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During the past two weeks, I have been meeting with Jenna instead of attending the LJKC hagwon. Jenna has placed a greater emphasis on improving my reading skills. She encourages me to become more familiar with the Korean letters. I agree with her approach, as I believe that becoming more comfortable with reading Korean words will help me learn more vocabulary in a more efficient manner. This is because I still heavily rely on the English Romanization of Korean words.

It has been difficult for me to learn the Korean letters, as I have never learned a different alphabet before. I speak Spanish, but it uses the same alphabet as English, except for one letter and the accents. One thing that I was not expecting is that it is easier for me to remember consonants over vowels. I believe this is because the consonants look unique from each other, whereas it is difficult for me to distinguish the vowels from each other. There are some consonants that look similar to others, but that is actually helpful because they make similar sounds. With the vowels, I have to think for a long time to try to remember which one makes what sound.

At this point, I read very slowly in Korean. For example, at our last lesson, Jenna brought one page, front and back, of short, important Korean words and phrases. It took an hour for me to read through them all. This is because I have to think about how every letter in the word sounds. One helpful tip that Jenna told me was to think about the consonants and vowels in order. In English, the order of the letters is “A, B, C,” and so on. There are orders for Korean consonants and vowels. These orders have helped me remember the sounds of the letters. It is very rhythmic, which relates to my musical ability. I am a partially auditory learner, so this “song” is a helpful reminder.

I am continually learning about the importance of respect in Korean culture. It manifests itself in many ways in the language. There are several ways to say certain phrases in Korean. I thought that there would only be two, one that is informal and another that is formal, but there are actually degrees of respect. There are forms that are used among peers, then ones that convey more respect, then those that are the most formal. I hope to learn more about the contexts in which to use each term.

I have very little prior knowledge of how to read and write in Korean, but I have more experience listening to and speaking in Korean. When I was reading through the vocabulary sheet that Jenna gave me, I recognized some phrases. However, one phrase that I recognized actually had a different meaning in that context. Even though the meaning was different, I was happy that I recognized it at all.

As I advance in my Korean studies, I will continue to use Quizlet to become more familiar with Korean letters. One thing that I find helpful from Quizlet is that there is an audio feature, so I can hear how each letter is pronounced. I would also recommend that other Korean language beginners learn the consonants and vowels in order, so that they can remember that rhythm.

Languages become extinct when language isn’t transcribed and recorded. The job of a linguist is to go into language tribes and record/analyze/transcribe any information about the language, in order to preserve it. When linguists don’t record or preserve any information about a language, the language becomes extinct. Because the main languages like French, English, Spanish, etc. are so popular, other small languages become less and less common and become extinct. When a language dies, we not only lose speakers of that language, but we also lose rich information, culture, and memories of that language. Many of these language tribes have very primitive living styles, so they don’t have a way of archiving or preserving any information. They only have memories and information in their brain. That is why linguists are crucial in preserving a language. By immersing themselves in the culture and learning the language first-hand, they can record and archive the language and culture. The documentary talks about the scarcity of linguists and how there are so many languages that are becoming extinct. The documentary also talks about the emic approach of language, where an anthropologist will actually go into a culture with zero knowledge of the language. This is a great way for linguists to preserve a language. Languages become extinct for many reasons including, change in environment and culture, change in people and diversity, and change in culture. Culture and language go hand in hand, and as cultures fade, languages also fade. I believe that dead language can be brought back to life, only if it was archived properly in the past and preserved. Many linguists and anthropologists are currently trying to document linguistic documentary by creating a large collection and record of all the different languages around the world. These records and archives can be digital recordings or writings of the native language speakers.

These past two weeks, I transferred to two sessions per week with my language learning partner to cater more towards my language goals. We have gone over several things including three main types of the future tense, spacing between words, and vocabulary relating to school and travel. Additionally, we have continued to build off of the sentence structures, “I want to…” and “I have to…” by gradually adding more factors to complicate each phrase. For example, when I started off learning these structures, I could say “I want to dance” or “저는 춤 추고 싶어요”. Now, I can say “I want to meet with you at the gym on Saturday to dance” or “토요일에 체육관에서 만나서 춤 추고 싶어요”. To get to this point, I write up around 5 sentences between lessons every week using the material we covered in the previous session to review and practice the material. This gives me the opportunity to realize any points that I do not understand and helps me see where I would like to continue. This is a system that I enjoy using because it is easy to follow and effectively produces results. One of the best ways to learn a language, in my opinion, is to start with a small unit and use it as a building block to increase your abilities.

I have also been able to apply the grammatical concepts I have learned previously to writing sentences using the future tense. The main thing we are focusing on now is building up some vocabulary to expand the words I can use in these sentence structures.

In future lessons, I would like to focus some more on conversation skills. I think that I have built up enough knowledge at this point to start practicing putting those phrases into a casual conversation between friends. This is also a great opportunity to learn how to put the general sentence structures I have learned into questions. I hope to be able to use what I learn in real conversations with my language partner when we determine where to meet for lessons. I also have friends who speak Korean in my dance group with whom I can practice in real life.

This week, we had a short test on vocabulary which helped me to review some words we have learned so far. And Professor Kim also helped us review some words from the Korean song Love Scenario we learned to sing. In addition, we covered some grammar related to verbs. Verbs in Korean have their verb stem, which is the original form of the verb. And we need to add different particles to the verb stems to use the verbs in a sentence. There are two general rules that describe how to do this. The first rule is that verb stems ending with vowels are followed by. The second rule is that verb steams ending with vowels other than are followed by. But of course, there are also special cases.  We went over 10 special cases that do not conform to the general rule. Additionally, we started learning a new song by BTS.

Professor Kim recommended us to watch the Korean tv show Cheese in the Trap(치즈인더트랩). I started watching that on Netflix. I am currently on episode 3. I think it was a great show to start with. The drama focuses on the life and relationships of a group of university students, particularly the difficult relationship between Hong Seol and her 선배(senior student) Yoo Jung. I can relate to their conversations and learn Korean words and daily conversations that are used by younger Korean people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKWEtdsXbuU

I found a youtube video that covers some Korean words and sentences from episode 1. 선배 (Sun bae)

Senior(higher grade/level)

2. 후배 (Hoo bae)

Junior(lower grade/level)

3. 망했어(요)/ 망했다

I'm screwed.

4. 같이 밥 먹을래(요)? 

Should we grab a meal together? 

The YouTuber also explained the Korean culture that appeared in the episode. For example, lower classmen in college can not call upperclassmen by their names because that’s disrespectful in Korean culture. They have to call them 선배 (Sun bae) to show respect. And they also have to speak to their 선배 with formal speech. However, when the upperclassmen talk to lower classmen or other students in the same grade, they can use informal speech. Therefore, you can see that the hierarchical structure in Korean is very strict, even among students.

I also found a page on facebook that select a conversation from Cheese in the Trap and analyzed it word by word. Below is an excerpt from the analysis.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=555204371354200

** Hong Seol: 용서해주세요. Forgive me.

용서하다 forgive

주세요 ‘주다’ means ‘to give’, however if you use this with a verb it means ‘do something for someone‘.

** Yoo Jung: 안되겠는데 I don't think I can't.

안되다 means that things aren't going well as someone thought

는데 used to illicit a response from the listener, while at the same time expressing the speaker's own surprise or interest. It can be used in situations when the speaker is responding to something (a comment, an observation, etc.

** Hong Seol: 왜요? Why not?

→ 제가 이렇게 열과 성을 다해서... 사과하고 있는데...

I'm giving you a heartfelt and genuine apology... I'm trying to say sorry...

이렇게 like this

열과 성을 다해 expression means heart & soul

~과/와 means "with" 과 If there is a 받침 at the end of the adj/verb stem

와 If there is no 받침 or if the adj/verb stem ends with aㄹin 받침

ps: 받침 is the final consonant which is written in the bottom/final position

사과하다 apologize

고 있다 it's used to describe an action that is going on at this moment

I think I’m learning a lot of Korean words and grammar, but also Korean culture from this tv show, and I will keep watching it.

Over the past two weeks, I have continued to work on the expression of emotions in Malay and linking this back to other concepts I have learned in the past to build upon them. In addition, I have had the interactive children's nursery rhyme songbook and have been using that to record my voice and practice my pronunciation of Malay words as well as my rhythm. Singing can be one of the best ways to improve these skills, and it is also a lighthearted and fun way of practicing and sharing my experience with my language partner, Melisa. One of the most fun meetings with Melisa was this past Friday morning before our SDLC105 class meeting. She made kuih (tiny snacks) and coffee, and provided traditional Malay attire for me and Mehreen (who joined us that day) to wear. We then watched three very interesting Indie films in Malay that discussed problems facing Malaysia today.

The first film involved two travelers meeting on a northbound train and turned into a discussion of the Malaysia outside of Kuala Lumpur and the importance of preservation of the national language of Bahasa Melayu (very timely with our SDLC105 concurrent discussions). English or "Manglish" is more and more influential and widely spoken in Kuala Lumpur and West Malaysia more broadly, and some fear that this has negatively impacted the country and Malaysian people. This also raised the concern that teachers of the national language were less common or appreciated, which was an interesting insight. It was filmed in the very beautiful landscape of Northern Malaysia on the border with Thailand, where Bahasa Melayu is still widely spoken, albeit with a distinct regional accent. The second film focused on the issue of substance addiction and how it is handled or seen in certain communities. The film introduced a group of young Muslim men living together under the direction of a peer who was studying the Quran and seemingly wanted to become an Imam. One of the men was an alcoholic, and the film offered a perspective that, instead of lambasting or ostracizing him on religious grounds for something he may not be able to control or stop right away, there should be a little more open-mindedness about him and his situation by the religious leader. This is of course controversial in the country, as Muslims there are not permitted to drink alcohol, and raises very interesting points on society over the medium of film. The last film we watched centered upon a biracial boy who was half Chinese and half Malay. The boy struggled to understand his identity alongside his peers, who were either all Chinese or all Malay (though there is of course more diversity in Malaysia than this). Seeing the issue of defining race and subsequently adopting certain identities related to this through the eyes of a child was an effective way of raising the issue - and in the end he made friends as well! This issue is of course not limited to Malaysia, though it is interesting to parallel it to the situation in the United States and see where commonalities and differences occur.

All in all, each of the three films offered a perspective on issues society is grappling with in Malaysia and ultimately improved my understanding of the country and its culture more than I had initially expected.

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Our readings and class discussion on the life and death of languages is fascinating  - not least of all because documenting a language and preserving not just its vocabulary, but the distinct perspectives and worldview it carries is essentially a race against the clock. Linguists armed with the ability to transcribe using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can, much like anthropologists doing fieldwork, gather a wide array of information on the language, but also necessarily must start from ground zero and rely on learning through a common language, a local teacher, etc. in a situation that is ultimately difficult to coordinate and even more difficult to carry through. The clip we watched in class on the Himba people in northern Namibia who see and describe color differently because of their environment is only one of many facets that could be found in other, less commonly spoken languages worldwide that are quickly dying. Globalization and the importance of a Lingua Franca such as English has severely endangered less commonly spoken languages, given that it is no longer necessary or convenient for younger generations to continue to speak these languages and pass them on. Linguists can try their hardest to preserve a language, but they cannot force a generation to continue to speak it or learn it (though this might follow naturally). 

When a language dies, so, too, do its unique cultural insights and legacy more broadly. Though it can be resurrected, so to speak, it also may have lost some of the distinct impressions that it left on the speakers and their outlooks, and could also have some more functional vocabulary holes as well. That said, it certainly can be brought back to life, at least in some sense of the word. The so-called Rosetta Stone, found in 1799, allowed linguists to decipher hieroglyphs and bring back some of this ancient language based on the translations of its script. Though not every language is as fortunate to have an archeological relic such as this, it showcases that clues can be found and pieced together to make larger insights for a language, much like finding disparate pieces of a puzzle and piecing it together to form some image of a completed whole. 

Preserving languages and documenting the sheer linguistic diversity of humans is absolutely essential because it can provide so many insights into how we think, speak, and operate in the world. It was very interesting to learn in class that the Basque language, for instance, is largely unrelated to neighboring languages and closer to what Neanderthals may have spoken. The presence of linguistic "islands" that are outliers in Hungary, Estonia, and Finland is another example of the ways in which language and linguistic diversity can deeply impact a country and its culture. Programs currently in existence, such as the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme and a similar one by National Geographic, draw from endowments equip linguists with funding and give them the ability to undertake these documenting projects, which are themselves of monumental significance to humanity and, as previously mentioned, more and more urgent.

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Languages go extinct as the global communication being taken over by the major languages such as Spanish, Mandarin and English. Lots of tribal languages go extinct because of the loss of native population or standardized education in other languages. Linguists estimate that half of the 7000 languages could go extinct this century. Linguist David Harrison said that people don’t know what they are losing when a language dies. There are invisible property embedded in a language. When a language dies, we also lose their way of looking at the world. There are many plants and animals have not been scientifically defined or discovered, but we could find names for them in many different tribal languages.

Linguists can help preserve a language by documenting the language and keep a record of it through talking to the last speakers. They would record audio entries and create a dictionary for that language. Sometimes linguists could face challenges as most of the native speakers are elderly, and recording them need the speaker’s consent and focus. A “dead” language can be brought to life. Linguists would work on existing records and language associated with the “dead” language to learn about it. They would also try to generate a population of active speakers again for the “dead” language. 

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For these past two weeks, I focused on learning Korea’s history through series of documentaries, dramas, and non-fictional movies. The film Taxi Driver taught me about the Gwangju Uprising that took place in response to a military coup d’etat led by general Chun Doo-hwan. The movie depicted the massacre of Korean citizens, unethical oppression of the press, and the protests held by locals of Gwangju. After watching this movie, I was extremely proud to have been born in a country that stood against and overcame dictatorship.

The usage of Hangul in the movie was relatively simple. Since this story is told from the perspective of students, small business owners, and low-wage taxi drivers, the language is simple and more conversational. One minor issue while watching was the usage of slang back in 1980. However, I was able to decipher the meaning of the slang through context clues. Since this is a relatively recent historical event, Hangul’s structure, grammar, and vocabulary are not very different from the Hangul that many Koreans use today.

I am currently watching My Country: The New Age, a Netflix original that depicts life in an pre-unified Korea. The main character, Hwi, is a low-class fighter who is involved in a political battle between the King and one of the princes. His main foe, a nobleman who sent Hwi to a long and pointless war, manipulates political officials behind the scenes to obtain political power. The characters in this drama speak a mix of ancient and modern Hangul. The vocabulary in this drama is more difficult to understand that that in A Taxi Driver because it uses words to describe specific government bureaus, departments, and policies. However, I am accustomed to this particular Hangul style because I’ve been watching this drama consistently. I don’t have to write anything down or memorize sentences. I just constantly hear characters using certain words in a sentence. I think I’ve come to a point where I can utilize these words in writing and conversation.

I think watching television is a different method of learning in that it’s quicker and more efficient. However, I would not be able to watch this much and learn as quickly if I didn’t have the fundamental language skills that I’ve perfected in the last two years. I enjoy being flexible in the way that I learn because I can prevent burnouts from studying. After two years of studying Korean intensively, I’m starting to understand the importance of learning from my experiences and environment. While memorizing words and grammar rules from a textbook is effective, it is not as quick and impactful as growing from previous failures of applying language in real life.

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