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I have learned a lot about the Korean language this semester. But I think I have also learned a lot about myself.
I started off wanting to just learn about the Korean language. But gradually I found that I’m deeply interested in learning Korean culture as well. I especially enjoy hearing Professor Kim talk about different aspects of Korean culture in class. I remember that there was one class we talk about the philosophical concepts behind hangul characters. It’s related to Confucianism. The key ideas are sky, ground and people. And these three elements formed the hangul characters. I think it’s at that moment when I realized how deeply related Chinese culture and Korean culture are. Professor Kim then explained that Koreans used to use Chinese characters in writing, but they have been almost completely replaced by Hangul. People only use it when they are using sino-korean. That reminded me of how much I love my culture but I feel that I’m losing touch of it. I haven’t written Chinese by hand that much since I came to the U of R. Frankly, I have to say that I have forgotten how to write some of the characters. When we talked about a Korean poem, Professor Kim asked me to write down a famous Chinese poem. For a second I couldn’t think of any. I used to love Chinese poetry and Chinese history, but now I’m gradually losing that part of myself. I want to find that part of myself back, starting this winter break.
The difficult part of learning Korean has to be grammar. There are so many exceptions to the grammar rules I have learned. Also, the sentence structure of Korean is different from Chinese and English. Korean is subject+object+verb while Chinese and English are subject+verb+object. So I still have to go through a “translating” step in my head every time I want to say a sentence. Since Korean also use honorific particles in contexts of showing respect to older people or people with more power. It’s hard to decide which particle to use in what sentence.
I would still want to continue learning Korean next semester with Professor Kim. We had some really useful exercises in class I enjoyed. One is that she starts every class with some basic daily conversations. And it really helps me practice talking with others in Korean. Another great exercise I enjoy a lot is transcribing the corresponding Korean characters when she reads the lyrics of a song or some short sentences. That is a great exercise to practice my listening and writing skills.
When we did the final interview podcast together, she recommended some useful websites and tools to help me learn Korean over the winter break. I think I’m gonna make good use of it and try to learn more Korean and also Korean culture over the break.
For the last two weeks, we only had one class since the last week was finals week. We learned some more grammar related to particles. -은 is topic marking particle used with words ending with a final consonant. -는 is topic marking particle used with words ending with a vowel. -이 is subject marking particle used with words ending with a final consonant. -가 is subject marking particle used with words ending with a vowel.
We went through the examples on the sheet and some other examples we can think of to understand the difference between the particles. I think the difference between these two types of particles is the hardest grammar I learned this semester.
The confusing thing is that topic and subject are sometimes not clearly distinguishable. The person or thing that is the main focus of the sentence is called the topic. The subject of the sentence is not always the topic. For example, in the sentence “오늘은 날씨가 좋아요.” subject of the sentence is 날씨 (Weather) while the topic of the sentence is 오늘 (Today). The subject of a sentence can also be the topic of the sentence and vice versa. In fact, in most of the situations 은/는 and 이/가 are interchangeable. ‘이것은 책입니다’ and ‘이것이 책입니다’ are pretty much the same thing. There are some situations when I can use any one of these particles but even if I use the wrong one, it won’t affect the meaning of the sentence that much.
There are a couple good rules that helped me:
1 When it’s a negative sentence with verb ‘to be’ (아닙니다 or 아니에요 i.e. is/am/are + not), you always have to use 이/가 with the preceding noun. Ex: 이것은 책이 아니에요.
2 When you want to show contrast or emphasise a noun, you should use 은/는. For example – 품질이 좋은데 가격은 너무 비싸요. (Quality is good but the price is too expensive.)
3 If you are using 있다/없다 you should always use 이/가 with the noun before it. Ex: i) 펜이 있어요? ii) 저는 내일 시간이 없어요.
4 Generally when there are two nouns in a sentence and a descriptive verb (or adjective) has been used, use 은/는 with the first noun and 이/가 with the second. Ex: 오늘은 날씨가 좋아요. 이 식당은 음식이 맛있어요.
The%20Japanese-Korean%20Historical%20Conflict%20%26%20Potential%20Resolution%20%281%29.pptx
I wasn't able to upload a video of my slides being presented to PanOpto, so I figured I would upload the slides onto here.
We only met once for these two weeks and we discussed the potential topics for my cultural presentation. In the end, I decided to talk about Turkish drinks in my presentation but I found Turkish breakfast and tourist spots are also very interesting topics that I want to share in my last journal.
Turks very value their breakfast and usually need to spend some time preparing breakfast. A typical Turkish breakfast consists of cheese (Beyaz peynir, kaşar, etc.), butter, olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, jam, honey, kaymak sucuk (Turkish sausages, can be eaten with eggs), pastırma, börek, simit, poğaça, and soup. So it is always very nutritious.
Turkish breakfast has a special dish called menemen, which is made of tomatoes, green peppers, onions, olive oil, and eggs. Turkish tea is always served with breakfast. Turkish breakfast can be translated to “kahvaltı”, means “before coffee” ("Kahve"="coffee"; "altı"="before").
Turkey's daily staple food is rice, vegetables, bread, and barbecue.
In western Turkey, olive oil is very productive. In Turkey, olive oil is used for cooking. The Turkish food, mantı, is very similar to Mantou or steamed bun in China or mandu in Korea.
Tourist spots:
The first one is the blue mosque.
Located in Istanbul, it is an important landmark of Istanbul. The walls of the blue mosque are carved with beautiful patterns on a white substrate. It makes the whole mosque blue. This building is very beautiful and historical.
The second one is the Bosporus Strait.
Bosporus strait is a territory near the Black Sea, the only way out of the open sea. It is because of this strait that Turkey is divided into two parts: Asia and Europe. If you sail through the Strait by boat, you can see the very beautiful scenery.
The third one is Pamukkale.
Pamukkale is totally made by nature, though it looks very artificial. The scenery is very beautiful. It seems to give people a sense of relaxation. This place is famous for hot spring. There are not only thousands of years of natural hot springs in Pamukkale but also all kinds of strange hills like marshmallows.
The fourth one is Goreme National Park.
The Goreme National Park is an important symbol of Turkey. This place is famous for its magnificent volcanic rocks and very ancient cave churches with beautiful hot air balloons. After years of wind and sun, it will lead to extremely uneven road conditions. So people usually take hot air balloons to visit.
The fifth one is the Troy ruins.
Troy ruins is a very famous site in Turkey. There is a huge Trojan at the entrance. The Trojan is very big. This has become one of the most important cultural landscapes in Turkey.
- Improve the understanding of the native language.
Only when we start to learn a new language, we can realize the importance of origin and foundation of our own language. Because we all grew up speaking our own native language and never thought about the structure of sentences or how each syllable is pronounced. After taking this class and studying different languages, I have a broader understanding of linguistic and began to be interested in how Chinese developed. I would like to further research the history of the development of Chinese and to know the correlation between the language, the society, and the culture.
I believe learning new languages will significantly improve your native languages and other languages’ grammar, reading, vocabulary, and oral skills. Also, I found I could pick up a new language faster and faster by studying more and more languages. It’s like after playing basketball for a lifetime, you can learn to play volleyball, and then you can use volleyball skills to improve the basketball level.
- Improve the ability to focus
In a study published in the online journal, researchers asked people who can speak multiple languages to do text comprehension tasks and use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for observation. The results show that people who can speak multiple languages are better at filtering out contradictory words than people who can only speak one language. This ability not to focus on contradictory words is useful in preventing distraction and focusing on the task at hand. I think after learning several languages, my capability of dealing with multi-tasks increased a lot. And I can translate languages faster.
- Faster learning
I believe language learning can be applied directly to anything we want to learn. When you learn a new language, your memory will also improve. Absorbing and retaining more information can significantly shorten your learning curve because you spend more time mastering new information rather than relearning what you have learned.
- Learning a new culture and having more in-depth thinking
Language learning is not only to communicate in a foreign language but also to experience a new culture. Communication with more people from different countries and cultures is the core of language learning. In order to practice and improve your new language, you need to study with a native language teacher, such as my language partner or watching the movie. In this way, you can improve your ability to learn this language. It's like riding a bike. You have to go cycling yourself, not just watch the video of cycling tutorial, but watch it as part of the whole process. Also, when studying a new language, I talked much more than when I did not because I need to communicate and learn. I also need to communicate my feelings and experiences with classmates, which made me have lots of deep thinking. When we exchanged our ideas, we all improved and broadened our ways of thinking
I recorded my podcast with Maggie and Kate with Jenna as our instructor.
I did podcast with Brenda, Yuting and Hanchen(Olivia).
For the last weeks of school, we reviewed what we learned in this semester.
So far, I can do greetings and basic expressions. For example,
hello(안녕하세요) My name is...(내 이름은)
It is nice to meet you(만나서 반가워) Goodbye(안녕)
Thank you (고맙습니다) Sorry(죄송합니다) excuse me(실례합니다)
I also learned about Transportation. There are two kinds of taxis in Korea: a standard taxi and a deluxe taxi. A deluxe taxi is slightly more expensive than a standard taxi. Taxi fares are usually paid in cash, but many taxis now accept payment by credit card or public transit card. Tipping is not necessary. Taxi drivers might ask where would you like to go (어디로 가고 싶습니까). You can answer, "please take me to hyeongbokgung(경복궁으로 데려가주세요)". In chapter 4, I also learned about famous shopping center in Korea. For instance, Dongdaemun(동대문) and Myeong-dong(명동).
Hat 모자 watch 시계 accessories:부속품
Electronic goods: 전기 제품 Food: 식품
Shape: 모양 Design:디자인
Pattern: 무늬 pay:지불 exchange: 교환
refund: 환불금
And then, in chapter 5, we talked about tourism in Korea. There are several famous places that I really want to visit. One of them is N Seoul Tower.
Art Museum 예술 박물관 zoo 동물원
bathroom 화장실 map 지도
ticket 티켓 admission fee 입장료
free 비어 있는
In addition, there are also some useful examples of conversations.
where is the museum? 박물관이 어디 있어요?
can I get there on foot? 걸어서 갈 수 있을까요
Can I take pictures here? 여기서 사진을 찍어도 될까요?
In the last chapter, we learned the most important thing. We learned how to order food in the restaurant and what is included in Korean meal.
Is there a good Korean restaurant nearby? 근처에 좋은 한국 식당이 있습니까?
May I please have a menu? 메뉴 좀 주세요?
What is the most popular dish here? 여기서 가장 인기있는 요리는 무엇입니까?
I would like to order. 주문 할게요
We will have one Samgyetang and one Bibimbap please. 삼게탕하고 비빔밤 주세요
Please leave out the Gochujang. 고추장 뻬주세요.
Side dish: 반찬 Salt: 소금
Pork: 돼지고기 Chopsticks:젓가락
Check:게산서 Delicious: 맛있는
It is spicy:매운 맛입니다. Water: 물
Peper:후추 Fork:포크
Spoon:숟가락 Pay:계산
And I actually tried to order food in Korean restaurant speaking Korean. I did pretty good job on it.
I learned a lot in this semester. And I hope to learn more in the future.
