Blogs

• Bi-weekly Journal #2: I learned how to write and read the New and Old Testaments of the Bible in Turkish. My language partner, Gokhan helped me to read and write them. We used two different applications on our phones, which were called Bible, and the Bible (in Turkish). For the first application, I changed the setting in Turkish on it. For the second one, it was already in Turkish so that I did not have to change it, which I found more helpful. We compared and contrasted the names of the books in the Bible in English, Turkish, and Korean, which is my mother tongue. I found the Turkish version of the name is really similar to that of Korean. I think that it is because Korean language has a larger range of words pronunciation. That similarity allowed me to remember the words better. While I was reading the words out loud, I worked on the accent of the words (which vowel I need to put a stress on). I figured out that counting is really unique in the Turkish writing. For example, "The first" Corinthians is "1. Korintliler" in Turkish, which the period differentiate "the first" from "number 1". I found this learning activity really fun because it was tied into my interest. 
• In your learning journal, post an evaluation of your First Artifact conversation.  Evaluate your artifact for accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy.
  • What did you do well? I did well making the conversation sound like a dialogue. I did a good job on reading a long conversation of the phone call. 
  • What do you need to improve? I need to improve with the accents and need to cut the time short. I took more than 3 minutes to read the whole passage. I think it wasn't too bad, but I could have improved if I tried to practice few more times before I recorded. 
  • How do you plan to make the necessary improvements? I will check the words that I circled on the transcript (I circled them after listening to my recording) with my language partner so that he can give me some feedbacks. I will keep reading the passage aloud. I will keep working on reading aloud with other texts. 

The Korean culture is one that is very collectivist. It values family over many other things so that the culture pays special attention to respect toward elders. This means that in this culture, many will interpret an individual's success as the result of good parenting and vice-versa. Due to this culture in Korea, there are different modes of the language when speaking to peers and when speaking to people older than you. There are specific ways to answer to your elders and specific ways to address them. In fact, some words are completely different when directed toward someone older. For example, the word birthday in Korean is 생일 (sang-il). However, when directed toward an adult, it is customary to say 생신 (sang-shin). The list goes on for words that are different depending on who it is directed to. In addition to speech, a lot of gestures must be changed in the presence of an adult as well. I was taught to not eat before an adult in the table has taken the first bite and not to put anything above my elbows on the dinner table. I was also taught to bow when greeting people that are older and also to use use two hands when receiving something. Most, if not all, actions require something changed in either speech or gesture in the presence of an elder. 

To incorporate this importance piece of culture into my learning plan, I have chosen to write letter to my parents to practice writing formally, order food in Korean to practice speaking to elders, and to watch the news since most of the news is in formal language. 

My goals/objectives for these past two weeks:

• Complete chapter 2 “Dua Sekawan” in Indonesian Grammar In Context
• Complete chapter 3 “Hidup Baru” in Indonesian Grammar In Context
• Meet with my language partner to work on my reading, writing, and speaking skills.

This past week, I have completed:

• Chapter 1 chapter 2 “Dua Sekawan” in Indonesian Grammar In Context
• Chapter 3 “Hidup Baru” in Indonesian Grammar In Context
• Met with my language partner for three hours to work on my reading, writing, and speaking skills.
  

Reflection:

I spent about 4 hours each week completing a chapter.

I finished Chapter 2 in Indonesian Grammar In Context. I learned the following:

• Yang relative clause;
• Noun phrase (Noun + yang + -nya + adjective/verbal);
• Yang clause with passive verb; and
• Yang clauses with active and passive verbs

The chapter included a variety of activities: Oral tasks, written tables and charts, and writing exercises. In addition to these activities, I took grammar notes and listed new vocabulary words.

I finished Chapter 3 in Indonesian Grammar In Context. I learned the following:

• The locative function of the verbal suffix-I;
• The preposition pada; and
• The prepositions untuk, buat, atas, bagi, sebagi

Again, the chapter included a variety of activities: Oral tasks, written tables and charts, and writing exercises. In addition to these activities, I took grammar notes and listed new vocabulary words.

In addition, I met with my language learning partner for 3 hours. Our time was spent on engaging in oral conversational activities like role play and dialogue chats, as well as going over new grammar points and vocabulary.

In my last language learning session with Lena, we covered terms used around a campus and focused on location.  Using textbook pages with lessons and practice activities, we learned how to ask and tell where something is and discussed terms regarding relativity of place.  The terminology in this section is going to be very useful to me when I travel to South Korea, a long term goal of mine.  This lesson corresponds with the chapter in the textbook I'm using for my learning plan, so I'm glad we covered it during our session to clarify any questions and expand on the knowledge I had already acquired.  Looking ahead, I will build on what I've learned in this lesson in a part of my textbook which teaches how to ask how many objects are in a certain location and to answer that question.  This will help me with situations I will encounter in daily life.    

In addition, we had a conversation about the history of South Korea's political system which is really interesting.  Lena told us about their last leader, President Park, and why she she was removed from her position.  She also explained how her father, the other President Park, took over South Korea in the 1960s with a military coup and started an authoritarian regime.  This discussion on politics led me to realize why South Korea is still a very conservative country culturally because they started their democratic rule hundreds of years after the U.S. did.  Relatively speaking, it's very impressive how much they have liberalized in a short amount of time.  I'm really glad I was able to hear Lena talk about South Korea's culture and politics because I've been wanting to learn more from a first-hand source.  

So far, my strategies of textbook learning with activities and practice have been effective.  However, I want to make sure I don't forget what I have learned thus far, so Lena is going to start doing review sessions with us and giving out quizzes, just to make sure everyone is on the same page.  

According to the Hofstede Index, South Korea is a slightly hierarchical society, meaning people tend to have their place in society and accept it. It is also pretty far on the collectivist side, as opposed to individualistic. This means loyalty is very important and people take responsibility for other members of their in-group, whether that be family, co-workers, etc. As for the masculinity dimension, a highly masculine country being one that values competition and being the best, South Korea is more on the feminine side. Feminine countries tend to focus on "working to live" rather than "living to work." Also, managers value equality, consensus, and quality work life. Status is not as important as well-being. Another dimension is uncertainty avoidance in which South Korea is one of the highest scoring countries, meaning it maintains strict values and behavior, and are intolerant of unconventional ideas and actions. Rules, security, and precision are highly valued to attend to these codes. Despite this adherence to strict values, it is one of the most long-term oriented societies, meaning it values efforts in modern education to prepare for the future over upholding time-honored traditions. South Koreans are guided by virtues and good examples rather than an almighty God as a guidance. The last dimension is indulgence, in which South Korea scores pretty low on, meaning it is more one of restraint. It doesn't place as much emphasis on leisure, but rather has some restraint by social norms on their actions.

            Most of these dimensions are in line with the little that I know about Korean culture. Some of them are slightly contradictory, such as it being a feminine society, but not being indulgent. Another thing that stands out to me is the high uncertainty avoidance score along with the high long-term orientation score, which say that Korean society values rigid rules, but doesn't pay much attention to time-honored values, respectively, which seem to be slightly contradictory. From what I know about Korean culture, I would have guessed it to be a more masculine society, because I know they value hard work and success in school and career very much. As for body language, like we talked about in class, I know certain body language signals are very important. For example, I've heard that it's impolite to stare right at an elder or superior when they are speaking to you, but better to look slightly down. This is very different from American culture, in which it's rude to not make eye contact with someone. As for time, I would guess that Korean value punctuality because of their hard work ethic and value of time as money. Overall, Korean culture highly values family, strict moral behavior, hard work, and a social hierarchy.

            I wouldn't really say I've experienced culture shock. The majority of places I've traveled have been pretty Westernized, or on the trips that weren't, I was in a very touristy area. Obviously I noticed things in these places, such as Morocco or Jamaica, that were extremely different from the U.S. or Western Europe, but since I wasn't fully immersed in with locals, I didn't feel culture shock to the extreme that I know is possible.

Do some preliminary research on what most interests you about the target culture, and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic? 

          As I mentioned in my presentation, nonverbal language is a huge interest to me. Another topic that interests me, other than food, is bargaining. A UR alumna who attended the same program in Dakar admits that even on her more recent visits to Senegal, her use of Wolof to buy products has proved to be the most effective method of bargaining and purchasing. She says that using French indicates that you’re more of a tourist and that you’re more liable to buy the relatively expensive product. This preference also shows a connection that Senegalese people have to Wolof over their connection to French, the language of the colonizer.

          I will need to know terms related to money and how to count in Wolof if applicable. One related objective in my learning plan is “I can ask and understand how much something costs.” This concept is important to me, because I know I will like to explore Dakar on my own sometimes. Therefore, I won’t always be able to reply on members of my host family to help me out. Even then, it is important for me to have that lingual foundation to learn from those around me.

Second Cultural Post

Differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese

Is Brazilian Portuguese really the same as European Portuguese? That is something that I first wondered when deciding to take Portuguese. It turns out there are subtle differences between the two. According to the online research that I did, the two accents sound phonetically different. Some people think that Brazilian Portuguese is more phonetically pleasing because it has open vowels, compared to the fast and mumbled European Portuguese. Furthermore, Brazilian Portuguese speakers talk with higher and lilting inflections, while European Portuguese do not, which makes Brazilian Portuguese much easier to understand for foreigners.

Grammatically speaking, European Portuguese is more strict with spelling changes and foreign words. For example, the word ‘reception’ is “receção”, in European Portuguese, but Brazilians tend to add a P to make it “recepção.” When the letter P is silent, this is often the case-- that European Portuguese does not pronounce it but Brazilian Portuguese does. Furthermore, in Brazilian Portuguese its is common to turn nouns into verbs, like the word “to congratulate.” It is said in European Portuguese as ““dar os parabéns” — but Brazilians turn it into 1 word, “parabenizar”. Another difference between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese is informal and formal speech. Brazilians are more comfortable using the informal “você” in most contexts. But in Portugal, the informal “tu” is used only for friends and family. In Portugal, using the informal “você” can be rude and impolite. People in Portugal also tend not to say the word “você” because it sounds rude to say it explicitly, instead they don’t say the pronoun but just conjugate the verb using 3rd person singular.

In the end, Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are very similar, the few things that I pointed out before are the big differences between the two forms of Portuguese. In the end though, they are both the same parent language, and both are interchangeable.

These past two weeks I had the flu, and due to this unexpected illness, we had to change the course of my learning plan. We had to focus on listening and comprehension, because I could not speak very much. Barbara and I chose to listen to popular Portuguese songs and read their lyrics while listening to them in order to understand their meanings. I discovered that one of my favorite Spanish songs, “Corazon” by Maluma, was originally a Portuguese song, and so Barbara thought it would be fun to listen to the English version, then Spanish version by Maluma, and finally Portuguese version of the song to try to see the differences in each version. This really helped me understand how different Portuguese is to the other languages, and how it sounds when talking really fast. These activity also made me very interested in other Portuguese songs, and styles of music, so we listened to Funk and Portuguese Rap, and I discovered that in both of these genres, Portuguese artists like to tell long and beautiful stories of love and passion. We also listened to other artists like Seu Jorge and Anitta, which was very fun. I think this week has helped me understand the cultural influences of Brazil and the rhythmic style of Brazilian music. I am excited to listen to more Portuguese songs in the following weeks!

A vital part Eritrean and Ethiopian culture is religion. The two most practiced religions are Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Orthodox Christianity is practiced the most, and Ethiopia is even said to be the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. Religion is important in everyday life with people and it is even reflected in language. For example, there is a way to say thank you, but people prefer to say “God thanks you.” Also many names come from religion and the Bible. My sister’s name means Hallelujah while my brother’s name means resurrection. Almost all babies born into Orthodox Christian families are baptized in a church at a very young and it is a huge celebration. My siblings and I were all baptized in Orthodox churches before the age of one. People practice religion daily by praying and attending church weekly. Religious images and figures are present everywhere, in people’s houses, on the streets, and of course in the vast number of churches around the country. Fasting is also common for various religious holidays, with the largest being for Easter. Orthodox Easter is not the same day as the Easter that is celebrated in America and next to Orthodox Christmas, it is the biggest celebration of the year. My learning goals for the topic of religion are to understand the commonly used phrases by religion and the influence of religion in everyday language. I already know how to say God thanks you, but I’m sure that I will soon come across more religious based sayings. My grandma is very religious as well, so it would be nice to be able to communicate with her about her religion.

An interesting and important part of Eritrean and Ethiopian culture is the food. People of all different cultures love Ethiopian food because of its distinct taste. The most important food is injera, which is a bread that is made from tef. Injera serves as the base for almost all meals and it was is used to place food dishes on and pick up food with. The most commonly eaten dish is shiro which is made from chickpeas. Shiro is eaten at any time of day. Bebere is a spice that is commonly used to season food dishes. Bread and pasta are also large parts of the diet because of the Italian influence that is present. Utensils are sometimes used, but most food is eaten with the hands. The act of eating with one’s hands is also something that interests me because growing up around both Eritrean/Ethiopian culture and American culture, I would eat with my hands and utensils at home. However, I do believe that eating with the hands is easier than eating with utensils which makes it interesting that most of the world uses utensils while some use their hands.

The topic of food relates to language because there are specific names for all kinds of food in Amharic depending on the dish and the type of meat or vegetable used. In order to engage in the topic of talking about or ordering food, I need to learn all of the different words for types of food. I already know a lot of the names of dishes, but it is important for me to be able to describe those dishes and ask questions about them. I have included the topic of food in my learning plan since it is such an important part of learning Amharic. One of my main goals is to be able to order food in Amharic since I can probably utilize that aspect of the language the most.

Do some preliminary research on what most interests you about the target culture, and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic?

Ever since my interest sparked in the Korean language, their culture found it's way to me, intriguing me to learn more.  Korean customs are very different from the ways of America which makes everything I learn that much more foreign and interesting.  One of the main aspects of Korean culture is the level of respect for elders.  There are many actions that younger generations do or don't do around their elders in order to show utmost respect; the violations of these norms lead to harsh social consequences.  The biggest example is the use of tenses in the Korean language.  There is a tense for speaking to people of lower authority or age, same age but have never met before, someone of higher authority or older, and extremely formal business situations or how one would address the president. 

Asking someone's age soon after you meet them for the first time is very common in Korea so they know which tense to use.  If anyone younger speaks informally to an elder, it is shameful and they will be scolded, given strange looks, and told to correct themselves immediately.  Tenses can also create distance in relationships.  For example, if people who have met a month ago are becoming close friends, they will switch to an informal tense to show the development of their relationship.  Usually this will come about in conversation.  People will also sometimes comment like "Oh, I see we're still using the formal tense with each other" and may ask to change it.  For my purposes of learning at the moment, if I stick with the formal tense, I will be set whenever I go visit Korea.  This is because almost everyone I talk to will be people I'm meeting for the first time or older than me.  When in doubt, it's always best to go with formal as to not offend anyone.  

Hangul, the Korean alphabet, has 19 consonants and 21 vowels. Each letter has its own distinct pronunciation with little to no exceptions. This makes Hangul a very logic based language. There are several sounds that do not exist in the English language making it difficult for non-natives to learn the phonetics of the language. Despite being born in Korea, I was able to learn the phonetics of English well because I came at a young age. However for my parents, they are still unable to speak with proper phonetics because most pronunciations that exist in English do not exist in Korean.

Pronunciations with double letters such as ㄲㄸㅉㅃㅆ (k͈, t͈, tɕ͈, p͈, ɕ͈ respectively) are very hard to replicate in Hangul.

Another pronunciation I found particularly hard for me was ɰi which is pronounced somewhat like "ui". 

Hangul is an alphabet based system but it is different from English because a single letter cannot hold meaning but must be combined with each other. My language partner is in the process of ordering textbooks so I have not yet been able to study the alphabet thoroughly. Through my studies, I hope to gain a more in-depth understanding of all the rules and exceptions in Hangul so that my writing becomes more proficient. 

What interests me most about Korea is their music. Music is related to language because lyrics are essential to many songs. Many songs can also tell you more about the culture of Korea. Many times traditional music in Korea also tell you a lot about their history. Big events in history are often shared through music and remembered that way. Contemporary music may also be reflective of the trends in Korea. You do need some special vocabulary for this topic since you would want to understand the lyrics. Unlike a show you do not have much context that would help you understand the meaning of the song. Therefore, you should know some basic vocabulary of everyday life activities. I did include objectives in my learning plan that relate to this topic. By watching Korean shows and songs, but also by learning new vocabulary words in almost every class, I am able to understand more of the lyrics in the songs that I listen to.

Formality and informality exist in every language, and even though I'm not always conscious about it, I use very different phrases in English depending on the formality of the situation. In Korean, it definitely exists. I probably could have guessed this before I even started looking at textbooks, just knowing that East Asian cultures in general tend to emphasize speaking respectfully to elders and those superior to you. This is the case for the most part in the U.S. too, you likely wouldn't speak the same way to your boss or grandma that you would to your friends or siblings. As I could've guessed, immediately during my online practice with Korean I was learning to say things either "humbly" or not. There's even a different word to refer to yourself whether you're using the plain form or the humble form, and English definitely doesn't go this far with formality. Since being aware of to whom you're speaking matters a lot in Korean, this adds a whole extra layer to learning the language. However, knowing these differences will be crucial for the situations in which I would like to use my Korean, i.e. with my family and while traveling to South Korea.

My interest in Korean comes from the fact that my mom and her family are from South Korea. I grew up knowing a couple key phrases in the language and eating the food, but I never learned to speak the language. This keeps me from understanding everything that goes on at family gatherings with her side, because even though all of her siblings speak English, they all still speak Korean when they're together. My mom was the only one of her six brothers and sisters who married a non-Korean and had kids, so all my cousins speak it as well. Learning more languages has also been something on my agenda because I want to have as broad of a perspective on the world as I can, and not miss out on opportunities or people I could meet just because of a language barrier. Out of this class, I hope to make enough progress in the language that I can incorporate some Korean into my conversations with my mom, while I'm here at school and back at home. I want to visit the country with her soon and don't want to be completely lost. I also hope I develop language-learning skills that I can apply in the future to continuing to study Spanish and Korean, and possibly other languages.

For the past two weeks, our group went over grammar, writing, and speaking using activities that Youngmin created for us. We have also been using a workbook and textbook that I found to be at the perfect difficulty for me. It is challenging, but not too difficult for me to have a hard time keeping up with the lesson being taught. So far, for the past two weeks we have been going over different grammatical structures. We have been applying what we have been learning with writing and speaking exercises. 

The second week of the class meeting has been a continuation of learning how to structure sentences using different grammatical rules. I like how in each class there has been a variation of activities that Youngmin plans for us, so it is unexpected and refreshing every class. For example, we did an exercise where we messaged each other in Korean of our weekend plans and had to recite what the other person was doing to Youngmin using applications of the lesson. I am really enjoying this class because it is very practice based with a lot of reading, speaking, and writing in class. It is a bit difficult, but I like the challenge because it feels like I am really pushing myself and can see some improvements already.

I am very motivated to learn Sanskrit from a personal perspective. After living in Nepal and learning Nepali, I became very passionate about Eastern culture. Sanskrit is the root of many Asian languages and there are so many similarities between what I learned in Nepali and the Sanskrit roots. Learning the language will allow me to explore much more about the religious culture surrounding the language including interpretation of religious texts. I am also very interested in the relationship between Western yoga practices and the large vocabulary of Sanskrit words used in the practice. In my language learning plan, I have focused mostly on the ability to read Sanskrit rather than the spoken language. I want to be able to read and understand simple grammar and roots that will help with learning other languages, master the devanagari script that Sanskrit is commonly written in, and learn a vocabulary for yoga practices. After receiving feedback, I chose to focus more closely on the written approach rather than on speaking the language through conversation.

Bowing is a big part of Korean culture and is a common method of showing respect. It is also used when saying hello, thank you, goodbye, etc. In order to show more respect, it is common to bow lower and holding that position. The longer one maintains a bowing position, the more respect it shows. However, when simply greeting a friend, a slight head bow/tilt is enough to show your fondness and respect for that person. Slightly deeper bows (작은절 jakeunjeol) are appropriate when meeting someone for the first time or when greeting your boss. Furthermore, the bow that demonstrates the greatest amount of respect is the "big bow" 큰절 (keunjeol). The 큰절 is used only for special occasions that require the most respect, such as on Lunar New Years and the Harvest Festival. Lastly, a "big bow" is typically used by a man when asking his fiance's parents for her hand in marriage. 

https://seoulistic.com/korean-culture/when-and-how-to-bow-in-korea/ ;

The two main sources that I found to be useful for my Korean language learning are Talk to Me in Korean Youtube lessons and KoreanUnnie Youtube lessons. Furthermore, I also use various websites that answer the specific questions that I ask in order to fulfill the tasks in my learning plan. I have also found my lessons with my Korean tutor to be extremely helpful. I was able to easily learn the alphabet with her help, and it is nice to have someone there to be able to correctly pronounce the words that you are trying to learn. 

In order to tackle my learning tasks, I found online websites that showed me how to write greetings and introductions and how they sound phonetically. In order to memorize and practice them, I wrote them down on flashcards and periodically studied them. Furthermore, in order to learn classroom vocabulary, I did the same procedure as when I was learning the introduction phrases. 

Korean has 6 formal speech forms that show different levels of respect in the language, but there are three levels of politeness that are most frequently used. When deciding which level of politeness to use, you must consider the person's age, social status, and how close you are to them. The first and more polite level is Honorific Speech. Honorific speech is used when speaking to superiors, to customers, or to strangers. The second level is Polite Speech. Polite speech (common polite) is used when at work or when speaking to someone that you don't know very well. The third level is Informal Speech and it is used when talking to close friends, someone younger than you, or with children. 

Example" Sit Down" 

1. Honorific: 앉으십시오

2. Polite: 앉으세요

3. Informal: 앉아

https://blogs.transparent.com/korean/formal-or-informal/ ;