Reading the articles, I was pleasantly surprised. As a bilingual myself, I was surprised to find that they generally perform better in certain tasks. However, through personal experience, I have not experienced this. Growing up with friends that are also bilinguals, it never occurred to me that they were smarter than the rest. I do believe that bilinguals should be respected because of their ability to speak two different languages. I did notice that the bilinguals did perform slightly better in classes such as math or science. Since these classes require more logic and require the use of the more technical side of your brain, I can see what the article was trying to say. However, just growing up with my bilingual friends did not make me think that they were more superior than those who can only speak one language. I believe that it is a good skill to have to be able to speak two languages, but I do not believe that it makes us smarter people. The article also mentioned that this can be seen with the older generation and that it can prevent dementia, but I personally do not know any bilinguals that are in the older ages. I did read somewhere that the more puzzles and the more involved your brain is, the more prevention it can do for dementia. Speaking two different languages will definitely exercise your brain, so I do believe that there is possibility of prevention for dementia.
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For this week, I will dive deeper into Korean current events by reading and analyzing the Korean newspaper. After reading a newspaper article, I will give a presentation in front of my language partner and my fellow peers in Korean to explain the article. This will allow me work on more professional and presentational speech and reading. Since news articles have to be professionally written, it will not contain any colloquialism. This will help me to understand how formal Korean is written and how to write with no bias in Korean. With all the controversies that are going on in Korea, I believe that I am obligated to keep up with the news and what is currently going on. This can show a glimpse of the Korean history along with the culture of Korea. Through this, not only will I learn how to read and understand Korean, but I will also learn how Korean is used in the professional field.
I have been constantly learning new vocabulary words so it is difficult to actually come up with a number of how many new words I have learned. I usually have been learning these words when working with my language partners or through my online sources that I have been using to learn about my target language. One of my sources is a a series of videos that teaches me a variety of lessons on specific topics of Korean that I could use practically. At the end of each video the teacher provides a list of vocabulary words that relate to the topic of what they taught in the lesson. I do not really have a realistic goal for acquiring the vocabulary of Korean. I just wanted to naturally learn by coming across words that I encounter through the video lessons or from my language partners. I assumed that these words would be the ones that I need to know to participate in a typical conversation in Korean.
Recording
The goal of this week is, first, not to forget some expressions I learned until now, second learn some colors in Turkish. I already learned how to ask some questions in Turkish, so after I knew some colors, I can also ask the color of some things near around me. I learned about 10 different colors which is quite confusing and difficult. Therefore, with my language partner I had practice about one hour memorizing them. Now I could tell 10 different colors in Turkish and ask some questions about colors and answer it. Also there are some youtube clips that explains for this colors in Turkish although those are for little Turkish children. It is still helpful though with some music and imaging effects.
I dealt with greetings, farewell, introduction, and asking about identity. Memorizing some basic words, and number in Turkish. These are what I learned until now. Of course I forgot some expressions, and start to learn again. To avoid forgetting somethings before my regular class with my language partner, I prepared for the time for reviewing and practicing what we've done before. I like and satisfy the way we learned and practiced. Chat with each other, and using some SNS, recording and listening, and using Youtube is also fun way to learn some languages. Now I think I almost done with my basic stuffs so I am going to move on to my travel subjects in Turkish. I am going to imagine my own situation in Turkey in the future, and ask my language partner for translate it into Turkish and memorize and practice.
This week, I learned some basic words in Turkish. It is kind of starting point of my Turkish. As a novice language learner, my language partner gave me some words like pen, desk, teacher, students, school, etc. I kept memorizing those words for some times. It is totally different words that I felt little hard to memorize and keep forgetting about it. However, some words had some common parts which make my memorizing easier. Now I also try to keep memorizing it.
My first artifacts are recordings of my saying greetings, farewells, and introductions in Turkish. My language partner helped me evaluated my accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy. She said my pronunciation was good, and quite accuracy. Therefore, I think I did well on my first artifacts.
I learned week4, and 5 basic speaking skills in Tukish. I also did in my first artifacts about greetings and farewell things, and now I can speak that kind of conversation so I made it my goals for week 4. Also I knew how to ask questions like "What is this?" of "Is this a table?" and answer the questions. I also review the number in Turkish. Until now, I did well on my Turkish learning.
I did study in this week about basic stuffs in Turkish. I finished read alphabet, and start to learn about greetings, farewell, and introduction. Those are what I started last week so just review the expression and speak with my language partner. Because Turkish is difficult for me, I tried not to do too much things in short period. My goal is not that big, so I think I am doing well. For this week, my learning goal is get used to the Turkish number. Numbering is so important in any kind of language. My language partner let me know about 1~10, 20~90. Now I can say from 1 to 100 in Turkish. After I knowing about the number, I just try not to forget and keep remember what I learned. I keep writing, and speaking Turkish number.
I already finished those kind of stuffs such as life survival languages and greetings, farewell, and introduction. I and my language partner practiced how to speaking Turkish from the basic. Firstly, I learned Turkish alphabet and how it sounds like. Next, I started to learn greeting, farewell, and introduction my self, asking questions, answering. Because I did not know anything about Turkish, so my language partner just gave me some papers which has some expressions and conversation on it, and teach me how those expressions sounds like, and what those expressions mean. After getting some meaning and pronunciation, I keep repeating until I felt comfortable for the expression. Although it is quite different with English, of course Korean, I still try not to forget about it.
I mention several times already my goal of learning Turkish. It is because I want to go Turkey in the future, and I just want to use some Turkish language with native Turkish people. Although I do not have any experiences with Turkey or even Turkic area or Arabic culture. I heard Turkey is one of the really beautiful country and the people living there are really kind. Now I am quite close to my Turkish instructor Sezgi, we promised to meet in Turkey someday and speak with a little basic Turkish. Therefore, my goal is to learn some Turkish related about traveling conversation. I am meeting with my language partner twice a week, and now start my learning about traveling issue. Everytime, I made a situation and my language partner helped me translate it into Turkish. I hope, in the end, I knew several good Turkish expression for traveling.
- Learning Journal 11: State your learning goals for this week and how you went about accomplishing these goals.
Goals:
- To finish Unit 5 "Touring" -- Ministry of Education and Culture
- Grammar: Prepositions -- Chapter 3 from Let's Speak Indonesian: Grammar and Context
- Meanings of prefixes such as "Ber" -- attach when denoting to possess, to own to have, to wear, to use, to ride, or to do an activity
- Culture
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I just have one more subset left with regard to my language learning plan.
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To Accomplish:
I completed Unity 5 "Touring," from the Indonesian Ministry of education and culture. In it, I worked on my reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills by completing different activities that cover these domains. I accomplished the speaking and listening tasks with the help of my language partner. There was a section that covered basic prefixes, such as "ber," in this chapter as well. I learned the correct use of prepositions and their correct contexts. Here, I used Let's Speak Indonesian: Grammar and Context. Lastly, I learned about Indonesian culture. I read about etiquette such as when to take off your shoes upon entering a house; basic meal structure (including the primacy of rice); customary naps in the afternoon called tidur siang; and shower customs. I practiced for two hours with my language partner.
For my second artifact, I am watching a short clip from a Korean television show and will be summarizing it in English.
The clip is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vph_cmwwplA
This clip is about a couple that recently got together and is talking about the process of how they came out to the public about their relationship status. The girl speaking, Susie, stated that she was surprised to wake up to one of the writers for a television show asking her if she was getting married. Susie stated that she had no idea what she was talking about and was told to read the news article online. After finding out that there was a news article about their relationship status, she got a call from her agency telling her to talk to her boyfriend about how to clean up this situation. Susie responded to her agency by saying that her boyfriend will take care of it and that she will rely fully on him because she believes that he will choose what is best for them. After this, it was revealed that her boyfriend has confirmed their relationship status and the hosts of the talk show was saying how it was a blessing because of their successful relationship.
For this week, I have learned more about the casual speaking and how foreigners speak English through the Korean media. I watched a short clip on Youtube of a Korean television show and presented on it during my time with my language partner. The clip is linked below and is about a comedian who was embarrassed to speak to other foreigners in Korean due to their exceptional skills in the language. through this, I have learned some technical words in Korean and learned how Koreans speak in comedy. Through this, Minkyung taught us different tones of Korean that can be used to distinguish the skills of each non-native speaker. Minkyung also pointed out filler words like "uhmm" in English that makes conversation sound more natural in Korean. I also learned that one of the foreigners spoke Korean in a similar manner of how I speak Korean. Similar to lots of non-native speakers, I realized that I speak Korean by directly translating English into Korean. However, this is not always the most fluid way to converse. I will learn more and try to talk more fluently and more casually in Korean.
After learning Korean for quite a while now, my vocabulary has increased a noticeable amount. Although most new vocabulary that I learned are not actual formal words, they are still useful if I do decide to go to Korea. Minkyung teaches us a "trendy vocab" every week and it helps me get in touch with Korean culture. Through presentations, one of the students that are in the individual classes with me will go up and talk about a trendy vocab. These trendy vocabulary are often multiple words that are shortened and used as colloquialism. However, for more technical terms, the news article presentation helps tremendously. One of the presentation options is to read a newspaper article in Korean and talk about it in class in Korean. This forces me to find articles and look up words that I do not understand, expanding my Korean knowledge. Minkyung also taught us different labels of hierarchy in the workplace. This will be of tremendous help if I decide to intern or work in Korea.
I hope to learn more trendy vocab, but also some formal words that will help me to talk more about technical subjects. In order to do this, I will have to read more articles and read more stories in the field that I am interested in. More exposure will allow me to learn the vocabulary fast and efficiently.
For this week, I am planning to learn more about the technical aspects of Korean. By reading some business articles along with general news articles in Korean, I hope to learn some technical vocabulary and formal, presentational writing skills. My Korean was weakest in the writing aspect and I hope to increase knowledge and skill in that portion of Korean. Watching the news in Korean with my parents, I only understood the context through the pictures and small vocabulary that I picked up on. However, through this, I hope to increase my vocabulary and end up capable of understanding the Korean news. Especially with the Korean news that is going on, I believe that as a Korean, I am obligated to learn more about what is going on in Korea.
- First Cultural Post: What is your interest in 'your' language and what do you hope to accomplish this semester?
Many of my friends at Richmond are Korean Americans. Therefore, I have been exposed to a lot of Korean culture and language. Since my freshmen year I have been involved with the campus Korean American Student Organization and served as an officer my junior year as their Marketing chair. Currently, I am the president of the organization now. I think it is important to have some sort of basic knowledge of the language and somewhat understand the language. In addition, in the future I am interested in traveling Asia and Korea is one of the countries I am planning to visit in the near future. Although, I may be traveling with my friend that is fluent in Korean, but it would be more convenient if I could understand as well. Furthermore, I may be meeting my friend's family and relatives, so it is important to be able to somewhat communicate with them. Since in Korea it is very important to show respect, so being able to somewhat do that would be helpful.
- How many new words have you learned in your target language? How did you learn them? Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary?
I have already learned several different new words in my target language, Korean. Every class we learn different words, phrases, and learn to combine them into sentences. The most recent class we learned different names of foods in Korean. I learned these phrases through practice and hearing/seeing them when I go to restaurants. In addition, since I already know mandarin many of the terms in Korean are somewhat similar to Mandarin. This definitely helps me in better understanding and learning the Korean terms. My goals for Korean is to be able to understand and be able to travel in Korea.
