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    For the past two weeks, we mainly reviewed all of the basic greetings, grammar, and vocabulary. Also, we talked about Turkish culture and politics a lot and we found that lots of things in Turkey are very similar to China. For example, it is very interesting to see that the relationship between the woman and her mother-in-law is a popular topic among both societies. I found this because every Turkish romantic movie I have watched before included how intense the relationship was between the female main character and her mother-in-law. It could be the male main character’s mother does not like the girl or she overprotected her son which made the girl very uncomfortable. My language partner told me that it was a very common topic in their culture, and I told her that it was a hot topic in today’s China society as well. We sometimes call those boys or men who asked for his mother’s opinions before doing anything as “妈宝男”, which can be translated to “mommy’s baby little boy”. And the tension between the women and this type of man always comes from her mother-in-law, and it is really hard to balance.

    Here are parts of the content that we reviewed for the past two weeks.

Family members:

Grandfather: Dede

Grandmother from mother’s side: Anneanne

Grandmother from father’s side: Babaanne

Uncle from father’s side: Amca

Aunt from mother’s side: Hale

Uncle from father’s side: Dayı

Uncle from mother’s side: Teyze

Greetings:

Hello! - Merhaba.

Good morning! - Günaydın.

Good afternoon! - Tünaydın.

Good day! - İyi günler.

Good evening! - İyi akşamlar.

Good night! - İyi geceler.

How are you? - Nasılsınız?

I’m doing well, thank you! How are you ? - Çok iyiyim, teşekkür ederim. Siz nasılsınız?

Self-introduction:

Hello everyone, my name is Bonnie, I’m 21 years old. It is my first time to Turkey. -

Çinden geliyorum, adım Bonnie, on yirmi bir yaşıma bastı. İlk defa türkiyeye geldim.

Colors:

White - beyaz

Black - siyah/kara

Blue - mavi

Green - yeşil

Yellow - sarı

Grey - gri/gümüşi

Red - kırmızı/kızıl

Pink - pembe

Purple - mor

Coffee - kahverengi

Orange – turuncu

Gold - altunı

Silvery - gümüsü

The main role, Sadik, is an idealist. Although his father expected him to become an agricultural engineer and manage the family farm in Aegean village, he was a political activist when he was in University and became a left-wing journalist in 70 years. He settled in Istanbul, and his father was mad at this and then broke the relationship with him. On September 12, 1980, his wife gave birth. On that day, a brutal military coup led to chaos across the country. Because he was unable to get to the hospital, his wife gave birth to their only son Deniz on the chaotic street and died after that. After the coup, Sadik went through a long period of torture, interrogation and prison time, and as a result, he was terminally ill and would soon die. Considering his young son Deniz, he had to return to the countryside, and tried to let Huseyin, his father who had not been talking to him for many years, accepted his son Deniz, which triggered a touching story among the families of the large Turkish family.

One of conversations in the movie is very touching.

"Dad, am I dreaming?"

"I don't know. Even it is a dream, it is still a sweet dream, right?"

"Why aren't you a superman?"

"Because you grew up."

"When people grow up, will their dreams became monotonous? Will I never see you again? "

"If you want to see me, you can see me. But those dreams may not be as real as they are now. Then you will know that everything is just imagination in your mind. However, your dreams in the future may be better than now. You can direct those dreams as you like. You can turn dreams into reality. "

"Growing up is like this?"

"Well, handsome. That's how growing up means. "

"I want to be a child forever."

"Why?"

"Because I can't see you when I grow up."

"You have no choice. You have to grow up."

When Deniz said goodbye, he made a promise to his father in silence that he will never cry again and one day, he will grow up and become strong. He believes although his father does not know how to fly, but his father is still a super hero. And he knew the new adventure is waiting for him.

It seems that fathers are not always good at expressing their true feelings, which leads to the misunderstanding of father’s love. I think this is because, in Asian countries, father is always the head of the family. If you want to be more tough, you should not show cowardice in front of people, especially family members. So father’s love can not be as gentle as mother’s love. Father’s love needs a deeper understanding and excavation, which makes father’s love become greater and more touching. The film explores and interprets the characteristics of father’ love, from Sadik's father inhibited when he is trying to leave home to his father was shouting and regretting after his death. Sadik's father is tough and conceited, not understood by his family, or we can even say he is so lonely. But no one can deny that he loves his son very much but in his own way. After Sadik's return, a series of changes of his father show that his father's inner feelings have been suppressed for many years. After Sadik's death, this kind of feelings finally broke out.

    During the ThanksGiving break, I have watched one of the most famous Korean dramas in 2019. It is Search:WWW(검색어를 입력하세요: WWW).

It is the story of three women in their late thirties — Bae Ta-mi, Cha Hyeon and Song Ga-kyeong — who work in the top two competitive web portal companies: Unicorn and Barro. Bae TaMi is the director general of the service department at a famous web portal company Unicorn. And Song Ga-kyeong is her boss. She is the CEO of Uniron. Cha Hyeon is the director general of the social department at Barro company.
In the contemporary society, everyone’s day began with searching hashtags and ended with searching hashtags. Whether it is about finding a restaurant, checking the weather or even writing an essay about specific topic, searching online can effectively solve all the problems quickly. Moreover, it is not limited by time and place and nationality. No matter what age you are and what job you do, everyone uses search bar to guide their daily life. Almost all the portal-website have their own list about the most searched hashtags so that people can find the hottest topics in this list. This list is a double-edged sword. In the story, the abducted children can be found due to the list. On the other hand, a famous star will choose to suicide because his/her personal affairs being advertised to public by the list. These most searched hashtags are not only data but also someone’s nightmare.
Also, what if someone can control the list in order to stop you from knowing the truth?
At the beginning of the drama, there was a presidential candidate being searched the most because of his love affair during the presidential election. Unicorn, the company that Bea Tami worked for, deleted the hashtag about this presidential candidate on the list so that a lot of people have no way to know about what happen. Bae Tami stated that this action violated users’ rights to see the fact and decided to leave the company. And in the end the drama, Bae Tami and her group members in the new company successfully change the whole industry’s attitude toward hashtags.
I really like this drama. This drama not only shows that women can do something great but also discuss the serious social problem because of the progress of technology. This reminds me the thing just happened in China. A really famous actor accidentally died during the recording of tv show because of the high intensity exercise and the lack of medical equipment on the scene. However, such breaking news did not appear on list the most searched hashtags at first since the tv station tried to lower the attention. Although the tv station failed in the end, this still made me think a lot.
This Korean drama is really interesting. One of the reasons that I love watching Korean drama is that it can always disclose some problems of contemporary society. This type of Korean drama makes me think a lot about current social phenomenon.

I went to the Saturday class again since I had to miss the Wednesday class. It was just me, Professor Kim, and Jeff there. So we were able to enjoy a small class. We started off with some basic conversation practices just to reinforce our memory. 

I think it’s always good to start with that because it’s the most useful phrases and sentences and I don’t get to practice much outside of the class. Relating to that, I want to try to get connected with a Korean gaming buddy during winter break. Because then I can have someone to practice Korean with and also play games together. 

We also learned the internet slang ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ, which is equivalent to LOL in English. ㅋ is pronounced as “k”, so it’s similar to the sound when someone laughs. 

I did some more research online about Korean Internet slang because I do see that a lot when I’m playing games online or watch Korean players stream. In addition, it’s also commonly used when people are texting each other, since I saw a lot of abbreviations in the show Cheese in the Trap when the main characters are texting.

ㅎㅎ→ laugh

ㅜㅜ/ㅠㅠ→ (crying) tears streaming down

ㄱㄷ(기다려주세요)→ wait

ㅇㅇ(응)→ yes

ㄴ/ㄴㄴ→ no

ㅇㅋ→ okay

ㅎㅇ (하이)→ hi

ㅇㄷ (어디?)→ where?

ㄱㅊ (괜찮아)→ it's ok

ㅈㅅ (죄송해요)→ sorry

ㄱㅅ (감사합니다)→ thanks

ㄷㄷ/ㄸ (덜덜)→ express amazement or fear

ㄱㄱ→ let's go

ㅂㅂ/ㅃ (바이바이)→ bye-bye

ㄷㅊ (닥쳐)→ shut up

ㅊㅋ (축하하다)→ congratulations

Some of these slang are based on sounds, but some are based on the writing. For example, ㅜㅜ/ㅠㅠ means crying. It naturally makes send because it looks like two crying eyes.  The famous Korean girl group Twice had a song called TT. I didn’t get the meaning of that name until recently one of my friends told me it means crying. 

In the class, we also went over a famous korean poem by Kim Sowol(김소월) called mother and sister. 

엄마야 누나야 강변 살자. Mother, sister, let’s live by the riverside.

뜰에는 반깍이는 금모래 빛. Golden sand sparkling among the garden grass.

뒷문 밖에는 갈잎의 노래. The song of reeds beyond the back door.

엄마야 누나야 강변 살자. Mother, sister, let’s live by the riverside.

It’s a beautiful short poem written about family with nostalgia. I think it’s another great piece of sample for me to practice pronunciation and writing on.

 한류 (Hanryu) i.e. The Korean Wave refers to the increase in global popularity of the South Korean culture. This phenomenon first started with spread of interest in Korean pop culture (K-pop), Korean dramas (K-dramas), and Korean reality shows and is currently peaking due to the Korean beauty (K-beauty) industry. People all around the world are purchasing and using K-beauty products, and are inculcating K-beauty regimens into their everyday lives. The K-beauty industry is very well known for their wide variety of products for literally anything you can think of, and is also very well know for their long beauty regimens which involve at least 10 steps and take at least 2 hrs to complete. Why is the K-beauty industry so extensive? The answer to this question lies within the Korean beauty standards. Out of everything that South Korea is known for, it is most infamous for its beauty standards. “I am a Korean American and if there’s anything about Korean culture that I am most familiar with, it’s the beauty standard,” wrote Karin Cho in her Medium article about South Korean beauty standards.

In South Korea, looking put-together is highly prioritised, and for women in South Korea, ‘looking put together’ means having pale flawless youthful skin,  double eyelids, large eyes, straight eyebrows, a slim pointed nose, a sharp v-shape jawline, perfectly aligned white teeth, a small face, long hair, a thin waist, wide pelvis, skinny legs and arms, and more. A year ago in November of 2018, a branch of the coffee shop franchise Yogerpresso fired a woman on her first day after she showed up with short hair and no makeup. This is the beauty standard that women in South Korea are held to at all times, and in a conformist and patriarchal society like South Korea, it’s hard to live without giving into them. It is also hard to live up to these ridiculously high standards for beauty so many Korean women resort to undergoing risky and expensive cosmetic surgeries and using beauty products that can supposedly help them attain these standards. 

South Korean has the highest rate of plastic surgeries per capita in the world. One in three South Korean women have undergone some sort of cosmetic surgery between the ages of 19 and 29. The most popular cosmetic surgery is a blepharoplasty, or double-eyelid surgery, where they insert a crease in the eyelid to make the eye look bigger and to make a monolid look like a double eyelid. The two other popular procedure are rhinoplasty, where they modify the nasal cartilage and bones to make the nose look more appealing (in this case “appealing” means slimmer and pointed), and glutathione injections, which slows pigmentation in the skin, thus giving a fairer skin tone. These surgeries, like any other surgeries, are expensive. So, the K-beauty industry–which is dedicated to providing all women with everything they need to look the way they’re expected to–have come up with a wide variety of products to be used by women who cannot afford cosmetic surgeries. These products include, but are not limited to, double eyelid tape that helps create the illusion of a crease in the eyelid, V-line masks that promise to slim puffy cheeks or angular jawlines, hair markers created to hide high hairlines and widow’s peaks, body tints for rouging ashy knees, elbows, and nipples, and DIY home facelifts that come in small vials of serum containing micro needles. Although the motivation behind the extensiveness of K-beauty products is deeply rooted in painfully high standards of beauty set for South Korean women, the quality and effectiveness of these products is irrefutable, and hence K-beauty has been such a big hit worldwide. 

This time I learned a lot! I mainly worked on expanding my vocabulary so I learned important verbs that should be used in formal settings, some words from the song love scenario by ikon, a lot of basic verbs, important words for expressing the relationship between me and another person, and the native Korean number system and when to use it instead of the Sino Korean number system. There are too many Korean words for me to type out so I attached scans below.

Because of the break, we only have one Korean class. In the class we have learned Korean slang. I believe that learning Korean slang will level up my communication skills. It is not only going to help with my listening skills but also will help me sound more like a Korean local.

얼죽아: 얼어죽어도 아이스 아메리카노  -- It means that Korean people are so addicted to iced americano that no matter how cold it is they can’t give it up. I have watched a video on YouTube which was interviewing Koreans about what they usually drink in winter. And there was a group of Koreans stating that they only drank ice americano in frozen days. As a Chinese, I am really surprised. In China, we usually drink hot water in winter because our parents always say hot water is good for our health.

꾸안꾸: 꾸민듯 안 꾸민듯 – this is abbreviation of ‘as if not decorated’ and is usually being used to describe someone’s fashion style. Nowadays, people don’t like being overdressed. People always claim, ‘less is more’. This means even if you prepare a lot for your outfit, no one can tell.

졌잘싸: 졌지만 잘 싸웠다 – it is shorthand for ‘you lost but fought well’. It was first used in terrestrial broadcasting during the 2006 Germany World Cup, which failed to advance to the round of 16 despite losing 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss.

~피셜: According to 

비담: 비주얼담당 – good looking person

안물안궁- 안물어봤고 안궁금해 : It expresses intent that ‘I am not interested in that and I don’t care of that at all’.

핵인싸- very insider 

워라벨- work life balance

댕댕이- has same meaning with 멍멍이 which represents a dog.

 After the class, I searched more Korean Slang online since I thought this was really interesting.

남사친:

This means a guy who is 'just friend'.

노잼:  

This means something is not funny and uninteresting at all.

더럽게:

This means 'badly'.

I hope I can learn more Korean Slangs in the future.

I went to Toronto for Thanksgiving with some of my friends, and we got to try a few of the Korean restaurants there. Toronto has the largest concentration of Koreans in Canada, so a Korea town was formed in Toronto with Korean restaurants and other shops. Richmond has a few Korean restaurants, but I feel that the Korean restaurants in Toronto are more authentic. One of the Korean restaurants that my friends and I went to is called Hanyang Jokbal족발. The name of the restaurant is written in Korean on the sign outside, unlike the English name on google maps, so it took us a minute to realize and find it. 

I did a little research on Jokbal before coming to the restaurant. Jokbal(족발) is a Korean dish consisting of pig's trotters cooked with soy sauce and spices. Jokbal is a common late-night snack in Korea but it has such a short history. It’s from North Korea but it got famous since someone who fled from North Korea during the Korean War settled in the South and started to sell this pork trotter dish.The hair is removed from the trotters and they are thoroughly washed. Scallions, garlic, ginger, (rice wine) and water are brought to a boil. The trotters are added, brought back to a boil and then simmered until tender. After this, additional measures of water, sugar and soy sauce are poured into the pot, and the contents are slowly stirred. Once the trotters are fully cooked, they are de-boned and cut into thick slices.

This is my first time eating Korean Jokbal, and I have to say it tasted so good. The restaurant seems pretty well known among the local Koreans, since most people eating there were talking in Korean and we had to wait an hour and a half after we put ourselves on the waitlist.

Everything on the menu is also written in Korean, but fortunately, there were only a few items on the menu so it’s easy to guess what the item is.  We ordered a bul jokbal to share and individual seafood soups. They brought out some soup base in a pot with no ingredients and some other Korean side dishes . We thought they made a mistake since we ordered three soups. But then we were told that the soup was a complimentary appetizer for jokbal. I have never tried any soup that tastes like this. Even though it is just pure broth without anything in it. I think it was the broth in which they boiled the jokbal. One of my friends tried the soup and didn’t like it. I personally fell in love with the soup. I guess it is just like Durian and other weird food, you either like it or hate it. The jokbal also came with a few side dishes and a plate of lettuce. To get the best flavor out of the jokbal, you need to wrap it with the lettuce leaves. Since the plate only have a few lettuce leaves, I was wondering that wasn’t enough. But the waitress brought us another plate right after we used up the first plate. The jokbal lettuce wraps tasted amazing because it was neutralizing the oil and meat with the refreshing lettuce. I think the Koreans love jokbal because it is a group food to share. It is fun to eat it together with your friends and family. It’s the same reason why I love to have hotpot together with my friends and family. It just helps to spice up the atmosphere and get people together.

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Trot 트로트
Trot is a genre of Korean pop music. It is also called 뽕짝 (Ppongjjak ) due to its distinctive rhythm. Trot songs are usually talking about going back home and breakup between two people. Trot was derived in Korea and Japan between 1940-1945, and it is usually sung by a solo singer. As a result, trot is popular among middle-ages and elders. It became less and less popular as K-pop grows in Korea as well as worldwide. However, after 2000, younger trot singers debuted and made trot more fun for young people to listen as well. 홍진영, 송가인, and 유산슬 are the most famous trot singers I know, and they target at different group ages.

홍진영
홍진영 was born in 1985, and she’s 34 years old this year. 홍진영 debuted in 2009 when she was only 24. It is an absolutely young age for someone to be a trot singer at the time, but after 홍진영 debuted with the song 사랑의 배터리 (Love Battery), she became famous and brought more young people to trot. The background rhythm in her songs are from the traditional trot songs, but 홍진영 is good at adding young elements to make the song more acceptable by young people. She also makes her music videos more than just dancing in a disco club as traditional trot singers do, so she stands out from traditional trot singers. In addition, her voice and her characteristics are all very energetic, so she is like by both middle ages and young people.

Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zONW_hyI5A&list=PL5tP5hmsgHhmMgmrgWw_JkieyLDK9KyIB&index=1

Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5la2w7MPQ

송가인
Compared with 홍진영, 송가인 is a more traditional singer. In 2018, she attended a variety show called “Miss Trot,” where she wins as “Miss Trot” and became super popular among the elders in South Korea. She is called “the Queen of Trot” in South Korea now and is treated as a top idol among the elders. She has a powerful performance on stage too, but her songs are more traditional. Her image, in general, is older than 홍진영 as well, which actually gains her more fans among the elders.

송가인 in "Miss Trot": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-HOLt8BFm0

Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdxP8Hke4Q

유산슬
유산슬 is a recently debuted trot singer, and he rises fast on the music chart of trot in South Korea. He has two songs come out so far: 합정역 5번 출구 and 사랑의 재개발, and they now rank first and third on the chart. 유산슬 has his two songs included in his album named “뽕포유,” which is very popular between both young people and the elders.

유재석 as MC

Before he became a trot singer, he is one of the top MC (mic controller) in South Korea. He has hosted many Variety shows and is recognized as the “National MC” in South Korea. His actual name is 유재석. One of the shows he’s doing now, named “놀면 뭐하니?” (What do you do when you play?), gave him missions to become a trot singer in order to make trot popular again. The name of 유산슬 was originally the name of a Korean Chinese dish. 

Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0TatPKl2xM

“놀면 뭐하니?”: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6jsZ02B4K3SECUrkgPyzg/videos

Reference:

• https://aminoapps.com/c/k-pop/page/blog/my-introduction-to-trot-music-what-is-trot/EYIP_u5z1PMX6Yj28wqWLraBM8g0JG
• “놀면 뭐하니?”

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For the last cultural artifact blog post, I wanted to learn more about the different dialects in South Korea. Because my parents were both originally from Seoul, I grew up hearing and learning the standard Korean language, which is called 표준어 in Korean. I remember once during some time in high school, I went over to a friend’s house and met her parents. I was shocked because it was my first time hearing the Gyeongsang dialect. My friend’s parents were from Busan. When they were talking to me, at that time, it felt like I could only understand about half of what they were saying. Unlike the dialects in American English, I think the dialects in Korean are much more different from each other, having distinct grammatical characteristics and completely different phrases.

I learned about the dialects in the following six regions: Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Chungcheong, Gyeongsang, Jeollado, and Jeju, but for this post, I will only focus on the first three. The first region, Gyeonggi, is where Seoul is in, so the dialect here is the standard Korean. A few characteristics of the standard Korean language is that many people tend to change ㅗ sounds to the ㅜ sound. So for example, "먹고 싶다” (meokgo sipda/I want to eat) would be “먹구 싶다” (meokgu sipda). In this case, the “go” in “meokgo” became “gu” so “meokgu”. I find myself doing this all the time. Another characteristic, which I didn’t know about was adding an extra consonant like ㄹ to a word. For instance, “이거로” (igeoro/this one) becomes “이걸로 or 이걸루” (igeollo or igeollu). Do you see the extra consonant? Because this dialect is the standard language, I forget that it is actually a dialect itself.

The Gangwon dialect is used in Gangwon, which is in the Northeastern area of South Korea. This is where the Pyeongchang Olympic was held last year. The people here then to pronounce words with the double ㅆ consonant as if they were a regular ㅅ consonant. So, “쌀” (ssal/rice) is pronounced as “살” (sal). The sound of words like this would become softer. They change theㅏ to the ㅓ vowel when it is at the end of a sentence. For example, “합시다” (hapsida/let’s do this) becomes “합시더” (hapsideo). Also, many different words such as -나, -노, -고, -가 are used to end a question like 비오나? (biona?/is it raining?) Instead of 비 와? (bi wa?).

The Chungcheong dialect is spoken in many various areas, but it is most commonly used in 충청북도 and 충청남도, which are both below Seoul, Gyeonggido. One of its characteristics is that if the last word of a sentence ends with either the ㅐ or ㅔ vowel , it changes to the ㅑvowel. So for example, “피곤해” (pigonhae/I feel tired) is spoken as “피곤햐” (pigonhya). Notice the hae changing to hya. Another example is the word for snake, “뱀” (baem). This changes to 뱜 (byam). Also, if the last word of a sentence ends with 야, it changes to 여. So, “아니야” (aniya/it’s nothing) becomes “아니여” (aniyeo) and “뭐야?” (mwoya?what is it?) changes to “뭐여” (mwoyeo).

Within the last two weeks, we only had class last week because of Thanksgiving break. At that time, we mainly focused on practicing conversational Korean. We practiced going through three conversations in different situations with each person taking the role of each character. In the first situation, there were two people where they talk about their plan to meet up to watch a movie and have dinner together.

The conversation basically went like this in English.

Hello, how have you been?

Hello, I've been doing well. If you have time this weekend, would you like to go watch a movie together with me?

Sounds good! Which movie should we watch?

How about the movie 'Joker'?

That's fine with me! On which day shall we meet?

How about Wednesday night?

I have an exam on Thursday , so I have to study for my test on Wednesday night. I don't think Wednesday night is going to work.

Then, how about Friday night?

Friday night is okay! Then before we watch the movie, shall we eat dinner?

Yes, then what time should we meet at?

Shall we meet in front of the restaurant at around 6 o'clock?

Yes, I'll see you at 6.

In the second situation, two people are at a Korean restaurant, and they give their orders to the employee.

The conversation went like this.

Hello, what kind of beverage should I get for you?

One cup of water for me please.

One cup of water for me as well.

Okay, sure.

Here are two cups of water. Would you like to order your meal?

I would like one kimchi stew.

I would like one bulgogi fried rice.

Okay got it.

In the third situation we practiced, the same two people are now at the movie theater trying to buy movie tickets and snacks.

I will buy the movie tickets. Could you buy the snacks and drinks?

Yes, that's a good idea.

Hello, how may I help you?

Hello, I would like two tickets for the 7 o'clock showing of 'Joker.'

Sure. That will be 17 dollars.

Thank you.

Hello, how may I help you?

Hello, I would like one medium sized popcorn and two small drinks.

Sure, that will be 17 dollars.

Thank you.

These conversations are probably at the introductory level of Korean, and I speak in Korean with my family everyday, but I don't know why but I still feel a bit nervous when having to speak it in a more formal setting like in a class and with people I normally don't speak it with. I guess it takes time to become more used to it. Even with the basic conversations, I remember having to mentally prepare myself before saying it aloud. I feel like I unconsciously just dedicate speaking in Korean with only family members since I don't really have a need to use Korean otherwise, so it feels almost wrong to do so with people who aren't family. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

Also, as I've been watching videos by Korean YouTubers, recently there was this one slangy sentence ending pattern that was used frequently. Instead of ending a sentence with 요 (yo), they would end it with 연 (yeon). For example, I heard "좋아연" and "아니구연".

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Recently I watched a Korean movie called 200 Pound Beauty. This movie is about a singer, named Hanna, who decides to get full-body plastic surgery to change how she looks, and follows the events following the procedure. This movie is a musical romantic comedy. This movie was released in 2006 so it is a fairly old movie. When it came out, it was a critical and commercial success. It was the third best-selling domestic film of 2006 and also received several awards and nominations.

Just as a brief overview of the movie, Hanna is a famous pop singer, but because she is overweight, she must sing backstage while a skinnier and prettier girl takes her place on stage. She serves as the ghost singer for a girl who just lip syncs on stage. Hanna is made fun of because of her weight, which leads to her deciding to get full-body plastic surgery.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was very funny, but also touched upon some more serious issues within Korean society. Although the movie was pretty dramatic and things were overexaggerated, I thought that it talked about issues in Korean society, that made it more palatable. The main issue that this movie pointed out was the beauty standards in Korea. Hanna had the talent to become a pop star, but because of the way she looked, she was forced to become a ghost singer. I think that Korea, and especially the K-pop industry, is notorious for their beauty standards. Many people feel pressured to look a certain way. I think Korea’s high beauty standards is the main reason why Korea is one of the leading countries in plastic surgery. I have heard from my Korean friends how much plastic surgery is encouraged by those around them, including friends and family. One of the most popular procedures to get done is the “double eyelid” surgery. Their high beauty standards, and cultural emphasis on looks is something that should be changed. There are many downsides to continuing these beauty standards. I think that these beauty standards and other expectations for K-pop stars can be seen in the news and how detrimental they can be. Singers like Goo Hara and Sulli have committed suicide, and the pressures of fame and the expectation for them to look or behave a certain way definitely played some role in them choosing to commit suicide. This is just a testament to how toxic these beauty standards can be and the pressures that people all over Korea, as well as Korean Americans, face. People shouldn’t be judged by the way that they look but judged by their character. Hanna should have been recognized for her singing, no matter what she looked like. I find it interesting that not only is this pressure to look a certain way felt by those living in Korea, but also Korean Americans. Despite living on the other side of the country, this aspect of Korean cultural is still very prevalent among Koreans in America. Overall, I think that Korean beauty standards, as seen in 200 Pound Beauty, is a harmful part of Korean culture and there should be efforts to change these beauty standards.

This last week, Jenna and I did not meet since it was Thanksgiving break. We didn’t have time to meet up because we were both leaving on Tuesday. Jenna did email me some work to do over Thanksgiving break. It was a conversation in Korean between two people. Conversation in Korean is Conversation (대화). Jenna provided different conversations between two people. The first scenario is about a person going to a movie with another person, then getting dinner together. The conversation starts with a person asking another person if they are free that weekend. They decide to go watch Joker. One person asks if they are free Wednesday night, and the other says no because they have to study for a test on Thursday. So they decide to meet up on Friday night to watch the movie. They decide to meet up at 6pm. Jenna also provided me with three other situations related to eating and the movie. 

The week before, Jenna and I went over my goals for the semester and talked about my progress so far in the semester. I talked to her about what I aim to do next semester and talked about what I have learned this semester. We also went over some of the vocabulary for counting, numbers, time, and the days of the week. I am still having trouble pronouncing the days of the week clearly and with good articulation. I will continue to practice that because I know I will use that a lot in daily conversations in Korean. I also practiced self introductions with Jenna. I talked about my major, what school I go to, my hobbies, and what I want to become in the future. Some key words we went over were college, chemistry, medical school, and study. 

On my own time, I have continued to listen to radio garden, but now I have also begun to listen to a lot Korean music. I have especially listened to K-hip hop and rap—Epik High and Big Bang. They were popular boy bands back in the early 2000s, but I enjoyed listening to many of their songs. I used some of their songs for my final cultural presentation about Korean music. If I didn’t know what some of the words were in the song, I simply googled the Korean lyrics and searched up what they meant. Most of the words and lyrics in Korean, I was able to understand when I read the transcription. I noticed that the hard part was listening to the fast speaking Korean in the music. They speak really fast to match the beat and the flow of the song. Furthermore, many of the artists use English words and phrases in their songs, which I thought was really interesting. I also have begun watching some Korean YouTube videos and channels about comedy and news. I try and read every phrase that pops up on the screen of the YouTube video, and I think it has helped me become more efficient in reading Korean faster and correctly. From an emotion standpoint, I am still excited to be progressing in reading and writing in Korean so fast. The thing that I am getting worried about and scared about is correctly spelling words correctly and knowing some more sophisticated words in Korean. There are still many many phrases in Korean that I don’t understand at all because of the level of sophistication. I hope to further expand my Korean vocabulary and be able to understand phrases that I don’t know now, either on the radio or on the YouTube videos I watch. 

I have been working with my language partner more on conversation skills that incorporate what we have learned throughout the semester.  It has been very helpful to practice when we meet as a group with two other students.  My language partner created a scenario of three conversations that would occur on the same night between two friends and the employee of a restaurant and a movie theater.  The first conversation was just between the two friends as they determined where they were going later that evening and when.  It included a portion where one friend expressed why one time wouldn't work and suggested another.  I found this helpful because it is very realistic.  The second conversation was between the two friends and a server at a restaurant which I found more as a review of what I have learned in previous semesters.  Finally, we read the third conversation between the two friends and the employees at the movie theater which included some helpful vocabulary for me that I wasn't familiar with.  I was a bit confused at first because I expected to know more about what was in the dialog than I did when we read it through the first time.  But after we read through a couple of lines, we discussed what each part meant, and I was able to understand the missing links fairly quickly.  It was mostly a couple of vocabulary words and some grammar nuances specific to conversations that I did not recognize.  But the majority of the conversation, especially after going over it a couple of times, I could understand.  I think it is very useful to have the script so we can practice on our own and be able to see and identify all the parts.   I found this an effective strategy in practicing speech.  At this point, I had hoped to be able to have a basic conversation about meeting up at a certain place and time to do ‘x’.  Especially after our last session, I can say that I have accomplished that.  In our next session, I would like to go over the conversation again and test our speed of speaking and our recollection of what we are saying.  I think this would be a good ending point for the semester. 

At the start of the semester, to create a learning plan for myself, I took the Multiple Intelligence Assessment test. It turned out that I learned fast by listening. Since then, I started to notice that I learn faster by listening to others rather than reading on my own. As a result, when I watch TV programs, listen to music, and communicate with my language partner, I learn the words faster than just reading them. I’ve also gained confidence in my Korean learning experience when we did conversation practice in class. I could understand most of the daily conversation if I know the rough meaning of the words. I enjoyed this kind of practice and thus found the language partner the right choice for me. On the other side, when I first started to read paragraphs about paragraphs, I was not familiar with most of the vocabulary and phrases, and hence I was frustrated for a while. I want to practice reading more as I feel more confident in daily conversations.

Other than conversation practices, I also found watching Korean videos helpful too. In class, we would watch some YouTube videos by Koreans. I would listen to Korean music and watch Korean variety shows in my spare time. By watching the videos after learning the related vocabulary, I could identify how people use them in sentences or with phrases. I could also become more familiar with the pronunciation and the tone of the phrases or sentences. After going through the videos with English or Chinese subtitles, it also allows me to practice my listening by turning off the subtitles or only having the Korean one on. A short video can provide me sources of practice for vocabulary, phrases, listening, and even reading, which I found efficient and useful.

Meanwhile, I gained knowledge about South Korean culture by discussing with my language partner and learning partner and also writing the cultural posts. In class, we talked about different aspects of the culture of South Korea, such as the 개천절 (National Foundation Day), 세종대왕 (Sejong the Great), and 교복 (school uniform). By doing the cultural posts, I researched on Korean food, clothing, and festivals as well. The discussion of various topics not only taught us how to speak certain sentences but also provided us an insight into the life of people in South Korea. They are all very interesting to learn, and I’m excited about the new topics I’m going to learn next semester.

Now at the end of the semester, when I looked at my learning plan, I’m surprised that I accomplished most of my goals. The goal of understanding a Korean TV show is still not easy for me, but now I can understand most of a Korean YouTube video for kids. The voiceover is slower and more stable. I’m also learning a Korean song right now. I’m able to identify some animals, colors, and holidays. I can also try to order food in a Korean restaurant. I’m also more confident in reading short sentences or phrases on Instagram. I’m very satisfied with the progress that I have this semester.