Blogs

For my cultural presentation, I will be discussing my experiences as a Korean-American.

When I was studying abroad, I made a friend who was from South Korea. It was interesting because though we were both Korean, we had different identities. I remember a pivotal moment in how I viewed culture when we were discussing being Korean, and she asked me if I struggled with having two cultural backgrounds. I told her I did, but when I asked her if she ever felt conflicted about her cultural background, she thought for a long time before responding no.

It was interesting to hear this answer because she, too, had also lived in the USA for a few years. All my life, I was surrounded by Koreans who also struggled with their cultural identities. Therefore, to hear about her case where she didn't was mind-blowing to me.

In my cultural presentation, I plan to discuss the concept of race, ethnicity, culture, and identity. Furthermore, I will be sharing examples of the moments Korean and American culture oppose each other. I will also be discussing my perspective on how we can resolve cultural tensions and differences. Lastly, I will be talking about some concrete steps we all can take to be understanding, open-minded, and eager to listen to one another. 

I think it will be a unique experience to discuss the struggles of being a Korean-American, and also hearing feedback from others about their experiences with a bicultural identity as well. 

Post%20reflection%20paper%20%232.pages

For the last classes, my tutor and I reviewed all the materials that we have learned so far. I was surprised to see how much I learned and improved. I learned so much on slangs, idioms, and proverbs and am able to use some of these in my conversations. I didn't know I could get so far in such short time and the classes were especially fun because I was learning what I wanted to learn. After taking the final exam, I was very proud of where I was able to get to. This class not only taught me more Korean language, but also exposed me to the Korean culture. I think that's what's so cool about language studies. There are just so much more to language than just reading, writing, speaking, and vocabulary. 

In order to improve on my listening and writing skills, my tutor and I began to watch some videos online. We watched a Korean language quiz show on youtube and we would follow along, answering the questions together. Some were actually pretty difficult and some were easy. In addition, we watched a popular movie called "Along with the God" and it was a very interesting movie. It got me tearing up and I would recommend others to watch it if you have a chance. After, I wrote a short essay on the summary of the movie plot and its presenting ideas. I've never written an essay in Korean before and it was very difficult to do, but it was a very good writing exercise. 

Here is my short essay if anyone would like to read my summary of the plot!

신과 함께는 소방관 김자홍에 죽음으로 시작 합니다. 자홍은 매달 자신에 가족을 지탱하기 위해 쉬지도 않고 일을 합니다. 하지만 어느날 불이난 건물에 아이를 구조하다 안타까운 죽음을 마지하게 됩니다. 이후 자홍은 저승에 있는 7개의 재판을 거처 환생하게됩니다. 죽은 자홍은 자신의 의지없이 저승에 보내집니다.  열심히 삶을산 귀인 자홍은 자신에 어머니를 마지막으로 한번만 더 볼수 있기 위해 변호인 3명과 함께 재판을 거쳐 갑니다.  자홍은 귀인이기에 재판을 수월히 통과합니다 하지만 그도중 자홍에 동생이 원기가 되고 자홍에 재판이 힘들어 집니다. 이렇게 힘겹게 재판을 하던중 자홍에 큰 비밀이 밝혀 집니다. 어린 자홍은 자기 가족의 불행복한 미래를 알고있기에 가족 모두에 죽음을 택하는 일이 있었습니다. 하지만 동생은 자홍을 말리고 죄책감에 시달린 자홍은 집을 떠나게 됩니다. 이 일로 인해 자홍은 재판 도중 지옥행에 처하고 맙니다. 용서를 구하고 싶던 자홍은 지옥행을 받아드립니다.  지옥에 떨어지기 직전 아주 중요한 사실이 밝혀 집니다. 자홍은 살해 시도중 어머니의 의식이 없었던걸로 믿었는데 어머니는 모든걸 다 알고 계셨던 겁니다. 살아계신 어머니는 오히려 더 미안해 하시고 용서를 해줍니다. 이 용서로 인해 자홍은 재판을 무사히 마치고 환생 하게 됩니다.

이 영화를 본후 무엇이 진정한 죄인지 생각하게 됩니다. 영화에선 자홍에 거짓 편지와 살인시도는 죄가 아닌것으로 판정됩니다. 영화를 따르면 살인죄라도 용서를 받으면 괜찮고 거짓으로 인해 좋은 영향이 생기면 괜찮은걸로 보여줍니다. 죄와 무죄의 판결은 무엇을 바탕하여 결정되는걸까요? 이 영화는 또 다른 의문을 제시합니다. 저승과 환생이란 진짜로 존재하는 것일까요?

If anyone would like to answer my questions at the end, I would love to hear your opinion on it so leave it in the comment.

In order to improve my reading skills, my tutor and I read Korean articles together. I would find words that I don't know and make a list out of them. Reading Korean articles allowed me to understand some student culture in Korea. 

This particular article is about how college students in Korea take more than 4 years to graduate. This is mainly due to the requirement of army service in Korea and its focus on in-work experience. Students take a long time to build their experience in their fields and it's not like U.S. where one internship is enough to get a job. Korean army service is a big factor that slows down college graduation as male students have to go to army in the middle of their college years. Often, students will leave school for 2 years and come back to college to continue their studying. 

I've read other articles as well and I would go through the analysis problems with my tutor and exchange culture in U.S. with the culture in Korea.

I began to learn proverbs in the Korean language. I've never learned proverbs in Korean, but they were quite straight forward. The meaning is within the proverbs itself. It is very similar to how English proverbs work. It has a general meaning to it which you can relate it to many other situations. I think proverbs are used more in normal conversations in Korean than English. They are more casually brought up in conversations. Rather than simply trying to memorize them, I tried to make my own applicable situations and fit the proverbs in and while I talk to my tutor I would try to use it in my speech. I was able to understand some proverbs I heard on Korean variety shows and realized that there are ones that are very commonly used such as 누워서 떡먹기, 그림의 떡, and 믿는 도끼에 발등 찍힌다. 

After learning slangs, my tutor and I have moved on to learning Korean four-character idioms called 사자성어. A lot of these idioms are basically abbreviation of long phrases, taking the first character of each words and combining them. I first looked at new idioms and tried to guess its meaning by thinking of what words start with each character. These are a bit harder to incorporate into actual sentences and confusing to figure out when to use the idiom as each one is related to one specific situation. I had to try multiple example sentences to realize when to use an idiom and practice definitely helped me learn the application. The harder part of learning idioms is that it uses high level vocabulary. In order to learn the idioms, I had to learn each words that are used in the idiom first which doubled the time to learn idioms. 

For the first two weeks of classes, I learned many slangs that teenagers use in Korea. Korean has so many slangs for various situations. You can use them in written conversations and vocal conversations. There are so many that you can easily integrate slang in almost every sentence. It is like a sub-language within Korean language. It is so prominent among young Koreans that sometimes even the adults wont be able to understand what the teenagers say. In addition, it is used very often in Korean variety shows and Korean dramas. Some are very easy to pick up on such as 인정 as they are used way too often in multiple situations.

For the ninth week of class, we reviewed everything we learned this semester for the exam. Although some things came easily for me, I realized that I forgot some of them, mainly because I didn’t use the proverbs or the historical vocabularies on an everyday basis. However, since I used the slangs often within text messages, it was easier for me to remember them. Then, for the tenth week, Jimin gave us a final exam on all of the things we learned. During the exam, I realized that we learned a lot over the semester, and in a way, I was content with myself for actually learning something over the semester and also thankful to Jimin for teaching us and doing so much for us.  

As I celebrate Hanukkah, I am able to sing Hanukkah songs in Hebrew to my roommates (and with family over Facetime) and better explain the Hebrew terms to my friends who have questions about the holiday. I love having the opportunity to practice the language both during weekly lessons with my language partner, but also outside of the lessons in other spaces with other individuals. I have enjoyed playing the Hebrew songs (assigned to me by my language partner) with my friends who do not speak or understand Hebrew, as I am able to translate for them and better grasp the new vocabulary and material in a fun and exciting way. 

I recently attended Shabbat services at a local Richmond synagogue, where I was able to confidently recite prayers and songs that I had forgotten over the years. I was able to help my friends follow along in our prayer books, as I felt more confident than I previously did in services and was better able to read and translate the Hebrew text. I flipped throughout the book during the service to test my knowledge, and was able to directly experience my progress in the language while doing so. 

Over Thanksgiving Break, I was able to speak Hebrew with both my brother and sister. Since my sister gives my brother weekly religious school lessons, I was able to sit in on the lesson and learned a Hebrew prayer song with the two of them. I was able to expand my vocabulary and show my family how my Hebrew has improved, while helping my brother with his lesson. He was also able to teach me new Hebrew and Israeli songs that I was not familiar with. My family also celebrated Hanukkah early since we were all together, and we all sang Hebrew songs. 

This week (12/3), I listened to a song called "Tel Aviv" by Omer Adam and also read a blog post to help better understand the song while discussing it with my language partner. 

http://1israelisong.blogspot.com/2013/06/arisa-featomer-adam-tel-aviv.html

This week (11/26), I watched another episode of Srugim and answered the discussion post and questions about the show, as well as listed words I was not familiar with. 

This week, following the events that took place in Pittsburg, I read and responded to a Ha'Aretz article about the shooting and the aftermath of the tragedy. 

This week, I listened to the song "Barbie" by Static and Ben El Tavori, and responded to the discussion post, asking me to compare the last song I listened to with this one. Then, I wrote down and defined words with which I was unfamiliar and answered the other discussion questions in Hebrew. 

This week (10/8), I listened to the song "Shnei Meshugaim" by Omer Adam, and wrote down words with which I was unfamiliar. I then answered the discussion post and questions listed below. 

This week, (10/23), I read a Ha'Aretz article that discussed the "Me Too" movement, and specifically how it is present in Israel, as well as America. I responded to a discussion question asking me to summarize the article, and then to the follow up questions listed below. 

This week (10/2), I watched the first episode of Srugim and responded to questions, as well as the discussion post, "Why do you think the title of the show is "Srugim?"

My first lesson, I listened to "Zahav" by Static and Ben El Tavori. The lyrics are about a man pursuing a woman, as portrayed in the Youtube music video below, so my discussion post was to write a letter as the young woman, responding to the man singing the song.