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I organized my learning plan in terms of the specific goals I hoped to accomplish such as learning the alphabet, certain sets of vocabulary knowledge (food, weather, greetings, etc.), enough writing ability to have a simple text conversation with my mom, the reading ability to read a children's book in Korean, etc. Then I laid out the tasks I needed to do in order to accomplish these goals. That consists mostly of splitting up the different vocabulary sets into their own tasks. For example, "Learn how to talk about myself: introducing myself, saying where I'm from, how old I am, what I do for a living, etc.," which also implies that I learn the verbs and grammatical structure that come with this task. Then I wrote down some tools I had at my disposable that I thought would be most effective for me, knowing what kind of learner I am. Some of these include Korean television and music to get used to hearing the language spoken, my mom, a native speaker who will always be willing to text or call to work on my writing and speaking skills, and online tools such as Mango and Duolingo, which I know work for me because I like their structure and the technology engages me more than trying to study a textbook. Then I laid out a calendar for myself to follow, which includes a set number of hours spent using my various online resources, meeting with my language partner, keeping up with SDLC 105/110 assignments, and more. I included a specific focus for each week such as vocab about family, greetings and farewells, asking for directions, etc. Having this checklist will help me keep track of how much time I'm working on Korean and making sure I accomplish the goals I set out for myself.
These studies will allow me to investigate my target language because I will be engaging in it for at least 10 hours a week. As for the culture, I will learn specifically about parts of Korean culture with my final project for the class. In addition, I've already began learning things about the culture just learning about the language, for example, that it is customary to bow slightly during greetings and farewells, or that there are specific formal and informal ways to say most things, because respect to elders is a large part of Korean culture. Korean dramas and music are huge elements of its culture, so spending time listening to those will also help me engage further in the culture.
My interest in learning the language stemmed from my mom being from Korea. She taught me and my sisters a couple phrases when we were younger, but always regretted not forcing us to learn the language. Her immediate family is in the U.S. and has been for decades, but when we have family gatherings with her side, they still always speak Korean. I would love to be able to participate in those conversations. In addition, my grandmother barely speaks any English even though she's lived here for the past 35 years, so I've never had a real conversation with her without my mom as a translator. Lastly, I would love to go visit Korea with my mom soon and having some language knowledge would help me appreciate the trip and the country even more.
Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don't exist in English? Provide several phonetic transcriptions of important words.
Though many sounds in Wolof are pronounced as they are written, some sounds in the language diverge greatly from the way they are pronounced. For instance, the ‘x’ is pronounced as a ‘h’ sound and written phonetically as [x~X]. Many sounds in Wolof do not exist in English, but the different sounds are produced by the same mechanisms of manipulation. See five transcriptions here: dafa [dafa], mbeugel [mboegɛl], seed [sɛd:], ngelow [ɳgoelɔw], ndox [ndox~X].
What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need? Have you identified resources and textbooks to promote your task-based objectives? Why or why not?
As far as structure goes, it would be appropriate to understand some basic elements of Wolof’s syntax. I’ll need to understand how to manipulate some grammar, especially the differences between “I am,” “We are,” and “They are.” Because I am still finalizing my learning plan, I haven’t solidly identified all the resources I’ll need. However, I’m beginning to find YouTube very beneficial (I’m listening to a Senegalese artist on YouTube as I type). I’ve also identified a Senegalese filmmaker who’s produced many films and set the precedence for filmmaking in Senegal: Ousmane Sembène. I’ll definitely be utilizing his work. I’ve also run across an Intro to Dakar Wolof book published by the Peace Corps that I may make use of.
For these two weeks, we have focused on writing, reading and speaking. Youngmin has provided us with a textbook that is designed for English speakers to learn Korean. This is a perfect level for me and the right amount of difficulty. We have started by talking about performances in Korean. We started off with a simple speaking exercise to make us phrase sentences. This was helpful in gauging my level on how well I am able to speak Korean. We moved onto a writing exercise that was forming sentences with a given grammar structure.
The week after we focused on the same topic and did other activities like sending text messages to each other and using that as an exercise. We also did another writing and grammar exercise to help us be more comfortable with speaking. Since the class is more focused on group activity and more speaking based, I believe that it is effective in helping me to increase my proficiency in Korean. As opposed to last year where we focused more on culture, this semester is more focused on grammar. I believe that this will be very useful to me because I always spoke in broken Korean.
The writing system in Amharic is called Ge’ez, also known as Ethiopic. Ge’ez was the original language spoken in Ethiopia, but now it is only used for speech in Ethiopian and Eritrean churches. This Ge’ez script has been adapted to write Amharic and Tigrinya. Ge’ez was first an abjad, or a consonant only alphabet. Now there are 33 basic letters and each letter have seven different forms based on the vowel that is pronounced. In total, there are 231 characters used to represent of all the sounds in Amharic. Since the alphabet is so extensive, I do not plan to learn how to write anything other than my name but I would like to be able to read a few common words or phrases.
My first artifact conversation was ok but I need to work on my accent more. I think it shows that I am not a native speaker so I need to improve on the pronunciation of specific words. My artifact included basic phrases that would be said in order to greet someone, introduce oneself, and say goodbye. The specific phrases I said were what would be said to a man since I set it up like I was speaking to my language partner. In Amharic, things as simple as good morning have different versions for a man, woman, multiple people, and elders. I also think that I can improve on my speed of speaking. Native Amharic speakers speak extremely fast so even though I was trying to speak fast, I’m not quite there yet.
As for my learning goals, I have mostly completed them because I learned how to talk about my family including how to say their titles (mom, dad, brother), their names, and their ages. I still need to practice these so that I can make sentences more fluently. I also still need to learn different personality traits so that I can describe people with more than just superficial information.
So far my weekly meetings have been good. In my first weekly meeting I worked on a Portuguese email which I sent to my friend in Brazil. I worked on my sentence structure and verb conjugation. I also went to dhall with my language partner and learned new vocabulary about food and the surroundings. During my second weekly meeting I watched 3% with my language partner. 3% is a Portuguese TV show which I watched in English with Portuguese subtitles. I found out that my reading skills have improved a lot. After watching the show I gave my language partner a summary of what I just watched. I feel as though I have improved a lot in sentence structure and vocabulary, but I struggle to conjugate the verbs correctly so that is what my language partner and I will work on.
Korean Learning Plan for Spring 2018
- Week 4: Common Phrases
- Make flashcards for greetings, farewells, and introductions
- Make flashcards for phrases like please, thank you, no thank you, etc.
- GOAL: Memorize at 15-20 phrases & know how to spell them/read them
- Week 5 Pronouns
- Make flashcards for commonly used pronouns and family nouns
- Ex: Mother, father, teacher, sister, daughter, etc.
- Ex: You, me, she he, they, them, etc.
- GOAL: Memorize at least 10 of each and be able to read and write them
- *Resource: online korean dictionary
- Week 6: Conversation Starter Questions
- Make flashcards, practice writing, and say aloud questions
- Ex: “Where are you from?” “What are you studying?” “What is your name?” “How are you?”
- GOAL: Memorize at least 15 different phrases and we able to read and write
- Week 7: Continuation from week 6, Solidify Information
- Keep working on introductory phrases from week 6!
- Week 8: Telling Time
- Make flashcards for numbers
- Make flashcards for am/pm or the equivalent
- Learn how to tell time and practice looking at clock and writing it down
- Week 9: Dates
- Make flashcards for days of the week
- Make flashcards for months
- Make flashcards for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.
- GOAL: Be able to say/write/read a sentence like: “I have a meeting on December 15th, 2018 at 5:20pm”
- Week 10: FOOD!
- Make flashcards for at least 20 different foods
- Learn phrases commonly used when ordering food
- Ex: Can I please have a small order of kimchi?
- GOAL: At least 3 phrases
- Week 11: Animals
- Make flashcards for at least 15 animals
- Week 12: Weather
- Learn weather conditions (raining, snowing, fog, heat wave, etc.)
- Learn beginning phrases about weather
- Ex: “It will rain” “It snowed yesterday” “It will rain tonight”
- GOAL: Learn at least 5 phrases
- Week 13-15: Paragraph & Finish up remaining work for Ning
- Be able to write a paragraph about my home life
- Evaluate my work over the semester
According to Hofstede, South Korean has a rating of 60 in power distance, 18 in individualism, 39 in masculinity, 85 in uncertainty avoidance, 100 in long term orientation, and 29 in indulgence.
These ratings hold true compared to my own personal experience. Being born in South Korea, my parents were very much more Korean than American in culture. They put heavy emphasis on family time and order in the household. Power distance rating of 60 is very true because as a child, I was told to never question adults and authority. A high rating in uncertainty avoidance is also true since my childhood was very structured. In addition, I witnessed a lot of long term orientation in my life as well. A lot of family reunions centered around tradition. Whether it was the New Years or a different traditional holiday, many traditional games and activities were done for all of my life.
Growing up, I was very sheltered in my Korean household. Coming to college was somewhat of a culture shock because of how different the social setting was compared to what it was back home. The idea of having so much freedom without a curfew was mind boggling to me. Although I was expecting some parts of college life, I did not expect all of it to be so real.
"Hello. Good morning. How are you?. My name is Berhaun. I'm 21 years old and I am a student. Have a good day. Goodbye."
- How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc. Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.
Using the American culture as a basis of comparison, I will discuss the Korean culture in terms of collectivism/individualism, being direct/indirect, and non-verbal communication. Firstly, South Korea is more collectivist, which is defined by an individual's identity coming from the function of a group, usually immediate family. For example, if someone has a very successful son, the society will compliment how the parents raised the child. In contrast, the individualist U.S society will compliment the son on his own hard work and determination. Additionally, Koreans are very aware of how they phrase things. From what I've observed, they are more indirect in their requests. They leave hints instead of directly asking or demanding what they want because the latter is considered rude. In terms of non-verbal communication, Korea is more conservative than the U.S. and much of Europe. Couples will rarely hold hands or show much contact in public, whereas in the U.S. it is very common. Koreans also bow to superiors and avoid eye contact to be polite. Hand shakes are only initiated by someone older than you and they are typically light.
I experienced a bit of a culture shock when I traveled to Europe over the summer. I visited England, Scotland, and Malta. London is very similar to the U.S. but with several tiny things that seem off, such as driving on the left side of the road, paying for water in restaurants, lower tipping, etc. Both England and Scotland were very accepting of the tourists and offered help to us many times without us asking. On the other hand, Malta was a bit different. People are more laid back in terms of time, so the transportation systems were considerably late or early, hardly ever close to the scheduled time. The native people were also fairly rude to us because we carry bad stigmas in their culture being both American and tourists. Near the end of our trip, I was ready to go home mostly because I couldn't handle the public transportation anymore. However, the way that the Maltese perceive time got into my head, which I really appreciate. There was a moment when we were eating at a restaurant and the staff was taking a long time. We were all calculating the time and how much was allotted to us if we were going to be able to do everything we had planned for the day. My family was getting pretty stressed about it and I just interrupted everything. I said that we shouldn't be worrying about this, we are on vacation and we're enjoying this wonderful food in this lovely restaurant. I suggested we just go at our own pace and that will determine what we will do later on. Everyone agreed with me and it made the evening much more enjoyable.
I worked on tenses in the past 2 weeks. I mainly focused on learning a future tense from my language partner. I also touched briefly on a past tense. It was efficient for me to learn the tenses in sentences. My language partner made me read two different paragraphs (attached under) and I answered the following questions. The first passage was about a phone conversation between two friends that are going on a trip. The second passage was about 65-year-old man who retired and going on a holiday trip. I learned about family relationship vocabularies through it. I circled on future tenses to distinguish them from the other tenses. I worked on making some sentences in future tense. Me and my classmate worked on different verbs and we conjugated the verbs into different tenses. It was really helpful because I was able to review what I learned, and was able to learn new verbs at the same time.
Here are my Turkish learning goals and the learning calendar. I want to accomplish working on a future tense and a past tense this semester. My language partner will help me to achieve my goal. My level of Turkish has been improved that my Interpretive Reading skill is now in the level of Developing 1 that I can understand main points in readings. In addition, my presentational writing is also in the level of Developing 1 that I can write personal letters to my Turkish friends. However, I need to work more on interpersonal communication, because I am in the level of Beginning 2 according to the Levels of Competence document. I can talk about things that I have learned and can understand basic conversation. I also need to improve my interpretive listening skill, which is in the level of Beginning 2 that I can understand phrases that are commonly-used. My presentational speaking is in the level of Developing 1 that I can talk about my hobbies and family. I will work on more of speaking rather than working on readings this semester by doing role-plays with my friends and my language partner.
From my experiences growing up surrounded by both Ethiopian culture and American culture, I can say that they are very different. According to Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, Ethiopia has a large power distance, is more collectivist, masculine, and is in the middle of uncertainty avoidance. The large power distance is true in my experiences because in Ethiopia and Eritrea there is a large divide in the amount of power that is held by different people. Power is usually based on wealth and there is a small number of wealthy people compared to poor people. Ethiopians are also collectivist because they are willing to help others because they think that if they help someone, then their life will be better. The masculinity factor seems to show in the culture because men usually have more power than women and are seen as stronger. When I was in Eritrea, I was told that I should have been a man because I’m not weak. That comment was from a woman which shows their ideas of what a man and a woman should be like are still quite close minded. When talking about time, people do not follow the times that they state. For example is something is supposed to start at a certain time, it usually doesn’t. Also shops in Ethiopia and Eritrea close for lunch and stay closed for hours because people do not have strict time limits and do not rush. Even the bank completely closes for a few hours everyday so the workers can have lunch. In terms of time, everything is much more laid back and people don’t rush to be late because being late is not a big deal.
I experienced culture shock this past winter break when I was in Eritrea and Ethiopia. While in Eritrea, I was staying where there was no running water, no flushable toilets, no heat for the freezing nights, and solar powered lights that did not last for more than a few hours. At first I was a little shocked at the conditions even though I somewhat expected them. As time went on I began to try to become comfortable with the situation but it was so different than what I was used to that eventually it felt like I was losing my mind. It got to the point that all I could think about was going home because the conditions were so tough on me both physically and mentally.
Artifact 1 — SDLC 112
Bradley Fischer
“Apa harapan Anda untuk masa depan?”
Saya harap suatu hari nanti saya bisa mendapat pekerjaan yang menarik dan yang perlu ilmu politik dan psikologi. Saya juga ingin berkeliling dunia waktu saya bekerja nanti. Mudah-mudahan, saya akan bekerja dengan anak kecil yang mempunyai trauma. Selain itu, saya mau bekerja dengan Lembaga Sosial Masyarakat (NGO) di mana saja di Indonesia supaya saya bisa membantu pemerintah Indonesia untuk menyadiakan sarana-sarana yang berguna bagi berkemnangan sektor psikologi di Indonesia. Rencananya, yang pertama, saya akan melajutkan kuliah sampai saya mendapatkan gelar P.h.D. saya di Amerika Serikat. Yang kedua, saya ingin bekerja sebagi psikolog klinis untuk waktu yang lama di Amerika Serikat juga. Waktu saya bekerja sebagi psikolog klinis, saya mau bekerja dengan anak kecil dan yang mempunyai penyakit kejiwaan, seperti Obsessive Compulsive Diorder, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, dan lain-lain. Akhirnya, saya harap saya akan tinggal di negara lain, seperti Indonesia, karena saya benar-benar suka membantu orang-orang yang memerlukan ilmu saya.
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For my first artifact, I chose to write about my future career. I chose so because it was a topic that allowed me to incorporate new grammar and vocabulary into my paragraph. For example, this past week, I focused on the yang relative clause. We create yang clauses with adjectives, intransitive verbs, and transitive verbs. In essence, the yang clause allows the writer to take two sentences and combine them to make one sentence by modifying a head noun with a yang relative clause. What's more, the yang clause is used to characterize or describe nouns in Indonesian, which enables the writer to create a more detailed description. Finally, I the yang clause section concluded with the yang clause + active and passive verbs, which is critical -- especially with regard to the latter -- in speaking bahasa Indonesia.
All in all, it was a difficult chapter, but only because the topic is paramount in learning bahasa Indonesia. My first artifact forced me to think independently from the exercises in the workbook, which made it more pedagogically beneficial for me.
How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc. Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.
As it relates to one of the Hofstede’s qualitative dimensions, Senegalese culture leans more towards the community than the individual. I’ve come to this conclusion by making sense of certain social norms and expectation revealed by Wolof. For instance, to ask about someone’s livelihood, the direct translation to English asks about their location. Because everyone sees everyone daily, there’s no need to ask, “How are you?”. The communities are so close-knit that the question is used only to express concern. The cue “congcong” to enter a home is another testimony to the culture’s communal aura. Rather than knocking at someone’s door and waiting, many Senegalese people enter the homes of their neighbors with a “congcong” to announce their arrival. Everyone is always welcome.
My latest time experiencing culture shock was in a Buddhist temple. I was invited in by a Vietnamese community sharing lunch. Though they meant well with reassuring smiles and the great food, I felt excluded because I didn’t understand their conversations. All I could do was laugh when they laughed and ask for a translation later.
