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A very prominent cultural trend in Korea that I would like to learn more about is cosmetic surgery. Though I am aware of the ideal Korean beauty standards of having a small V-shaped face, big eyes, a high-bridged nose, and a rounded forehead, I am curious as to how these standards came about and also why these standards are so ingrained in Korean society that a significant number of men and women end up "going under the knife". My learning goals for this topic is to find some historical background on these beauty ideals and the main reasons these ideals are so prevalent in Korean society today. Furthermore, I aim to find information of possibly evolving beauty ideals to see if these standards are unchanging or if they are capable of being flexible over time. 

*I have changed my topic for my culture project to looking at the attitude of South Koreans to North Korean defectors*

A very prominent cultural trend in Korea that I would like to learn more about is cosmetic surgery. Though I am aware of the ideal Korean beauty standards of having a small V-shaped face, big eyes, a high-bridged nose, and a rounded forehead, I am curious as to how these standards came about and also why these standards are so ingrained in Korean society that a significant number of men and women end up "going under the knife". My learning goals for this topic is to find some historical background on these beauty ideals and the main reasons these ideals are so prevalent in Korean society today. Furthermore, I aim to find information of possibly evolving beauty ideals to see if these standards are unchanging or if they are capable of being flexible over time. 

My goals for this week were to improve my conversation skills and learn more useful vocabulary.

I used the Hello Talk app once again to accomplish these goals since not only was I able to have an actual conversation with a native Korean speaker but I was also able to practice my reading and writing skills through text. Through this app I was able to practice my speaking skills over the phone for around 40 minutes with a friend by talking about basic information such as my family, my age, and where I am from. I also learned more school-related vocabulary such as international business "국제경영", macroeconomics "거시경제학", engineering "공돌이", and dorm "기숙사". Furthermore, I have become more familiar with colloquial language. For example, I learned the expression "쏘다" and "골든 벨 울릴게" which means "I'll pay this table" but in literal terms means "these ones" and "ring the golden bell" are used when treating someone to a meal or a drink. 

My learning goals for this week are to introduce myself (where I am from, what I am studying, how old I am and my hobbies) and to introduce my family and friends in detail.

Personally since I have never consumed alcohol, the drinking culture in Korea is something that I have found interesting. There are many drinking games out there and drinking tricks that are beyond the realm of “beer pong”. I am aware that when going out to dinner or for drinks with your seniors, it is customary for your senior to give you a drink and if you refuse it is considered rude. What I question is what happens if you just don’t drink at all because you don’t want to consume alcohol. I know that it is a cultural thing, but I think that people should respect your decision as to not drink. I want to learn about the drinking culture more, such as what age is it legal to drink in Korea. What do you do if you refuse a drink from your senior? What are some popular drinks and drinking games in Korea?  I will learn more about it by looking at YouTube videos from sweetandtasty and by reading the infographics by Dom&Hyo.

 State your learning goals for this week and how you went about accomplishing these goals.

• Goal: My goal for this was to work on task 1, goal 1 of my learning plan: I want to be able to ask for directions and give directions. 

   

• This week, I worked on Mango Languages' Chapter 1 -- as a fresh reminder -- and Chapter 4 titled "Getting Around Town."
• I watched videos concerning directions on youtube.
• I read articles pertinent to my goal.

Progress:

I reviewed

• "How do I get to?"
• "What bus number do I take?"

Answers:

• "You need to go straight, to the right and to the left."
• "That direction."
• "Go to street..."

For Sherut (Particular to Israel -- "shared taxies"

• "Give me the receipt please."
• "Drop me off here please."
• "How much is it?"
• "I want to go to..."
• "This is the right cab, right?"

Tickets:

• "Where can I buy tickets?"

I reviewed these terms with my language partner.

The video “Culture Shock” really showed the struggles that international students and faculty have at the University of Richmond and in America in general. As an international student, I can identify myself with most of the things that were said in the video. Culture shock happens every time we leave our home country. It is, in fact, something natural. It really occurs after the honeymoon period, as Dr. Bhatt would say. First we like being in a new environment, because everything is interesting. But soon, we start seeing the bad side, namely those things that differ from the country we come from and which we have problems understanding. We feel nostalgic, and we start questioning why we are even here.

I remember when I came to study here. At first, I found everything exciting. I met and became friends with other international students during International Orientation and I had the chance to visit the city. It was essentially like vacation. However, when the actual orientation started and I had a full schedule of activities with American students, I realized the difference between me and them. The way people communicate, their body language, the topics that they discuss. I felt alienated. When classes started, I felt overwhelmed with not only the class material, but the entire education system. Similarly to the international students in the video, I struggled with class participation and writing papers. I did not understand why I would have to raise my hand during the class and why there is a need for me to say anything. I thought that the professor should be the only person speaking and that students should be listening. I even started disliking other students, just because I did not have the courage to say something. Fortunately, I overcame that fear. Furthermore, writing papers was extremely difficult and time consuming. As Dr. Essid would say, international students had to do three times as much as Americans, because they had to operate in another language. The Honor Code was another big thing. First of all, I thought it was a joke, because I come from a culture where there is not even a word for something like this. I had a similar experience as the Turkish student in the video. I could not believe that a professor would ever leave the room during an exam.

Thus, my first semester was rough in terms of adjusting and adapting to the American culture, but also the university culture. However, now when I look back, I can say that I might have been too critical and that I judged too much, just because things were different, not bad. In my opinion, that is really what culture shock means, namely failing to understand and accept the culture you find yourself in, because of the parts of our own culture that we carry with ourselves wherever we go.

Reflect on the Culture Shock video and your own experiences and expectations of culture shock 

  Culture shock is an experience that a person moves to a new cultural environment which is different from his or her own. He or she might feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar in the new environment. I googled online and found out that culture shock can be described as consisting at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, frustration, adjustment and mastery. 

  The culture shock video touched me a lot. It talked about different aspects from international students such as academic difference, problems they have, how international students receive support and friends. All those problems are common for most of international students studying in US and struggling in their first semester.

   I had some same problems as they mentioned in the video. For academics, University of Richmond is restrict. Attendance and participation are required and important which I didn't understand why at the beginning. Maybe I was shy to say in class since I was not used to express my opinions in class in China. We just listened to teacher and took notes, that's all. But in US, asking questions and expressing your opinions are important that is beneficial for professors to think from your aspect. So I changed gradually but the progress was hard. The most impressive shock I feel is that everyone is independent in US. They have friends, but they are independent persons. In China, I feel like I always stay with my friends almost everyday. We have classes together, have lunch together and study together. A few people are in a group and we stayed the whole day together until we went home. However, Americans they do have friends but they won't stick together all the time. Also, making friends is not very hard but having friends who truly understand you is hard. Since we have different cultures, I don't understand your culture and you don't understand my culture, it is even difficult to make jokes. 

   So cultural shock really exists and bring problems to international students. I agree with the suggestions someone mentioned in the video to be open-minded. Don't limit the ways of thinking and don't always insist your opinion is the best. Try to be open-minded and try different new things. Participating in more activities and making more friends. If feeling helpless, talking to your friend, your advisor and your favorite professor. 

   Hangul is the Korean alphabet system that has been used to write the Korean language since 15th century. The alphabet usually has 24 consonant and vowel letters but Hangul letters are grouped into blocks such as 한, each one is transcribes as a syllable. For example, 한 is composed of three letters :ㅎ h, ㅏ a, and ㄴ n. Those blocks are arranged horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom. And the graph of Hangul is shown below:

   Consonant names have two-syllable names and it comes both at the beginning and end of the name which is shown below in table:   

   Vowel letters are simple, written with ㅇ ieung and the vowel being named. Here is the table for vowels: 

Table of Hangul: 

(A). Evaluation of the First Artifact conversation: 

   I post the first artifact conversation in Voki. It is a brief self-introduction about name, age, hobbies and my plan about traveling to Soul. It is not very long, but the sentence structure I used is a little bit complicated such as I want to do something and my favorite singer is XXX. I think the first artifact conversation overall is good, but later on I still need to make improvements in accent and fluency. The accent is hard for me to imitate but I will listen to more Korean conversations to improve my accent. Fluency is another problem and I will spend more time talking in Korean to have a better fluency next time. 

(B).Assessment of how well you met your learning goals for week 4 and 5: 

    My learning goals for week 4 and 5 were to be familiar with formal/informal greetings, farewells and introductions. I'm able to do a brief self-introduction which is good. Then, from the presentations in class, I understand and know more about Korean cultures. Generally, I finished the goal, but as I mentioned in the previous learning journal, fluency is a key point of evaluating speaking. Later on, I will work on that more. 

Reflection on the presentations: 

  It is very interesting listening to all the presentations from different aspects of culture, especially cultures from various countries. Some people talked about more traditional topics such as etiquette and New Year custom. Also, some modern topics were discussed such as Korean drama and skin care in South Korea. Overall, all the presentations enabled me to know more about the culture and the development tendency. 

  For me, culture is a combination of knowledge, belief, art, morals, low and any other habits as a member of the society. Becky Chen's presentation left a deep impression on me. Her topic was "Filial Piety in South Korea". The main ideas were positive influence, love and affection. Koreans respected their families following confucianism. They work hard, obey and protect their families. Young people show good manners towards family. The rules were very restrict in the past, but now more parents live apart from children, and they become more open-minded due to the western influences. 

  This reminded me of my childhood. Respecting and showing good manners to elders, having and obeying family rules all of these are parts of the Asian culture. Not only in South Korea, but also in North Korea, Japan, China, Thailand and so forth, it was an Asian culture in common. Personally, I believe having restrains for a child is beneficial for his development of habits and future growth. 

The culture shock video reminded me of my experience studying abroad in Switzerland. One big thing that I never got used to was the greetings where you kiss people 3 times on the cheek. I felt very uncomfortable especially when I was meeting a bunch of people at once. I heard that the Swiss were more reserved so I wasn't expecting kisses to be a thing. When I met people instead of saying it is nice to meet you they would say enchante in french, meaning enchanted. It kind of threw me off guard when I met guys that would say that to me. In my head it sounded way too romantic to be a casual greeting. One of the students in the video talked about he thought that he was supposed to explain how he really was when someone asked how are you. I think it's pretty similar in French. People would say ça va, which is just a casual how are you and could answer back with the same word meaning I'm fine. 

I definitely think I experienced the honeymoon phase. I was in love even before the plane actually touched the ground as I saw the mountains alongside the runway. Everything was so new and cool and I felt like I was on vacation. Settling into my host family threw in some challenges to the vacation phase because it was a period of adjusting into living like the Swiss do. I almost felt like I was in a less developed country, but it was just because people lived more simpler and therefore didn't have as many amenities in their house. For example, my host family had a washer but not a dryer so we had to hang our clothes and keep the window open, which got difficult as the colder months came in. I also noticed that my host family produced much less trash than I did alone. I think I stayed in my honeymoon phase all of my fall semester.  It was't until mid-spring semester where I finally felt the desire to go home and it wasn't because I was bored of Switzerland, it was more because I wanted to move on with my life and school. Thinking about Switzerland now makes me want to go back. But while I could see myself living there, I don't think I would actually live there. 

I thought the presentations were great, and a great way to show insight on various cultures. I learned a great deal about the South Korean's Lunar New Year, South Korean's superstitions and the age hierarchy that dominates its social customs, and a unique insight into the Greek culture with regards to its mindset.

South Korea's culture proves to be wholly rich. I learned about their Lunar New Year and its association with a reverence for their elders. The holiday lasts three days, and the day before New Year's day, the extended family travels to their home town, usually outside a major city, to get together. The day of New Years,  the family dresses in traditional clothing; and the kids bow down before their elders reciting a blessing. The males and the female perform the bow differently. Moreover, the food, and games they play, are unique to the New Year. The meal is served with a variety of "tapas" with the main dish constituting a rice-based soup. 

South Korea's superstitions too availed me an opportunity to learn about their minute -- as every culture has them, and thus readily make available an insight into their history and how they respond to circumstances. Two superstitions that struck me were the number "4," and the good like affixed to the thought of a pig. The number "4" sounds a lot like the Mandarin word for death. This shows that there is a certain amount of cultural / lingual cross-fertilization between the two cultures. As a result, buildings use a "f" to denote the fourth floor. Likewise, in the U.S., buildings usually skip the number "13" in their elevators. Dreaming of pigs I thought was interesting. When businesses open, the employer and employees and their friends gather around and roast a pig, but with a caveat: stuffing money into its snout. So, dreaming of a pig, allegedly, will bring you good luck.

I thought the presentations were great, and a great way to show insight on various cultures. I learned a great deal about the South Korean's Lunar New Year, South Korean's superstitions and the age hierarchy that dominates its social customs, and a unique insight into the Greek culture with regards to its mindset.

South Korea's culture proves to be wholly rich. I learned about their Lunar New Year and its association with a reverence for their elders. The holiday lasts three days, and the day before New Year's day, the extended family travels to their home town, usually outside a major city, to get together. The day of New Years,  the family dresses in traditional clothing; and the kids bow down before their elders reciting a blessing. The males and the female perform the bow differently. Moreover, the food, and games they play, are unique to the New Year. The meal is served with a variety of "tapas" with the main dish constituting a rice-based soup. 

South Korea's superstitions too availed me an opportunity to learn about their minute -- as every culture has them, and thus readily make available an insight into their history and how they respond to circumstances. Two superstitions that struck me were the number "4," and the good like affixed to the thought of a pig. The number "4" sounds a lot like the Mandarin word for death. This shows that there is a certain amount of cultural / lingual cross-fertilization between the two cultures. As a result, buildings use a "f" to denote the fourth floor. Likewise, in the U.S., buildings usually skip the number "13" in their elevators. Dreaming of pigs I thought was interesting. When businesses open, the employer and employees and their friends gather around and roast a pig, but with a caveat: stuffing money into its snout. So, dreaming of a pig, allegedly, will bring you good luck.

In addition to discussing the resources (see above), outline how you have begun to work on your first language tasks.

• For my Task 2, topic 1 (Dining norms), I watched a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIfFQCEwpk. This video refreshes my memory of the way of ordering -- its dynamics -- and the pace of ordering. Also, the back and forth served as a good reminder of the Israeli "template" for conversation.

• Moreover, Mango conversations, Chapter 6 Food and Dining, lesson 41 is useful in obtaining pertinent vocabulary / a healthy reminder. It also gives me a good platform to work on my past tense verbs for dining. For example, in Hebrew, the past tense for to eat is "achal." However, it does not include with it "do," "does," or "did." So, What did Danny eat? --- Ma achal Danny? I am also learning the feminine past tense. Usually, you would add a "t" sound to the masculine verb. For example, "Achal" becomes "Achalat." And the noun "portion" in its plural form gets and "noht" ending because it is feminine. So, Mana -- portion -- become Manoht for portions.

Based on the presentations I watched in class, I learned many things about Korean culture that I did not know about prior, despite my experience growing up in a Korean family. Though I am familiar with some of the Korean skincare products, aegyo, and dramas, it was interesting to hear more detailed information about such presentations such as the history of these trends. I did not know the specific skincare process many Korean women go through and I found it intriguing how men and women are heavily invested in skincare since skin is a way of how Koreans can think of each other in terms of health and personality. It was also very intriguing to learn that the light-hearted blood types trend has a much darker history that is connected to discrimination and prejudice. 

Majority of my classmates presentations were on Korean culture, ranging from things like Korean skincare to the new year traditions. I was born and spent my early childhood in Korea so I was already aware of all the presented things but it was very interesting to see people make presentations based on my culture. Also, there were presentations on Hebrew culture, Greek culture and Turkey culture. All of which provided information that I was not aware of before. It was a very educational time for me; I was able to learn a lot about little details of different cultures that I would never have been able to learn about unless I was in this class listening to the presentations.

Goals: I want to be able to say basic greeting phrases. I also want to be able to write the alphabet down without having to look at a source.

Resources/activities : I will be using a lot of youtube videos and google search to get the alphabet down and the basic greeting/ conversational phrases down. I also want to practice a bit with Hadee, my language partner.

I want to have Hadee, my language partner, and my other Pakistani friends evaluate my progress and if I am doing things correctly. Also, I can make up a small quiz for myself.

SDLAP_learningplan2132-2.pages

My classmates’ presentations were all very interesting and informing. The informing part came from the facts that they shared; the interesting part was how they presented those facts. I could sense their interpretation and interest in the culture by the certain facts they chose to emphasize and through their actions, gestures, tone, and other subtle ways they gave the information.

I often hear that Germany is known for their beer culture, and well I guess that wasn’t a stereotype. But, I didn’t think that there was another level of sophistication beyond that. The fact that German Carnival is a nationally recognized event dedicated to dancing, alcohol, and other festivities shows that it isn’t all about drinking but rather the social aspects. They’ve even started educating foreigners about cultural norms during the carnival, which means it’s such a big deal that it’s making foreigners curious. And, that’s a good sign because it’s promoting diversity.

Coming from an Asian background, I could draw many parallels between Korean culture and my Chinese culture as I listened to the presentations. But I’d say the popular culture is something very unique in Korea. South Korea is well-known for their skincare products, pop music, and TV dramas, and it seems (to me at least) to be one of the most modernized Asian countries that doesn’t give in too much to western influence. In other words, they have interpreted the modern times in their own way and that’s reflected in their cultural products (i.e. art, fashion, music, etc.).

I’ve always been a fan of folktales and Greek mythology, so hearing about Pakistani myths was fun. I like when the main character is the villain, because then the story is less predictable and the villain gets to be portrayed as someone with human qualities. Plus, I don’t like having happy endings all the time.