Blogs

Plastic%20surgery%20in%20south%20korea.pptx

My project was on the popularity of plastic surgery in South Korea. I learned that there are many factors for the widespread use of plastic surgery in Korea. One of the reasons is because Koreans are a conformist society, so if one of the trending things is to do plastic surgery and look good, many other people will follow. Another reason that is quite depressing is that girls have an incentive to do plastic surgery to have a better chance at getting a job if she is attractive. 

One of of personal goals was to be able to talk about my future. This is a recording of me saying some things that I want for my future. Fourth%20Artifact.mp3

For this past week I wanted to learn something that is focused on a specific interaction. I decided to learn about explaining the weather. I plan on using YouTube and Google to find some sources that would provide weather related terms and common phrases that are associated with explaining the weather. I think there will be many videos and website resources for this since it is universally common to explain the weather. I only know basic terms and many of the things I have learned from when I was a little kid have dissipated from my memory. I hope to relearn what I knew and add more. 

My goal for this week is to be able to talk about what I have and ask people what they have, both in physical objects and abstract things, like a cold, etc. I also want to continue to review what I've been learning, in particular the vocabulary that's been given to me by Amaia. I'm going to accomplish this by working with Amaia, using Memrise, and my Aurrera workbook.

My goal in my Learning Plan for this week was to be able to describe where things are coming from, which I've already covered a little bit with Amaia, so mostly this week my goal is to review. I'll do this by meeting with Amaia, working on vocabulary with Memrise, and practicing with my Aurrera workbook.

My goal for this week is to learn how to describe or ask about where someone or something is going, and be able to order food. I'm going to accomplish this by working with Amaia and practicing ordering food and talking about where things come from and go, and by continuing to use Aurrera and Memrise to work on my vocabulary at home.

Artifact%203.mp3

My goal for this week according to my Learning Plan is to be able to use the words for “this” and “that” and “with” as well as count through higher numbers and therefore be able to label items, like “20 people,” etc. Going by what I've worked on with Amaia however, I've been working more with vocabulary and reviewing verbs and how to use them, as well as nor, nork and nori, which modify the subject depending on the verb and context. Because the rules are so confusing I haven't been as focused on my Aurrera workbook, but I'm still using it and Memrise in order to improve and get closer to my goals for the semester.

It is quite easy for me to read Basque, because sentences and even words depend on specific patterns that I can usually identify. For example, if a sentence starts with "non," I know that I will have to say where something is, or if it starts with "zenbat" how many. Even with my limited knowledge of Basque vocabulary, I can usually identify the meaning of sentences just by their context and the patterns that I'm already familiar with. Speaking Basque is a whole other situation. My writing skills aren't lacking, per se, but they certainly aren't at the same level as my reading skills. I can usually make correct sentences, but it often takes me a long time to craft, and my response is usually drawn out as a question because I look to Amaia to make sure what I said was correct and made sense. Basque is certainly not the easiest language to learn- there's a proverb that the Devil moved to the Basque Country for seven years, and by the time he left all he had learnt was "bai" and "ez," which mean yes and no. My writing is probably at the same level as my speaking, and is definitely something that I need to work on.

I think that calling bilingual people smarter is misleading, because intelligence is measured in many different ways. In the context of the article, intelligence is the ability to think about things from different angles, because of how quickly the brain works when moving from one language to another. While bilinguals might in general be better at certain puzzles, bilingualism itself does not guarantee an increased mental capacity, nor does monolingualism guarantee that a persons' brains lack the capabilities of thinking the way that bilingual people do. I think it would be interesting to study the brains of people who are better/worse at learning languages over the brains of those who already have learned them.

This semester I have learned a lot about the traditions and cultures inherent within my language. Before I came to the 105 course, I had known Hindi but not all of its connotations and contextual relevances. This semester I chose to learn more about the female aspects fo the Hindi language and it has increased my  understanding of the way in which Indians consider culture and norms.

• Eighth Cultural Post:  Reflect upon what you have learned from the cultural projects presented in class.

From all the different cultural presentations, one of the ones that caught my eye was the presentation on the Korean tutoring centers. I saw how intensive they were and it made sense how they all did well so in school and had such a good work ethic. I also found from the presentation about the dating culture very interesting. However, it was also very sad that if women who reach a certain age don't find someone they will basically be unable to marry after. It showed the superficiality of Koreans as well. For example, in the presentation it said that men just had to make sure they make enough money and women have to be good looking and be able to take care of the home and children. It was a very traditional way of thinking and not very good. Another one that I found interesting was the Turkish weddings. From the video we watched I was surprised because it seemed as if was a sad moment that the daughter was being given away. Instead of it seeming like it was a great happy moment it seemed like the focus was the lost of a daughter. 

SDLC%20110-%20Cultural%20Presentation.pptx

My presentation was focused on the use of trendy vocabulary in Korean. Otherwise known as Korean slang, the use of shortened words , or the use of letters to represent words has become a popular trend in the past decade in Korea and is growing rapidly. My presentation answered how these words come about, the lifespan of such words, and gave examples of a couple trendy vocabulary. It also addressed how this type of texting/speaking can convey a sense of formality and informality in the Korean culture, and explained how the Korean culture is affected. 

Fourth Cultural Post: Target Language's Writing System

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v42h9RJfzHSvxDYvVtv17B3FiPye2X1S8ftmbPvbNoA/edit?usp=sharing ;

Hangul is Korea's writing system. It is one of the most successfully designed language. Hangul consists of 24 letters, 14 consonants, and 10 vowels. Hangul was derived from Chinese and that is why they have a lot of Korean vocabulary that sounds just as similar as Chinese words. It was created because Koreans wanted to be able to express their unique idioms instead of only using Chinese. They were not able to fully express what they wanted to say with Chinese. Before only the elite could communicate and use the language, but after King Sejong created Hangul it allowed both woman and the poor people to be educated. Furthermore, because of the simple and scientific design it really was so easy to learn. Illiteracy is almost nonexistent in Korea. Unlike, Chinese where the characters are so difficult and hard to remember Korean is simple. Children the age of 2 and 3 are able to learn it and be able to express themselves. Furthermore, even foreigners that spend 2 to 3 hours can really learn Hangul immediately because of the easy mechanization. 

Despite a majority of the class's presentations being about the Korean culture, I was surprised to discover and learn about a couple new things of my native culture. 

James had presented about the cinema culture of Korea which I had never really before considered, or thought about. Being someone who isn't too concerned with the technicalities of film, I had never thought that there would be differences in the cinema culture between other countries and America. It was interesting to discover all the history behind film making in Korea and how the nation's circumstances affect the genre and actual storylines. Just in a broader sense, James' cultural presentation really exposed the amount of impact a culture has on cinema. 

Tia's presentation raised up another issue that I had never thought about before either. With her firsthand experience with English learning in Korea, she explained the downside of Korea's English teaching classes. I learned for the first time that the goals of those teaching and learning English in Korea was not to be able to communicate with English-speaking people, but rather as a certain type of skill. It seemed more like memorizing certain phrases, and regurgitating a proper response. It seems to me that Korea holds the skill to "speak" English as a valued skill, and Koreans will use that as an advantage to be in a better position to get a job. I personally think that this kind of defeats the purpose of learning a language if they are unable to communicate fluently in an English-speaking environment, as demonstrated by one of the videos that Tia showed in class. 

Outside of the Korean cultural presentations, it was very interesting to learn about the other cultures as well. 

Zeno's cultural presentation about the process of a Turkish marriage was very intriguing and fascinating to learn about. Never having attended many marriages, I didn't think there was a very complex step-by-step process in marriage globally. But Zeno's presentation definitely widened my perspective, and revealed to me the role that marriage plays in a Turkish culture. It was interesting to learn about all the different processes required for a man and woman to get married in Turkey, and to learn about the intentions behind each different process. 

Madison's cultural presentation about the surnames of Basque countries was very interesting as well. The fact that all surnames of any Basque people are somehow related to a certain 8 is intriguing. It's crazy to think that essentially all Basque people somehow are related in a sense. I think that reflects just how small a culture Basque has. Never having heard of Basque before this semester, I've enjoyed learning bits and pieces of the culture through Madison's presentations and it has been very fascinating just learning about the Basque culture. 

Overall, just learning about the different cultures and even diving deeper into my native culture, I just find it fascinating to see all the little differences between each one, and just understanding what a culture entails. I think culture is something that we often brush by, and people don't often take the time to understand a culture or learn a culture, but I think in learning a language, it is a crucial factor. To understand why a country is a certain way can help immensely in learning a language and all of its rules and technicalities, and can be explained through learning about the culture. 

• Seventh Cultural Post:  Attitudes about Family in the Target Culture

Family is very important in Korea. It is what everything is really based off of. It is important to show filial piety to elders and make sure you are taking care and respecting your elders. In the United States, it is common for elders to go into retirement homes. However, in Asia that would be considered very disrespectful and would rarely happen. It would only happen if the member of family requires constant care. But even then, a member of the family would still have to come visit very often and help the family member. Furthermore, a lot of Korean children have a lot of pressure because they want their parents to be proud of them. They also really care a lot about family closeness. They have special terms to call brother in a more loving and cute way. In addition, in Korea the man of the house is definitely the father. They still hold a very strong position in the family. Korea still do not find women complete equals of men. My mother warned me that Korean men have a tendency to believe they are the man of the house and that they make the decisions. However, this can be a stereotype as well. However, in the past this is a true statement but with time it has changed. It is also very important to call elders like grandparents and uncles and aunts by the right name. Korean culture do not allow children to call their parents by their first names and should always call by Appa and Omma. It would be considered very rude and disrespectful to talk and call their parents as if they were the same age as you.

https://docs.google.com/a/richmond.edu/presentation/d/1sIkCYss3zvBSVq-qisMj9IpnABhhF0trdiKhSlaL-9U/edit?usp=sharing

Korean Food

In this presentation I wanted to show how Korean food came about. Therefore, I started with the geography and climate of Korea. This showed why they ate seafood and the certain type of vegetables they could grow and harvest. In addition, I wanted to explain the uniqueness of how Korean food is served. I personally found it very interesting how they come out with so many small dishes for everyone. This also showed the difference between America which is individualistic and Korea which is collectivist. I also wanted to teach people about the popular dishes and the name of it. In addition, I also found a very interesting story about one of the dishes about how buda jjigae came about. 

• Sixth Cultural Post:  Attitudes about Time in the Target Culture

Unlike a lot of European countries, Asian countries regard time very importantly. Especially in Korean culture, when they say to meet at 4PM they expect you to be a little earlier. Respect is very important in Korean culture. So, if you were to come late it would be highly disrespectful to who you are meeting with. Time is money and time wasted is lose of money. Koreans also have a lot of idioms of the importance of time. For example, "time is like money, conceived as an entity to spend and one easy to waste, so it needs to be saved or used sparingly", this shows how important time is to Korean culture. They prefer to be early than to come on time because of the possibility of being late. 

Post Final Reflection Paper (500 words):
Learning a completely new language has been very interesting. I found out how lucky I was to be able to be immersed in two language for me to easily learn two languages fluently. It was hard to make myself practice and really practice my Korean because I wasn't in an environment that required me to. Although many of my friends are Korean they are Korean American and would only use some Korean occasionally. Learning a new language is much harder and really requires a lot of time and practice. It would have been even harder if I were to be trying to also learn how to read and write Korean. In the beginning when I was watching the different videos about Hangul, I was really having troubles understanding and memorizing it. It showed me how really learning it when you're younger makes a huge difference. 

When learning Korean, I did realize that I started to be more aware of the cultural aspect of Korea. I was more curious about the different trends and also more aware of the culture. For instance, when I was trying to think of a topic for my cultural presentation I started to notice different things that my friends would do. When my younger friends meet the older friends they use certain terms to talk to them and call them instead of what they would usually say. In addition, they would also use a more formal way to speak as compared to someone of their age or younger. It really brought attention to the importance of respect for Koreans. I also had a lot of fun learning about the funny trends like Muk Bang. It was one of the most unique things I found. It showed me the different quirks of a culture and made learning Korean even more interesting. 

I found really being able to memorize the phrases difficult. I found that instead of forcing myself to memorize it, I needed to really understand the different vocab in the phrase. Also, I think having the environment to actually practice it where it is a real setting would be a lot more helpful. However, it was very helpful having a language partner that is really from Korea because it forced us to speak in Korean instead of explaining myself in English. Also what was difficult was in the beginning where we did not have the English pronunciation and being overwhelmed when it was just Korean. However, after we solved that problem and always had English pronunciation under the Korean we were learning

I thought the readings on being bilingual was very interesting. It allowed me to better understand myself. Furthermore, the mango languages helped in practicing and helping with the questions I had with pronunciation and grammar. I would like to learn more vocabulary that are related or even vocabulary similar to the ones in mandarin. It will also be very interesting to see what I could pick up if I ever go to Korea and see how far I can use my knowledge of Korean to. 

In order to practice conversing with an older person, I had  a conversation with my uncle who lives in Korea. Although my spelling isn't perfect, I was able to practice tenses that reflect a sense of respect and formality. Despite the fact that my uncle is part of my family, the kind of language I use to communicate with my parents is vastly different because I can be more informal around my immediate family, so having this opportunity to practice the formality of conversing with an older Korean family member has allowed me to practice what I learned.