shared between myself and music teachers. In my learning plan, I have included learning more gerong texts and popular songs in Bahasa Indonesia.
One thing in particular that interests me about Malta is that despite a chaotic history of political rulings, it has been able to develop successfully as a nation. The country has existed independently, as a republic, for less than 50 years (December 1974) and joined the EU in 2008. Over the course of history, Malta has been conquered by multiple other countries that have had a tremendous impact on the development of Maltese culture. It is surprising to me, though, that the disorganized political ownership has not left the country in worse shape.
Malta was first discovered around 5200BC and was first colonized by the Phoenicians around 800BC. Following this, the Roman domination started in 218BC, followed by the Arab (870) conquests until 1090. During the Middle Ages, Malta was conquered by four different groups (Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese). It was said the Arab rule was one of the harshest, resulting in the migration of many people to nearby Sicily and significant death. In 1530, though, the Knights of St. John arrived in Malta to revive the society and introduce Renaissance ideals. The population experienced significant growth during this time period and the reign was more positive than the last. The period under St. John was short-lived, as Napolean Bonaparte conquered Malta from the Knights in 1798. Similar to the last, the French occupation of Malta only lasted a couple of years until the British officially established Malta as a British Crown Colony. It was during this political period that the Maltese natives begin to fight for self-government and independent ruling. It was in 1964 that Malta was granted independence within the British Commonwealth and in 1974 that Malta became its own republic. From this point onward, Malta has pushed to become its own independent nation within the EU/Eurozone.
It strikes me as unusual that an island in the Mediterranean, conquered by so many other large world powers, is functioning fairly well and developed today. It seems more typical that small island regions, like Malta, are left extremely resource-depleted, dependent, and underdeveloped after experiencing the political rulership of so many different parties. On multiple development indexes, Malta tends to fall just below Italian rankings and above some of the other countries in the Mediterranean. For example, Malta’s GDP per capita for 2017 was approximately $27,145.81 and Italy’s GDP for 2017 was $34,877.83. Other close GDP per capita approximates include Cyprus at $29,432.67 and Greece at $23,027.41. Although the GDP figures appear low compared to US per capita GDP ($53,128.54), it is important to consider factors such as nation size and adjusted rate for PPP, that can render Malta’s GDP more valuable that it seems at first glance. On the Human Development Index, Malta ranks an overall .878, in comparison to Italy that ranks .88 and the US at .924. In the areas of life expectancy at birth and inequality-adjusted HDI, Malta actually ranks higher than the US.
The first area that I looked towards to better understand what features of Malta left it stable, despite thousands of years of political conquest, is geography. I am studying the effect of the “natural resource curse” in my Economics of Developing Nations class and one thing I noticed about Malta is that it is not particularly rich in any one natural resource. I researched online and discovered that tourism, small-scale agriculture, and some manufacturing are the primary sources fueling GDP. The service industry (88.1% of GDP) makes up most of the economy, manufacturing (10.6%) comes in second, and agriculture comes in third (1.3%). This type of GDP composition, service-oriented, is reflective of a very industrially developed country. The fact that Malta was not rich in resources such as metals, agricultural products, or oil could have possibly protected it from exploitation over time. As a next step, I am very curious to better understand the development of similar island-nations, with a disorganized political histories.
Another factor of the Maltese economy I would like to explore more is the potential impact of immigration. Malta has been considered a discouraging addition to the EU because of its role in North African immigration into Italy. Malta is located conveniently close to Libya and Tunisia (North Africa), so it serves as a first stop for illegal immigrants. Surprisingly, it seems that the Maltese economy may actually have a need for migrant workers, considering it has an extremely low unemployment rate filled by its large working-age population and increasing economic growth. While conducting research online, I found that the Maltese government is outwardly very resistant to African immigration, but many workers are slowly becoming integrated into the informal economy. I hope to do more research about how the culture and backgrounds of these people will become a part of the larger Maltese story.
One aspect of Korean culture that really interests me, is the popularity of cartoons called "Webtoons". While cartoons in American culture are usually considered to be in the children's realm of entertainment, the popular internet service/app "Webtoon" is catered specifically for a teenage/adult audience and has attained enormous success. The authors or lead artists of popular webtoons gain celebrity status, which I saw first-hand through a youtube video. In it, people described their ideal boyfriend or girlfriend to someone who was separated from them by a wall, and when they revealed the artist to whom they had described everything, people were shocked. The person on the other side of the wall was the lead artist/writer of an extremely popular webtoon, and every one of these people who were from all different walks of life, all knew him and were star-struck. This behavior towards the writer behind a comic-book series is possible in American culture, but would have to be from a group of fans of that specific comic series, thereby making it a niche culture; for Korea, it seems to be a national adoration.
However, one of the aspects of the webtoons that contributes to its popularity, is its replica of colloquial Korean, and even the type of slang used in texts.There is a very distinct difference between texting in Korean and speaking normally in Korean, just as there is usually a difference between texting and speaking in English. Often times, people will shorten words like 스타벅스 (starbucks) to 스벅 (sbuck) or even mix different languages like Japanese or English in these shortenings. The meaning of this kind of slang can be hard to decipher at times, and with this kind of vocabulary being used throughout webtoons, it means I need to study it in order to understand what's going on in them. I included in my learning plan that I wanted to be able to read an entire webtoon and understand everything that's going on, without looking anything up, and in order to do so I'll need to learn more about slang along with the general culture of Korea. My Korean teacher Jimin took this into account and showed me clips of Korean variety shows, gave worksheets with lists of Korean slang vocabulary that we then translated and went through common Korean idioms or sayings so I would be able to expand my knowledge of both slang and Korean culture.
I have been interested in Korean slangs for a long time. I've been exposed to it since I was young and would always hear it on tv shows without knowing what they mean. There are so many slangs in Korean language because they can be improvised very easily. Slangs in English are completely separate words, but in Korean, most slangs are formed by putting syllables of different words together. In a sense, if one knows more Korean vocabulary, it is easier to at least guess what the slang means just from hearing the different syllables from different words and which words it combined.
I wouldn't particularly say that one needs any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to learn the slangs. To learn different slangs, it is as simple as just figuring out which words are shortened to make the one particular slang. In addition, exposure is very important in learning slangs which is why watching Korean variety shows helps a lot.
This is one example of a slang formed with two words:
I have been watching some tv shows with my tutor and every time a slang word would come up, I would write it down and try to guess which words form the slang. Usually, context and just syllables are enough to give the meaning away, but sometimes, there are difficult slangs. Also, just like learning new vocabulary, making vocabulary cards for slangs is another great way to learn them. I have missing sentence exercises to practice my application of slangs as well.
Slangs are used a lot more among the younger age groups, and by being able to use those slangs, you will be able to have more native-like conversations with young Koreans.
I'm really interested in learning more about how interpersonal relationships work in Korean culture. During our last study session, my learning partner and I talked about how age plays a huge part in determining social relations and hierarchy. More specifically, Korean culture emphasizes an individual's birth year more than their real birth date, which is conventional for Americans. Birth years determine which grade year someone is going to be in -- a lot of the time children start school early or late just to be in the same grade as others who share the same birth year. This ensures that people build social relations with others in their age group, and helps to eliminate confusion and social tension later in life when people go into the workforce. Age also determines how Koreans interact with one another -- when talking to someone older we have to use formal language and pronouns. This isn't the case in English; however Bengali does have similar language rules when it comes to formal/informal language. Although age groups don't play as big a role in Bengali societies, because of the similar rules in most Asian languages, I want to learn more about how informal/formal language plays a different role in the different cultures.
