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This week I found that reading Hebrew is quite difficult due to the lack of vowels in the alphabet. Growing up I went to Hebrew school twice a week until I was thirteen years old. When I was thirteen, I had my Bat Mitzvah and then decided that I did not want to continue with my Hebrew schooling. I was shocked to find that reading Hebrew now at 21, is not as easy as I found it when I was 13. Because vowels are only used in the Kindergarten level of reading, that is where I classify myself. Although this is a bit disappointing, it is understandable because the Hebrew part of my brain has been “off” for eight years. I have to remind myself not to get frustrated and to understand that being at a Kindergarten reading level is understandable as a beginner. It would be nice by the end of the semester to read without vowels, but for now I will read with vowels and not be embarrassed by it!

When reading “Figuring Foreigners Out” I couldn’t help but think about my experiences traveling abroad and how languages can be misunderstood cross culturally. For example, in Prague people do not smile or say hello when walking down the street. At first I thought this was rude, but then I realized that this is not a “gesture” that they use there. People in Prague are much more individualistic whereas I am a collectivist and enjoy being with and communicating with a lot of people. When the article discusses the idea of time, I couldn’t help but laugh and think of my experience in Tanzania, Africa. The people there have no concept of time like we do in America. The buses there have no schedule and the shops have no hours. I found this to be frustrating at times but also relaxing because I never was late to anything! This article really allowed me to reflect on my experiences traveling and different cultures doesn’t mean that they are wrong or bad, rather that we should learn from these cultural differences. 

This week we made a rough lesson plan for the things that we wanted to accomplish this semester. In addition we started this TV series called Brno, which is a Swedish and Danish TV series about a crime solving team (has English subtitles). It is actually really addicting and allows you to get used to hearing the language making you more conscious about tone and inflection. Our homework has been to review jobs and nationalities as well as prepositions. This semester we really want to focus on putting the vocabulary we know to use.

This week we finally met with Emily, our language partner. She had us write down the letters and taught us both the feminine and masculine version of numbers. While a lot of this came back pretty quickly to me, I struggled a little bit in my penmanship to make the letters because they have such different forms as English letters. I think one of the challenges is that there are always exceptions to rules. For example,  she would tell us that all the numbers take the same format for both feminine and masculine minus the last letter, but then the 6 would be different for example. I hadn't' realized how many "rules/patterns" there are and similarly how many exceptions there are. 

Learning Journal # 2: “Reading” in Korean language- What have I learned?

In regards to reading, I have started to learn the Korean alphabet. At our first group language meeting, my language partner Sun gave my peers and me a paper with all of the main characters of the Korean alphabet. It was fascinating to learn about the sound(s) that each character makes as well as the specific placement of certain characters. This is relevant because certain characters are always placed first and then other characters are always placed to the right or below that primary character. The characters themselves are very fun to write as some characters look like right angles and horizontal lines with vertical lines on top of them.  Basically the Korean alphabet includes a great deal of lines and circles which is visually intriguing to me.

Knowing the alphabet and the structure and placement of words and sentences has helped me a great deal in this journey to read and understand more Korean. I had quite a few “eureka” moments during the first language partner session when I realized how these characters fit together and how it all sounded in the end. Sun taught us how to enunciate each character and the tonation for each one. She told us to “not use our tongue” when saying certain characters and to project more “outwardly” or “inwardly” with others. This lesson was very energetic and uplifting for me, and I enjoyed learning with Azmain and Allan as well. This lesson set the tone for the rest of the semester for me, and I am certain that there will be more class sessions full of energy and  laughter to come. 

A. Current Abilities:

I can recognize letters and vowels

I can sound out words

B. Goals:

To be able to understand what I'm reading in a children's book

To be able to speak in a simple conversation about my name

To be able to talk about family

To be able to order food at a restaurant

To be able to talk about when things are- weeks, months, dates, etc.

C. Tasks

Speak with language partner about culture and slang

Look at a calendar and be able to label it

Watch shows in Hebrew