Blogs

Week 3-4

This two weeks, I met with my language partner Sun and finally decided my personal learning plan. During this two weeks, I learned some oral vocabularies from the Korean Drama "It's Okay, that's Love".

a.     Hajima – 하지마

b.     Nae – 네 

c.     Guenchanahyo – 괜찮아요

d.     Jin jeong haeyo – 진정해요 

e.     Mannatseoyo – 만났어요 

f.      Muoya – 뭐야 

g.     Ah si jyo? – 아시죠 

h.     Gyui yup da – 귀엽다 

i.      Uh din guh ya? – 어딘거야 

j.      Hul – 헐 (

k.     Sillyehamnida – 실례합니다 

 We started greeting dialogue:

Ahnnyonghasaeyo – 안녕하세요

Ban gap sup nida – 반갑습니다

Nae, juhdoyo – 네, 저도요

Uh ddok kae jinaesaeyo? – 어떻게 how 지내세요 are you?

Joayo – 좋아요 好， Joah hae – 좋아해 

Dang si nunyo? – 당신은요? 

Gam sa hap nida! – 감사합니다!

Mianhapnida – 미안합니다

Annyeong hi gasaeyo – 안녕히 가(go)세요

I found it's really hard to pronouce n and m inside a word. For example, the pronunciation for n in  sup nida is different from the n in si nunyo. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwmc9YoHeAY&feature=youtu.be

I learned how to cook Korean food with my language partner. 

Week 5:

First Artifact Evaluation

For my first artifact on Korean greeting, I think I did pretty good job on the accent linguistic accuracy. I recorded how language partner speak those greeting sentences. After comparing two audios, I need to improve my fluency a little bit. 

For week 3-4, I pretty much met the goal that I set for myself. I need to do more self-learning via Mango and other resources.

Week 6:

Goal: asking questions and answering questions

Uh ddok kae jinesaeyo? (How are you doing?)

Joayo. (I’m good) gujjokunyo? (What about yourself?)

Uhdiaeseo watseoyo? (Where are you from?)

jungguk (China) aeso (in) watseoyo (came). (I’m from China) gujjogunyo? (What about yourself?)

Hanguk aeseo watseoyo (I’m from Korea). Myutsal (how old) eyeyo (are you)?

Sumusal (20 years old) ipnida (am).  Myutsal eyeyo (how old are you)?

Junun (I am) sumulsaesal (23 years old) ipnida (am).

Week 7:

Goal: counting numbers

1 - il, hana

2 - yi, dul

3 - sam, set

4 - sa, net

5 - ou, dasut

6 - yook, yehsut

7 - qil, ilgop

8 - pal, yodul

9 - gu, ah hop

10 - xip, yeol--yuhl

Week 8

Goal: Introduce yourself and your family

• Mom Umma

• Dad Appa

• Sister (older) Unni  

• Sister (younger) Yeodongsang

• Brother (older) Oppa

• Brother (younger) Namdongsang

• Cousin - general Sachon

• Aunt (mom side/dad side) Imo/gomo

• Uncle (mom side/dad side) Yimobu/gomobu

• Grandma (mom side/dad side) Wehalmoni/chinhalmoni

• Grandpa (mom side/dad side) Wehalabuji/chinhalabuji

• Daughter Ddal

• Son Adul

• Husband Nampyun

• Wife Ane

• Boyfriend Namja chingu

• Girlfriend Yeoja chingu

Though I made some switches of learning material between weeks, I finished my learning tasks. With every new week, we bring up the old phrases. After reviewing, we continue learning. I really enjoy watching the Korean drama "it's okay, that's love". The daily dialogue in the drama repeatedly appear in each episode that helps me a lot in Korean listening part. The Korean two different number system puzzles me a lot.  The ten that is used to tell time and the three that is used to counting numbers have similar pronunciation. It is better to differentiate those two in the context. 

Bookmarks:

http://world.kbs.co.kr/learn_korean/lessons/e_index.htm

http://www.learn-korean.net/

http://www.howtostudykorean.com/

http://livemocha.com/pages/languages/learn-korean/

http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/

 I used this websites as additional tools to enhance my vocabulary learning. 

At this point in the semester, I have 144 flashcards (most of which I know) that have a mix of words and phrases on them. However, I think I know even more words because of the conversations and dialogue that I have learned with Sanya. I learned most of these words by searching for vocabulary to use in dialogue with Sanya, or by asking Sanya during our meetings. I also used these flashcards as a way to keep track of phrases I learned in Mango or that I remember from my semester in India. Last, I used online lists of days of the week, numbers, family names, etc.

My biggest concern with my acquisition of vocabulary now is that I am having trouble blending my vocabulary into sentences and dialogue. Although the point of the "task" method of language learning is to ensure that all vocabulary is learned for a purpose, I am still left with random words that I am unsure how to use in a sentence due to grammatical rules I am unfamiliar with or just for lack of context for that word. For instance, I learned a few adjectives but have never attempted to incorporate them into sentences or dialogue. It is helpful to reflect on the vocabulary I have learned for this reason.

Perhaps I had unrealistic expectations for my acquisition of vocabulary at the beginning of the semester, but now that I've been able to reflect on my work this semester and realize my abilities, I am happy with how much I have learned. More so than learning vocabulary, I'd now like to practice speaking with more ease and fluidity, and having an arsenal of words to use is a large part of that.

Overall, I felt that my experience learning Korean was very successful. With the help of the SDLAP, I was able to experience various methods of language learning and also have an in-class experience that helped to supplement my learning. I learned that I am a visual learner. It’s not enough for me to memorize something, I typically need to see it written down or spelled out so that I can perfect the pronunciation. Besides this, I’ve found learning phrases to be very useful, compared to simply learning a bunch of random vocabulary. When you learn a phrase, you get an idea of how sentences in that specific language are formed as well as vocabulary. In the past, I’ve found Rosetta Stone to be very useful when it came to learning vocabulary because it focused on a “matching” system, where the user would have to look at a picture and learn the word for the picture; however, with Korean, I’ve found things such as Mango and movies to be more useful.

Some of the difficulties from my experience included distinguishing the differences between Korean and Mandarin and also learning the Korean alphabet. Since Korean and Mandarin share so many similarities including culture and vocabulary, I often found myself applying concepts that apply to Mandarin in every instance of Korean. This was one of the problems for bilinguals that we discussed in class. Korean is a totally different language than Mandarin, so I eventually figured out that I had to learn various points separately and use my knowledge of Mandarin, not as a basis, but as reinforcement. Besides this, I also found reading and writing Korean to be very difficult. I love that Korean has an alphabet, but we learned in class that speaking is significantly easier to learn than reading or writing. Speaking is definitely the most useful aspect of learning a major language, however, reading and writing can help supplement the learning process.

My favorite aspect of the class was the fact that we were required to meet twice a week with a language partner. A language partner is a great resource to ask questions and to practice that language. This resource is not directly offered in the COM2 language classes, so I really loved the experience. I also liked how one of the two meetings was dedicated to direct learning time with the partner and the other meeting was dedicated to something less formal such as a discussion, watching a movie, or going to a restaurant. This helped to mix things up and reinforce previous knowledge through application. I will continue my learning of the language by continuing to “mix things up” by utilizing various software packages and also watching many movies/ shows and of course talking to my Korean friends.

Lastly, I found the readings on culture, time, bilingual intelligence, and language origins to be the most interesting and helpful. When learning Korean, I often was able to figure out why Korean people have certain customs because of discussions of the readings from class. For example, I was surprised to find out that Koreans are lenient when it comes to being late which shows that they are polychromic. As a Taiwanese, I figured that most Asian people valued their time and would frown upon lateness based on this principal and because it is disrespectful; however, this was not the case. Overall, the readings and discussions in class were super helpful and are things that I recommend for the future. 

With the semester winding down, I wanted to ensure that I had maintained a balanced approach with my language learning that I had hoped for at the beginning of the semester. This semester, I wanted to be able to improve as many aspects of my Urdu knowledge as possible. Personally, I wanted to improve my writing, reading and listening comprehension, pronunciation and speaking skills. I truly felt I was able to hit upon all of the areas I had hoped to improve on. That said, in the final weeks I wanted to improve in an area where I felt I still needed some more work - speaking and listening comprehension.

My language partner and I decided it would be best to build upon the activities that I had done during weeks ten to twelve weeks ; however, this time they would be much more intensive. I wanted to immerse myself in the language by replacing most of the media that I typically watch in English with an Urdu counterpoint. For instance, I would watch the news, television shows and  Of course, I did not always know what was being said, but I realized that the more time I spent watching thing in Urdu the easier it was for me to gauge what was being said and link it back to what previous knowledge of the language I had. Weeks twelve and thirteen were definitely an increase in difficulty over what I had done in weeks nine and ten and I was often frustrated when I would come across a news segment or part of a show that was too complex for me to understand. Despite that, the experience was truly worthwhile and fantastic.

Pakistani national dress:

The Shalwar Kumez is the national dress of Pakistan and is worn by men and women in almost all provinces of Pakistan. Although, Each province has its own style of wearing the Shalwar Qameez.Pakistanis wairclothes range from exquisite colors and designs to the type of fabric such as silk, cotton and etc.

In regional clothing, Balochi people wear shalwar kameez of thick cloth with very wide shalwar to prevent themselves from the hot wind of dry desert. They wear Balochi turban made of a very long cloth, often in white color to prevent their head from sun rays.Sindhi people wear shalwar kameez with traditional Sidni and Arjuk of beautiful designs which are made locally.Punjabi men wear simple shalwar kameez, Shalwar and Dhoti kurta according to Punjabi climate. Turban of a thin cloth is also used with Shalwar Kameez especially in rural areas of Punjab where it is called Pagri.  It is also used with Dhoti Kurta. In Pashtun dress, people wear traditional Peshawari Chappal in feet and Pakul with Shalwar kameez. Attached are some pictures of famous clothes mentioned above. 

I was really interested to know some about village life and city life in Pakistan. I did some reserach as well as talked to my language partner to get some more information. So i have written a piece mostly about village in Pakistan.

Village life : 

Pakistan is predominantly a land of villages. A major portion of Pakistani Population resides in villages because agriculture is the main occupation of the Pakistani people. Today, there are more than a thousand villages in Pakistan. A Pakistani village reflects the real picture of Pakistan. A Pakistani village, as a matter of fact, is the very epitome of Pakistan's progress after the attainment of Independence . The Government of free Pakistan paid much attention to the lifting of the standard of Pakistani villagers.

A Pakistani village is still confronted with various problems ranging from the lack of education to improper sanitation. No doubt, during the last many years. much has been done to uplift Pakistani villagers, the majority of them are still afflicted by the evils like ignorance and illiteracy. A Pakistani villager is a rough diamond. He still sticks to the old superstition. customs and conventions which have become obsolete and outworn in the modern age of science and technology.

A Pakistani village, in the truest sense, is still made of mud with thatched roof and kucha compounds having unmetalled roads leading to and coming from the village. Its surroundings are green because of the crops and other vegetation. The streets are usual!) narrow and dirty with the open drainage system which gives out foul
smell. During rainy season, the entire village, because of its insanitary conditions, gives out a very foul smell.
Outside the village, there is a pond where cattle take water.

There are some big shady trees on the outskirts of the village, where village people, farmers and others, take rest during their leisure. Under these shady trees, they hold discussion, smoke and enjoy tit¬bits and talks. Some take their lunch under these trees.

Outside the village, there is also a well from where villagers draw water for drinking. The scene at the village well both in the morning and evening. A Pakistani village lacks all amenities like police station, a post office, a health centre, and a rural dispensary.

From class we learned that learning how to speak a language is not only the most common method of language use, but also the easiest to learn for most people. Thus, I have been primarily focusing on that aspect. However, I have tried learning the alphabet and the reading and writing system as well. I must say that the process is not easy. The Korean alphabet has several rules to it, but the fact that there is an alphabet makes it a lot easier than a character system such as Chinese. I do understand that if I could perfect the alphabet, that I would be able to use the language more and would help me to supplement my language learning. For example, when watching Korean dramas, if I could turn on the Korean subtitles, I would be activating another sense and another part of my brain because I would be interpreting what the people are saying and focusing on translating the subtitles. I've found this method to be useful when I was learning Mandarin. Also, struggling to read the newspaper was something that I've found to be useful as well. I know that if I was serious about reading and writing, that something like Rosetta Stone would be perfect because it utilizes a matching figure that allows the user to first see the word and then match it. From there, it drills the word into the users mind through repetition. This really helps with the reading process. Overall, I've found it difficult to read and write in the language on my own, but it is definitely doable with more time and techniques such as matching and practice.

This past Sunday, Alvin and I started to prepare for the upcoming final oral exam. We went over the names of famous singers as the new vocabulary, and began a discussion regarding who is currently famous and who is not. I learned that famous singers such as Hyuna are not so much popular in Korea, but in countries outside of Korea. I found this very interesting because he also told me that the very popular dramas, music and pop-culture in general are very skewed and don't actually reflect Korean culture. The Korean pop-culture reflects people that are both glamorous and rich; however, from my research and from my friends, this is not the case at all. In Korea, there is a social acceptance of plastic surgery. People in Korea view plastic surgery as a norm and thus many people get it. The phenomenon is not only restricted to females, as shown by the increasing number of males that get plastic surgery each year. Besides this, there is also the misconception that K-pop stars are rich. Once again, this is not the case at all since the agencies that hire the stars actually receive all of the money so the stars make less than the typical U.S employee. I will go more into all of these details during my cultural presentation.

Besides this discussion, we also began preparing for the oral final. We practiced some dialogue from introductions to talking about family members and practicing numbers. On my own time, I tried watching Youtube videos talking about learning tips since Sam showed the class the Korean learning song.

For the week of 11/16, Alvin and I began discussing numbers, its applications, and the days of the week. I learned that there are two number systems: one that is closely-related to Chinese (Sino-Korean system) and the "Korean" number system. There is not one that is more-widely used than the other; but instead, they compliment each other. For example, the Korean number system is used in telling time in hours and applied in most counting situations. The SIno-Korean system is used in representing absolute values. Thus, the system is used in representing the number of years, months, days, minutes, currency and phone numbers. Besides this, I found the day of the week system to be very interesting. In Chinese, the day of the week is represented by simply combining the day of the week corresponding to the numbers between 1 and 7 and then adding the word "day" at the end. In Korean however, each day represents some symbol and combined with the word "day" at the end. I already talked about this in class, but will also list an artifact describing this process in further detail.

In Pakistan, main courses are usually served with wheat bread either Roti or Naan, or rice. Salad is generally taken as a side dish with the main course, rather than as an appetizer beforehand. Assorted fresh fruit or sometimes desserts are consumed at the end of a meal. Meat plays a much more dominant role in Pakistani food, compared to other food. Of all the meats, the most popular are goat or mutton, beef and chicken and is particularly sought after as the meat of choice for kebab dishes or the classic beef shank dish Nihari. Sea food is generally not consumed in large amounts, though it is very popular in the coastal areas.

Curries with or without meat, combined with local vegetables such as bitter gourd, cauliflower, eggplant,okra, cabbage, potatoes,tomatoes, cucumber  and peppers are most common and cooked for everyday consumption. A typical example is Aloo Gosht or literally "potatoes and meat", a homestyle recipe consisting of a spiced meat and potato stew, and is ubiquitously prepared in many households. Koram is a classic dish of Mughlai origin made of either chicken or mutton, typically eaten with nan or bread and is very popular in Pakistan.

I have went to a Pakistan restaurant and tried the main foods and there were delicious. I took some pictures of the great food we had and the are attached. 

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Reading and writing in Hindi is still very difficult for me, but I am glad I am able to sound out words and characters because it is often the best way to learn new vocabulary. In India, written Hindi is often portrayed in transliteration, meaning that it is the sound of the Hindi words written out in Roman characters. This made reading easier to some extent, but difficulties arose because there is no set spelling in transliterated Hindi, so words would always be spelled differently. For instance, the word for girl, "lardaki," has sounds that are difficult to express with roman characters, so it is often transliterated as "ladiki" or "lariki" a well. However, Hindi script has characters that portray this specific r/d sound that is confusing to transliterate, so for instances like this it becomes important to know the Hindi alphabet. When learning new vocabulary, I am especially grateful that I learned Hindi script because otherwise, I wouldn't know how to pronounce words properly or distinguish certain similar sounds.

Nevertheless, my reading and writing skills are very amateur and require that I sound out words character by character. There are a few words that I see and automatically know their meanings, but I need to establish that level of recognition with a greater number of words, especially words I might frequently see on signs or public areas. A good way to find these might be to translate common words on signs in the U.S. (stop, go, train station, bus stop, etc.), or to look for signs in Hindi TV and film.

To increase my writing ability, I think I should take closer note of how words are written when I learn new vocabulary. I find that I'll memorize a word or phrase by its sound and then, when I try to write it, I cannot remember which characters are used, whether it uses long or short vowels, etc. If I attempt to memorize not only how a word sounds, but also the way it looks, I will have no problem writing in Hindi.

The most important term used in both "Why Bilinguals Are Smarter" and "Are bilinguals really smarter?" was executive function. The first article very flattering of bilinguals while the second was a bit skeptical of that flattery, yet each agreed that bilingualism increases a person's executive function. The difference between the two articles lies in whether this increased executive function correlates to greater intelligence. Executive function is described in the first article as "a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks." Scientist Ellen Bialystok describes executive function as "a system that helps the brain access particular regions of memories when prompted." Although it seems that everyone agrees bilingualism increases executive function, Bialystok argues that this does not make bilinguals smarter than monolinguals necessarily.

Switching between languages frequently and developing a method of predicting words that are likely to come next in a sentence forms more connections in the brain, allowing a bilingual person to perform these functions faster and more efficiently. But these connections can also increase the speed and efficiency of other related tasks, like the ability to multitask or focus. This is the argument that bilinguals are "smarter," but of course, it is misleading to say that monolinguals can never have these abilities without knowing a second language.

Nevertheless, spending time learning a new language by memorizing vocabulary, listening to foreign music, and conversing with native speakers is a great way to build up those connections in your brain. This is an added benefit to learning a language because, not only will you be able to speak in multiple languages, you will also be have increased brain function for other tasks.

I did my presentation on Korean family words based on the song video and the family tree I drew. I talked about the lyric of the Korean song which includes the most commonly used family words. Also, by looking at the lyric, we could learn some grammar. For example, the first sentence is: 곰 세 마리 가 한 집에 있어(gom se mari ga han jibe isseo). Gom = bear, Se= three, Han=one, Jibe= House, Isseo=are. Instead of saying"Three bears are in one house", Korean would be like " Bear three one house are. The sequence of Korean is totally different from English.

I am impressed by two other students' presentation.The first presentation is about Korean weekdays. It was very interesting because these words are related to natural elements like gold, wood, water, fire, and etc. Also, the Korean words for these elements share the same pronunciation with Chinese words. Another presentation was about Indian numbers. It was intriguing because we learned the numbers and single/plural forms so that we can count time.