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My learning goal for this week was to continue reading in Korean but with a more challenging material. I went on Naver and looked for a news article to read. I found [백운산 오늘의 운세] 2017년 10월 09일 which means the today’s luck/destiny based on the zodiac animals. Basically, the article tells you the luck that you would have today. I looked at what they had under rat and it said “쥐띠 24년 닫힌 마음 열리게 된다. 36년 새로운 운을 기다린다. 48년 컨디션 좋아진다. 60년 기다리던 소식 오후쯤 듣게 된다.” It means that the closed heart will open, a new luck awaits, your condition will be better, and the news you have been waiting for will be heard in the afternoon. I was able to practice reading, understanding, and translating skills with this article.

When I was a child, I really enjoyed reading the book, The Little Prince. I was reminded of this book when I saw the movie version of it on Netflix. I decided to purchase the book in Korean on Amazon. I decided to read the whole book as a goal for my 8th week. Usually, I never finish a book in Korean because I hate having to read slowly. Thankfully, I was able to finish the book and took time comprehending the book. I did not read at a fast pace but I knew it was good practice for me. I think that constant reading will help me lessen my reading time. I was also going to write out the translation of some parts of the book to English but I realized that it would take too much time and I should focus on reading Korean.

Looking back to the first half of the semester, I think that my progress went well. I had to adjust my learning plan because I think that my goals for every week were too much to consider all at once. For example, I put “My​ ​goal​ ​is​ ​to​ ​learn​ ​to​ ​read​ ​and​ ​write​ ​vocabulary​ ​words​ ​that are​ ​useful​ ​in​ ​everyday​ ​lifestyles​ ​(colors,​ ​sports,​ ​descriptive words,​ ​signs​ ​on​ ​streets,​ ​etc)” for task 1 and I think that this was too much. Thus I decided to separate them into different weeks. My goals did not change but I have to push some back. I think that the websites that I found to study were good for me to achieve my goals.

Overall, I think that I learned a good chunk of words and will continue on with what I have been doing the past weeks.

This week, I wanted to learn how to​ ​differentiate​ ​the​ ​different​ ​alphabets​ ​in Korean that sounded the same and served similar purposes. ㅔandㅐ really confused me because they sound the complete same but are spelled differently. For example, 게 is crab while 개 is dog and 세 집 is three houses while 새 집 is new house. I realized that it was a matter of being exposed to these words over and over so that I know which one applies to what word. I asked the Korean TA to explain this for me but he realized that there was no rule differentiating the two. Thus, I think that this will be a long process where when I start reading articles, I will put a focus on words that have  ㅔandㅐ.

For my first artifact, I recorded a conversation that I had over the phone with my cousin in Korea. I told her to make the conversation into an introductory dialogue. Overall, I think it went well. I did feel awkward and stuttered couple of times, but I think it went well.

Furthermore, I think that I met my learning goals for week 4 and 5. I memorized various sports because I was not exposed to those words and am able to recall them right now. I think that for week 5, I realized that I knew more than what I thought at first. I did not know my level because I was never assessed with my writing skills. I saw that my spelling was good for basic words.

WEEK 4

My goal was to learn memorize different sports in Korean and learn the spelling. Because my family never watches any sports games or knows anything about it, the words never pop up in our conversations. Thus, I found a website, http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Language/korean.cfm?Subject=sports, that has the English and Korean words for various sports. I was able to memorize the words and learn the spelling.  

WEEK 5  

I wanted to learn how to write basic conversations. I always grew up talking in Korean but was not exposed to writing. Thus, I looked at http://eurolinguiste.com/100-useful-conversational-phrases-words-korean/ to acheive my goal. I realized however that my writing was pretty okay because I read a lot of Korean children’s book as a kid so I knew how to spell out the basic words.

My learning goals for this week ​is​ ​to​ ​learn​ ​to​ ​read​ ​and​ ​write​ ​vocabulary​ ​words​ ​that are​ ​useful​ ​in​ ​everyday​ ​lifestyles​ ​(colors and ​descriptive words). I did not want to use google translate and wanted to find a good website to translate words. After utilizing google search engine, I found http://www.lexilogos.com/english/index.htm. I think that it is a very useful website that people should use to translate words to english or from their specific target language. Basically, there is a long list of languages that you can choose from and when you put in the word, it gives you multiple of sources for translation. I think that this is a good way to put together different meanings from various sources and condense them into one meaning.

I typed in the basic colors like yellow, blue, red, green, pink, etc. to get the Korean translation and wrong it down in my notebook. I also did that same for descriptive words like slowly and quickly. I increased my vocabulary because I have the words memorized now~

I went to the Global Studio to see if there are many resources that I could use to study Korean and I saw couple of books that seem to be pertinent to my learning goals. I did not look into the books but saw some basic books about my target language. Furthermore, I wanted to see what I could find online. I utilized Google to look for websites that would help me further my knowledge of Korean and I came across www.howtostudykorean.com​. I think that this website will be very useful because it has 7 different units; each unit has 25 lessons, 3 quizzes and a unit test. I looked over some lessons and wrote words I did not know so that I can memorize them. I also practiced writing the words I did not know and generated them into multiple of sentences.

In addition, I found a youtube video,  [On-Air] KBS World 24, that streams Korean news 24/7. I think this will be useful because I will know the current events in Korea and obtain terms that I never hear in everyday conversations.

In addition, I looked into BYKI and Mango languages to see how I can include it to my language learning. I saw the BYKI.com is discontinued so I downloaded the app but it kept crashing so I decided to uninstall the app. I then downloaded Mango languages and made an account but saw that I needed to pay/subscribe to unlock the lessons so I decided to find a different alternative

To begin my self-directed learning, I have found couple of websites to teach me the basic elements of Korean. I know how to speak to Korean in a conversational setting but was never taught the fundamental elements of the language. As I said in my first cultural post,

my  ultimate goal is to be able to write, speak, and read Korean fluently (like how I am with English). I dislike being stuck in my thoughts because of not knowing one word. It is frustrating when I cannot get my points across because of the pause in the conversational flow. My goal for this semester is to be able to have conversations without stuttering and be able to read/write in full sentences. In the summer, I am planning on going to Korea and will be spending a lot of time with my relatives because the last time I saw them was 12 years ago. I know that they will be asking me a lot of questions and I will definitely have many questions too. I want to be able to have conversations with them without feeling ashamed of not knowing certain words.

I watched a video https://youtu.be/4uGeMUotUYw that explained how in Finding Nemo, the relationship between the dad and Nemo is not good because the dad is too meddlesome. I came up with the list of words I did not know: 억압, 수단, 우위, 반발감, 귀천, 지당, 대물림, 우려, 철학적, 일념, 이론이, 수조, 역경, 저해, 미약, 치명적, 해파리, 험한, 전적, 화초, 구속, 급급하고, 저해, 차단, 여부, 지향, 무궁무진, 잠재적. I did not think that it would be so many words because I understood the video but I realized that I was picking up major words and making sense of them. I found the translations/definitions and tried to incorporate the terms into sentences.

Definitions:

1. Suppression- 억압
2. Way- 수단
3. Predominance 우위
4. Repulsion 반발감
5. Dear 귀천
6. Per capita 지당
7. Mutation 대물림
8. Concern 우려
9. Philosophical 철학적
10. Ideology 일념
11. Theory 이론이
12. Water tank  수조
13. Diversity 역경
14. Inhibition 저해
15. Weak 미약
16. Fatal 치명적
17. Jellyfish 해파리
18. Steep 험한
19. Totally 전적
20. Flower 화초
21. Restriction 구속
22. Urgency 급급하고
23. Inhibition 저해
24. Block 차단
25. Whether 지향
26. Oriented  무궁무진
27. Potential 잠재적

*I also practiced how to type the words in Korean because I never typed in Korean

I did a voice recording in Korean.

Translation: “Hello my name is Jessica Kim and today I am going to introduce my family and me. I am 21 years old and born in California. My family composes of my parents and my older sister and younger sister. My sisters were also born in California too. My parents were  born in Korea. My older sister graduated from college last year and my little sister started college this year. Both of my parents work. This is my family.”Introduction%20Korean.m4a

I decided to write questions asking about identity and what I think are some aspects that composes a person’s identity. I have pdf of what I wrote below. Identity%20-%20Dec%208%202017%20-%205-00%20PM.pdf

Artifact 1- Greetings, farewells, introductions

This is a voice recording of the conversation I had with my cousin in Korea that I saw once 13 years ago. I asked my aunt for my cousins KakaoTalk (Korean messenger app) account so that I could talk with her. I asked her to have a basic introductory conversation with me.

Korean.m4a

It was interesting to see how what I have been researching about Korea has been what other people used as their topics for the cultural projects. I knew briefly about each topic so I enjoyed listening to the presentations for in depth. In Brenda’s presentation for instance, I was aware that people in Korea have been marrying later but I did not know that there was trend in living a single life. This makes complete sense because people have been putting an emphasis on money and to make a desirable income, people need to work. Thus, marrying is probably not as prevalent in people’s minds these past years. Furthermore, I thought that Korea was still a collectivist society and did not know that it was shifting to a more individualistic approach. I believe that this may be due to the reasoning that western ideals are influencing the country.

I learned the most in Taiyaba’s presentation because I was not aware of the immigration and migration in and out of Korea. I did not know that there was approximately 2 million foreigners residing in the country. In addition, I liked learning about how Koreans left the country to Russia or China to find jobs in the past. I thought that more people left to go to the states to follow the “American dream.”

Overall, I enjoyed listening to everyone’s presentations and gained more information about Korea.  

In Korea, people put family as the basic element of social life and value the inseparability of familial structures. Children are suppose to be dutiful and respectful to their parents and when they grow older, they have to be the ones who take care of their parents. People even live with their parents when they grow older and give them the support that they need. After the parents pass away, the children hold small ceremonies every year to remember their loved ones. This has been decreasing over the past few years but many people still hold on to the traditions.

In the past, men were in charge of the family, women were in the house giving birth and doing house chores, and the first born was shown favoritism. Most people wanted their first born to be a son. Now, it is shifting were both men and women work and women only give birth to one child. Times are changing where work is important to make a living. Despite having to work constantly, people still focus on caring for their family.

It is hard to pinpoint how time is perceived in Korea because every person has a different pace of living. Some people like being on time, some people are always late, and some people like being early. However, I think that there is a difference in how people approach time when it is with work/professional settings versus relaxed/casual settings.

Being punctual to work puts a positive impact on the person. I think that it is a sign of reliability and professionalism. No higher authority would want to see someone who is constantly late to work. On the other hand, when workers gather after work to drink, eat and talk, there is no set time on when to leave. This gathering is called a 회식 and it is prevalent with most jobs. When people gather together after work, people continue to drink until they cannot continue (usually at dawn). People do not say beforehand when the gathering is going to end.

In casual settings, like meeting with friends, some people tend to be late because there is no straint on being punctual. When late however, the person should update the other person.

For my cultural project, I want to focus on either the culture of gender stratification or the education system in Korea. I know that it is different in some ways than the school systems in America so I want to learn more about it. I always got an impression that Korea puts more emphasis on studying and working hard and had a different approach to what success was. When I look into more information about this topic, I want to learn about the structure and history of the education. In addition, I want to learn about different terms that applied to the education system.

If I choose to look into gender stratification, I want to know more about how gender plays role in different sectors of life, especially in the work setting and home setting. I want to see the inequality that is prevalent and how it has changed overtime. In the past, women were stuck with domestic chores, but now there is a change where women go to school and find jobs. I know that women are still expected to take on the domestic “role” at the same time, and so I want to see how both roles are intertwined.

In Korea, hangul is the primary/main writing system. There are other ones like hanja and Korean braille but only a small population use the systems. Hangul is composed of 24 letters; 14 consonants and 10 vowels. There are different variants within the letter system. There are five tense consonants where two of the same consonants are put together; ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ. There are also other pairings like ㅐ,ㅒ,ㅔ ,ㅖ ,ㅢ ,ㅘ,ㅙ ,ㅚ ,ㅝ ,ㅞ,ㅟ. Sometimes it is confusing to read the pairings because they tend to sound the same when speaking.

The sentence structure is either subject+verb or subject+object+verb. This is opposite from the US where the verb comes before the object. There are also particles that are added right after the subject to make the sentence complete. For example, it would look like “The movie가

was funny”. It does not add any meaning to the sentence.

Culture of Plastic Surgery.

In South Korea, plastic surgery is one of the most prominent trend. Many news articles consider Korea as the “World Capital of Plastic Surgery”. Beauty ideals are very high and many people get procedures done on their face and body to fit into society’s standards. There are many celebrities that go under the knife procedures and there are rarely any celebrities that did not get at least one procedure on their face. These plastic celebrities are then praised for their so-called “natural beauty”. Nowadays, people do not see double-eyelid procedures as plastic surgery because many people get it. Back in my high school, most of the Koreans went to Korea after graduating school to get plastic surgery. This is similar in Korea where people get procedures done after high school to look “prettier” before college.

The culture of plastic surgery is the most ugliest side of Korea because it shows how people put an emphasis on outer beauty. This goes along the lines of how celebrities are shamed for their appearances if they are not too skinny or pretty enough. If celebrities add a couple of pounds, the public writes negative comments about their weight gain online. Thus, it is hard for people to avoid thinking about surgery and it has become a regular aspect of society, which is a problem. People are judged for their outer appearances and thus making the country more superficial.

In Korea, people speak in either honorific form (존댓말) or informal form (반말). There is a strong emphasis of speaking to people in honorific speech if they are older, superior, or someone you do not know like workers in restaurants. Basically, the phrases should end in “–요”. There are also some words like age and birthday that have different terms depending on who you are talking to. If the honorific form is not utilized when it should be, it is seen as very rude and disrespectful. The elder/senior might even talk about how the person’s parents did not raise them properly.

The informal form is spoken to those of the same age, close friends, or seniors who allow for the casual form. It does not necessarily have to be the same age sometimes. I was told to speak to my cousin who is 7 years older than me in the informal form because we are of the same “level”. Furthermore, I speak to my parents in 반말 and they do not care if I continue speaking that way. I tried to speak to them in honorific form but it felt very awkward and distancing. Overall, I would say that it is best to speak to someone in formality as a default, unless they are super young, so that mistakes are not made.