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According to the NY Times article, Siletz Language, With Few Voices, Finds Modern Way to Survive, languages can go extinct due to government intervention. For example, the United States government had an Indian policy that created artificial conglomerates of tribes that jammed them into a single place even though many of the groups spoke completely different languages and in many instances, had very little in common. Eventually, some languages prevailed over other tribes. Some dances prevailed over other tribes as well. And ultimately, some cultures prevailed over other tribes that led to the extinction of certain languages and overall cultures as a whole. 

Linguists can help preserve a language by creating dictionaries of the language. For example, a Georgetown University student made many dictionaries to preserve a language. 

According to the article, a ‘dead’ language can be brought back to life. For example, in the 1950s, the tiny tribe, Siletz was declared dead by the United States- a “termination” from the rolls. The Siletz however clawed back, clinging to former reservation lands and cultural anchors in songs and dances and in two decades time near the 1970s, this language became only the second tribe in the nation to go from completely nonexistence to federally recognized status. Currently, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians now have about 4,900 enrolled members and a profitable casino in the nearby resort town of Lincoln City.

To document linguistic diversity, schools now teach the language through the 6th grade at the public school in Siletz and the tribe aims to have a teaching program in a few years to meet Oregon’s high school language requirements, allowing Siletz, in a place it originated, to be taught as a foreign language.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks with the COVID-19 spreading, spring break plus its extension, and classes being moved to online. Due to this fact, I have been unable to meet with my language instructor for almost two weeks now and my progression with the language has been slowed. Regardless, I have been trying to keep up with my ASL assignments and have continued to practice my signing daily for around 30 minutes.  Fortunately, before I had left school, I was able to grab my ASL notes, my textbook, and my ASL dictionary and have since been self-learning the material. One new interesting component of my language journey is that I have been learning from an online DVD application that strengths my visual acuity and observation. The DVD displays individuals practicing sign language and my job, as a student, is to observe and write down the translation of the simply constructed sentences the performer's signs. Through this DVD application, I have the opportunity to improve my translational abilities of the language which is extremely helpful as ASL can not be taugh through traditional means, such as a textbook (at least, not as easily). It is an interesting form of teaching, one that I have never experienced. However, since my return home, I have encountered two issues with such a method. None of the modern computers in my household have a disk drive, making it much more difficult for me to use said DVD application. In addition, this form of teaching only improves my visual interpretation of the language, not my ability to recall and actually sign.  However, with the lack of face-to-face meetings with my sign instructor, I believe this modality of teaching to be an appropriate alternative solution,

            I have also been learning ASL vocabulary through the application “SignSchool” on my phone - trying to improve my basic understanding and strengthing my terminology of ASL by learning approximately 30 words, or rather signs, per day. SignSchoool is essentially an ASL dictionary on the phone, however, there are also short lessons incorporated into the app that revolves around specific, topical vocabularies, such as transportation or fruit. One challenge I will be facing in the future is my ability to communicate with other deaf speakers and actually practice my sign language. However, to combat such a concern/obstacle, I will be making appointments on italki.com to practice communicating. The plan for the future with my instructor is to perform FaceTime calls twice a week for an hour in which during which we will practice conversing. I am a bit worried to be practicing through online because I will not be able to see her full picture in the same manner as being face-to-face, nor am I confident in the wireless connection’s speed, but it is the next possible best possible option so that is what I plan to do. I’m still developing my vocabulary to strengthen the basic understanding of the language. Thus, Reba and I have not learned much medical terminology, which was the goal for this course. However, the information I am learning currently will be helpful in describing events preceding and post any medical events as my terminology is revolving around common nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Languages go extinct when humans cease to utilize them, whether it be through speaking, reading, or writing. When a language dies, it is no longer used as a form of communication between individuals. The reading and the interview made me think of how people say that Latin is a dead language. I always found that claim interesting, considering the fact that there are still many scholars who study and use Latin, although perhaps not on a daily basis. It seems to me that the life of a language depends heavily on its utilization by native speakers, and I think this is partially due to the relationship that culture has with language. Anyone can learn another language, but to truly understand it, one must be able to connect with its cultural aspects. 

The best way to preserve a language would be for elders to teach it to younger generations. However, this option is obviously not always feasible and is probably the most difficult way to preserve a language. Linguists can help by using the Internet and technology, which has already been done countless times to preserve multiple languages. Not only can they create written documents, but also record podcasts for further interaction. I am unsure of whether a language that dies can ever truly be brought back to life, because if it has died, it means that there are no longer any native speakers. However, I think that there are many efforts that can be taken to ensure that a language is never forgotten, because languages are a significant part of cultural history.

Sadly I was only able to see my language partner once before spring break. We used this time to discuss current events happening in the world and the major hot topic currently, the coronavirus. The week before spring break, we were still discussing what we would think would happen for classes and whether or not the virus was really that serious. Turns out our predictions were pretty accurate. We thought that it was gonna spread even more in the United States and that we would probably not be able to come back after spring break. The virus is now a pandemic which means it is a disease prevalent all over the world. The spread started slowly in China but developed into a rapid spread over many Asian countries, South Korea being one of those countries. 

I think this pandemic kinda shows how good a country is at handling a crisis. It seems like the United States was not ready for this pandemic even though we had months to prepare for the arrival. In many of the Asian countries, it seems like it is stabilizing. In Taiwan, there were only 67 cases with 1 death. Sure this might be because it’s a small country in comparison to other countries like China and the United States but I think it speaks volumes to how ready and well prepared the country was for the arrival of the virus. I think that it’s concerning to see how unprepared the United States was. Almost as if the United States thought the virus was a joke. I do understand that the United States is a really big country and that it might be much harder to control but we had so much time to prepare for it. 

Just a couple days ago, news reports show that South Korea is stabilizing the coronavirus outbreak. While there are large numbers of infections with the coronavirus in South Korea, there is aggressive testing for the virus which allow them to quarantine those who test positive. They also have really fast testing. I think this is also due to the faulty healthcare system we have in the United States as well. To be ready for a serious pandemic outbreak this big, there would have to be large amounts of supplies at the ready as well as enough employees and resources. It’s a known fact that the United States healthcare system is very faulty and lacks a lot which is why I suspect that our faulty healthcare system might be a large reason for the rapid spread of the virus. 

It’s hard to predict how much longer this outbreak will last and whether or not we will return to school but I don’t think a remote education is the best way to learn. Although this self-directed language course is partly online, the other half relies on person-to-person interaction which will be hard to do now. Hopefully, we will be going back and the coronavirus will be stabilized by April 3rd. 

This past couple of weeks have not been very eventful on the front of Korean language learning with my partner due to midterm week and the extended break.  However, I would like to write about some of my personal excursions to participate in some local Korean-American culture.  I have a few Korean-American friends on campus who go to the Richmond Korean Presbyterian Church each Sunday for a youth service.  They invited me to come to a service, so I decided to venture out and I went for two weeks.  There’s a bus that comes by THC to pick us up around 10:30am with the service starting at 11.  I really enjoyed getting to know more people in the Korean-American community on campus.  They were all very nice and were happy that I decided to partake in something they do every week.  Once we got to the church, there is the main hall where the senior service takes place, and we went to a trailer beside it for the youth service.  I believe that some renovations are being done, but I thought it was interesting how the services were separate.  Little did I know that, by chance, I would get to experience both types of services in those two weeks.  The first week was the youth service performed in English, half of which was spent singing songs with the youth band.  It was very fun because even though I didn’t know any of the songs, I was able to quickly learn the melodies and the lyrics were portrayed on a screen for us to follow.  Afterwards, we went to a section of the main church where a group of older women had prepared food for all of us to enjoy.  It was very delicious, and I was excited to have homemade kimchi.  Even though the service was not in Korean, most of the people there were bilingual, so I got to practice listening to and speaking some phrases.   

The second week was actually a joint service that only happens three or four times a year between the youth and parents/seniors.  It was held in the main chapel and was delivered in both Korean and English.  There was a guest priest who only spoke English, but there were translations of his sermon in Korean on screens to the side of the room.  With this, I was able to practice my reading and identify words I understood from the speech.  The main focus and reason for the joint service was the South Korean holiday on March 1^st, National Independence Movement Day, or 삼일 운동.  This public holiday commemorates the earliest social movement for independence against the Japanese colonial rule in the year 1919.  A part of the service was used to take a moment to acknowledge the suffering endured by South Koreans during the Japanese occupation and to pray for the country and China who at the time were some of the worst affected areas by the COVID-19.  We then sang songs that had the sheet music and Korean lyrics on a screen for us to follow along with the choir and youth band.  Overall, it was a lot of fun and I’m very glad that I was able to go and share some experiences with my Korean-American friends. 

For the past two weeks, it has been a time for my language partner and I to destress right before the start of spring break during the midterm season. We have been watching Parasite together and this is actually my second time watching it. I think it gets better each time you watch, mostly because you see little details that you had missed before. It’s also a movie that really makes you think. The plot is relatively easy to understand but there are resulting underlying messages that are important to the movie as a whole. 

I think Parasite is the perfect movie to watch in every aspect. In regards to social, culture, and education, it hits in all three of these categories. With the social aspect, you can really see the divide and inequality between the rich and the poor classes in the movie. Parasite is a movie about a family of four that is really poor and soon cons their way into a rich family. The poor family lives in a basement apartment in conditions that almost seem unliveable. They have a window that looks into the alley where sometimes people come to pee. Their apartment even flooded at one point when it poured outside. There was no way anything in the apartment survived. 

The movie highlights a term, Hell Chosun, which describes the socioeconomic conditions that make it a nightmare to get a job even after receiving a degree. This is common in Korea where the unemployment rates of college graduates are high. Another interesting part of this movie was greed. The poor Kim family was able to get a tutoring job with the rich Park family. This wasn’t enough so they had to introduce their daughter as an art therapist. Even that wasn’t enough, they had to have their mother work as the housekeeper and their father work as the driver. If the Kim family was able to stop themselves at the beginning and wasn’t greedy for more, maybe the tragedy would not have happened. Interestingly, it is also a story about greed. The most interesting part about the movie that makes you think is the title. It’s called parasite and I think it’s really up to your interpretation but the title really highlights the way the rich live. The rich rely and depend on the lower class to live comfortably. They aren’t able to do things like cook, clean, and drive without hiring the lower class which makes them the parasites of the population. Some people might think that the lower class are the parasites because they rely on the rich to provide them their money but I think that the lower class doesn’t specifically rely on the rich to provide them money but really they can get money from other sources as well.  

I was not able to watch the movie without english subtitles but I felt like it was still an important learning aid for me especially for listening and learning more about Korean culture. This is my second time watching the movie and it amazes me every time. I think it’s a movie that everybody should watch. It deserves the awards and recognition it has gotten.

My language partner and I only met once before the spring break. In fact, out last meeting was quite interesting. We did the topic of Korean slangs. Both Brenda and I believed that learning slangs is very helpful while learning a new language. By learning slangs, I believe that I can learn more about the development of language during modern times and how young people like to use their language in their daily life in a up-to-date style.

At the very beginning of our meeting, Brenda introduced her favorite Korean slang “꾸안꾸”. It is the short version of “꾸민듯 안꾸민듯”, which means that you tried to dress up but it looks like you didn't try. This is the highest level of fashion in people’s daily life. Everyone wants themselves to look fashion by wearing pretty clothes and make up. “꾸안꾸” means your well-thought-out fashion looks like something you've done very casually to others. This is exactly the highest level of fashion. South Korean people like fashion a lot. This “꾸안꾸” style of fashion is very popular among Korean people. If you search “꾸안꾸” on Instagram, you will see a lot of posts about what young Korean women or men wear in their daily lives. They like to tag themselves with “꾸안꾸”.

There are many more abbreviation-stylized slangs like “꾸안꾸” in Korean. A very popular one is “아아”, which is the abbreviation of “아이스 아메리카노 (ice americano)”. Ice Americano is Korean people’s favorite drink in daily life. So they use this abbreviation to order drinks in café. Another popular slang related to “아아” is “얼죽아” which is the short version of “얼어 죽어도 아이스 아메리카노”. It means that even if I freeze to death, I will drink ice Americano. This shows how much Koreans love ice Americano. In fact, “얼죽…” has become a fixed form of slang. We can add whatever we like after “얼죽” to express their enthusiasm and madness for something. Korean also have slangs in English letters. For instance, JMT is a Romanized acronym for the compound word “존맛탱” (jonmattaeng) and describes something that is “really tasty”. “JMT” appears frequently in Korean TV shows. Others like “TMI” and “TMP” are also Korean slangs, although they stand for “too much information” and “too much passion” which are totally in English. But actually, it is Korean people the first to use this kind of abbreviations.

 Certainly, abbreviation is not the only style Korean slangs have. Korean people call these slangs “신조어” which means “new words”. Brenda and I also watched a interesting video about “신조어” during our last meeting. I want to introduce one of those new words I have learned from the video. It is so funny that I can’t stop thinking of it during and after out meeting. It is “뜨또”, which is Justin Bieber’s tattoo. The reason is Justin Bieber has a tattoo on his arm which is the Korean words of his last name Bieber. The Korean is “비버”. The interesting thing is that if Justin Bieber raise his arm parallel to the ground. The tattoo “비버” will change from vertical to horizontal, then looks like a totally different Korean word “뜨또” that is meaningless. Therefore, Korean people use “뜨또” to represent Justin Bieber’s tattoo.

Due to the surge of COVID19 and also due to spring break, I was unable to meet with my language learning tutor Jimin for our usual weekly tutoring sessions. As the pandemic is very critical especially in South Korea, I find it only appropriate to discuss the situation itself in my language learning journal post. Upon reading several Korean news articles about the pandemic on naver.com, and also by talking to friends and family back in Korea, I began to realize the severe and widespread impact that the coronavirus is inflicting upon people all across the world. In a conversation with my mom, she told me she stood in line for 2 hours in front of a local pharmacy to obtain merely 2 masks, and that Korea is now switching to a system where they distribute masks to people on different days according to the last digit of one’s birth year in order to ration the low supply of masks and also to decrease human contact. Below is a picture that simplifies the distribution schedule. Personally, I think this is a rather efficient and safer method of distributing masks in order to help even out the supply and prevent too many people from gathering in one place. My parents are especially concerned for my safety as I am in a completely different country, and thus I am doing my best to handle the situation as best as I can on my own.

            Based on my research, there have been 8,162 confirmed patients, 16,272 currently being tested, and 75 dead from the coronavirus. Compared to the US, as many Asian countries have a cultural custom of wearing masks even when mildly sick, there are many more people in Korea wearing masks outside. In fact, it is hard to find anyone who isn’t wearing one. This cultural difference is quite shocking, for my parents keep telling me to wear a mask when going anywhere outside, but it is a little daunting for me to do so as people will often stare if I do. IN Korea, most subways are empty, as well as many other commercial places where large amounts of people normally gather, such as shopping malls, popular streets in Seoul, and many more. Below is a standard flier that is circulated throughout Korea to encourage people to increase caution and maintain personal hygiene in order to prevent further spread.

            Finally, Korea’s most critical exam for high school seniors – Suneung – has been delayed for a couple weeks. This is due to the delay of the start of the new school year in Korea. This is most likely very shocking for many high school students who have studied to no end for many months, but it is a measure that has been taken in order to prevent the spread of the virus among students. Overall, this worldwide pandemic is rather alarming and devastating, especially with my last semester of college being pretty much canceled. We can only hope that this all dies down soon, and in the meantime, prepare and isolate ourselves. Attached are some links to the articles that I read.

https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=5926931&cid=43667&categoryId=43667

http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=4402070&ref=A

https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_202003151555582142

In the presentation I shared about my study plan for Korean language acquisition. For this semester, I planned to study vocabulary about several aspect of life. However, I underestimated the number of words we have in languages. Until now, I am still studying the list about school-related expression. After I started to use the textbook Integrated Korean, I followed the sequence in the book. Using school-related topic, the book introduces simple grammar and expression. Personally, I appreciate the structure of this book because it is related to international college students who can use the phrases immediately in everyday conversations. I decided to change my focus mostly on school-related topic and study vocabulary which is relative. 

The class which me and Jenna watched two series of Korean drama, makes an obvious relation between the textbook and tutoring class. There’s one line the protagonist said “준비가 아직 안 된 거 같아서요.” In the context it means ‘I don’t think (I’m) ready (to prepose) yet.” However, the subject and the verb can be omitted in spoken language if the context makes them obvious enough. The play writer utilize this grammar feature to twist the plot. I didn’t notice this correlation before we turned on the Korean subtitles and analyze the lines. By watching the drama, I understand more about Korean culture in both work place and school settings since there are plots happened in those places. Language plays an important rule in identity recognition, especially in Korean which is a language has several different levels of formality. In my opinion, the best way to describe the relationship between language and culture is that they both reflect and affect each other. 

To improve my communicative competence, I would need opportunity to communicate in Korean with others and receive instant feedback about my mistakes. I went to the church in Richmond last week and I found there is many opportunity for me to input and output Korean. I would go to the church as much as possible. My goal for Korean is being able to talk to Korean speakers therefore my listening and speaking competence are highly emphasized in my study plan.

          According to my PanOpto presentation video, I wanted to improve on two main aspects: improve my Korean for my future career as a prospective business student and to also further improve my grammar skills. My learning guide consisted of certain activities that I wanted to accomplish in order to achieve my goals. First, I wanted to understand and better listen to television news and different media broadcasting coverages about current event topics. I knew that improving my ability to comprehend news and current event issues would be vital for me to succeed in the future as a hopeful businesswoman. As a result, I informed my language partner, Jenna, that I would like to read different articles and understand the technical lexicon used in these professional articles to a better extent. This is why for the next few meetings, Jenna printed me a few articles and some were about weather. At first, I thought it was odd to simply read about the weather because I thought my Korean level was sufficient enough to read the weather, however, I was very wrong. As soon as we hit the first sentence, I already had around 6 new vocabulary words I had never seen and it shocked me how much of the article I failed to understand in the first try. This is why Jenna and I worked to read each sentence one by one carefully, unpacking different vocabulary words and phrases along the way. 

          I remember a recent discussion about individualism vs collectivism and I think this discussion helped me greatly to understand a big cultural difference between the United States and South Korea’s culture. I read a recent article regarding the coronavirus and how different countries handle this news in different ways. In Korea, since it is a collectivist country where the people work together for a cause, the coronavirus (although it spread rapidly in the beginning because it was so new), actually dissipated faster and is slowing down more than the United States now because everyone worked together to stop the spread. I think in the United States, we have more of a “everyone for themselves” kind of motto especially with the millennials failing to prioritize the health of the country (elders) over their own entertainment. 

So far I think that my language learning has been progressing well. Although I have not had that many lessons yet, I have learned a great deal and have been accomplishing things to help achieve my goals. Jimin has been really helpful at tailoring the lessons to my aims and interests, which is not only beneficial for my learning but also keeps me engaged in the materials. I also enjoy how we touch on a variety of topics throughout the lesson so that I have more things to work on before the next time we meet, instead of just focusing on one area. 

Since I already have experience with Korean, I really have not been able to apply what we discuss in class. My lessons are more focused on fine-tuning my skills thus far since I have a pretty strong foundation in the language. I think that culture has an important role in learning a language, since it helps make the material more relatable. I also have a strong relationship with Korean culture and learning Korean has helped me further develop that. To improve my communicative competence, I should work on applying what I learn from Jimin to real-life scenarios. Since I talk to my family almost everyday, I have already been able to incorporate some of what I learn into my conversations with them. I would say that my plan mostly emphasizes discourse competence and sociolinguistic competence. The former because I am trying to expand my vocabulary to develop the ability to read more difficult texts, and the latter because I want to work on becoming a better speaker.

My Learning Plan

Where are you now?  What can you do? What do you know?

Use the Levels of Competence document and the LinguaFolio® checklists to assess your current abilities in your language.  For more information, see the SDLAP Wiki.

Interpersonal Communication

Advanced: Expanding 1: I have little difficulty understanding and speaking in Dari, however, there is room for improvement when it comes to speaking Farsi. 

Interpretive Listening

Advanced: Expanding 2: I have little difficulty understanding people who speak Persian (Farsi/Dari)

Interpretive Reading

Advanced: Expanding 2: For the most part I can understand almost everything that I read. I do have some difficulty interpreting Persian poems.

Presentational Speaking

Advanced: Expanding 1: I am pretty comfortable speaking in Persian but it has been years since I have given presentations in this language. 

Presentational Writing

Advanced: Expanding 1: I feel pretty comfortable writing in Persian, however, I am not able to type as comfortably on the computer. 

What is your ultimate goal?  What is your goal for this semester?
What do you want to be able to do with this language at the end of this semester and in the future?

My ultimate goal is to become comfortable delivering presentations and converse in formal Dari. My goals for the semester will help me with this ultimate goal because they are steps building towards achieving this main goal. I would like to be more comfortable with speaking about what I read. For example, I am able to read news articles and completely understand what I am reading. However, I struggle at times to transfer that information to another person through “formal” Dari. The way that Afghans daily converse is different than how we speak formally about a topic. So I would like to be able to grow in this area. Secondly, I would like to get better at typing in Persian. I am able to write via pen and notebook, however, I am not able to type as fast as I can in English. Lastly, I would like to learn more about the cultural aspect of Iran and Afghanistan. There are a lot of interesting and fascinating things that are happening in these two countries. So I am interested in keeping up with it. 

What tasks will you complete and what activities will you do this semester to meet your goals?  How will you document and evaluate your progress?

Novice learners should consult the ‘Language Tasks’ page of the SDLAP Wiki and incorporate the required tasks in their learning.  Be as specific as possible when planning activities, e.g., “I will watch YouTube videos to learn how to talk about the family.” or “I will consult a grammar text to learn about possessives.”  Make sure you include some tasks that are relevant to your interests, e.g., “I will learn to understand soccer commentary.” or “I will learn to talk about the stock market.” Culture and language are, of course, inseparable.  It is expected that all your language will be culturally appropriate and that every task will contribute to your cultural competence.

My language level in Persian is advanced. This is due to Dari being my native language. However, there are areas that I want to improve. For my language plan, there is a lot of emphasis on conversation, critical analysis of topics at hand and being able to type in Persian. The plant outlined below mentions the steps that I will be taking to make sure I grow in these areas of my language learning. I will be using many different tools to work on my language. Some of these tools include academic papers, news, youtube videos, and documentaries and poetry. 

During our lessons for the past two weeks, we decided to focus on some modern cultural developments.  The first week, we watched a web-drama that has become very popular in South Korea called XX.  Web-dramas are different from regular TV dramas because they are easily accessible on mobile devices and are very short, about 20 minutes.  Regular TV dramas can be an hour to an hour and have plot developments more similar to movies.  Web-dramas serve as a quick break from school, work, or running errands as they can be watched while stopping to eat or taking the bus.  In XX, the plot is fast-moving enough to have some development in only 20 minutes yet is still intriguing to keep watchers engaged throughout the series.  Even though new episodes are still coming out, the earlier ones are available on YouTube with English subtitles.  Something I realized while I was reading the subtitles is that I understood the meaning of the words and the flow of the conversation deeper than what was being portrayed at the bottom of the screen.  My understanding of cultural practices and observations of conversational interactions between people in Korean for so many years has allowed me to understand something more than just a translation.  The subtleties and hints at social cues and contextual meanings of the dialog are obvious to me even if the subtitles don’t capture it quite right.  I’m glad to notice a change like this that isn’t explicit knowledge of grammar or vocabulary, but an understanding of cultural application.  This is encouraging because this realization reveals that I will know how to execute the language once I become fluent. 

I mentioned in a past journal that the spoken Korean language is filled with assumptions of small details that are given by circumstances or the speaker's allusions.  I was saying how I found it frustrating how so many implications could be in one sentence because it made it difficult to understand.  My reaction was in response to a conversation that we were reading in class to one another.  Because I was one of the speakers, I had a hard time understanding some implied components of the conversation.  However, when we watched the web-drama, XX, I realized that I could grasp more than what the subtitles were telling me.  When I realized it was the implications I was beginning to understand, it gave me some relief that it wasn’t quite as difficult as I had previously believed.  I’m glad that the time that I have spent listening to conversations not only has allowed me to better familiarize myself with how the language sounds in terms of cadences and intonations but also the more detailed meaning of what is being said.  Something I would like to do as an exercise is to watch another episode of XX and choose a conversation between two characters to dissect.  I can take what the subtitles say and compare it to my understanding of the dialog and then run it by my language partner to see how accurate the translations really are and if I understood the implications properly.   

bi-weekly%20journal.docx

For the past two weeks, I’ve kept my lesson plans relatively the same. I’ve changed the default language on my phone for about four weeks now, and I think I can see the results of this change. When I’m on my phone, I catch myself constantly thinking in Korean. At first, I made lots of mistakes because I could not understand all of the words in the settings and applications. After about the third week, I was able to associate words with the images correctly. I am most challenged by this method when I am notified of a software update or any other settings in Korean. Since I receive different notifications all the time, I take my time to determine the meaning of the notifications. When I could not figure out the words after a few minutes of trying, I translated the words using Google translate. While Google translate is not the best method of learning a language, the site completed most of the task. I am not sure if I will continue this learning method as it does not challenge me as much anymore. I am thinking of improving upon previous learning methods that I have incorporated in the past.

About four weeks ago, I also changed the default language on my computer to Korean. I think changing my default language on my computer is much more difficult than changing the language on my phone for several reasons. First, the computer has a plethora of settings that a phone does not have. When using my computer in Korean, I have to take multiple attempts before I select the correct settings. The images that indicate each setting are also different from those of my Iphone. Currently, it’s much easier to associate words to images on my phone because I’ve been practicing more often. I could not practice much on the computer because I could not complete assignments for other classes in an efficient manner. I would only switch the default language to Korean only during my free time when I would practice. Second, I was not entirely familiar with the Koreanized internet settings that would appear when I clicked the right mouse button. This applies not only to the settings, but also websites as well. I saw changes in the default language of sites like Youtube, which I visit frequently. Third, I have never practiced typing Korean on the computer. While I do have some practice from typing in Korean on my phone, I realized that it would take more practice and greater muscle memory for me to master the skill. When I type in Korean on my computer, I constantly try to remember which buttons I would press when I type on my phone. This process slows me down significantly as I only type a few words per minute. For the next two weeks or so, I am going to research methods that I can use to get better at typing in Korean.

I hoped to learn more useful vocabulary, phrases, and grammar for basic conversation. I think I was able to complete these goals these past two weeks.

The class two weeks ago was unfortunately cancelled because Professor Kim was sick. For our Korean class this past week, we reviewed the material we learned before. She tested us on some of the vocabulary we learned last time. The vocabulary was mainly about the days of the week, the seasons, and some other random vocabulary we learned. After taking the test, she asked us how we were in Korean. I think I’ve been able to express a little more about what I’ve done the past week, which is a good sign. It’s good that I am able to improve little by little and express more about myself. She also asked us questions about the date, such as “What day is it today?” and “When is your birthday?”. This was a good review of when we learned how to say the date. I was surprised that it stuck pretty well and I was able to recall it pretty easily. After reviewing the material about telling the date, we moved onto a new subject. The rest of the class, we learned about how to say if things are in a room or not. Professor Kim gave us a packet full of dialogue and practice activities and we went through it. First, we read the dialogue and tried to understand what it was saying. I think I was able to understand a good amount of it, but I still didn’t know everything. Then we did the activities in the packet. We were given a picture of a classroom and were tasked to say what was in the classroom. This was a good activity, but it made us practice our grammar, as well as learn some more vocabulary. We learned words like “seat”, “map”, “desk”, “chalkboard”, and other vocabulary that has to do with a classroom. We also did an activity that taught us some adjectives. For example, it gave us a picture with a big bag and a small bag, and we had to say if the bag was big or small. A grammar point we learned was how to say something in agreement. It was a pretty simple grammar point, since we just had to add an ending to the sentence. I think we were able to learn a lot these past two weeks.

I’ve also met with Jannette these past two weeks. I have used this time to review and practice the things that I learn with Professor Kim. Along the way, Jannette also teaches me more useful vocabulary and phrases that have to do with the topic I learn in the Hagwon class. Like our previous meetings, we will have practice conversations to have a more real-world experience with Korean. I think having these practice conversations is helpful and allows me an opportunity to speak to someone as if I met them on the street. It’s always a little hard to come up with things to say on the spot though. Once I get through all the phrases that I know, it’s difficult to think of other things to say and sort of improvise. I hope that this skill will continue to develop as my knowledge of Korean increases. These practice conversations give me more confidence to speak Korean to more people.

In order to practice what I’ve learned these past two weeks; I will continue to look over the packets that Professor Kim has given me and try the activities again. I will continue to try to incorporate Korean into my everyday life as much as possible, whether it’s with friends or even just to myself. I also hope to continue having practice conversations with Jannette in our future meetings.

I think my strategies have been effective so far. I like that I’ve been learning more vocabulary, because that allows me to say a lot more things. My reading skills are getting better and my speaking skills are slowly improving as well.  I think the activities and lessons I’ve learned so far have been helpful in my journey to learn Korean.

In order to build on what I’ve learned so far, I hope to learn more useful vocabulary and new grammar points. I want to move towards more complex conversations, as well as cement my knowledge in the basics.

In the last two weeks of 110 SDLAP, I focused on Korean idioms/idiomatic expressions with my language partner. 관용어 in Korean, idioms are typically traditional says as well as commonly used expressions. The Korean language is full of idioms. Knowing and using idioms, therefore, provide proficiency and a deeper understanding of the language as well as culture. It’s actually really interesting to recognize that human body parts are utilized frequently in Korean idioms. For example, 코가 놉다 (“nose is high” = arrogant) and 코 묻은돈 (“money with snot” = baby/toddler’s saved up allowance) both use the word 코 (nose) and have no correlation in meaning. Another example is the usage of 눈 (eye): 눈이 놉다 (“eyes are high” = have high standards) and 눈밖에 나다 (“grow outside of eyes” = to be out of favor with someone). There are plenty of non-body related idioms such as 파리 날리다 (“flies flying” = so empty there’s flies in the room). When my language partner Jimin and I listed this specific goal, I wanted to make sure I could get comfortable enough to use common idioms on a daily basis, or at least understand a large portion of typically used expressions. It was reassuring to already know the meaning of some of the idioms. It gives you a little bit of confidence to know some of the material you’re learning and also fuels your motivation. 

I like the way Jimin introduces the material to us. She writes the content up on the board (one by one) and asks the group (Tommy, Somyung, and I) what we think the meaning is. As the group throws up funny definitions and tries to understand the idioms, I take time to write down the Korean phrase as writing practice. I think it gives me good spelling (where to place the 받침 - learned in a previous week) practice as well as handwriting practice. Being able to learn cultural context with others who are learning and studying the language is really helpful. Being able to interact with not only Jimin but others like Somyung and Tommy gives more speaking practice and fun, which adds to better retention.

This past week, I sadly couldn’t make it to our weekly meeting. The group watched the four Oscar-winning movie Parasite. Luckily, I’ve watched the movie twice, so I didn’t miss out on much. Watching movies in the language you’re learning, including TV shows and listening to music, helps with picking up phrases and words. As someone who isn’t a beginner, it’s always nice to hear Korean more frequently through media since I’m no longer surrounded by family and friends who speak Korean. Parasite is a difficult movie––difficult but perfect to understand an aspect of Korean society. As it’s a social criticism and commentary on social class and mobility, it shows the reality (and sort of exaggerated reality) of Korea. Reflecting back on the two times I saw the movie, I learned culturally new things each time and also reflected on my experience growing up in the country. I think the movie really puts you off but also makes you think a lot––very vague statements, but I don’t want to spoil anything! I really think watching Kdramas and Korean films are one of the best additional resources as it exposes you to the culture and language while providing entertainment.

The language family of the Korean language is a debate and depending on different theories, Korean is part of different language families or isolate. The most prominent family Korean is linked to is the Altaic/Ural-Altaic language family. This family group includes languages of central Asia such as Turkish, Mongolian, Finnish, and Hungarian. Korea's history with China and Japan in addition to the history on the peninsula also shape other theories and the language itself. In Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula, two different groups of languages were spoken until the 7th Century when the Silla kingdom united the three kingdoms of the Peninsula and made the Silla dialect the dominant language. The modern writing system of Korea (한글 Hangul) was devised by King Sejong the Great for efficiency and accessibility. Previously, the language used Chinese characters to represent the sounds/meanings of Korean, and only the elite had the time to learn thousands of characters in the Chinese language. Because of the close proximity and shared usage of characters, modern Korean still reflects a lot of Chinese influence (i.e. vocabulary, proverbs). This understanding makes it easier for me to understand the importance of learning 한자 (hanja), old Korean with Chinese characters, when I was little. The historical events of Korea (Japanese occupation, English influence from the US, and ancient Chinese/Mongolian dynasties) also provide some insight into the creation of words following King Sejong’s innovation of the modern Korean language.

According to the previous class, languages change over time through historical events and changes in the people who speak and write the language. Pronunciations evolve, new words are coined or borrowed, new meanings are added to words or usages change, and grammar also changes. Linguists study the formation of sister/daughter languages and compare the differences between languages within a family (or the language itself). The past and present of languages are studied, and therefore make predictions possible. 

Determining which language family Korean belongs has been a controversial topic between linguistics. The Southern theory is that Korean belongs to the Austronesian family while Northern theory is that they belong to the Altaic language family; furthermore, others will categorize Korean by itself as a language isolate. Due to China and Japan’s historical interactions with Korea, we can see its effects on the language. About half the Korean vocabulary consists of Chinese derived words and many Koreans learn 한자 (Chinese characters) because Koreans would write in Chinese characters that represented sounds in Korean before hangul was devised in the 15th century. Similarities of grammatical structure and the use of pitch accents can be seen in both the Japanese and Korean language. Researching language families enhanced my understanding of how it is easier to pick up a language in the same language family as yours because there are more grammatical similarities and word cognates. Language will change over time as cultures move into areas and intertwine with each other. It can also change depending on how and how often language is used. When we talked about idioms in Korean class, Jimin mentioned that the wording (not meaning) of some idioms were slightly altered to fit the current culture of Korea. How the youths in Korea speak right now is totally different than how they spoke when Korea was a monarchy. Linguists track, and extrapolate these changes by looking at the similarities between the languages’ vocabulary, grammar, and sound changes. This can also be used to predict how languages will develop and grow in the coming years.

Recently, the film Parasite won a leading four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. It became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition, as well as the first film not in English to win Best Picture. So for the past two weeks, Brenda and I made “Parasite” the theme of our class. We read a Korean news article about “Parasite” and watched the film Parasite.

The news article we read is about the social problem disclosed in the film Parasite, which is “불평등(inequality)”. The news article compared the inequality phenomenon in South Korea and that in the US. The main idea is that compared to South Korea, the inequality disclosed by the film Parasite is much more serious in the US. The article reasons this idea by providing scientific data and explaining those data in terms of metaphors that people can easily understand. But our purpose of reading this news article was not to learn from the context, but to learn more about the written Korean language. Brenda and I focused more on the structure of the article, the structure of a single sentence and the level of formality.

This news article is a formal article. After reading this article, the first characteristic I learned about formal Korean article is its structure. Usually, the main idea is provided at the very beginning of the article. The main ideas are always clearly stated in one sentence before the articles start. Then, the authors will give plenty of reasoning to support their main claims. In the last quarter of the whole article, the author will give the counterclaim. This section will only make up a small part of the article. And will be given the reason why the counterclaim does not justify itself as soon as the counterclaim is briefly explained.

As I was reading those formal written Korean language and trying to understand the meaning of them, I found that the structure of each single sentence was very complicated. In a formal style article, sentences are usually written in an inverted sentence pattern. In another words, I need to read from the end of the sentence, then back to the beginning in order to understand the meaning. This would be a challenge for me, while learning formal-styled Korean written language. Also, lack of vocabulary will be another challenge. So I will keep memorizing more vocabulary and practicing using grammatical rules in each Korean class. I will also keep reading Korean articles with Brenda, and I believe I will make progress at the end of this semester.

Keeping this article in mind, I watched the film Parasite. I paid more attention to the inequality between wealthy people and poor people the film was trying to expressed while watching. Before watching this film, I thought it would be a very heavy realistic film, making people realize the serious social problem by watching a painful and ironic story. But in fact, the movie is fun, but also full of anger, and a strong sense of injustice.