Blogs

In my final week of lessons my language partner and I reviewed everything I had learned from this semester. The biggest component I have picked up on from this semester is vocabulary. I feel that throughout the semester I have learned a lot of new vocabulary which has allowed me to expand my sentence forming ability. With the ability to describe and say the words associated with more object I can now confidently say more sentences and be more conversational in Portugese.

This week my language partner and I tried to have more conversational lessons. We practiced having conversations in Portuguese discussing multiple topics. These topics included what I did over Thanksgiving break and what classes I am taking next semester. This activity has really shown me how far I have come in comparison to what I started from. We also practiced having conversations in Portuguese through text. I learned some cool new slang and shortcuts in Portuguese through this activity.

This week my language partner and I watched a Portuguese show called 3%. We alternated watching the episodes in Portuguese with English subtitles, and vice versa. After each episode we had a short discussion about the episode in Portuguese. I enjoyed this activity as it has helped me to gain a more real world experience in Portuguese having a discussion with my language partner as well as listening to Portuguese at real world speed in the show.

This week my language partner and I went through a refresher in terms of grammar. We mainly reviewed my conjugation skills and use of tenses in different situations. I was able to complete most of the easy conjugations such as present, preterit and imperfect tenses. However I could still work on future and conditional tenses, as well as commands. This refresher has helped me to realize how far I have come in learning Portuguese. I can now proficiently make sentences on my which make sense.

This week my language partner and I worked on vocabulary. We went to multiple locations such as dhall and the library and pointed out objects. Some of which I knew and many I did not know. There are many objects which I knew in Spanish and thought I knew in Portuguese. However, there are many words which are similar in Spanish but have a different pronunciation in Portuguese.

This week my language partner and I typed worked on translating an article in Portuguese to English. The article discussed how the World Cup started and the trials and tribulations which came along with that. In this process I have found that not only does Portuguese not translate directly into English, but also that there are multiple ways in which to say something in Portuguese. This has helped to open my eyes as to what is the best way to say something and has allowed me to say things that I used to think was out of my reach.

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This was such an engaging historical event that conjured up so many emotions within me when I was researching about the events that took place in 1987. After I finished the project, I watched a movie called 1987: When the Day Comes, that deals with the events that led to the outburst from the Korean people in reaction to the corrupt political scheming of the dictatorship-like government at that time. My project focuses on what led to the June Democratic Movement that had over a million people participating in the demonstrations against the government. What made the project so engaging for me was because I was able to see through the lens of what my parents had gone through when they were around my age. My parents are scared to watch movies that deal with the events that took place in 1987 because it is just too real for them and they don't want to be reminded of the pain and suffering that the Korean people had to go through.  

This semester, our class had the opportunity to learn everything that we wanted out of the class. I wanted to focus on learning more vocabulary, grammatical rules, and Korean history. Thankfully we got to touch on all these subjects. With each topic, I got to learn new Korean words that I never learned. It was a lot of new words, but I was thankful because I got to expand my knowledge on Korean vocabulary. We got to learn slang terms that the younger generation in Korea uses when socializing. We also learned about Korean proverbs. Jimin also taught us common Korean grammatical and spelling errors and tips on how we can make sure we get it right. Through constant practice, it became a lot more easier to apply the rules and get a feeling of how things should be applied. My favorite topic that we got to learn was Korean history. Especially the modern Korean history because this is what my grandparents and parents had lived through. I felt a bit more closer to my family because I was able to learn their struggles. The language barrier in my family makes it really difficult to communicate, so I would never have really learned about these historical events through talking with them. It was a great semester and I am thankful for the learning opportunities I had through SDLC. Thank you Jimin and Professor Soloway!

Since we had Thanksgiving break, we didn't have class for that week. We focused mostly on reviewing everything we have learned so far over the semester for the following week. We went through each subject in chronological order on when we learned them. This allowed the class to have a review sheet that we can study for the final exam. We started off with kup sheek chae which, if translated literally, means young persons' slang. We moved onto Korean proverbs and then sa ji sung uhs which are korean proverbs that are abbreviated into one word. We followed up with grammatical rules that we learned throughout the semester and then finished with Korean history. It was a bit overwhelming reviewing what we had learned up to this point, but I was thankful that I had the opportunity to learn all these topics. They were practical and exactly what I wanted out of this final Korean course. 

ReflectionPaper2.docx

My learning experience as a self-directed language learner has been great during this semester. Learning a new language has always been exciting since studying a new language could help me gain insight in both linguistic side and cultural side.

I found myself as an active cultural explorer. In my learning experience, I constantly raise questions about the similarities and differences between Korean and Chinese. Then, I would look up the Korean linguistic history after class and found out more about the link between these two languages. The modern Korean writing system, Hangul, was devised in 1443 during the reign of King Sejong, perhaps the greatest monarch of the Yi Dynasty. Before hangul, other Korean scripts used a complex system of Chinese characters to represent the sounds of Korean. However, the differences between Chinese and Korean make it hard for Chinese characters to adequately denote Korean speech. At that time, only the elite could afford the time and money to study Chinese. Therefore, King Sejong invented the Korean language for writing in order to educate more people.

I enjoy learning the history behind my target language and find it fascinating to understand the development of my target language. However, writing has been the biggest challenge for me. The writing system of Korean has little connection with the Chinese, so I have to learn a new system and grammars. In order to develop my writing skills, I will continue to study vocabulary and grammar rules on a weekly base.

I found learning the Hangul introduction textbook useful. The textbook is very well structured. The book starts from the vowels and consonants and has quizzes in every chapter. I found the material very easy to understand since the chapter is divided into reading, listening and writing parts clearly, which is easy to follow and refer to after class. The textbook has a brief vocabulary flashcard in the end of each chapter. I could use them to review the material and write down in my notebook as a vocabulary list. My tutor and I have weekly quizzes, which help me strengthen my language ability and keep up with my study plan. Also, I found it very helpful to learn from YouTube channels. There are videos on YouTube that teach language in different ways. For example, since I am interested in K-pop, there are channels that explain K-pop lyrics by analyzing vocabulary usage and sentence composition. Learning from the subject I am interested in fosters my language study and also raises my passion in my target language.

According to my study plan, I learned basic daily communication during this semester. I would like to learn more complex sentence composition, as well as cultural-related subjects. I am interested in the similarity and differences between Korean culture and Chinese culture in aspects of etiquette. Therefore, I would like to learn more about the Korean linguistic history and also the formal usage of Korean language.

I will be teaching someone how to say how often they do various activities. I will be asking them questions in English (ex: how often do you eat chocolate chip cookies, how often do you ride your bike, how often do you shower, how often do you study in the library, etc). I plan to ask around five questions.

I anticipate that the person I will teach is not a native Korean, so I plan to ask the questions in English and challenge them to answer with the following terms: 

매일 (everyday) (meh-eel)

자주 (frequently) (jah-joo)

가끔 (occasionally) (gah-kkeum)

안 (never) (ahn)

To answer the question, you have to say (frequency) + 해요.

So if someone asked me how often I text my mom, I would answer: 자주해요

I think that it will be interesting to see the thought process of a non-Korean speaker turn a sentence they want to say from English to Korean. It will require them to think of the word in English, translate it into Korean, and add the appropriate ending. 

These past few weeks, we learned about how to say our hobbies in Korean and how to discuss with others the level of frequency we engage in our hobbies. I learned how to say that in my free time, I am usually studying in the library with my friends. However, when I do not have any assignments due, I like to do fun activities, such as going on nature walks, going to the movies, watching tv, and napping. I learned how to ask others about their hobbies as well, and I was challenged to learn more types of hobbies through my classmates' answers. I think that it's interesting translation-wise how we share about our hobbies. In a direct translation from Korean to English for the sentence "My hobby is watching TV", the sentence would literally translate to "TV watching is something that I like". It is interesting to see the small differences in languages like that.

In terms of frequency, we learned how to say everyday (매일), frequently (자주), occasionally (가끔), and never (안). I think this task made me realize the difference between understanding and being able to recall. As I have heard these terms in Korean before, I found it easy to understand what it meant. However, it was more difficult to recall it on the spot what occasionally in Korean was for example. 

Lastly, we learned about 을 and 를. As I have learned about this with Evelyn last semester, it was a nice review. We use either of these characters, based on whether it ends in a vowel or consonant, to prepare the action of the noun. 

I think that I appreciate having a teacher create a learning plan for me because I feel that I get a more comprehensive and step-by-step experience through this. However, I do admit that I miss being able to pick the lesson plan and the topics I learn about. 

In terms of my progress to date, I think that I have been doing well. I have learned a lot of vocabulary and key expressions, and I appreciate that we learned these in regards to specific settings, such as the subway, cafe, and restaurant. By knowing the basic terminology and phrases, I feel more confident that I could successfully order a coffee in Korean and ask for specific requests (without whipped cream, extra syrup). 

In terms of my learning plan, as the topics I am learning have changed, I am no longer using it anymore. I think that I would add the following changes to it:

1. knowledge of expressions for various situations and how to change language based on who I am speaking to (formal and informal)

2. knowledge of key vocabulary and how to use them in various situations

3. ability to change verbs to match the tense and sentence

4. ability understand and reciprocate in various conversation settings

In Korean class we learned about the history of Korea. Starting from the very very first country of Korea called Gojosun, we learned to the modern Korean and the political history as well. Korea went through some major political shifts from the very beginning. Starting off with 3 countries that constantly struggled for control in power, Japan ruling over Korea for 35 years, the Korean war, and the first 3 presidents of Korea ruling the country with dictatorship, Korea has had an extremely complicated history. However, there has been amazing historical moments such as the creation of Korean and the turtle ship that defeated 300 Japanese navy ships with just 12  turtle ships.

In Korean class with Jimin, we watched a popular movie called 신과함께2. After watching this movie, I was able to learn a lot of terms regarding different types of punishments and different types of sins. For example, the word 불못 is another word for hell. It literally means fiery hell. It was also very interesting to see the concept of death and being reborn into this world. It made me question the afterlife, but I guess no one really knows the correct answer until they face death. It was very entertaining to see what other people think about the afterlife and how they imagine it.

In Korean, there are 2 types of proverbs: normal proverbs and 4 worded proverbs.

I talked about the normal proverbs in the previous biweekly report, so go take a look at that if you are curious.

There are many 4 worded proverbs in Korean. For example, 일석이조 means killing 2 birds with 1 stone. 일 is one, 석 is stone, 이 means two, and 조 means bird. Combining all these together, you get killing 2 birds with 1 stone. There are many other 4 worded proverbs in Korean that have similar meanings with the normal proverbs. It's very interesting to see proverbs being made in just 4 words.

I learned Korean proverbs.

There are some similarity between Korean proverbs and English proverbs; however, the majority of them follow a culture from the past history. An example is 남의 떡이 더 커 보인다. This translates to "other people's rice cake looks bigger". This proverb has the same meaning as the English proverb the grass is greener on the other side. It's the use of rice cake that differentiates the culture of the proverb.

In the first 2 weeks, I went through the lesson plan to see what my goals are for this semester. Also, I learned some Korean slangs that are used very frequently. My ultimately goal for this semester is to get prepared to exchange student at Yeonsei University in the fall 2019 term. Hopefully, I will be able to learn a lot of cultures relating to college life in Korea as well as the cultures within the students so that when I get there, I can fully dive into the actually cultural experience.

Slangs in Korea use a lot of messing with the symbols rather than coming up with completely new words like English. One of the Korean slang is 핵꿀잼 which literally translates to "nuclear honey fun". This is because nuclear is something that is huge and honey is sweet. 

These past two weeks, we learned about what expressions to use when we are riding a subway in Korea. We learned specific phrases to use such as asking how to get to a specific subway stop, where to make a transportation card, and how to give directions. We also learned key vocabulary words to help us form these expressions. It was interesting to learn these expressions because it was something I did not have to use before, in Korean and English. As I am from Los Angeles, where our public transportation system is still being worked on, the concept of transferring lines and making/ using a transportation card was fun to learn, especially in another language. We practiced with each other asking and answering various questions about subway directions. 

In addition, we learned grammar, such as how to use the past, present, and future participle when using verbs. It was a refresher to learn these skills, especially because they were phrases I was used to saying all my life. However, I enjoyed learning about them from an academic standpoint, such as how the verb changes based on the participle added. 

I found that one task that motivates me to remember my vocabulary words is transforming them to be "hip". For example, our teacher taught us that the word for transportation card, 교통카드 is often shortened to 교카. I found that making the words more hip and using acronyms makes them more easy to remember.

These past two weeks, we learned about ordering in a variety of service settings, such as at a restaurant or at a cafe. We learned about the fundamental differences between restaurant structures in South Korea, such as how many restaurants have floor seating and you address the waiter as "aunt". Along with the service culture, we also learned about specific phrases to use when ordering. For example, if we wanted to order a cup of coffee, we would use the keyword "한 잔". In Korean, there are different types of nouns we use based on what we are counting. While in English where most of our nouns can be counted using the term "things," Korean requires more specific terminology to describe different objects. Things like cups, paper, and pens all have different nouns to use when counting them. 

Along with the useful expressions, we also learned grammar for changing verbs from informal to formal. When describing what elders are doing, we use the characters 으시. We would keep the verb's first character, but we would incorporate this phrase into the verb to transform it to formal.

We also learned how to ask elders questions by transforming the verb using the characters 아, 어, and 여. For this, we would attach the proper character to the end of the verb. 

I have been practicing these tasks by challenging myself to use the formal version when speaking about what my parents are doing/ asking them for something. When I call my mom on the phone, I have been challenging myself to use these grammar tips, and at least using them three times throughout our conversation.