In case the link doesn't work, I also uploaded the video on the blackboard under "Panopto Videos", and the name of the file is Yahui Wu.
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Recently, I have been reading a famous Turkish book called Madonna in Fur coat written by Sabahattin Ali. The plot revolves around a shy young man from rural Turkey who moves to Berlin in the 1920s, where he meets a woman who will haunt him for the rest of his life.
When it was first published in Istanbul in 1943, it made no impression whatsoever. Decades later, when Madonna in a Fur Coat became the sort of book that passed from friend to friend, the literary establishment continued to ignore it. Even those who greatly admired the other works of Sabahattin Ali viewed this one as a puzzling aberration. It was just a love story, they said – the sort that schoolgirls fawned over. And yet, for the past three years, it has topped the bestseller lists in Turkey, outselling Orhan Pamuk. It is read, loved and wept over by men and women of all ages, but most of all by young adults. And no one seems able to explain quite why.
The story begins in 1930s Ankara, the Turkish Republic’s newly appointed capital. The narrator has fallen on hard times, and it is only with the help of a crass and belittling former classmate that he is able to find work as a clerk at firm trading in lumber. Here he meets the sickly, affectless Raif Bey, who is, we’re told, “the sort of man who causes us to ask ourselves: “What do they live for? What do they find in life? What logic compels them to keep breathing?” When at last they make friends, it becomes clear that Raif’s reason for living cannot be his family. The relatives assembled under his roof treat him with the utmost contempt. And yet he welcomes their derision. Even on his deathbed, he seems to accept it as his due. But there is also a notebook, hidden in his desk drawer at work, which he asks his friend to destroy.
When his friend reads it instead, he meets a younger Raif, sent to Berlin by his father to study the manufacture of soap. Only a few years have passed since Turkey and Germany fought together on the losing side in the first world war, so he is warmly received by the pension’s other residents. But he is not much interested in the glad-eyed widows and the ruined colonialists, or for that matter, in soap. He devotes his days to reading and his evenings to strolling the streets. One evening, he wanders into an exhibition of contemporary art to be mesmerized by a portrait of a Madonna in a fur coat. He goes back the next evening, and the next, until finally the artist introduces herself. For the work that Raif has been admiring is a self-portrait. And though Maria Puder is the sort of free-thinking new woman he could never have imagined possible, the two form an intensely platonic friendship, in which Maria becomes more male than female, and Raif more female than male. It suits them both, but the world, as it closes in on them, has other plans.
The writer actually projected his own life experience in this novel. During his lifetime, and even after his death, Ali was publicly taunted for failing to act like a “real man”. There was endless innuendo about his time in Berlin. He never responded to it. Instead, he wrote Madonna in a Fur Coat, conjuring up a time and a place in which it was possible to be true to one’s nature, with air to breathe, and to live and love without pretense, if only for a brief period. It is not hard to see how a novel carrying those dreams but set far away, in a long lost Berlin, might promise a refuge, and some hope, to young readers in Turkey. They are only too aware that the space for free expression and even free thought is diminishing every day. But with this book in their hands, they can see that a story that is true to itself, and honest about love, can travel through walls. It has taken more than 70 years, says Genç, but at last Ali is having his revenge – not just in Turkish, but in English, too. May his fine book travel far.
In class we learned about a very important and confusing part of Korean grammar: particles. In the English language, just the sentence structure and the rules of agreement alone are enough to help one understand what the subject, object, and verb of a sentence are. In Korean, particles are added to the end of words to emphasize what the subject of the sentence is and what the topic of the sentence is.
We learned that -은 and -는 are topic marking particles used with words ending with a final consonant and words ending with a vowel respectively, and that -이 and -가 are subject marking particles used with words ending with a final consonant and words ending with a vowel respectively. In the moment, this was a pretty simple idea that I could easily wrap my head around. Little did I know that it was going to get extremely complicated in just a few moments. Other than simply being used to mark the subject and the topic of a sentence, -은/는 and -이/가, when used in a sentence by themselves and not as a pair, have very subtly different meanings that Professor Sumi Kim told us even advanced Korean language learners struggle with. So obviously we struggled with understanding the nuances.
I did, however, really like the way Professor Sum Kim approached the concept. She first let us create our own scenarios and ask her various questions related to the scenario and its contextual clues. Then she replied using the appropriate particle and she explained why she chose that particle. So, by examining the situation and the implications of using a certain particle, I was able to slowly start understanding what situation each particle suits. After an hour (or more) of going through about a dozen different scenarios and way too many questions, I think I somewhat finally understood the subtle difference between using -은/는 and -이/가.
I think it is that -이/가 is used when you want to emphasize uniqueness in a specific thing, and -은/는 is used when you want to say something about a specific thing. For example, assume someone comes up to you with a couple of books and ask you which one you think is good. If you point to a book and say:
이 책이 좋아요, it means that there is no other book as good as this one, and
이 책은 좋아요, it means that I know for sure that this is a good book, but I don’t know about the others.
Another example, assume someone asked you what devices were present in a room that you entered, you’d say 컴퓨터가 있다 if there was a computer present in the room, and if someone asked you whether there was a scanner present in the room, you’d say 컴퓨터는 있다 if you only saw a computer but didn’t see a scanner.
I’m still not sure if this is the full depth of usage of these particles. Honestly, I’m not even sure about whether what I say above is accurate or whether I’m possibly completely off-base here, but after a lot of hard work this is what I gathered. I hope that as I keep learning more and more Korean and reaching more advanced levels which dive deeper into Korean grammar, I’ll be able to fully understand the concept of particles and their usage, and be confident about it.
During this semester, I have learned not only the Turkish language but also Turkish culture. As I stated in my previous self-reflection papers, language serves as a vehicle for opinions and ideas. People with different cultural identities use their languages to express different values and concepts of their culture. This is also one important reason why I am interested in learning languages. Believing in such an idea, I talked a lot about Turkish culture and Turkish politics with my language partner after classes. In this paper, I will first talk about what I learn about the Turkish language, then I will reflect on Turkish culture and art I am interested in, and finally, I will plan for my future learning plan.
During this semester, I learned about basic sentence structure, greetings, and numbers. In Turkish, its sentence structure is SOV (subject-object-verb), which is different from Chinese or English sentence structure, SVO (subject-verb-object). Also, in the Turkish language, people add affix to verbs to show past, future or perfect tense. We also learned the rule of personal suffix. To say "I am", "You are", "He is" etc. in English we use a personal pronoun and a noun/adjective. For example: "I am a doctor", "I" is the personal pronoun and "doctor" is the noun. For Turkish, we use a personal pronoun, a noun/adjective, and a personal suffix. For example: "Ben doktorum", "Ben" is the personal pronoun, "doktor" is the noun and "-um" is the personal suffix. The personal pronoun and the personal suffix are associated with each other. One common rule applied for all affix or suffix is grammar that there are no two vowels next to each other. However, there are words that use two vowels next to each other. They have adapted words, which mostly come from Arabic. Besides grammar, we also learned basic greetings. Now, I am able to introduce myself in Turkish fluently and even order foods in Turkish. I believe that my Turkish skills would help me a lot if I am going to visit Turkey after graduation.
Besides learning the language, I also learned a lot about Turkish culture by watching Turkish movies and documentaries in Turkish with English subtitles. I watched a documentary about a Turkish transgender who lived in a small village. At first, villagers did not accept her and even traded her as a freak. However, she did not give up and was always willing to help whenever they need her. Her kindness and thoughtfulness finally changed the villagers’ mind and they gradually accepted her. They began to treat her as a friend and even part of family. They invited her to have dinner and dance together. I still remember when one of the villagers was interviewed, he said: she is just a kind person, and nothing else. I really appreciate those villagers’ open mind and kindness and I was really touched by their ingenious relationship.
I think my biggest problem is a lack of vocabulary. After all, vocabulary is the foundation for advanced learning. There are two ways to enlarge my Turkish vocabulary based on my experience of learning other languages. The first is to read more journals and essays in Turkish. When encountering unknown words, I would check the dictionary and write them down in a notebook. Also, watching more videos or soap operas in Turkish with English subtitles is another really effective way. Although, at first, I may be able to understand little Turkish but English subtitles would help me to understand. As I keep practicing, I would remember more high-frequent Turkish words that people often use.
Overall, I learned a lot during this semester and my language partner and I become really close friends. I hope I could learn more about the Turkish language and culture, and even be able to visit Turkey one day.
I think this semester I learned a lot about efficiently using time and resources to hit important milestones within a learning environment. In classes like high school Spanish, where there is plenty of time and entire periods are devoted to just the one subject, it is very easy to get distracted and not try very hard. But when teaching yourself, or studying without a very defined curriculum, it is important to practice mental discipline and make the time for practice by yourself. This was difficult for me to get accustomed to as focus isn't really something that comes naturally.
Learning from a somewhat unqualified peer rather than an actual teacher was also very interesting. In some ways it made understanding certain concepts much easier, since the subject matter/examples always hit closer to home rather than feeling vaguely out of touch and uninteresting (like in high school Spanish.) But in other ways it made things much more difficult, as my language partner had a lot of trouble describing certain concepts in way that would make sense to English speakers. One of the hardest parts was understanding words like "this" and "that" in Hebrew, since there is no easy definition you can give for these kind of words. Similar to how "that" in English has two meanings, as an identifier and as a part of speech (I know "that" he is interesting.) Hebrew also has multiple meanings for these words, but my partner was unable to explain in English, rather she only used examples and over time through making mistake after mistake I began to understand when to use them.
One of the things that I think I have learned about myself, and how I process language, is experiential based learning works better for me personally than memorizing grammar rules. I previously discovered this in Chinese and Russian. In Chinese the word 了 doesn't really have an English meaning, but I know when to use it just instinctively. Maybe a couple years ago I could explain the meaning but not anymore. In Russian, on tests where we have to list conjugation patterns (govoryu, goverishb, etc) it was always very difficult for me to list out the full declension, even though in practice I could always pick the right ending. I think this is generally a good language acquisition pattern, because it is most similar to how native speakers (I assume) process their own languages. I know for sure that with English, I don't know why I say things the way I do, but I get it right through feeling it. We touched on this in class with the adjective order example. That rule was not mentioned once in any curriculum I took, but I instinctively knew it. In Hebrew I have seen this most with declensions similar to Russian, but also eventually with the small words like this and that. I began to use the correct one without understanding any real rule behind it.
Overall, I think even without the Hebrew I gained this class was a very valuable experience. I learned a lot about the history behind languages how they connect and differ throughout the world. And I feel much more comfortable in Hebrew, so when I hopefully go back next year I will be able to impress my language partner in person!
SDLC%20111%20culture%20presentation.pptx
Link for the video:
I am always a fan of Korean movie because I believed that there are always unique genres of Korean movies and in general Korean movie = Hong Kong movie+ Hollywood movie. On the subject of film selection, Korean movie inherited the narrative tradition of Hollywood commercial blockbuster on the one hand, and on the other hand had the feature using small characters as protagonist in golden age of Hong Kong film. However, it does not have the mundane matters in Hong Kong films, nor the personal heroism in Hollywood films, but uses complex political and social backgrounds as the basis to expose the dark side of society.
The film “Silence” is modeled after sexual violence in a deaf school in South Korea in 2001. It describes the tragedy happened and how the school teachers and human rights activists working together to uncover the behind-the-scenes story. I personally admire the director's courage. The process of deaf child's death was not ended by three or two shots nor a few voiceovers. Instead, he chose to show the audience the most painful and depressing footage while the children "recounted" the victim's experience to the teacher. During the whole process of recording, it is very cruel to ask children to remind how they were humiliated. And that might be the reason why the protagonist decides to protect these children whose crys are swallowed up in the silent world.
“Silence ,” the film depicting real-life cases of abuse in a school for deaf children, has moved beyond the box office into the legal arena. The revised bill allows for heavier punishments for sexual offenders, particularly those who abuse children aged 13 and under, and the disabled. Under the new law, the prison terms for rape against the disabled and young children will increase from its minimum of seven to ten years. The new law also allows for offenders to be sentenced with life imprisonment.
The data listed on the official US website tell us that more than 90% of people with developmental disabilities, including men and women, have experienced at least one violation in their lifetime, and 49% have experienced it more than 10 times. The incidence of sexual assault is so high, but only 3% are reported.
Besides increasing the legal protection of children, school sex education is also crucial. Schools should teach children to know their own body in order to protect their privacy, and distinguish between public behaviors and privacy behaviors. Children need to learn to maintain different physical distances from people with different relationships and strictly express and defend themselves when necessary.
At the end of the film, the words of protagonist Mr. Ren are very touching: "We fight all the way, not to change the world, but not to let the world change us!" Maybe we cannot change this world and change others, but at least we do not choice to become them, and there are countless righteous people, upholding the faith in their minds.
A movie in South Korea is very popular recently called Parasite. It is a story about how a family living in a sunken basement attached to a rich family. The protagonist is a family of four, trying everything to work in a rich family: the son is an English teacher, the daughter is an art teacher, the father is a driver, and the mother is a housekeeper. In order to enter this house and earn more wages, they used various "despicable" methods. The son and daughter forged college degrees, and they framed the former driver and former housekeeper which cause them to lose their jobs. To take advantage of the situation, they went to work in the mansion as expected.
They are not ordinary poor people in some aspects. Their son's English level is far higher than that of college students; their daughter is knowledgeable, eloquent, and can forge various kinds of documents skillfully; their mothers are good at cooking, and used to be a shot putter; their father is a skilled driver who can take you to any places in Korea without GPS. However, no matter how capable they are, and how they well-behaved, the rich family always said they have "the musty smell in the basement", even if not intentional.
When the four chased away the original driver and housekeeper and gained the trust of the house owner, they said, "This family is so rich and so kind." To a certain extent, it makes little sense. The rich have a superior life and have been well protected since childhood. By receiving a good education and having a high level of morality, they become a seemingly elegant person. With their huge wealth advantage, they don't need to fight or grab anything, so they all look "kind". And as the poor who live in a world with scarce resources and unfairness, they have to do their best to survive. Where else can he care about what is " elegant"? Every moment, they are competing with others for resources to survive.
When we put this issue in sociology, one can think of an old topic: is the rich feeding the poor, or the poor feeding the rich? Should the capitalists feed the workers, or will the workers feed the capitalists? Who is the "parasite"?
Recently, a scholar named Xue Zhaofeng put forward a point of view, saying: "It is not the capitalists exploiting the workers, but the workers exploit the capitalists! Because capital cannot flow freely when it is invested in enterprises, but workers are free. They can leave if they want and they can make their own personal gains. So, it is the workers who are exploiting the capitalists. " However, in my point of view, laborers are always in a disadvantaged position, because the means of production are occupied by capitalists, and laborers can only sell their labor power in exchange for remuneration. The value they created are far higher than the wages they receive. The worker seems to be a free man, but under the pressure of survival, they cannot leave the capitalist and the means of production to make a living independently. Even though laborers have strong abilities, their still can be replaced easily in their work place. Therefore, they do not have the freedom to come as they wish, and to leave as they wish.
Yesterday was my final meeting with my language partner, Melisa, so I wanted to touch upon some of the topics we covered within the past week as well as reflect upon how we wrapped up the semester. In terms of substantive material, I learned a series of conjunctions and connectors that help with sentence construction, from samba ("while") to supaya ("in order to"). Something I immediately noticed upon completing a worksheet that Melisa made that included these terms was the usage of sungguhpan...tetapi... ("although...but") in sentence formation. While Melisa indicated that the tetapi was optional, this structure mimicked that found in Chinese (虽然...可是...), and served as yet another reminder of the numerous grammatical similarities between Malay and Chinese. Malay itself has so many different cultural-linguistic influences, be them loanwords, sentence structure, etc. Another one I recently learned was the word dunia ("world"), which is apparently a Hindi loanword. This has by and large been one of the most fascinating aspects of learning Malay for me.
Moving on to the last meeting, Melisa once again baked food and brought it in to incorporate into the lesson plan. The first food I tried was called Bubur Pulut Hitam, which is a black sticky-rice based congee that is sweet (manis) and mixed/diluted (cair) with coconut milk. After that, I also tried Agar-Agar Pandan, which is a type of gelatin dessert made from agar and coconut milk, having both a sweet (manis) and salty (masin) taste as well as a hard (keras) consistency. Learning words to describe my opinion (pendapat) of these foods or how I felt (rasa) was a really great way to practice my vocabulary and self-expression while also taking part in the preparation of the food and learning in that way as well. Food can be an incredibly insightful window into a culture; I was surprised with how much I learned from Melisa just talking about Pandan leaves, coconut milk, and other otherwise typical ingredients in Malaysian cuisine. I hope that next semester I can continue to learn through cultural activities such as these and to foster a better understanding of my target language and culture.
Following the meeting, Melisa and I recorded our podcast and discussed the general trajectory of the past semester and some things that we could try differently or implement regularly. This was overall a great way to sum up what we had done and to get me to start thinking about learning next semester. There are many new ideas that both of us had for the following semester that drew upon the lessons of the past several months. That said, I realize that it is also important that I continue to practice Malay and keep up with language learning as much as I can over the winter break. This is something we discussed as well, and certainly an area that will for the first time task me with doing this for two languages (Mandarin and Malay) somewhat simultaneously. This past semester has taught me a lot about language learning at an individual level and has given me new ideas for how best to keep this momentum as I progress and take a deeper dive into the language next semester.
I honestly cannot believe that I am writing my last bi-weekly journal of the semester. This not only signifies my last time taking a self-directed Korean class, but also the midpoint of my senior year. I am proud of how far I have come in my Korean studies. I improved my writing, reading, speaking, and grammar skills dramatically from when I first started learning Korean on campus. I plan to continue this journey, even when I am not taking a college course.
For the past two weeks, I continued to practice my conversation skills not only in person, but also through text messages. Conversing through text was always my weakest point because I did not know how to replicate casual speaking into text. I would always feel awkward using slang and non-formal speech. I also was self-conscious in the past about my spelling as I knew my spelling was imperfect. However, I started to see progress slowly, but surely. I was using vocabulary words that I could not use in the past and my spelling improved dramatically. I think working on several skills at once helped me to improve communication through text. I also did not realize that I was improving until I started receiving feedback from the people that I communicated with. For example, my mother complimented me on my Korean and that she was proud to have raised a son to use hangul. Many of my friends recognized that I was articulating my thoughts more coherently than I did in the past. I’m glad that I have more than self-affirmation about my learning because I have more feedback to reflect and improve upon.
I also learned about the working conditions in the Korean entertainment industry and the effect that these conditions have on young celebrities. This is an issue that I wanted to study for a while because the number of suicides in the industry has increased over time. In the past two months, two celebrities took their own lives in their own apartments. According to several articles, many suicide cases in the Korean entertainment industry were caused by intense pressures to maintain popularity and a perfect image. This burden is placed upon these young celebrities during their teenage years, when they train and prepare to become global stars. K-pop stars are always monitored and restricted from going outside of their training dorms without the consent of management. Their diet and bodyweight are monitored at all times as well as K-pop stars are expected to uphold a beauty standard that is already deeply rooted in Korean society. These restrictions prevent K-pop stars to socialize only among their groups and are unable to enjoy the freedom that ordinary citizens can enjoy. Many of them may also experience bodily insecurities as they are expected to meet unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards. The worst part is that these stars do no get paid much until their debut. In other words, K-pop starts are treated more like assets of a company rather than workers.
This past semester I have learned a lot about the Korean language and the culture. But more importantly, through this experience, I have learned valuable insights about myself as a language learner and a cultural explorer. I have learned that, when it comes to learning a language, I need to be able to speak it as much as I can. When I’ve studied other languages, we learned through textbooks, doing worksheets, and didn’t speak the language as much as I hoped to. I’ve learned that by speaking the language as much as possible, I am able to remember things a lot more and my responses become a lot more natural. I have also learned that I am very curious about other cultures and hope to explore many other cultures. I am interested in other cultures’ cuisine and traditions.
I thought one of the most difficult things about Korean was understanding when to use certain grammar in different context. Korean has honorifics, so depending on the situation you are in and who you are talking to, your grammar will change. I was very unfamiliar with this concept since English doesn’t have it. This was something that I had to get used to and am still working on. As I continue my studies, I hope that I will natural be able to recognize the context and use the proper grammar.
I have enjoyed seeing my progression each week. I started from nothing, and to see how far I have come, I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish and learn in such a short time. Knowing how much I have been able to learn this semester, makes me even more motivated to continue my studies and learn even more about the language and culture. I have also enjoyed learning about the culture. Korean culture is very unique and there is so much to learn. I found that learning about their cuisine and music was some of the most interesting things I’ve learned so far.
In order to continue my learning, I have registered for SDLC 111. I will try to expose myself to the Korean language and culture as much as I can during break. Professor Kim suggested that I watch Korean movies and TV shows, as well as listen to Korean music. I will also try to practice Korean with Korean friends, in hopes that I will remember what I’ve learned so far. Over break, I will try to learn some more vocabulary and prepare myself for another semester of learning Korean.
Some activities I thought were most useful were the cultural activities held at the Hagwon school. This past semester, I had the opportunity to attend two of the cultural events at the Hagwon school. I found going to these events were so beneficial because they taught me so much more about the culture. Sitting in a classroom, I can only learn about Korea’s culture through Professor Kim, videos, and other readings. Attending these events were an entirely different experience. Listening to what Korean culture is like is one thing, but to actually take part and have a hands-on experience with Korean culture is another thing. The first cultural event I went to was Korean Thanksgiving, or Chuseok. At that event, I was able to learn about the background of Chuseok and what Koreans typically do to celebrate it. We had the opportunity to watch younger kids in the Korean classes sing in Korean. They were all dressed in traditional Korean outfits which was really interesting to see. We also made traditional Korean desserts, typically eaten during Chuseok. I think that learning about the cuisine, and actually learning how to make it was a unique experience I probably would’ve never had, had I not gone to the event.
The other event that I went to was a cooking class. At the cooking class, we made of one of the most common and famous Korean foods, kimbap. I was able to learn how to make Korean food, as well as learn about their culture in a fun and interactive way. Beyond just learning about Korean culture, by going to these events, I was able to practice my Korean with native speakers. Many of them were older than me and so I would have to adapt my grammar to fit the situation. Although I was only able to say very basic sentences to them, but it was still a very enriching experience. It was a situation in which I would find myself in the real world, rather than the simulated situations we have in the classroom. I am very thankful for the opportunities to take part in these events and I think that they have taught me so much about Korean culture, beyond just what I learn in the classroom.
I would like to learn more about how to express my ideas. Before getting to that point, I think I still have a lot of vocabulary to learn, as well as solidifying my understanding of the basic grammar rules. Knowing as much vocabulary as I can will be essential as things get more advanced. I hope that I will be able to get to the point of being able to express my thoughts and opinions in Korean. After learning about the basic sentences and phrases, I think that expressing my thoughts and opinions is the next big milestone. This skill will greatly increase my ability to communicate in Korean and will allow me to carry conversations beyond just simple greetings. One of the best things about learning a language is being able to exchange thoughts to those you weren’t able to in the past. Learning to express my ideas will bring me one step closer to being able to do this. I look forward to continuing my Korean studies in the future and have been very happy with the progress that I have made so far.
