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Indonesia is a country with much diversity--thousands of islands, hundreds of languages, diverse landscapes, and animals. Given that there are also people of many different faiths, Indonesia’s natural doctrine of Pancasila supports religious diversity. The country is predominantly Muslim, but Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, and Hindus, among other traditions, are free to practice their faith side by side, according to Pancasila. This interfaith culture speaks to the national motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which means unity in diversity. Between this national doctrine and motto, Indonesia’s values are grounded in creating a just society. The religious architecture supports these goals; however, given the entanglement of the political and religious, interfaith cooperation does not always prevail. 

In Indonesia, the physical mosques, or masjids, support Pancasila. The largest of these architectural masterpieces is the Istiglal Mosque, which was completed in 1978 by Frederich Silaba. This massive mosque that can hold a capacity of 120,000 worshippers at one time was created with the intent of serving as a national symbol of Indonesia’s newly won independence. Fittingly, the name Istiglal means “independence.” Indonesia had been colonized by the Dutch, who had brought Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant denominations, so this symbol of Islam shows freedom from the culture of the colonizers. This mosque has a large, white dome, and geometric structure--hundreds of dark windows outlined by gray material. The scale is impressive and shows how large of a role religion plays a big role in Indonesian culture, as well as its scale as a symbol of the state. Interfaith relations are part of the culture, though, because across the street, is an old church that has a good relationship with this mosque. 

Another example of the interfaith spirit, furthering religious tolerance in Indonesia, is the relationship between St. Paul Catholic Church and Sunda Kelapa Grand Mosque. These houses of worship, though with completely different histories and architectures, share the same geographic location: they are neighbors in Jakarta. Given their geographic proximity, these two communities support one another and sometimes have joint programming. The religious leaders of each community of faith talk to one another and support efforts for religious tolerance. In working together, these communities of faith support the motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika as they seek to build a more just and loving society. 

Unfortunately, interfaith relations do not always achieve the idealistic vision and can be complicated in Indonesia. The overlap of state and religion, as seen in the Istiglal mosque causes confusion and is the source of some events of civil unrest. Furthermore, the large presence of Islam, coupled with attacks by extremist groups, is on one hand scaring Christians and other minority religions that Islam is taking over. On the other hand, many Indonesians do not have adequate education (half have not completed the first level of schooling), so they cannot accurately discern the source of the problem and misdiagnose the problem by blaming Muslims. The truth is that the Quran, Islam’s holy text, promotes just and peaceful relationships. The media’s reports tend to overplay the image of violent crimes by Muslims and undermine the efforts of interfaith dialogue that are happening and succeeding, such as that at St Paul’s Church and Sunda Kelapa Grand Mosque. 

These examples of interfaith relationships speak to Indonesian culture on a national and local level. Religion plays an important role in the lives of Indonesians, but to fully embody the spirit of Pancasila that includes tolerance and respect for other religions, access to education that provides religious literacy is key. 

Bossa nova is a now internationally famous style of music that evolved and grew from jazz in the 1950’s and 60’s in Brazil. It primarily originated from Rio de Janeiro, and even though Brazil was going through a rough patch at the time due to the unequal distribution of wealth between classes, it was enjoyed in primarily middle- to upper-class spaces. It moved away from the more traditional styles of music that were performed live in ballrooms and each had their own special dance that accompanied it to be played on the record players and music devices in parlors. This being said, the culture of Brazil is vibrant and social, so the image of a more casual, toned-down parlor is still different than what we might picture for the American versions at that time.

The bossa nova beat is traced back to samba, which is then traced back to jazz, and in order to really understand bossa nova one must have a basic understanding of these two genres that it belongs to. If jazz is an enormous umbrella term to refer to many different nuances, origins and styles of music (which it is), then samba is a slightly smaller but still very wide umbrella under the category of jazz. Jazz is thought to originate in the South of the United States, which in many ways it did, but there are many different well-known and talented jazz musicians in South and Latin America as well as many different styles of jazz that developed there along with them and were then brought to the United States. Samba is also mostly known for its development in the United States as well, mostly as a form of almost exoticized, flashy dance competitions, but outside of that conception it has many popular musical variations in almost every Latin country. From this branch on the tree of jazz came bossa nova, as a cousin of salsa with a hint of blues.

Bossa nova in Portuguese means “new wave” in English, and often centers on ideas of longing, homesickness, love, women, and the beauty of nature (particularly of Brazilian nature, of which there is much rich variety since it is such a geodiverse country). As mentioned before, its apolitical nature has been noted as strange in context of the time that it emerged in, as there was much social unrest due to a huge lower class and small middle and upper classes.

Some of my favorite bossa nova songs are “Corcovado”, a mountain in Rio de Janeiro, by Joao Gilberto, “The Girl from Ipanema/Garota de Ipanema”, and “Manha de Carnaval” and “Ahiê” by Joao Donato. All of these songs, as do all of the songs of this genre, have a circular rhythm and repeat several patterns of chords in a natural, relaxing way instead of following a more traditional sheet music style.

Jannette You

This semester has taught me a lot about myself as a language learner and cultural explorer. Through the readings and discussions that we had this semester, I was able to figure out that I like to learn the history and culture of different languages. I think knowing more of its purpose development allows me to be more motivated and appreciate the language. Even though I am Korean and have been speaking the language for a long time, I have realized that I might not know a lot about its history and culture as much as I should. Our conversations and lessons have encouraged me to do more research on how the language was developed and start appreciating my language even more. Furthermore, just learning about language like learning how different sounds are formed (IPA) and how they are different from other countries, how grammar works in English and other languages, and different language family trees was interesting. This class has taught me that I really do not pay attention to the languages around me and that I take my bilingual abilities for granted as well. I was a little ashamed of myself when I did not even know the languages that other students were learning. However, it was fascinating to listen to other students’ learning journey and their cultural presentations as well. Especially when my classmates presented their cultural topic presentations, I really enjoyed that they all seemed passionate about the topics. It told me that even though I am not as familiar with other cultures and languages, I should be more exposed and encourage myself to step out of my comfort zone to learn about different cultures because I might find something I like. Even though I enjoyed it, I found it difficult to fully understand the grammar lesson and other discussions on some of the technical topics such as working on the IPA pronunciations. I enjoyed our break-out rooms, class discussions, and presentations. I will continue my learning by watching more YouTube videos, find some biblical examples and customs  like I did for my cultural presentation and learn different phrases, find native Hebrew speakers, or watch movies in Hebrew. I definitely do want to keep learning and become more experienced. I do think it will be helpful for me as I continue to grow in faith as well. The readings and activities that I found most useful were the New York Times articles that we read and the videos we watched. I think I am now more of a visual learner, so listening and watching the videos really helped me to understand the concepts better. It was so interesting to watch the video on how people have different interpretations and understanding of color. I would like to learn more about cultural topics and how they relate to the languages. After doing my cultural presentation, I learned that the language itself had a lot of impact on the culture, and I know we covered it in class, but I thought it would be more beneficial if we all talked about it together in class using our target languages. 

My original motivation for learning Bahasa Indonesia was that I was applying for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant position there. Knowing the national language was a practical step that would allow me to connect with the culture and effectively communicate with my host community. However, studying Bahasa Indonesia through the SDLC turned out to be extremely formative in my work as a language learner and cultural explorer...and an artist! I was pleasantly surprised by how well this course connected with my global sustainability geography class, sociology class on race and crime, and figure painting course, and senior thesis art project. In fact, this semester was a pretty cool experience for me living life as an interdisciplinary, socially-engaged artist.My original motivation for learning Bahasa Indonesia was that I was applying for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant position there. Knowing the national language was a practical step that would allow me to connect with the culture and effectively communicate with my host community. However, studying Bahasa Indonesia through the SDLC turned out to be extremely formative in my work as a language learner and cultural explorer...and an artist! I was pleasantly surprised by how well this course connected with my global sustainability geography class, sociology class on race and crime, and figure painting course, and senior thesis art project. In fact, this semester was a pretty cool experience for me living life as an interdisciplinary, socially-engaged artist.As a language learner, I found phonetics very tricky; fortunately using the international alphabet was not crucial for my studies of Bahasa Indonesia similar pronunciation to English. (Learning about it was still helpful because I was able to see some differences). If I were learning another language like Korean that has a completely different alphabet, the international phonetic symbols would help mediate that relationship. On the other hand, I discovered that I really like grammar and syntax. I enjoyed lessons where we learned verb structures and word order. However, learning Indonesian with the context of SDLC 105 opened me not just to the structure, but the semantics of the language. It was fascinating to learn about the Sapir Wharf hypothesis and how language ultimately shapes our worldview. By learning Bahasa Indonesia, a language spoken in a very different cultural context, my worldview expanded, and apply this to my studies of Indigenous language in the United States. I was able to see how Farida sometimes perceived things differently than I did. I am excited that she will be on campus next semester so that we can continue learning about one another’s cultures. Even though I am an artist who spends countless hours in the studio painting (and is a therefore a kind of cultural producer), I tend to live under a bit of a rock when it comes to American culture. I don’t watch much TV, listen to current music, scroll through social media, or pay attention to the sports teams. The iceberg model helped me to reframe culture as the deep values and traditions, and recognize that as an artist, I am not just producing visual culture, but also the values of society: I am an active cultural explorer! Art, like language, helps shape how we think about time and relationships. Similarly, from the people-powered organization United States Department of Culture, I realized that artists are actually cultural workers who can help cultivate a culture of “equity, empathy, and belonging.” Learning about Indigenous cultures, such as the Pondok Damar in Kalimantan Indonesia for my final cultural presentation helped me see that culture mediates our relationship with the land. These insights were helpful for my senior thesis art project. My favorite part of the class was the group presentations. I liked getting to learn about what other students were learning in their language studies and think this was an effective way to build community. SDLC 105 was a unique experience that deepened my connection with Indonesian culture and also helped me find connections across other cultures. I'm grateful for this opportunity to learn the importance of language and communication this semester. 

For the past weeks, I’ve tried to focus on my writing and reading comprehension skills and I’ve came across a useful and free textbook for learning grammar “Elementary Vietnamese” by Binh Nhu Ngo. Each chapter in the book includes grammar points, vocabulary and vocabulary usage notes, essays / text excerpts, practice drills, and writing exercises. Since the book is meant for an introduction to Vietnamese, I am not having a lot of difficulties going through it. The lessons are easy to grasp and most of the vocabularies are familiar to me. Whatever lesson or grammar point I do not understand, my language partner has been helpful in explaining.

For example, the book does not do a very good job of explaining the past tense indicator đã and rồi. According to my language partner, they have similar functions and are usually interchangeable, but đã is a simple formal past tense indicator while rồi is a past tense indication that emphasizes an action that is already done. It is typically paired with đã to mean “already”. For an informal past tense indication, just rồi is used.

                Ex:          Anh ấy đã học xong.                                       He has finished studying. (formal)

                               Anh ấy học xong rồi.                                        He has finished studying. (informal)

                                Anh ấy đã học xong rồi.                                 He has already finished studying.

The part that really messed with me was that rồi can also be used to indicate sequential actions.

                Ex:          Anh ấy học xong rồi đi chơi.                         He finished studying and then went out to play.

My language partner explained that đã will always appear after the subject and before the verb. Rồi always will appear at the end of the sentence if it used to indicate past tense. Rồi will appears in the middle of the sentence if it is joining sequential clauses.

One grammar point that I am having a lot of difficulty with are comparisons of adjectives.

• Như and bằng are equal comparison indications that can be paired with cũng for emphasis of the equal comparison. Như and bằng are completely interchangeable and are more of a regional preference. For the southern accent, như is more common but bằng is also used.

                Ex:          Cái túi nầy to bằng cái túi đó.                     This bag is as big as that bag.

                                Cái túi nầy to như cái túi đó.                       This bag is as big as that bag.

                                Cái túi nầy cũng to bằng cái túi đó.           This bag just as big as that bag.

                               Cái túi nầy cũng to như cái túi đó.             This bag just as big as that bag. 

• Hơn is used to indicate an unequal comparison where the preceding object or subject display more of some adjectival feature than the following object or subject. Hơn can also be pair with Cũng, but Cũng will indicate a similarity comparison to a previously established notion and will take on the meaning of “also”.

                Ex:          Cái túi nầy to hơn cái túi đó.                       This bag bigger than that bag.

                                Cái túi nầy cũng to hơn cái túi đó.             This bag is also bigger than that bag.

Cultural%20Presentation.pptx

Presentation on Cultural significance of Korean Cuisine and introduces a few traditional Korean foods.

Sources in slides.

For this week's class, we focused on common honorific suffix and titles. We know that in Korean, there are honorifics and informal languages, unlike English and Chinese. Even though there are honorific titles in both English (ma'am) and Chinese, but we don't really use them on a daily basis when meeting someone with higher titles. 

씨 (shi)

When added to a name, this essentially means Mr./Mrs./Miss. It’s the most common and general honorific, and your go-to for someone who you’re unfamiliar with but is at a relatively equal social and conversational standing.

This suffix should always be attached after the first name of the individual, and not their surname.

For example, you could say:

• 김영철 씨 (Kim Young-chul shi, or basically “Mr. Kim Young-chul”)

• Or to be more casual, 영철 씨 (Young-chul shi, or “Mr. Young-chul”)

But you would not say 김 씨 (Kim shi). Attaching the suffix to the last name is seen as inappropriate or straight-up rude, so it’s best to avoid it altogether.

군 (goon) / 양 (yang)

Two honorifics that are not as common as 씨 but still about the same in meaning. 군 is used for younger and unmarried males and 양 is for younger and unmarried females. You’ll typically hear these at formal occasions, particularly weddings. One point of distinction from 씨 is that you can attach these two after the first or last name; doing the latter won’t give off a rude connotation like with 씨.

However, though you may occasionally hear these titles used by older folk, nowadays they may be seen as condescending for younger individuals since they can suggest that the listeners are to be submissive or assume certain gender roles. Therefore, while these two titles are useful to know, we recommend you not try to use them in everyday conversation.

님 ­(nim)

If you want to go the extra mile in respect, 님 is your honorific. This is a step above 씨 and generally for those of a profession or notable skill or status, such as a 선생님 (seon-saeng-nim — teacher) or a 목사님 (mok-sa-nim — pastor). It may also be heard during client interactions if an employee wants to be extra polite.

선배 (sun-bae) / 후배 (hu-bae)

These are for those who are your seniors or juniors respectively, either in age or experience, and are commonly heard in the workplace or at school. Because these aren’t age-restricted, you can call someone a senior even if they’re younger, should they be more experienced or at a higher position, and someone a junior if they’re older but less experienced. These honorifics can also be stand-alones, meaning they can be a pronoun by themselves—you can just call someone 선배 or 후배.

귀하 (gwi-ha)

This honorific is very formal and one you’ll likely see more often in writing than in conversation. 귀하 translates to “dear” and so you’ll see it most often in formal letters or when a company is addressing a valuable client, often with the full name like so: 윤희철 귀하 (Yoon Hee-chul-gwi-ha).

Last week, Jenna and I met and went over my reading comprehension section together that I did for homework. There were only 3 mistakes that I made in the whole section which I was very happy about. Jenna and I decided to start practicing for the writing section of the COM2 exam. We started off by going over some of the prompts that she gave me the other lesson a couple of weeks ago. Jenna and I looked over each prompt specifically and created a plan of action for how I should answer this question. First, I would read and understand the prompt fully. If I didn’t know a certain word, I would use context clues to fully understand the prompt and prepare for what I should write about. The next step in answering the writing prompt is to brainstorm 3 to 4 ideas pertaining to the prompt. For example, if the prompt asked what I did over the last summer, I would come up with three to four activities I did during the past summer and write down the Korean translation for each activity. If I didn’t know the word in Korean, I would simply change and find a new activity to talk about in the writing response paragraph. Next, Jenna taught me how I should start for most of the prompts. The first sentence should always or most of the time start with an introduction or a greeting. I would write “hello” in formal Korean or I would rephrase the question before I stated my answer. For example, I would start the writing response paragraph with: “Hello, some of the things I did in the past summer were…” This was a great idea because most of the times I can copy the prompt word for word in order to restate and answer the question briefly. Jenna then taught me what I should talk about next: expand upon each of the things I came up with before. So, I would write one sentence about going to the beach, one sentence about playing basketball with my friends, etc. Doing these steps and following Jenna’s writing response plan, I would be able to come up with around 5-7 sentences in less than 10 minutes. Near the end of the class, I took around 15 to 20 minutes and answered a writing prompt and Jenna helped me as I started writing sentences. She did a great job not telling me what I spelled wrong right away. She asked me if I think I spelled any of the words wrong or not and I had to figure out if any of my spelling was wrong. This was a great way to self-check my writing without her directly telling me what I spelled wrong. I hope to continue practicing in a similar fashion for the COM2 writing portion. For homework week, Jenna told me to do three more prompts and time myself. The prompts were, “write a letter to your parents about your college experience,” “what is a typical day for you in college?” and “what do you like to do when you are bored?” I was able to finish all three prompts by the last session this past week. Jenna and I went over each response paragraph and corrected for spelling, spacing, and grammar. We saw a huge improvement in spelling errors as Jenna emphasized the mistakes I commonly made in previous lessons. We decided that I was ready for the COM2 exam sometime around next week and I am excited to finally reach the long-term goal I have been working on for the past couple of semesters.

For one of the weeks of this two-week period, I was feeling under the weather and sent into the isolation housing in Keller, so we did not have class. Thankfully, I did not have COVID and it was just a flu. We continued the following week with reading a bit more of Alice in Wonderland, or Alice no Pais das Maravilhas, which I am continuing to enjoy. I have noted that the further we get into the story, the more difficult it becomes. More vocabulary is incorporated, more nuances in the story, or subtext, and more plot to keep track of. As I mentioned before, it is very helpful to be familiar with the story when reading it in another language for the purpose of language practice. I have not noticed much difference in the stories between the English and Portuguese versions, and I am glad that the translation still managed to maintain Lewis Carroll’s light, witty, and at times slightly absurd tone.

In terms of my language progression, I definitely feel that I am improving. I noticed a difference in feeling rustier after being sick for a week and not practicing my Portuguese, as to be expected, but overall, I note a definite sense of improvement. I am more confident in our conversation classes and am referencing dictionaries and my notes less while doing my write-up essay exercise for Thursday.

As we begin to wrap up for the semester, we are mostly finished going through the material that I hoped to cover in the textbook Pois Não. The final section that I had copied had a section of Capoeira and about the Berimbau, a musical instrument that accompanies the practice of capoeira, and my third cultural post will be about this topic. I thought it was fun to read about it now, having some knowledge of both of those. I had seen capoeira as some of my friends in Cuba attended lessons there and discussed what a berimbau was with my music instructors for Brazilian Music and West African Drumming. However, I did not know much about the roots of capoeira and its actual history, and it was really interesting for me to read more about that. It appears in the popular TV show “Bob’s Burgers” as a novel hobby that is more about getting you to buy lessons and DVDs similar to karate lessons in the United States, but its history is really a story of resistance and teaching slaves to fight back and rebel under the guise of traditional dance. Slaves on sugar plantations, the overwhelming colonial crop of Brazil, would practice capoeira as a form of fighting when you are outnumbered and focuses on constantly moving and outsmarting your opponent, under the pretense that they were preforming traditional dances when the plantation owners would ask. When slavery ended, capoeira was outlawed as the government was afraid the newly freed slaves would use it to rebel against the government, and they were forced to keep it a secret again. Now, it is almost a tourist attraction and one of the internationally known cultural attractions of Brazil.

Hello everyone!

It’s almost Thanksgiving, so to prepare to discuss what kinds of food we enjoy eating with our friends and family, Reba and I have been going over some more food terms and expressions we use. “I’m thirsty”, or my favorite, “I’M HUNGRY NOW”, are both I will be teaching my family members soon.

First, we went over the types of meats, seafood, and methods of preparing food (baking, cooking). My favorite word was “potato” because we can have so many variations of potatoes by attaching the signs for “bake”, “sweet”, or “salad” onto it and create new meanings.

We also reviewed some drinks. While there is a particular sign for “coffee”, some words such as the specific types of sodas require that we use fingerspelling. This is mainly to avoid confusion. Reba told me a funny story about how when she was a child, she though ketchup was catch-up, so she would sign “catch” “up” to refer to the condiment.

Later, we did a review of silverware and other materials that can be seen on a dinner table. Furniture was also a big topic I found useful. We talked about the furniture in my dorm room and I told her that even though I have my own room and bathroom, it can get pretty lonely and boring living by myself. On the other hand, Reba said that she had 2 roommates her first year at her university and that it was a lot to deal with since the room was packed.

The next week we talked about technology and went over terms such as “computer” and “program” and learned how to describe how good the internet is. We talked about the computer mouse and how that was a different sign for the animal mouse. I added on that my friend recently got a mouse as a pet and Reba shocked to say the least.

When Reba was teaching me difference between England and English, I was surprised to see how subtle it was. If she was to sign it quickly, I’m not sure if I would notice right away. Then I noticed that many of the signs also have this similarity. The motions for sugar and sweet are exactly the same, but for sugar you do it once and for sweet you do it multiple times.

This wasn’t during a lesson but as I was scrolling through YouTube I came across a trailer for the movie “A Quiet Place” which came out a couple years ago. It’s a thriller movie where the characters have to stay quiet to avoid the mysterious creatures that have extraordinary hearing abilities. Therefore, instead of talking, the characters communicate through sign language. One of the main actresses, Millicent Simmonds, is actually deaf, so it was interesting to hear her thoughts on the movie. Although this movie seems intriguing, I am not sure if I can watch it without squealing throughout the whole film. Maybe I’ll watch it over winter break!

Also, a quick update: I am improving a bit on reading fingerspelling, but I still find it helpful for it to be repeated.

For this week's individual meeting, we were able to further our study based on what we went over from the last two weeks. We continued learning more about grammar. To be more specific, noun0modifying verb. In English, we always put verbs in front of the nouns when using verbs to describe nouns. However, it is very obvious that this isn't the case in Korean. In Korean, verbs are placed before nouns to describe them. The noun-modifying form of a verb can be thought of as an adjective- it describes a noun. Remember that what would be considered adjectives in English come in the form of a descriptive verb in Korean (for example, 파랗다, the verb to be blue). One way to use a descriptive verb is to conjugate it and pair it with an appropriate subject and particle. (Ex. 모자 + 가 + 파랗다 = 모자가 파래요, The hat is blue.)

Another way to describe a noun is by using any verb’s noun-modifying form paired with the noun. The modified verb comes before the noun, and together they become a part of a sentence.

Noun-Modifying Verb Form in Past Tense: -은/ㄴ

Add -은 or -ㄴ to the stem of the verb. If the verb stem has 받침, use -은. If the verb stem does not have 받침, use -ㄴ. Then put this form of the verb before the noun it is modifying.

Ex. 먹은 음식 (the food that (I) ate)
Ex. 한 숙제 (the homework that (I) did)

Noun-Modifying Verb Form in Present Tense: -는

Add -는 to the stem of the verb. Then put this form of the verb before the noun it is modifying.

Ex. 말하는 사람 (the person who is speaking)
Ex. 선물을 받는 남자 (the person who is receiving the present)

Noun-Modifying Verb Form in Future Tense: -을/ㄹ

Add -을 or -ㄹ to the stem of the verb. If the verb stem has 받침, add -을 to the verb stem. If the verb stem does not have 받침, add -ㄹ to the verb stem. Then put this form of the verb before the noun it is modifying.

Ex. 먹을 음식 (the food that (I) will eat)
Ex. 만날 친구 (the friend (I) will meet)

Noun-Modifying Verb Form for Adjectives: -은/ㄴ

To make the noun-modifying form of a descriptive verb (a verb that would be considered “to be” plus an adjective in English), always add -은 or -ㄴ to the verb stem.

작은 손 (small hand(s))
예쁜 옷 (pretty clothes)

Special Cases: There are a few special cases when it comes to verb stems and the noun-modifying forms.

Verbs in which the verb stem usually ends in -ㄹ (for example, 알다) have a new verb stem in this case. -ㄹ is dropped (changing the verb stem to 아 rather than 알) and the end of the noun-modifying form is given according to the new verb stem.
알다 (to know) - 아는 사람 (a person (I) know)
살다 (to live) - 사는 곳 (the place where (I) live)

Irregular verbs in which the verb stem usually ends in -ㅂ have a new verb stem in this case. The new verb stem is the original verb stem minus -ㅂ plus -우. (As a rule of thumb, a -ㅂ다 verb that is conjugated with -워/와 is irregular. For example, 좁다, which is conjugated as 좁아요, is regular. 어렵다, which is conjugated as 어려워요, is irregular.)
Ex. 춥다 (to be cold) - 추운 나라 (cold country)
Ex. 어렵다 (to be difficult) - 어려운 시험 (difficult test)

For -ㅎ다 verbs such as 어떻다, 그렇다, 이렇다, 저렇다, 빨갛다, and 파랗다, which have verb stems ending in ㅎ, drop the ㅎ to make the new verb stem. Add -ㄴ, following the formula for past tense, to make the noun-modifying form.

빨갛다 (to be red) - 빨간 얼굴 (red face)
그렇다 (to be like that, to be that way) - 그런 사람 (a person like that)

Last week, Jenna and I continued on to the next part of the COM2 exam: the reading comprehension portion. Last semester, Jenna and I focused on reading and writing so I was sort of confident in my ability to read and write. We agreed that we should spend one to two sessions on reading comprehension and the rest of the semester to practice on the writing portion of the COM2 exam. For the reading comprehension portion, Jenna provided me an article about the band BTS. The paragraph she gave me was just a portion of the article, but she timed me 10 minutes to read the article and answer a couple of accompanying questions regarding the paragraph on the BTS band. There were a couple of words that I did not know but I was able to use context clues for most of them based on the knowledge of other words surrounding it. The questions were fairly simple and easy to understand. The thing that I struggled with most is rewording and paraphrasing the answer. Furthermore, I had trouble spelling some of the endings of the sentences in my answers. I asked Jenna about this and we both agreed to focus on writing in Korean next session.

            This past week, Jenna and I met together on Friday via zoom. We agreed that I was prepared for the reading comprehension portion of the COM2 exam. Jenna also gave me another paragraph with a couple of questions for homework. I hope to get a pretty good result on the reading comprehension Jenna gives me next week when she grades it. Jenna and I agreed that if I do well on the homework reading comprehension in less than 10 minutes, we can start working on the writing section of the COM2 exam. I am excited that I am one step close to being ready for the COM2 exam. I think the goal I set for myself was perfect for my confidence and pride in Korean. I hope to be able to pass the exam with confidence and ease. Although I am a bit worried about the writing section for the COM2 exam, I am confident that Jenna will provide me with the right tools and abilities to pass the exam with flying colors. For my cultural presentation for the end of the semester, I am thinking about researching Korean healthcare and how it is different from healthcare in the United States. Next week, I hope to begin preparing and perfecting the writing section of the COM2 exam. Jenna and I met for a bit earlier this week to talk about what the writing section of the COM2 exam might look like. She gave me a list of around 10 prompts that might appear on the COM2 exam. Some of the prompts were something along the lines of, “what are your hobbies,” “write a letter to your parents talking about your college experience,” “talk about what you did in the previous summer,” and “what do you typically do during the day?” Jenna told me we will start practicing answer these prompts with full complete sentences in around 7 minutes. She told me I should aim to write around 5 sentences for each prompt. I am excited to begin practicing for the writing section of the COM2 exam next week.

            One of the sessions in the past two weeks fell on my birthday, and I got the chance to learn a lot about what it is like to celebrate a birthday in Brazil! As we both have a bit of a sweet tooth, we talked a lot about food, desserts in particular. There is a certain type of small, round sweet made from condensed milk called a brigadeiro which is my language instructor’s favorite. Funnily enough, my mom surprised me with a big birthday party in a box, and she had actually made me some brigadeiros without knowing that we had just talked about them in class. I have not tried the real thing, the real brigadeiro straight from Brazil, so I’m not sure how much I can evaluate them, but I can certainly say they are very sweet. They are very similar to a truffle size, but more sweet than rich, and usually with sprinkles. I look forward to trying them should I ever visit Brazil. Until then, I am looking forward to going back home and being able to try my hand at making them myself.

            This week from the textbook, we practiced some irregular verbs like poder and ter (to be able to and to have, respectively). I find these difficult as I am not too comfortable with many verbs in Portuguese. I need to practice my conjugations and my tenses because even though I almost always get them correct when I guess, I am slow and not confident because I get them confused with French and Spanish. While Portuguese generally has the most crossover with Spanish, the amount of vowel usage is very French. We also practiced the different “r” sounds that Portuguese has, per my request. Also, much like French, Portuguese has a pretty distinct “r” among the Romance languages. Nothing so complicated as the American [ɹ], but the Portuguese written “r” can be pronounced a handful of different ways. There is the more standard tap [ɾ], such as in Spanish, but there is great variety in the two other main /r/ sounds. The first is written as /rr/ but the same phoneme can also be written as /r/ when it is at the beginning of the word and sometimes when it is between two vowels, but not always in the intervocalic instances. Speakers in the South will roll it sometimes like the trilled [r], but generally it is a fricative and close to an aspirated “h” sound that I learned in Arabic, close to [χ]. When /r/ appears at the end of a word, it is sometimes dropped entirely, pronounced like the American [ɹ] (a sociolinguistic element mentioned in the book), or like [h].

            I was so excited to see a section in the book about sociolinguistics, even if it was a brief overview in many ways, I’m sure. I learned that the rural people of Brazil called caipiras who are a generally mountainous group and have their own holiday, festival or celebration in Brazil. During this festival, people will put on cowboy hats, hang colored bits of paper, and dance in traditional caipira fashion.

Welcome back!

Nowadays, Reba and I are reviewing and continuing to practice so that I’m more comfortable using sign language. We primarily went over using numbers in situations such as when talking about money in terms of dollars and cents. Terms and phrases such as “credit card”, “you owe me”, and “no money” were fun to learn too. Furthermore, I learned fractions! I don’t know how to sign 1 over a large number, but ½ and ¼ are fair game. Numbers are interesting in ASL; at first, I thought they were fairly easy to learn, but now I think they are one of the more difficult topics to master. Signing numbers themselves are simple, but when you put them in context such as “two months”, it is not the sign for “2” and “months, but one motion that combines both the signs. Since there are these variations in sign for numbers depending on the situation, it can be challenging when deciding on how to sign it.

This particular topic has interested me for some time. In Korean, there are two number systems and one or the other is chosen depending on the context. On the other hand, English is very simple when it comes to numbers because there is just one system that stays constant throughout.

When we were going over the seasons and holidays, Reba asked me how they compared to Korea. I told her that the seasons were the same as in America and that Korea also celebrated religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas, but not others such as St. Patrick’s Day. I also mentioned that Korea has a Parent’s Day and even a Children’s Day. When Valentine’s Day came up, Reba showed me that the sign was drawing a heart with your fingers on the left side of your chest, then the sign for “day”. I thought it would be a fun to jump in and teach Reba something too! I showed her that in Korea, many people make a small heart sign with their thumb and index finger. She didn’t really understand it at first, but her face lit up right when she realized it.

In our last session of these two weeks, Reba taught me some signs for fruit. We told each other our favorite fruits and I told her about the difference between the grapes we eat and Korean grapes. Now that I’m reflecting on these sessions, I am realizing how much we talk about and compare American and Korean cultures during our lessons.

Throughout these weeks I’ve also noticed that I’m starting to understand the jokes Reba makes. At first, I was confused to whether she was serious or not, but now I’m excited that I progressed enough for us to joke around and have fun sometimes. There was also a moment where I trying to say “no” so I shook my head side to side and had my serious face expression on, but it turned out that I had switched the sign to “yes”. Reba and I had a good moment laughing about it. Next week, we’ll be diving deeply into more food terminology. Stay tuned!

For my third cultural post, I listened to and watched a Korean rap song on YouTube. The name of the song is Eung Freestyle. The song is very popular, and I have seen it in a couple of advertisements and in a couple of videos in the past. There are many prominent Korean rappers in the video such as Rich Brian and Sik-K. They all freestyle together into one beat. I listened to it multiple times to fully understand the lyrics. There were a lot of bad words that I didn’t recognize until I actually searched up the lyrics. But I think it was a great learning experience for me because of the fast-paced beat. Similar to many other Korean songs I have listened to in the past, there are many English words being thrown around every few seconds. I think this is because there are no words in Korean for that specific English word. There were also many cognates that I recognized that they broke up into multiple syllables. For example, one of the rappers says, “Stephen Curry.” In English, we say this word with four syllables, but in the video, the rapper pronounces this with five syllables. This is because there is no word in Korean that pronounces the letters “Ste.” Because of this, in order to say the word in the Korean way, you must say “S-te-phen” instead of “ste-phen.” I thought this was really interesting to learn about because this concept can be applied to many different languages. I think that this song was very cool to listen to. It is the equivalent genre of American hip hop and rap, something that I love to listen to. The name of the song is called Eung freestyle and the word Eung means “yes” in Korean. I thought that the freestyle was really well written, and the words flowed really well. It was really cool to see how the rappers incorporated English words into their verses and the flow still sounded perfect. Similar to the word Stephen Curry, there were many other English words that they pronounced with extra syllables to pronounce it in Korean. Overall, this rap really helped with my listening and a speaking portion of Korean because I had to search up the lyrics and read/understand the words. I am very amazed again by how they incorporate English into the songs with Korean and still make it sound really cool and smooth. I know that I could never do that. It is interesting to think how weird it would be if American rappers said one or two words in Korean out of the blue. In Korean rap culture, there are many references to American culture and history but never the other way around. I think this is due to the history of how Korea became a democratic country because of the United States and I think it is fascinating to see how American culture has influenced and been incorporated into Korean rap culture.

Capoeira is popular in a lot of places in the world, and one of the main elements that Brazil is known for, besides their soccer, the beautiful Amazon rainforest, and vibrant culture. However, it has not always been this way. Capoeira developed among enslaved Africans who were brought to the country of Brazil and worked on sugar plantations owned by the wealthy, white Portuguese colonists. It was a way for the enslaved to practice fighting back without the plantation owners realizing. The self-defense and strategies that are designed to teach how to win a fight when one is outnumbered by being faster and one step ahead of the opponent, getting them to use the most energy and trick them into a vulnerable position that makes it easier for you to give a critical hit. All of this is paired with music and designed fluidly to disguise it as a dance. Slaves that fought back against their captors and escaped their plantations fled to Quilombos, or villages of escaped slaves.

This continued largely without any interference on a national or legislative level until May 1888 when slavery was declared to have ended. At this point, the government had much less control over the previously enslaved population and feared that the freed people would organize a rebellion, and fight against the oppressors with the same methods that had shown success in the past: capoeira. Because of this, the government banned the practice or performance of capoeira entirely. As the dance had been created, taught, spread, and used almost entirely in secret for so long under the very noses of the same oppression that was now actively trying to eradicate it, it is unclear how effectively the Brazilian government thought that they could catch them. Capoeira groups continued to meet in secret, using only nicknames when they met to avoid leaving any traces that could lead back to them and their real identities should one of them be caught. They eased capoeira into society by again presenting it as a folk dance, which was not altogether untrue. At this point, capoeira could certainly be considered a cultural tradition and part of the experience of being a black person and former slave in Brazil. Capoeira was de-criminalized in the early 1930’s, but it was not until 1936 when capoeiristas, or practicers of capoeira, were invited to fight and perform in front of the then-President.

The word capoeira refers to a “short grass” found at the edges of the plantations where the slaves would practice under the guise of traditional dance. Another element of the dance-fighting is the “ginga”, or swaying motion. This refers to the state of constant movement that the capoeiristas are in while in the “roda”, or the fighting or performance stage. Along the edges of the roda, there gathers onlookers, other dancers or fighters, and the musicians that set the beat or play the musical accompaniment. Types of instruments typically used are called the berimbau, an interesting string and percussion instrument, pandeiro, or tambourine, and atabaque, a special type of drum.

For this cultural post, I would like to talk about the education system in Korea. The reason why may be somewhat funny and nonsensical. Recently, I've been revisiting the Korean drama named "School 2015." "School" TV series is very popular in Korea and it is somehow similar to the "Reply" TV series (except that "School" series are not as popular). 

The drama follows the story of the twins, Eun-bi and Eun-byul, who were separated and are now living completely different lives. Eun-bi lives at a home for orphans and is bullied at her high-school, while Eun-byul is adopted and becomes a popular student at her high school. Their lives intersect when Eun-byul runs away from a school field trip to search for her sister. Eun-byul is later found with amnesia while her sister is pronounced dead after committing suicide. The story then revolves around Eun-byul’s fight to regain her memories and identity.

Now, back to our main topic-- the education system in South Korea. After I did some research, I found that the South Korean public education system's structure is very similar to that in China. The Korean public education structure is divided into three parts: six years of primary school, followed by three years of middle school, and then three years of high school. However, in 1996, only about five percent of Korea's high schools were coeducational. Coeducational schools mean having male and female students being taught together in the same school or college. Moreover, classes in many coeducational high schools are still divided along gender lines.This is something that is very different comparing with the Chinese educational system from my perspective. In China, almost all public schools are coeducational schools except for some private schools that may not be coeducational. 

The primary curriculum consists of nine principal subjects: moral education, Korean language, social studies, mathematics, science, physical education, music, fine arts, and practical arts. English-language instruction now begins in the third grade, so that children can start learning English in a relaxed atmosphere through a conversational exchange, rather than through rote learning of grammatical rules as is still the practice in many middle and high schools. The major objectives, as stated in a 1996 background report by the Ministry of Education, are "to improve basic abilities, skills, and attitudes; to develop language ability and civic morality needed to live in society; to increase the spirit of cooperation; to foster basic arithmetic skills and scientific observation skills, and to promote the understanding of healthy life and the harmonious development of body and mind.” The seventh annual curriculum, which began implementation in March 2000, kept these basic goals but updated many elements to reflect changes in Korean society.

Upon completion of primary school, students advance to middle school, which comprises grades seven through nine. The curriculum consists of 12 basic or required subjects, electives, and extracurricular activities. While elementary school instructors teach all subjects, middle school teachers, like their colleagues in the United States, are content specialists.

High schools are divided into academic and vocational schools. In 1995, some 62 percent of students were enrolled in academic high schools and 38 percent in vocational high schools. A small number attended specialized high schools concentrating in science, the arts, foreign languages, and other specialized fields. This is still the case.

The aims of education at the high school level are stated as "to foster each student's personality and ability needed to preserve and strengthen the backbone of the nation; to develop students' knowledge and skills to prepare them for jobs needed in society; to promote each student's autonomy, emotional development, and critical thinking abilities to be brought to bear in and out of school; and to improve physical strength and foster a sound mind."

In the end, I would like to include a shocking "facts" about Korean schools. If I'm wrong, please let me know. 

Koreans have school on Saturdays

The official school days were originally Monday to Saturday, which didn’t make for happy students or teachers.

Since 2010, the school schedule has changed and loosened up. Now the Korean public school system has two Saturdays per month, off.

In the first session two weeks ago, Jenna and I went over self-introductions in preparation for the COM2 exam. I asked her for help on some of the phrases and words that I wanted to say but didn’t know in Korean such as hospital, chemistry, senior year, doctor, medical school, gaming, exercise, gym, etc. For my self-introduction, I wanted to talk about my family and how I live with my parents, older sister, and my grandma. I also learned to talk about my dog named Kiwi in Korean. Next, I talked about how I got to the University of Richmond and am a senior that is majoring in chemistry. I also talked about what I want to do once I graduate (take a gap year and prepare for the MCAT). Furthermore, I talked about how I wanted to become a doctor when I grow up. Lastly, I talked about my hobbies and what I like to do in my free time. I learned how to talk about how I love to cook and how I like to go workout and exercise at the gym on campus. Furthermore, I talked about how I love to play games with my roommates at night. After learning the basics of the self-introduction, I practiced and told Jenna my full self-introduction. Although there were a couple of pronunciation and formality issues in my full self-introduction, Jenna and I agreed that I was fully ready and prepared for the self-introduction part of the COM2 exam. Next, we aimed to focus on the listening part of the COM2 exam. She told me some example questions that might come up on the exam, such as asking basic questions about a picture or understanding a sentence spoken by the test instructor. Jenna gave me the next week to prepare and be able to quickly understand spoken Korean by listening to podcasts and watching Korean music videos by BTS.

This past week, Jenna and I met up on Thursday to practice and prepare for the listening portion of the COM2 exam. She gave me a picture for me to talk about when asked a question regarding the picture. The picture she gave me was a cartoon drawing of a park with people walking around and different things happening in the picture. She asked me a couple of questions about the picture such as, “what is happening to the left of the park bench?” and “how many people are standing in line for the hot dog stand?” I was easily able to answer most of the questions being asked, but I struggled with replying quickly with full complete sentences. We repeated this process with another picture near the end of the session and Jenna gave me tips on how to speak quickly on my feet and recall the different words that show up in the picture so I can prepare myself to reply to a question quickly. For example, if the picture has a dog and a person throwing a football with his friend, I can think about the Korean words for dog, friend, and football. This would allow me to be quick on my feet and respond quickly to a question being asked, such as “what activity are the two guys doing in the field on the right of the picture?” and “what animal is walking on the sidewalk next to the park bench?”

Week 5 Reflection

            In order to address the slight lack of Reading or Writing skills that I felt like I needed a boost on, I went back to the list of resources on the syllabus that I had compiled at the beginning of the class. I liked the idea of starting a book together that we could both follow along with, and a translation of Alice in Wonderland in Portuguese was available online through the website paralleltext.io. I had already read the original English text many years ago, and of course, almost everyone is familiar with the story of Alice and the Mad Hatter which helped a lot as I was going through it. I learned a new group of vocabulary words, such as “well”, “hedge”, “hole”, “tunnel”, “vest”, “pocket watch”, etc. The website also has a feature where it will read you a sentence if you click on it, which was a great complement to learning new vocabulary words. I then wrote a literary analysis on the chapters that we had read that week to submit on Thursdays, which I felt required more thought and effort on my part than reflecting on a topic we had talked about on Tuesday, so I was happy to be stepping things up in both departments.

            This new strategy, alongside weekly grammar lessons and exercises from the book, I feel really pulled together all of the goals that I had outlined in my conception of how I wanted to learn Portuguese this semester. I was able to talk about something creative, a work of art that I was familiar with and excited about reading but that was also slightly different than the tale that I knew and develop my language skills as a byproduct of discussing this engaging topic. This was the method that I had been inspired to do because of the way that Professor Abreu styled his Portuguese classes, and in many ways was the reason I found myself wanting to do a self-directed language study in Portuguese and go to Brazil in the first place.

            If I were to design this class for a group or for somebody else, I think this setup would be ideal. However, I probably would not use this particular website because it is definitely set up more for leisure and perhaps does not anticipate that the viewer really plans on getting through the whole book and would just like to do a bit of casual practice as you can only flip through one page at a time. I would probably find a side-by-side print book or online version to purchase, maybe of a famous Brazilian author. In any case, every part of this has been a learning experience and I am glad to have progressed to this point where I have found something that is working for me and if it would not work for someone else, how I would go about adapting it.

During these two weeks with Reba, I learned how to refer to different people. In our previous lessons and conversations, “I” and “you” were the only pronouns used since we only referred to each other. It really has been easier to communicate since I don’t have to fingerspell “our” or “you all” each time. These signs are very easy to learn because people who don’t know ASL actually make these gestures! It’s also important to note where your fingers point because that determines who you are talking about. Another example in which where you finger are point at is the difference between “look at me” and “look at you”. For “look at me”, you hold up two fingers are point them to your eyes while for “look at you”, you do the same sign with your hands, but point them away from your face. Reba also explained that in this case, you can imagine that the eyes are on the tip of the fingers, so whichever direction they point Is what you look at.

We have also been going through more expression terms! These are actually my favorite type of vocabulary to learn so that I don’t have to say “good” or “fine” each time I get ask how I’m doing. I like to put in an occasional “tired” or “excited” to jazz things up a little now! Sometimes I can even guess what they mean before Reba goes over it with me. It’s honestly one of the best feelings when you get it right and you see the joy on her face.

Even though Reba has her lessons planned out for me, we are starting to make random conversations here and there. Over the week, a friend told me one of her distant relatives was both deaf and blind, so people would communicate with him by signing into his hand and by taking his hands through the movement of the signs. I did my best to bring up this connection when she mentioned that one of her friends was also both deaf and blind. It was a fluid conversation with both of us sharing back and forth. I actually forgot for a moment that I was even signing. A couple days later I watched the recording and noticed that I was fingerspelling much quicker than the pace I usually sign!

Lastly, I wanted to mention that although I am getting better at understanding the context during our conversations, fingerspelling has still given me some trouble. (It is much easier for me to do it than to understand it when someone else fingerspells). I was never really good at spelling bees because I needed to see the letters on paper; I would just lose track of the previous letters. For ASL, I still need to translate the sign to letter, but doing that for each letter, keeping track of them, and putting it all together to form a word is not as simple as I thought it would be. I usually need the word to be repeated again and if I still don’t understand it, Reba would write it on a whiteboard for me.

I am definitely starting to see more and more progress, so hopefully I can keep this up!