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I find it very interesting how each article defines the benefits of being bilingual, particularly in the context of what makes up intelligence. It doesn't surprise me that bilinguals are better at quickly making distinctions between two different things, given situations during which they'd have to quickly switch between languages. I am surprised at how far that skill can spread and how many things one factor, executive function, can really be useful for. In a way, that can make a bilingual's existing skills sharper, but I agree with the second article that that really is a more abstract property of intelligence. Certainly an article that says bilinguals are smarter are misleading in making their readers initially think that knowing a second language will make you do better in school.

One part of the second article that really interested me was the mention of knowing one language making it easier to learn another language, as this is something I noticed. When I learned French in middle and high school, not only was I building up my French vocabulary, but I was also learning how to learn a language in general. And while I very seldom use French, this skill alone has helped me a lot in learning languages that are much less related to English, such as when I started learning Korean on my own and when I started Chinese here. Learning Korean on my own and being able to study at my own pace made me realize just how important having an intuitive knowledge of the grammar structure of a language is to being able to speak fluidly and recognizing when one's grammar is "off." That this unconscious skill helps bilinguals not mix up their two languages when speaking makes a lot of sense to me and is also very interesting.

I have always believed that people who are bilingual are more intelligent. It takes a great amount of work and brain power to fully master two languages. However after reading "Why Bilinguals Are Smarter" and "Are Bilinguals Really Smarter", I realized that it is not so clear. One of the most interesting points comes from the second article referring to changes in brain wiring. The article talks about how bilinguals have more brain activity because when they are prompted to respond they have to repress one language. I found this incredibly interesting because it's a concept I never even associated with being bilingual.

I really enjoyed reading about the correlation between bilinguals and intelligence. This is a very riveting topic and I hope one day there is a clear distinction.  

Salesperson: What can I help you?

Mu et eul, do wa ,tu lil gga yo.

Customer: I want to buy --------

Jeo nen, blah blah sa go sip po yo.

S: What color do you want?

Mu sen (color) sae ggal won ha sae yo?

C: I want a white blah blah

Jeo nen ha yan saek T shirt won hae yo.

S: What is your size?

Size: size ga, e ddeo kae ,dwae sae yo?

C: I want a small size.

Jeo nen small size won hae yo. (medium, larji)

  Where is the fitting room?

(fitting room) pi ting room eo di yae yo.

S: It’s right there.

pa lu cou gi yae yo.

How do you like it?

(Yi ge) e ddae yo?

C: Good: jo a yo

( Or Bad: an jo a yo)

 How much is it?

(yi go) eul ma yae yo?

 Is there any discount?   (Discount: hal in)哈林

Hal in hae yo?

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 The question that one must answer before delving into a discussion of the article is what being smart actually means? The fact of the matter is that there is no single definition of the word that is accepted by all. In the article, being smart meant that the bilingual in question will have better executive functions. This means he or she will have an easier time focusing or switching between tasks. This by no means makes the person smarter than the rest. Just because of the vagueness of the word smart. However, this does mean that the bilingual person will have an easier time in certain daily tasks compared to someone who is not. Even though I would like to think I am smarter than the rest just because I know multiple languages, the study pointed to in the article, at least in this case, does not back up the claim.

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Hello:Annyonghasaeyo

Nice to meet you: ban gap sup ni da

My name is Shuyi: jae yi leum eun Shuyi yipnida.

What is your name: eeleum ee mwuh aye yo?

My name is Jihae: jae yi leum eun Jihar yipnida.

How old are you?: myout sal ee sae yo?

I am 19 year old: juh（cho） neun yul(youl) ahop sal eep ni da

are you a student: hak seng ee sae yo?

yes, I am a student: nae, hak seng eep ni da

what about you: geu(kkuk) jjok eun _____

Geu jjok eun hak seng eep ni da

Juh do hak seng eep ni da

What grade are you in? : myout hak nyun ee sae yo?

I am a sophomore in college: juh neun dae hak kyo ee hak nyun eep ni da

Where are you from: ouh dee suh wat suh yo?

I am from richmond va: juh neun Washinton D.C ae suh wat suh yo

I am from china: juh neun joong gook ae suh wat suh yo

What do you study: mwuh gongbo ha sae yo?

I am studying business: juh neun kyung yung hak gongbo ha go eeth suh yo

What is your major: jung gong ee mwuh ae yo?

My major is business: kyung yung hak jung gong ha go eeth suh yo

what about you: geu(kkuk) jjok eun _____

It was nice meeting you: man na suh ban ga wuth(what) suh yo

good bye (they are leaving) ‘leave well’: an young hee ga sae yo

goodbye (you are leaving) ‘stay well’: an young hee gae sae yo

New Vocab

name: eeleum

what: mwuh

What is it?: mwuh aye yo?

What does it mean?: mooseun ddeut ee aye yo?

which: mooseun

ddeut: meaning

How many: myut

age: sal

grade: hak nyun

root word for school/learning: hak

year: nyun

school: hak kyo

elementary school: cho deung hak kyo

beginning: cho

middle school: joong hak kyo

middle: joong

high school: go deung hak kyo

college: dae hak kyo

where: uh dee

from where: uh dee suh

wat suh yo: come

what: mwuh

study: gong bo

major: jung gong

Business Admin: kyung yung hak

chemistry: hwa hak

Biology: saeng mool hak

I am as well: juh do

too: do

So far, I have been able to learn several Italian terms used for basic conversation. Expressions such as "Buon giorno" which means "Hello; Good Morning!" will allow me to have basic conversations in Italian. I have been able to learn these standard Italian terms by studying online websites. Also, because they are common expressions, I hear them on Italian television. 

I believe I will be able to learn additional Italian vocabulary. However, thus far, I have focused heavily on Italian culture and the geography of the country. I have found this information on Italy incredibly interesting because I have never studied the country in this much depth. 

This week's conversation was more casual. The main topic was what I was doing for Halloween weekend, which really only included shopping and homework, so we built a conversation out of that. One verb ending I have trouble with is the ending -seo. Depending on the context of the sentence, it can mean "because I did ___, ___ happened" or "I did ___ and then I did ___." I seldom use the latter because it makes less sense to me, but what I say instead doesn't connect the two verbs as fluidly. For a sentence that gives a clear sequence of events, Alvin will typically rework what I say to include that verb ending -seo to make my sentence better, so I've been getting used to using it and taking note of these sentences so that I can learn from them. 

Another issue I have is with time and date. While I know numbers well enough (although since Korean has two different systems of numbers, it can take me a hilariously long time to simply think of the right number to say), I don't know how to apply them in sentences that talk about a time frame, or then talking about spending time. So I learned during this lesson how to say I would be at the mall for a few hours, which was a lot more straightforward than I would've expected. I learned some other useful sentences related to talking about homework and shopping, which use sentence structures that I can apply to other situations. Lastly, we talked about majors. I learned the word for "major" in college, and verified how to say what my major is, which is helpful to be able to talk about as a college student.

During this week, Alvin and I discussed hobbies. I described as best I could in Korean how I am in a hip-hop group on campus, and how my high school color guard experience means that I then can't do hip hop as well. I built on and connected vocabulary related to talking about experience, such as learning the word for "thanks to" and how its positive connotation makes it different from the word for "because of," including example sentences where each would be used and why. I learned how to say "raise my foot," as that was related to what I was talking about when describing dance. I initially used the wrong verb, so Alvin clarified what the right verb would be, along with how to conjugate it as that confused me a bit. I also learned how to say "for example," which is very useful for me in trying to describe concepts using specific cases, as it's easier for me in a foreign language to give an example than to use more complex vocabulary.

I've learned very few words in Korean this semester. If I had to guess, I would say I learned approximately 20 new words/short phrases. I already have a very strong vocabulary base, so during my lessons, I either know which words I want to use, or I am reminded of vocabulary I had learned but then forgotten. Most of the new vocabulary I learn is either specific to a topic in our lesson, such as my dyeing my hair or working on my resume, or is in the form of short transitional phrases, such as saying "for example" or "thanks to" something.This fits with my language learning goals in terms of vocabulary, since I want to learn more conversational vocabulary but otherwise don't feel the need to study new words. The basis of our lessons are building on conversations, so the new words I am learning are very relevant to my goals.

When a language is lost, not only do we lose the fundamentals of how a group of people speak, we also lose insight on how an entire culture thinks. In any language, the grammar structures and vocabulary are different, and can give a lot of insight into what thought process went into forming words, what is considered important to know in a sentence, and how objects, people, and ideas are processed and talked about. Different languages show diversity in thinking, and to lose a language eliminates some of this diversity. 

While it is a good thing that more people are speaking the same language as this presents a common ground in terms of communication and methods of thinking, the fact that the spread of languages like English, Mandarin Chinese, etc. has historically come with the active suppression of tribal/regional languages is very sad. Since language is very tied with culture in the form of culturally-specific vocabulary and celebrations, in favor of becoming part of larger cultures, smaller cultures are being wiped out, which again causes us to lose some diversity in the world.

For learning Korean, I think knowing the history of the language is somewhat useful. The most important thing (although I may be biased as a Chinese learner) is to understand which words are natural Korean and which words are based off of Chinese and have hanja. Older words that are based off of Chinese are typically more formal words, and may either have a native Korean equivalent (for example, depending on usage, there are three words for a "class" in school in Korean, and two are based off of Chinese, the third having been taken from English). Learning words with hanja can help learn many root words in Korean, as one syllable in Chinese, and therefore Korean syllables based off of Chinese, contains one unit of meaning. So many words in Korean that have to do with learning have the syllable for "study" in them, and being able to identify this can help you better learn the word. With learning a new language, you have to develop a strong vocabulary base, and anything that can help you make distinctions between words can only serve to help you.

Understand which words have hanja can also help you better understand the spelling system better. While Korean has a phonetic alphabet, some words aren't spelled exactly how they are pronounced. For the word "music," the romanization of the Korean word is eum-ak, but it is pronounced eu-mak. Why not then spell the word as it's pronounced? Because the two syllables of the Korean word correspond in that way to the two-syllable Chinese word. Understand the historical root of words such as this help explain how it's spelled, which is essential in learning Korean.

It makes a lot of sense that bilinguals are "smarter," just because it can be difficult to learn a new language and some people just don't think in that way. However, I'm not entirely sure what is meant by smarter. It's hard to judge someone's intellectual ability based solely on the fact that they speak multiple languages. I think it is more clearly defined when babies are tested, instead of adults. It is much easier to understand the extent of a 7-month-old's knowledge compared to that of a full-grown adult. 

But on that note, I understand why one of the articles said that learning multiple languages, especially as a child, causes linguistic disadvantages, which can make someone appear less intelligent. I have often tried to think of a word in one language and could only remember it in another (most often, I could only remember the English word, but I have at times only been able to remember the Spanish word). I don't know if this topic will ever be fully resolved, but I don't think the differences between those who know another language and those who do not are wide enough to truly decide one way or another. 

Since we had discussed a lot of grammar till now, Suyeon and I decided to do something a little different. Both of us love Korean music and K-pop. As a result, we decided to look at the Korean lyrics of one of our favorites songs and practice reading and comprehension. This activity helped me in different ways. Firstly, it gave me a good practice in reading Korean. At this point I am really slow at reading. It takes me around one minute to read one standard length sentence. I am still struggling to remember the pronunciation of some of the double consonants and vowels. Moreover, I need help recognizing the silent letters and liaisons. Also, sometimes when I read a word, it might sound foreign to me even though I have heard it many times as I am not saying in the right accent. Reading also helped me with the spelling of words. While some words are spelled just as they are pronounced, most of the times I have difficulty determining the breakdown of syllables in words. Since Korean words are spelled in clusters of syllables, reading helped me realize that the syllables are not broken down according to the pronunciation of the words. 

Going through the lyrics also helped me see how the different parts of grammar that I have learned so far are applied. However, I had to keep in mind that since it was a song, the sentence structures were not like that used in daily conversation. However, Suyeon explained to me the words I did not know and since it is a song I listen to frequently, it helped me learn new words as well. 

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It's hard to say how many words I've learned in Korean exactly because I'm working on more of a natural progression since I do have a background on Korean. I would probably say in terms of new words around 50. However, by speaking with my language partner, I think a lot of words I've forgotten have come back, which probably at least doubles that count. I learned most of them by speaking to my language partner, and a lot of them were learned or refreshed in my memory naturally. I wish to learn a bit more vocabulary by the end of the semester, which I think is definitely achievable if I keep speaking and practicing with my language partner. 

When languages die, it is interesting to think about that it is not only the language itself that is lost. In addition to the language itself, you also lose the culture of the people who spoke it. Even if people learn a "dead" language, they may learn the grammar and vocabulary, but they will never learn the full culture like the original speakers. I also did not know there was as much as 7000 languages which decreased at a rate of a language every two weeks. It is sad that because many of these languages are oral and not written, therefore the true language itself will completely disappear when there are no more speakers along with the culture. 

For Korean, I think learning the history can definitely be helpful for learning the language. I am looking at it from a different perspective, because even when I learned Korean the first time as a little kid, I most likely learned the language before learning the history. However, learning the history definitely allows me to see the connections and understand the language a bit more. For example, I have always heard that Korean is one of the easiest languages to learn, but I was not aware that there is history and reasoning behind this is due to King Sejong's vision to create a language that can be used by everyone (unlike hanja which was used before). I think making these connections allows you to understand the language at a deeper level, while also making it more interesting. 

Over the course of the semester, I have acquired great knowledge of the Siraiki language. When it comes down to the number of words, I have learnt more than 80. These words were not chose randomly. There was a lot of thought given into deciding the words I should learn. The words I learnt are ones that are most commonly used in the Siraiki language. I wrote them down on a piece of paper and asked my Language Partner to translate them. Next, I went through the arduous process of memorizing each and every single word in the list. Now, I can make out a conversation in Siraiki. Based on what I have accomplished so far, I feel that my goals for the language are realistic. Because I was able to accomplish the tasks that I intended to in the given time successfully, I feel that I will be able to reach my goals for the language. 

On the surface, when a language dies, I thought this only meant that no one would communicate in this tongue again. However after reading Kirk Johnson's article, I realized how an entire history can be lost. Not only does the dialect itself get lost, but the events and tales of a society vanquish.

When looking at the Siletz Dee-ni people, I was shocked to learn that there are only five remaining speakers of their language. It is incredibly commendable of Bud Lane for spending seven years of his life to develop an online dictionary with audio entries. Although this action is extremely selfless, I fear that there are hundreds of other languages that have disappeared without much of a fight. 

See reflection paper #2 SDLC 105. 

Thank you, 

Vana