Blogs

• Learning Journal 4:  Document (a) your goals and tasks for weeks 4 and 5, (b) the resources and activities you will use to achieve your goals, and (c) how you will evaluate your success.

(a) I will finish learning about greetings, introduction, farewells, asking where you are from, answering where I am from and I will review country names and nationalities in Turkish. I will also learn about vocabularies that I need for traveling in Turkey. I will learn "Do you speak English", "I'm sorry, I'm not from here" and so on in Turkish to deal with situations when I am traveling in Turkey.

(b) I will use Mango Languages Chapter 2 to learn the sentences I need to know when I am traveling in Turkey. I will also attend Sezgi's class and ask her about vocabularies I need to know. 

(c) I will evaluate my success by videotaping myself after learning vocabularies and short sentences through Mango Languages. I will get a feedback from my language partner.

• Learning Plans: SDLAP_learningplan%20final%20Joora%20Baek.docx
• First Artifact:  Greetings, farewells, introductions: FirstArtifact, Transcript: FristArtifactTranscript.docx, FirstArtifactTranscriptInTurkey
  

Learning Journal 3:  State your learning goals for this week and how you went about accomplishing these goals.

In this week, I planed to learn about how to say nations and nationalities in Turkey. I learned country names in Turkey during the class with Sezgi. I made a dialogue about introducing myself, saying "how are you", "nice to meet you", "where are you from", "I'm from ~", and farewells. 

• I also learned how to say "busy" and "tired".
• I learned how to answer to "How are you" in different ways. (Beautiful, Awesome, Good, So so)

I will review the vocabularies that I learned including South Korea(n), Germany (German), Nigeria(n), France (French), and China (Chinese). I will also record my first artifact that is including "Where are you from", and "I'm from ~". 

• Fourth Cultural Post: Target Language's Writing System

The Korean writing system was written by King SeJong during the Joseon Dynasty. It consists of 19 consonants and 10 vowels. The system of writing one character is combining 1-2 vowel with 1-3 consonants to create a sound. The consonants are: ㄱ (g), ㄴ (n), ㄷ (d), ㄹ (l/r), ㅁ (m), ㅂ (b), ㅅ (s), ㅇ( null (initial)/ng (final), ㅈ (j), ㅊ (ch), ㅋ (k), ㅌ (t), ㅍ (p), ㅎ (h). The vowels are: ㅏ (a), ㅓ (eo), ㅗ (o), ㅜ (u), ㅡ (eu), ㅣ (i and (with a y): ㅑ (ya), ㅕ (yeo), ㅛ (yo), ㅠ (yu). You can also double certain consonants to create a sharper and stronger sound. For example, to say hello, 안녕, the individual characters are smushed together to form one syllable. For the first syllable (Pronounced: AHN), you start with the consonant, which is the o. Then, you attach the vowel, ㅏ. As you say ahn, the n sound (ㄴ) comes last, so you put that at the bottom. In addition to the 10 basic vowels, you can create other sub-vowels by combining other vowels together. The Korean alphabet is similar to the American alphabet, but it is different in that each syllable is one character. Furthermore, unlike the American alphabet where one writes left to write, the Korean alphabet structure is written with a box-like structure.

• Learning Journal 5:  Post (a) an evaluation of your First Artifact conversation, and (b) an assessment of how well you met your learning goals for weeks 4 and 5.

  • Artifacts are evaluated for accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy.

1. My first artifact was a recording of my mom and I speaking briefly in Korean. I would evaluate the recording as moderately good. I said hello to my mom, and she asked me politely what my name was in Korean. I responded back with the polite term, but I realize now that I was supposed to reply in a nonformal matter. I told her it was nice to meet her, and she said it back to me. I then said that I would talk to her later. However, the phone call connection was poor, so we were not able to communicate well at the end. I told her goodbye and that we should talk again later. I think that, overall, it was a good start. However, I would like to further improve.

2. I have met all of my learning goals for weeks 4 and 5. I have been watching one video from SCOLA once a week. Then I have also been journaling about it in my Korean notebook. I have also been listening to one song throughout the week, trying to understand what it means. Then I write about what the song is about in my Korean notebook. I also have ordered my book online, and it is currently in the mail. I do not think I am at the level of reading chapter books, so I chose a children’s book that was translated into Korean. Instead of choosing one book a month, I think that I will just focus on this book the entire semester due to Korean books being difficult to find and also due to my skill level in Korean. Lastly, I have been skyping my parents twice a week. I have been practicing talking about my day without reverting back to English.

I thought that the presentations in class were very interesting. I liked Dalila's presentation about the culture of “oo-ree” (us) in Korean because it’s a concept that I forget is not universal. Growing up in a Korean family, I was used to hearing pronouns that expressed an inclusive group such as “oo-ree.” Learning about this concept made me realize how my American side and Korean side clash in this respect. It’s difficult growing up with clashing cultures, one being group-oriented and the other being individual-oriented. I also liked Arnanto’s presentation on the prevalence of plastic surgery in Korea. Getting plastic surgery is an idea I’ve become used to due to Korean tv shows, music, culture, etc. However, I realized how this is a concept that is really not normal. It made me think about how the idea of beauty could possibly be influenced by individuals wanting to fit into a group (“oo-ree” culture). I understand the reasons why Koreans are getting plastic surgery, but I do not understand why these reasons can’t be resolved in a more emotionally stable manner.

• What do you need to know about the structure of your target language?  How will you acquire the knowledge you need?  Do you think a reference grammar can be useful?  Why or why not?

I need to learn about how to make formal language, and how to make sentences in Turkish. I will learn the differences between formal and informal language, and Turkish grammar by taking classes with Sezgi. I will also keep learning how to form sentences through Mango website. Because Mango teaches basic grammars and the origins of the words, it is helpful for me to study or preview before Sezgi's class. The reference grammar can be useful because understanding how the structure of Turkish sentences works will allow me to speak Turkish more fluently. Today, I learned "What is this", "What is that" and how to answer these questions in Turkish in Sezgi's class. After learning that "this" comes before "what" in the sentence, I compared and contrast Turkish grammar with English and Korean. It allowed me to learn the structure easier.

(a) an evaluation of your First Artifact conversation

• Since my first artifact was writing based, I sent each writing to my friends in Korea before posting. They would often fix small grammatical issues such words that have the same meaning but different usage. For example, in one entry I wrote about wearing a ring without knowing there was a specific verb used for wearing of accessories. Although my sentence made sense, it was not quite right because I used the wrong form of wear. I think this artifact was good because it showed a wide range of topics and therefore a wide range of sentence structures. Often, I get into a rut of using the same basic structures but this exercise forced me to go outside of my comfort zone. I often had to look up words I didn't know and I learned a lot of new vocabulary and interesting grammar points along the way. I think I did well with this artifact because my friends never had to completely rewrite my work, only small revisions. Even they were surprised by the lack of rewrites.

(b) an assessment of how well you met your learning goals for weeks 4 and 5.

• I will admit that these goals have been coming around slowly for me because I spent too much time reviewing my past lessons without moving forward. I had completed unit 15 so far which leaves unit 16-18 to be completed along with my review and tasks. It seems to be so daunting once I get behind.

I thought the presentations today were very good. I especially enjoyed the ones on Turkish culture since it is not my target language, I felt like I learned a lot. Also, since a lot of my family is from the Balkans, I was shocked by how similar my traditional culture is to Turkish culture. This makes sense since the Ottoman empire ruled over Bosnia and other Balkan nations for hundreds of years. It's interesting to see how remnants of the culture still remain today. For example, as a child, whenever I went to Bosnia my grandmother would "read my coffee." We also create the same type of coffee, with the same process, and we even call the pots by the same name (ibrek). Bosnia is a muslim majority nation so many of the holiday traditions discussed in classes are the same in Bosnia.

MyLearningPlan.docx

What are your cultural learning goals for this semester?

I would like to explore the business side of Korean during this semester. Since I will be majoring in Accounting and hopefully have a career in that field in the future, I want to be able to understand news articles or conversations about that area in Korean. I also hope to expand my knowledge on the culture of Korea because culture is such an important part of a country and it is an essential topic to learn in order to learn about the country.

I plan to read more articles in Korean especially about business and economics and watch more videos explaining the cultural phenomena in Korea. I hope to learn how to have a conversation about complex topics and be more situationally aware of what is going on in South Korea.

My%20Learning%20Plan.docx

Since English is my second language, I have experiences of learning a foreign language since very young.  I really enjoyed learning English through a conversational environment.  After learning basic grammar and simple phrases, it was always fun to talk with people with similar proficiency to practice and learn from each other.  However, remembering vocabularies is always the most boring but necessary process of learning a language.  I was never a big fan of learning new language because nothing has intrigued me enough to start a long and challenging process.  However, I now realized many practical benefits of learning a new language. 

According to the FIRE model for integrative thinking, I mostly prefer insightful and rational thinking, as opposed to factual.  I learn best when provided with theoretical frameworks, logical rationale, and rules, and given questions for serious thought and reasoning.  As a social science major, most questions I encountered do not have one set of answer, so I am used to open-ended questions.  Also, I realize that I like to learn in a safe, comfortable, and pleasing environment with attention given by classmates and instructors. 

Also, I noticed that it's very helpful to be in a conversational environment when learning a new language.  As I just started to learn Korean, I found it really helpful to practice simple dialogue during classes as well as learning the basic alphabets with visual images.  My language partner also make some popular culture connections to our learning materials, such us showing Korean Music Videos that contain the phrases we just learned.  By doing so definitely makes the class more interesting, and easier to remember. 

I have mentioned that I really enjoy to have be in a conversational environment when I learn a new language because I tend to speak more and be more active when there are other students who are at the same level.  However, I would not like to be put into a place where everyone is a native Korean speaker when I just started to learn this language because it gives me pressure and cause anxiety when there are too many unknown sentences.  I prefer to learn a new language in a conformable setting, and with some fun ways.  Also, it's better to know some basic phrases and be somewhat conformable in learning this new language before starting to learn grammar. I think Korean grammar is somewhat complicated  and I could feel overwhelmed if given all kinds of information at one time.  However, I recognize the importance of studying grammar and set a good foundation for future.     

Lastly, I should expand my learning activities by watching Korean videos or TV shows that presents Korean popular culture.  It's always easier to learn a language if you love its culture. Also, I am in the process of studying Korean alphabets. Listening to some educational songs regarding how to write and speak the alphabets would also help with memory.  I should also find a study partner outside of classroom so we could practice more and be comfortable in speaking the new language. 

Do some research about the culture of your target language and write about the 'linguistic aspects', e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc.

Turkish and Korean have lots of similar linguistic aspects. People are more like collectivists so that there are more references of "we or us" than "I or me". Turkey is more like polychronic that people look at time as "how". Because there are numerous Muslim believers in Turkey, it is possible that people are external than internal. They believe things happen regardless of our will. Turkish is also a indirect (or High Context) society because Islamic culture is dominant and people who believe in Muslim will share the common sense within the language. Foreigners and who are non-Muslims might have hard time to understand the language that is related to the Turkish culture. 

My goal of the week was being able to read all the alphabets, be familiar with them, and learn how to introduce myself. I reviewed Turkish alphabets and be more confident saying "r" and "u" sound, which I was not familiar with. I learned how to greet people, say hello/ bye, good afternoon, good evening, nice to meet you, and thank you in Turkish. I also learned "where are you from" and "I am from South Korea" in Turkish. I learned how to say from America and Greece, too since there were Americans and Greek in my class. I practiced vocabularies through dialogues with my classmate. I learned that different words come after group of a, i, o, u and e, i, u, o. I also learned how to say Mr and Mrs/Ms. I think the best part that I am in a group of people who are learning Turkish is we can get feedbacks from each other and practice speaking through dialogues. 

My first artifact will be my Korean diary which was my first task. These are just six samples from my diary and are not all my entries. These entries show the general length of my writings which is about 1 paragraph if formatted differently. Also, my entries cover a wide range of topics from my interest in returning to Korea for graduate school to my family tree.Korean%20Diary.docx

In Crystal’s reading, “How the Brain Handles Languages,” I enjoyed learning about how the different parts of the brain function especially when it comes to learning languages. I especially found the relationship between languages and handedness to be very enlightening. I had no idea until this reading that being right handed correlates to the left hemisphere of your brain being dominant for learning languages (173, Crystal). Following Crystal’s second reading, “How We Mean,” she explores exactly what the title means by looking at the different ways ‘meanings of meaning’ are used in languages. According to Crystal, Greek philosophers debated this topic and developed two main views. Plato argued that naturally “there was an intrinsic connection between the sound of a word and the thing it referred to” while Aristotelian took the conventionalist view by claiming that there was no such connection. From my experience learning languages, I agree with Plato’s naturalistic view. Words do sound like they mean. Above all, this article raises a crucial point in learning languages. We rely on words to understand one another, to understand concepts, and we depend on words to grasp what is going on at the moment in time. Words have a variety of meanings and we can understand what a person means mainly in part by the words they choose to express themselves.

Based on my research, the distinctive linguistic aspects of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination. Essentially, Turkish has a two dimensional vowel harmony system which means that vowels are characterized by two features: front and rounded. These two sets of vocal harmony systems are characterized by simple and complex. The simple vocal harmony is concerned with the low vowels e, a and has only the front feature while the complex one focuses on the high vowels and has both front and rounded features. The basic word order of the language is subject-object-verb and there are no noun classes or grammatical gender. Stress in letters tend to be on the last syllable. Since Turkish is an agglutinative language it uses affixes especially suffixes or endings often. Also, there are six noun cases in Turkish and all of these endings follow vowel harmony. Last but not least, the informal and formal language is again distinguished by a change in ending.

For weeks 4 and 5 I intend to learn the basic greetings and farewells of Portuguese. To do this I will watch lots of interviews as at the beginning of every interview there is always an introduction, and at the end of the interview there is always a farewell. I also hope to learn some basic soccer terms such as kick the ball in Portuguese. I will do this by also watching interviews, but more specifically soccer interviews. As they will probably mention soccer terms during their interview. To track my progress, at the end of each week I will try to say all the terms I have learned by memory.

What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need? Do you think a reference grammar can be useful? Why or why not?

Korean has a variety of different grammatical structures you can use to build sentences. There are four main sentence structures that are commonly used but there are many different types of sentences you can use. One major difference between Korean and English is that in English you have the action before the object, but in Korean you often have the action after the object. While in English you would say, "I closed the door", in Korean people say, "I door closed". When learning Korean I think it is important to familiarize yourself with the different sentence structures of the language, and one way to do this is by reading and listening to people speak Korean. Having a quick reference guide for common Korean language structures would definitely help with this process, especially in the beginning while you are still getting used to it.

https://www.linguajunkie.com/korean-2/make-korean-sentences