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Hebrew is part of the semitic language family, so it shares many similarities with the most often spoken modern semitic language, arabic. One of the biggest similarities I have noticed while studying both languages is how the basic posessive works. In Hebrew, you put the word "sheli" after the object that you possess, but occasionally it can be shortened to just "i" as in "achi:" ach (bro) and i (of mine). Arabic works similarly , by placing a "i" after the possessed object, such as in ach which is brother just like in hebrew. Speaking of brothers, familal nouns tend to be the most ancient in any language, so it makes sense that hebrew and arabic share many of their familial words, such as brother, sister, father. Going back to the modern era, hebrew takes quite a few slang loanwords from arabic, although I am not sure whether this is truly because of the shared linguistic family tree or more a product of geopolitics in the region. Words like yallah (lets go) and majnun (crazy) are both arabic words but used constantly in Israel, in fact it would sound kind of weird to say the hebrew versions of those words.

105 Reflection 5:

Do some preliminary research on what interests you about the target culture and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic?

    What interests me about my target culture is the beautiful antiquity of it. The Ge’ez culture if it can be referred to as that is mainly preserved in religious scripts in the modern day. Although we know it was a language for a large empire in East Africa, now it is the mother of many cultures and tribes. Two of which I am very familiar with which are the Tigrigna and Amhara cultures. Others include the Tigre and Tigray cultures. 

    I hope to attend more annual feasts and holidays of the Church in order to get exposure to a wide range of literature and poetry of those different holidays. I can do this by traveling to different churches in the area and out of state too. Each Church celebrates a unique holiday based on their patron saint and with each holiday there is a unique set of hymns and literature that is shared. 

Also, my language partner has prepared lists of vocabulary words that I would need to directly interact with religious texts. This has been really helpful!

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October 6th

110 Reflection 3:

This week in class with my language partner, I was able to get down the simple past conjugations for verbs. The first one that you learned is for third person, singular, masculine conjugation. This is the first form of the verbs in Ge’ez. I’m not exactly sure how to refer to that in the grammatical sense but I believe it is the equivalent of the “infinitive” form — the form with which the verb is primarily referred to as. An example is the verb “to sleep”, in Ge’ez it is deqese, which means “he slept”. This is the past, third person, singular, masculine form of the verb but it is the simplest way to refer to it and all verbs follow this nomenclature. In spanish it would be dormir and you know it is the infinitive form because of the -ir (-ar,-er in other verbs) ending or morpheme. The ending, “se” [sæ], which is the first character out of 7 variants of the “s” is what indicates the gender and plurality. The sound for the first character is always consonant + [æ]. The second is consonant + [u]....

3rd: + [i]

4th: + [a]

5th: + [e]

6th: + [ɘ] or no vowel depending on where it falls in the syllable

7th: + [o] or [ɔ]

This is the transliteration standard that we (our ‘Resource & Translation’ team at church) created to serve for the documents we work with. We have two vowel families አ and ዐ (These characters are both pronounced [a] in Ge’ez but [æ] and [a] with what seems to be more voicing but I’m not sure what the secondary manner difference is for this one)

I really like relearning mechanics of linguistics along side my language learning process because it really helps the information cement into my mind. Being able to write the building blocks of our character system in IPA is really interesting. The reason why we don’t use IPA is because not many people know it and there is already a standard way that people transliterate their own personal messages so we create resources that go by that standard rather than the official one. It is a compromise between the benefits and disadvantages of each system.

Going back to the original lesson, once you know the verb in its “infinitive” form you learn how to conjugate it 9 others ways, one for each pronoun. I will write down each pronoun with the ending for the verb. My professor indicated to me that the endings for 3rd person pronouns (all except for she) can change as verbs change. The consonant may change but it will still be the same variant of the character (the vowel part). 

1st Person: 

ane + verb + [ku] 

nihne + verb + [næ]

2nd Person:

ante + verb + [kæ]

anti + verb + [ki]

antimu + verb + [kɘmu]

antin + verb + [kɘn]

3rd Person:

wi’itu + verb + [ræ]

yi’iti + verb + [t] (voiced)

wi’itomu  + verb + [ru]

wi’iton + verb + [ra]

Moving forward I think I will learn the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs in Ge’ez because Qesis has mentioned that. Additionally, I will learn more conjugations and declensions. We have already begun talking about inflections like prefixes and suffixes. In Ge’ez prefix is [baɘd] and suffix is [mɘlal).

This past weekend we celebrated the feast of the Cross (Mesqel). I got to attend the celebrations at two different churches that weekend. This was good for me because the celebrations are uniform across Eritrean and Ethiopian Tewahdo Orthodox Churches. Thus it helped me really practice hearing the hymns and the poetry. Before attending, I worked on translating the two main hymns of the festival. I did so with the help of my clerical brothers (deacons). They are called the MilTan and Isme le-Alem. They are sung repeatedly during feast and are in Ge’ez. They are beautiful. This was my motivation in wanting to translating them. I also wanted to share them with others that don’t know the meaning but want to participate.

These are the finalized translations on them:

During the Damera | Bonfire Procession of the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross

1. Mesqel Isme Le-alem: 

መስቀል አብርሐ በከዋክብት አሠርገወ ሰማየ፤ እምኩሉሰ ፀሐየ አርአየ፡፡ 

Mesqel abriha be-kewakibt asergewe semaye; im-kuluse tsehaye araye.

The Cross shined within the stars and adorned the sky; it was shining brighter than the sun. 

2. Mesqel MilTan: 

ሃሌ ሉያ ይቤሎሙ ኢየሱስ፡ ለአይሁድ፡ እመኑ ብየ፡ ወእመኑ በአቡየ፡ ዮምሰ ለእሊአየ፡ አበርህ በመስቀልየ።

Halie luya, yibielomu Īyesus, le-ayhud, imenu Biye, we-imenu be-Abuye, yom’se le’ilī’aye, aberih be-Mesqeliye.

Hallelujah, Jesus says to the Jews, believe in Me, and believe in my Father, today I will shine My Cross on my people.

Another resource I used was other translated versions of these in the Liturgy books that we have but I found that they were confusing. Asking people that knew the context helped me to translate the real meaning. I will give an example of how the translations of the first hymn developed as I got new information:

1. The Cross shined with stars it adorned the sky; the sun shone on all.
2. The Cross shined and had the heavens, embroidered with stars of all the sun is seen. 
   1. This is the translation that is in the Liturgy powerpoint.
3. The cross was shown in structure of stars in sky and shined more than the sun.
   1. This is the translation that is in the Liturgy book.
4. The Cross shined with stars it adorned the sky; the sun [of righteousness who is Jesus Christ] shone the most.
5. The Cross shined within the stars and adorned the sky; it was shining brighter than the sun. 

It is interesting to see the different versions. It may be because of a lack of knowledge of Ge’ez and at the same time the religious context of the works. The fourth translation shows a possible lack of understanding between who the subject of the line is referring to. It also has to do with the word choice. For example, the choice between embroidered and adorned. These don’t make a huge impact on the whole meaning of line.

I am excited to continue translating with my language partner and create new phrases so that it will help me view them also from a writer's eye instead of just a reader's perspective.

Here is a picture of the clergy at a church in Houston singing these hymns. 

This past week I had my first session with my language partner. Before starting with Qesis Moges, I was able to begin my reading schedule in my dual Amharic and Ge’ez book and exposure to listening content. I also found out that I will be teaching basics of Amharic to my Sunday school class in the new curriculum for the Ge’ez new year. After speaking with Qesis, we decided to focus more on Ge’ez and utilize Amharic to teach the material and be a medium between Ge’ez and English. 

In our first lesson, we went over cognates between Ge’ez, Amharic, and Tigrigna and basic parts of speech (pronouns, verbs, adjectives and nouns). A fun fact that I learned is that Ge’ez also has some borrowed words (loan words) from Greek like the words for deacon, bishop (Papas), and episcopal. We talked over all about how verbs are conjugated. Then we dove deeper into pronouns. Ge’ez has 10 pronouns: 

1st Person: 

ane: I (singular, neutral)

nihne: we (plural, neutral)

2nd Person:

ante: you (singular, masculine)

anti: you (singular, feminine)

antimu: you all (plural, masculine, or neutral)

antin: you all (plural, feminine)

3rd Person:

wi’itu: he

yi’iti: she

wi’itomu: they (masculine or neutral)

wi’iton: they (feminine)

Each pronoun has a different conjugation that is gender and plurality specific which is different from English. Though I haven’t formally learned this yet, I know that the endings of these pronouns transfer to different things. Meaning, the -omu, -on, -ti, -te, -ne, etc are morphemes. 

I am excited to learn how to change the general knowledge that I use to gage what different texts are saying into organized knowledge so my reading is not guess work. Learning these structured mechanisms is really interesting and I can apply them almost immediately.

So far, I think a really good way for me to get Ge’ez exposure is simply attending church services and listening to the Ge’ez scriptures being read and hymns being sung. For different Church holidays, I have begun writing down hymns and translating them. 

I appreciate that my language partner has ample knowledge about these texts and services because not only is the language important but the culture and contexts of the hymns. They each have a story behind them that can enhance the meaning of each word. For example, the verb berhe, which means to light up, may mean something way more significant if the person doing the action is God. The words can have double or triple meaning with different contexts because essentially the majority of examples I will look at are pieces of poetry not prose.

The prose that I will be looking at is biographical or historical. I presume that it will be more straightforward than the poetry. Like I said, I will primarily be using a dual Amharic and Ge’ez book called the Miracles of St Mary. 

Next week we will go over more vocabulary that Qesis has prepared for me that will be helpful for my general study.

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The article mentioned pragmatics and it has great variations among societies, cultures and etc. For example, Japanese learners of English would use “I’m sorry” to convey their gratitude to a person who is in high status, while this would cause misunderstanding by native speakers since this actually means apologize in most of situations. This reminded me an experience when I was in an international school and a friend of mine is Germany. One time we were waiting for the bus, and we were talking about the tests we took the other day. She told me that she failed the grammar test, and I replied “oh, I’m sorry”. What I want to convey is I feel sorry for her or I am sorry to hear that, but she did not get the meaning (I guess Germany don’t use “I’m sorry” to convey this kind of meaning), so she asked me with surprise: “Why you are sorry? What did you do? It is not your fault that I failed a test!” I did not know how to explain it to her, and that was the first time I realized how pragmatics might be different across cultures. Also, in Turkish, they like to use a short sentence “Kolay gelsin”, which means “may it be easy for you”. They use it every day everywhere, they would say it to sanitation worker or friend preparing an exam or etc. But in Chinese there is no such expression, because we would use “thank you” to sanitation worker and “加油” (similar to “go for it” in English, but not exactly the same meaning) to friend preparing for exams. I feel like there is no such expression in English either.

Professor Sumi Kim has adopted a way of increasing our Korean vocabulary by listening to Korean pop (K-pop) songs. This makes understanding Korean grammar hard because things like songs and poems transcend the grammatical rules of the language to sound better or to convey a deeper meaning; however, this method has made remembering words much easier because I can recall them in accordance with the catchy tune of the song. It also does help that K-pop is extremely popular now and that it’s something I really enjoy listening too.

There are probably 4 out of every 5 people who have either heard the song Gangnam Style or recognize the iconic steps that go with the song. Ever since the huge success of the artist Psy due to the extremely catchy nature of Gangnam Style and its dance, K-pop songs have slowly been taking over the music industry everywhere. There’s the first generation idols (word used to refer to a K-pop artist) like Psy and BigBang that started K-pop off on this trajectory, then there’s the current biggest K-pop group BTS which really brought K-pop to a new level internationally by winning multiple Billboard award, debuting on multiple country’s television shows, and presenting an award at the Grammys. BTS’s global takeover is challenging the music industry everywhere to do even more, because K-pop idols don’t just make music and sing, they also have intricate dance choreographies for each song which makes their stage presence unbelievably powerful, and they take part in various shows and make multiple videos for the people in their fanbase to make the fans feel connected to the idols in a way that no other artist outside the Korean entertainment industry has accomplished. 

After putting in all that work, it makes sense that BTS is doing so well globally, but even within the K-pop industry BTS’s success is considered huge. Various entertainment companies are trying to compete with this by forming supergroups consisting of members from different popular bands. For example, the supergroup SuperM was formed in 2019 consisting of members from three Korean boy groups (Shinee, EXO, NCT 127) and one Chinese boy group (WayV). Think about that for a second. Ever heard of members of 4 already very successful bands being picked and put together and told that they need to work together now to make it even bigger? Even for forming BTS, auditions were held to form a group in 2010 and then the people who were picked were taken in as trainees and taught how to live life as K-pop idols for years before they finally debuted in 2013. The process in which K-pop bands are formed is not the same as in America where one tries to find a record label to release songs that they have ready. As mentioned above, K-pop idols have to get picked through auditions, then go through the who training process, and then they debut if all goes well. The training process that they have to go through is very intensive and it takes a lot of work to get through it. It is made in such a way because the K-pop industry understands the harsh reality that celebrities have to face when they make it big and their lives are constantly under a microscope with the paparazzi ready to jump at the smallest little deviance. Hence, even after a group debuts, their management helps makes sure that the group’s image is well maintained. This also means that if a K-pop groups ends up with the wrong management, things can quickly go south while the group feels too stressed out by the expectations. 

After going through all this, idols have started becoming a global sensation. However, even the biggest K-pop bands haven’t fully developed respect from the Western market. This is because many people still view K-pop as some teenage girl trend and not as a respectable genre of music. Hopefully, that changes soon.

Israelis tend to be blunt, brash, and quick tempered. Obviously that is a generalization, but it is something most people notice when speaking and getting to know them. At this stage I think it would be hard to answer the question of whether this has anything to do with their language. It is at least funny that Hebrew as a modern spoken language was made in a hurry, and tends to be a simple, rapid manner of communication rather than a language like Japanese where you have to say a lot to mean a little. Hebrew goes straight to the point, and does away with complicated conjugations or grammatical rules in favor of guttural pronunciation and a plethora of swear words. One funny example of Israeli bluntness can be heard on weekends when my language partner is at her house. During a break, sometimes I will her yell at her mother downstairs to get her a glass of water. The sentence (and sentiment) could be translated something like "mom! water now!" In response I will hear similar yelling coming from downstairs but I can't quite make that out. Of course, a sentence like that sounds pretty rude to American ears, but when asked about it, she just said she thinks it is normal. In her words, Israelis in general don't see the point of using words like please and thank you since getting what you need is more important than superficial manners. As such a young country, that has fought an existential war almost every single decade since it's inception, this cultural facet makes me wonder if the overwhelming national sense of urgency and emergency has contributed to this linguistic and cultural mannerism.

These past meetings my study of Hebrew has moved on from useful phrases and pronunciation and instead focused on basic grammar and conjugations such as conjugating adjectives and the possessive "my." These two systems seem to function as extremely simplified versions of arabic - instead of arabic's 12 or 13 conjugations of verbs, I can't quite remember which, hebrew only really has 4: male singular, female singular, many masculine, and many female. Hebrew is the first language I have studied where verb conjugations don't really extend to cover every single pronoun - for example, there are different words for you male, you female, but these are the same conjugations as he and she, since in the end you are only referring to one male or one female. Possessives are a bit more complicated, with Hebrew adding two extra forms in he and hers to bring the total to 6 endings. Adjective conjugation is similar to verbs with only 4 endings depending on gender and number.

One tricky thing that makes hebrew a little tough is the fact that gender for many words is not explicitly defined. Arabic female endings almost always end in a special letter called tar marbuta that is pronounced like a, russian usually ends in a or ya with some exceptions, but hebrew words rarely end in an a. Instead, if the word is spelled with a consonant like t or h, it is generally female, but this rule has exceptions. I haven't really gotten the hang of this yet but I don't think it is a huge deal at the moment since people still know what you are talking about if you misgender an item.

Lastly I worked on article definition. I wasn't really sure what this was at first (and neither was my language partner) but as we worked together we realized that there were rules concerning when you referred to an object by et (that) ha (the) ze (this) or none of those. Apparently we have this in english too although I never noticed, and luckily like english this doesn't change anything about the object, unlike arabic which uses different case endings depending on whether the word is defined or not.

For the last two weeks, we learned numbers, times and family trees. We also watched many interesting videos which introduce a lot about Turkish food and music. I think I am much more familiar with the Turkish alphabets now, and I can pronounce almost every word in Turkish even though I do not understand its meaning. My instructor also praised my pronunciation which encouraged me a lot. At the beginning of every class, my instructor would have a small conversation with us in Turkish, and normally the conversation was about the thing we learned in lase class or simple greeting, which I think is good because it helped me to revise and remember what we learned in past.
When I first learned numbers, I thought it is really difficult to remember the pronunciations. Then I would translate the pronunciation into something I am familiar with. Also, the Turkish rule of expressing numbers is quite easy. For example, “bir” means one, and “on” means ten. So eleven is “on bir”. “bin” is thousand and “yuz” is a hundred. So “bir bin bir yuz on bir” is “1111” Also, we did a little exercise at the beginning of the last class to help us revise numbers, which I think really helped.
However, it is more difficult to express time in Turkish. There are two different expressions: past and to. For example, if the time is “10:08”, we would use “past” to say “8 minutes past ten”. And if the time is “10:45”, we would use “to” to say “15 minutes to 11”. Also, the expressions of the number are different, depending on whether it is “to” or “past”. I made a little summary table below to help me better memorize the rules.
We also learned family trees. Turkish culture really values family, so they have almost every person their own names. However, we only learned some basic ones. We learned father, mother, cousin, son, daughter, and husband. We also learned how to introduce their names and ages.
We also watched a very cute video of American kids trying Turkish food and snakes. I am so obsessed with Turkish food, so I enjoyed watching that video. Unfortunately, there is no Turkish food restaurant in Richmond, but my instructor said there are several really good Turkish restaurants in New York. I will definitely try them if I go to New York someday.

My language learning over the past two weeks has largely focused on familiarizing myself with the vocabulary surrounding time in Bahasa Melayu, certain topics on food, and, as always, pronunciation. One of my primary goals was to be able to tell time. Luckily, this is very similar to the way time is said aloud in English (five o'clock in the morning, e.g.), and I was able to catch on fairly quickly. The useful thing about learning time is that I am gradually able to build upon my language foundations in other areas and convey more complicated messages that go beyond generalities and basic statements. Similar to Chinese, verbs are not conjugated in Malay, meaning that a great emphasis is placed on context and verbal indicators to glean meaning about past, present, or future statements. Because of my experience learning Mandarin, this idea was fairly easy to grasp early-on and not particularly unusual to me. Whether it is adverbs (already, always, never, etc.) or specific times (everyday, yesterday, tomorrow, next week, etc.), forming sentences in this way has proved easier than I had anticipated, especially given the similar grammar structures that exist between Malay and English. In many ways, Malay has proven to be a great middle-of-the-road language for me as both an English and a Mandarin speaker, with notable elements and influences from both. Melissa has been very helpful and patient in helping me form new sentences or in providing me with coherent examples and phrases. In our meetings, much of the learning is done through conversation and oral repetition, which allows me to practice both new components of the language and pronunciation at the same time.

I also explored food culture in Malaysia more deeply, using the textbook as the basis and expanding further after that. Melissa showed me a video in Malay on how to make fish head curry (Kari Kepala Ikan), a very popular dish in Malaysia -- I am even contemplating making it on my own. We talked about measure words in Malay (which are present in Mandarin, though perhaps as more specific quantifiers than Malay), and how some of the most prevalent ones are used. I am more and more excited for Asia Week next month, given that the chefs at D-Hall are going to be serving some Malaysian cuisine (and likely Chinese as well). I loved the food when I visited Malaysia, and the vocabulary surrounding food is perhaps one of the most useful bits of language one can learn to engage with the host culture. Of course, I will continue to learn different topics of food throughout my language learning journey, but I enjoyed learning about a popular dish and the ingredients used to make it.

Overall, the past two weeks have admittedly been a slower period in language learning because I was out for one week at a conference and did not have the regular exposure to and contact with Melissa, which is always immensely beneficial to me and my learning. Though I had homework and a clear list of material to review, I want to find other ways that I can continue to engage independently with my language when meeting with a language partner is not always an option, especially considering that this is something that I struggle with even today in learning Mandarin. Maybe this means using a new app or website, or maybe it simply means trying a less traditional approach to studying (e.g. watching Malaysian TV or listening to Malaysian Music). I am still working on the best way to handle this.

One of my biggest motivations for learning Turkish is to learn more about Turkish culture, especially their food and music. Turkey is famous for its delicious food, besides its spectacular landscape. My instructor said in class that Turkish food never let anyone down, and I strongly believe in that. Turkish food is a perfect combination of Western food and Central Asia food. It uses all kinds of meat and strong spices. Also, since China is also famous for its delicious food, I want to compare their foods.

Another thing that I am interested in is Turkish music. My favorite Turkish singers are Tarkan Tevetoglu and Hadise Acikgoz. Hadise Acikgoz is a singer and a song-writer. She wrote almost every song she sings. Turkish songs are all very catchy. Although I do not understand the lyrics, I am still attracted by the vibrant and energetic flows. Also, their music videos are westernized, which I am a lot disappointed. Because I think Turkish culture is unique and exoteric, the music videos would seem much more amazing if they could incorporate some indigenous culture.

On the third week, Brenda asked us to choose a topic in the textbook to learn. There are a lot of interesting topic such as shopping, tourism, restaurant and telephone. We finally decide to learn more about restaurant because we think it is important to learn how to order food in Korea. At the beginning of the class, we learned about the background of Korean meal. A Korean meal usually consists of rice, soup, main dishes, and side dishes. The rice and soup are served separately to each individual, but the main dished and side dished are placed in the center of the table to shared with others. There is no need to leave a tip. This is actually really similar with Chinese meal. And since I have watched a great number of Korean show, I had plenty of knowledge about 식당 （restaurant) in Korea.

After having a basic understanding of Korean meal, we learn how to order in Korean.

여기요 (Excuse me!)  in for calling a waiter. And the waiter will reply 주문하시겟슴니까? This means that would you like to order? And then you can start to order. For example, you want two orders of Bulgogi. Then you should say,불고기 2 인분 주세요. In this way, you successfully order two orders of bulgogi. Then, the waiter will say 네, 알겠습니다. This means yes sir/ma’am.

Except this, we also learned a lot of conversation related with restaurant.

Is there a good Korean restaurant nearby? 근처에 좋은 한국 식당이 있습니까?

May I please have a menu? 메뉴 좀  주세요?

What is the most popular dish here? 여기서 가장 인기있는 요리는 무엇입니까?

I would like to order. 주문 할게요

We will have one Samgyetang and one Bibimbap please. 삼게탕하고 비빔밤 주세요

Please leave out the Gochujang. 고추장 뻬주세요.

At the same time, we also learned a lot of vocabulary about 식당.

Side dish: 반찬

Salt: 소금

Pork: 돼지고기

Chopsticks:젓가락

Check:게산서

Delicious: 맛있는

It is spicy:매운 맛입니다.

Water: 물

Peper:후추

Fork:포크

Spoon:숟가락

Pay:계산

With these examples of conversation, we practiced with each other to order food in Korean.

On the fourth week, we also learned some vocabularies related to dormitory and country.

Korea 한국     India 인도     Philippines필리핀 Thailand 태국

Australia 호주  Canada 캐나다     China 중국    France 프랑스

Germany 독일       America 미국      Japan 일본         UK 영국    

Russia 러시아   Vietnam베트남

Refrigerator 냉장고   pillow베개    fan선풍기     shoes신발

Trash can쓰레기통   hanger걸이  blanket담요    window창문

Wardrobe옷장      bed침대     curtain커튼    cup 컵 

In these two weeks, I did learn a lot. I believe the knowledge that I learned in the class will definitely help me live in Korean. And I really liked the way we learned in class. Practice makes perfect. Only when we really apply what we learned by making sentences on our own, we will say it more fluently.

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There are scores of Malaysian cultural insights that I would like to delve into more deeply, though I am perhaps most interested in learning more about the Sultanate. The Sultanate has a rich history in Malaysia and, given it still exists today, also has a lasting legacy and impact on the culture. Few places can boast a constitutional monarchy with nine separate monarchs. Exploring the Sultanate more deeply yields insights not just into the role that this system plays in society, but also sheds light on the presence of Islam in Malaysia and how the monarchs, with dual roles of ceremonial heads of state and Islamic leaders, contribute to religious culture. Islam in Malaysia has been garnering increasing amounts of my attention and interest during my study of Bahasa Melayu, as has the multicultural and multi-religious societal framework. Though I have made clear from the beginning that I want to focus more on Borneo than Peninsular Malaysia (which has, by contrast, a large Christian population), learning more about the Sultanate and Islam in Malaysia can paint a clearer picture of the present state of the country writ large and will offer new and valuable understandings into the mindsets and worldviews of the large Muslim subset of the population. If given the chance, I would also like to learn more about the broad range of indigenous tribal cultures and customs in Sabah and Sarawak this semester as well, particularly the Kadazan ethnic group in Sabah and the Kaamatan festival.

With clear cultural interests in mind, I now have to figure out the best way to incorporate these into my lesson plans in language learning and formulate goals around learning them. This will undoubtedly require learning a more specialized set of vocabulary, which will likely focus on the most common cultural and religious icons related to the Sultanate and the practice of Islam. I would like to frame it in a more generalized learning plan, but also include, if possible, some additional learning material on the history of Malacca, e.g., or stories surrounding different sultans. In other words, this can take on a range of different approaches, including cultural, religious, historical, and political. I want to be able to describe what the Sultanate is, where it originated, how it developed, and where it is today and the role it (but also Islam more broadly) plays in people's lives. This will give me enough room to learn a wider variety of vocabulary without over-complicating it or making it beyond my learning level. To this end, I hope I can work with Melissa to ensure that I am learning the correct material with the proper terminology.

The last two weeks, I worked on several things individually as well as with my language partner. The first week, I finished up studying about Korean history. Because the history of Korea was much more lengthy than I thought it was, I took much longer than anticipated to cover all the topics I wanted on this subject. Last week, I read over the graphic novels that the Global Studio called 설민석의 학국사 대모험 which roughly translates to Seol Min Seok’s Korean Adventure. Different volumes covered something different and illustrated different historical events. Because the graphic novels had a visual aid in addition to the text, the book was very readable, and I understood a lot more than I did when I read textbooks. One of the historical figures I read about Admiral Yi Sun Shin. Admiral Yi was a naval commander during the first instances of Japanese invasion of the Korean peninsula. During the Joseon Dynasty, Admiral Yi fought the Japanese army several times but never lost a battle. In the 23 instances of fighting in the sea, Admiral Yi maintained a perfected win record. Admiral Yi has since become a national hero and is featured in many aspects of Korean culture. Many movies, books, and documentaries are written about Admiral Yi and his accomplishments. There are even statues dedicated to the admiral for his achievements fighting for the country. I think this unit about Korean history was a very fruitful because I had many good refreshers about the rich history of Korea and went more in depth about the history I learned about when I was younger. I was able to take time on my own to study more in depth which I enjoyed as well. I also learned about the history that are not frequently brought up or taught in schools which was also helpful. In addition, I learned more about the language by reading the texts and speaking about it with my language partner. Often times, I found myself struggling with the texts because a lot of historical terms in Korea have difficult root words. These were words that had hanja in them, so it was hard to decipher what the word meant at times.

The following week after finishing up Korean history, I took a break from the formality of history and learned more about slang in Korean. With the help of my language partner and some online resources, I learned about how culture of slang has changed over time. Much like how the slang language changes over time in America, it took changes in Korea as well. Many of the slang in Korean are used in text messages and on TV shows. Usually, most slang used in Korea aren’t metaphorical but shortened versions of the meaning. For example, “갑분싸” is just shortened version of “갑자기 준위기 싸해짐” which means the mood suddenly turned cold or uncomfortable. I also noticed several slang words were just Korean pronunciations of English words such as “티엠아이” which literally reads “TMI” in English. Learning about more informal language after learning about history was very refreshing because I am used to informal speech more. In addition, since I use it more often, I get more practice as well.

In the past two weeks, I have learned how to introduce various aspects about myself in Korean. I now know how to say, “My name is Eden,” “I am a college student,” “It is nice to meet you,” “I am from America,” and “I am majoring in leadership and music.” These sentences took a long time to learn because I need to hear the Korean pronunciation several times before I can say it correctly. The vocabulary that Prof. Kim has been teaching us is different aspects about me and my classmates, such as “name,” “student,” “doctor,” “husband,” “wife,” etc. So far, most of the phrases that I have learned have been very practical. I will introduce myself many times in Korean, so it is essential to know how to explain various aspects about myself.

The strategy that Prof. Kim has been using to teach us is lots of repetition. When I learn a new phrase in Korean, I write down the Korean spelling and English translation. At this point in my language learning, I still need to write out the pronunciation in English. This is because it takes me a very long time to read Korean, as I read words letter by letter. Prof. Kim still emphasizes conversation over reading and writing because she believes that we will be speaking and listening in Korean more than communicating through text. I think that Prof. Kim’s strategies are effective. Conversation and language immersion is an extremely effective way for me to learn a language. I am still at a beginner level though, so sometimes it seems like Prof. Kim is speaking very quickly to me.

One obstacle that I expected to encounter was surprise at the fact that I cannot speak Korean, even though I am Korean. However, I was not expecting to encounter shock to this degree and by my instructor. In my beginner level class, I am one of two Korean people. Almost every time I do not understand Prof. Kim, she is shocked. It is difficult for her to see my Korean language level because she assumes that I know more than I actually do. After four weeks, she still laughs when I do not understand something she thinks is simple. My professor showing constant surprise at my beginner skill level adds another challenge for me to overcome. Despite this obstacle, I am glad that I am learning Korean. I have already learned several important phrases that I can actually use when meeting someone new.

As I continue in my Korean studies, I hope to learn how to say more useful descriptions about myself, such as how old I am, things that I enjoy doing, and what my family is like. I also think that learning a lot of vocabulary words is important because it will help me listen to native Korean speakers. Knowing more Korean words will help me identify them when others speak, so that I can get a better grasp of what they are talking about.

Finally, something cool that I learned is that, when the written Korean language was being created, all of the characters were made to reflect either the sky, ground, or people. Korean is a very logical language. This is helpful to keep in mind when writing Korean because it provides context for where the next character should be placed in relation to the others.