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I believe from my Korean from zero I have learned about 100+ words as there are vocabulary lists at the end of every chapter that go along with the lessons to be covered. At the beginning of the semester I used Mango languages more, but I prefer learning the vocabulary from Korean from zero or from talk to me in Korean because of the way they present the vocabulary. In Mango you just pick up the vocabulary as you learn how to say things and progress through the lesson, but I prefer having a set list at the end of the lesson to look over what vocabulary words I learned. In my learning goals I don't really have a set list of vocabulary words I want to learn, but more as much vocabulary as I can attain while to learning how to say things in different conversation topics. Although I may have to revise my learning goal once more. I didn't expect it to take so much time learning the basics of introducing myself and my family and learning how to construct certain sentences. sometimes I forget about what specific conversation topics I wanted to learn since I spend so much time just going chapter by chapter. But I don't feel like I could really skip around chapters because then I feel like I'm missing an important basic grammar topic that I need to actually learn for my learning goals. I think from here to the end of the semester I need to find the right activities and lessons that will help me focus more on my learning goal topics. The chapters I have gone through in Korean from zero have gotten me through dates/times, introductions, body parts, and directions. 

My main learning goal will be to understand and say basic terms related to healthcare and injury. I will focus on learning names of body parts and various injuries as well as how to ask for and recognize someone who is asking for help. Being that I plan on attending medical school, I think it is most relevant for me to learn terms related to this field. There is a possibility for me to go abroad to India during medical school and the phrases that would be most important for me to know relate to healthcare as well as basic conversational skills. I have already started to learn the body parts but I think it will be helpful for me to know things like numbers for age and dosages of medication. I think that if I do end up working in India, even for a few short months, I will be able to connect better with patients and gain their trust if I am able to speak at least a little bit of the language. 

This week I've been mainly focusing on trying to learn the body parts and words for different types of injury or disease. I've decided to focus on some aspect of healthcare for my cultural project so I think it will be important for me to know body parts. I've learned words for: hand, foot, head, hair, fingers and toes, back, chest, stomach, eyes, ears, mouth, nose and face. I have also learned how to say that some body part was injured (literal translation injury has struck in a certain body part). I am finding the way in which Hindi speech identifies action very interaction. For instance in aforementioned "injury has struck my hand" instead of "I hurt my hand." There is a similar situation when stating that you have lost something, instead of "I lost my wallet" it literally translates to "my wallet has become lost." I feel like this way of stating things takes some of the blame off of the person. It suggests that the action happened to someone instead of the person being the causative agent of the action. In further terms of healthcare I have learned how to say "I need help" and "Call a doctor." Through the next week I will try and focus on more specific health vocabulary like rash, itch, bite, etc. 

After reading the New York Times article “Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction,” I’ve become more aware of the importance of languages to one’s identity. As one of my classmates mentioned, language is part of your culture, and since you are exposed to a certain culture growing up you naturally develop an attachment to it. Thus, losing a part of your culture can be painful because it’s essentially like carving out a piece of your identity. That is probably why the five remaining Siletz Dee-ni speakers feel that they have a duty to preserve what’s left of their culture: their language.

I’m pleasantly surprised that outsiders of the Siletz Dee-ni language are helping with the Siletz Dee-ni dictionary project. Most people usually learn languages for practical reasons and for fun, so learning the language for the sake of keeping it alive is admirable to me. But, if we think of language as something we use solely to communicate out of necessity, the task can seem burdensome at the same time. There are only five speakers and the odds that learners will be able to study and use the language accurately and regularly is very slim. Once those five speakers aren’t around anymore, the learners won’t be able to progress in their study of the language anymore (unless they construct a comprehensive dictionary by then, but even so without native speakers it is quite possible that the language will become diluted overtime) and the interest in the language might decrease in future generations. I guess one way to keep it alive in the meantime is to create a community of Siletz Dee-ni speakers and meet regularly to speak in the language. I cannot predict whether or not future generations would continue the practice, but I guess preserving the language for the short term will help support the remaining Siletz Dee-ni speakers and that’s what’s really important.

Most of what I know about family dynamics in Korean culture have been through watching Korean dramas. It seems that family is very important in Korean culture. There is a big hierarchy and respecting your elders is a must, so they are the priority. When the elders cannot take care of themselves it seems it becomes the unspoken rule that children have the responsibility to take care of their elders, whether that means taking them into their house, which seems to be the usual case and particularly for families that are not as rich. For the rich families it seems there is always a caretaker in the home, whether or not the elderly family members live in the same house as the younger ones. In one drama I watched called Can we get married, the family status and roles really come out as the two main characters are trying to go through with their engagement and get married. The girl seems to have to make efforts to really please the mother-in-law. Buying gifts for the family is considered a must for the bride and it shows commitment to the family even if the bride is not rich. The groom is stuck in the middle of trying to please his mother's wishes and ideas as he cannot go against her and eventually he breaks up with his fiancé once in order to maintain peace with his mother. It shows that the people currently in the family take priority. Even though people who are actually family are considered most important, it seems that neighbors and friends are also considered as family in some cases. In many dramas, I saw best friends living under the same household and neighbors taking in their neighbors as family. 

This week my learning goals are to continue with my lessons from Korean from zero. I have been having trouble with chapter 10 and I've been searching for other sources that can help me solidify the grammar. One website that my friend recommended to me has been good for review and advancing in my skills. It's called Talk to me in Korean. It seems most of what I have learned so far is covered through all the chapters in lesson 1, so I think I will step back for a bit and review lesson 1's chapters. Then continue on to future and past tenses in Korean from zero and perhaps lesson 2 in Talk to me in Korean. 

Language is much more than a means of communication. It serves as a reflection of culture, beliefs, and values of a certain country. When a language dies, much more than a means of speaking is lost. When a language is not utilized anymore, the process of cultural knowledge that the language exhibits begins to deteriorate. For example, if Korean became a dead language, less and less people would remember Korean dialect. Many stories and sayings are told in the native language, so the history and cultural norms will slowly diminish. When language is forgone, the culture begins to fade as well. Language of any country possesses deep historical routes that tell different stories and historical events. 

     According to the New York Times article, Siletz Dee-ni currently has five speakers left and is on the verge of extinction. Speakers of Siletz  Dee-ni have been putting in tremendous effort to keep the language alive. Bud Lane, a tribe member, has logged in around 10,000 audio entries to an online Siletz Dee-ni dictionary by himself. This effort has not gone unnoticed; there have been increase in the number of accesses to this online dictionary. The tribe members just want to bring stability to the language with enough speaker pool so that the language doesn't go away.

     When you think about what language symbolizes for unique groups in the world, these immense efforts that the few speakers of the tribe are putting in is not surprising. Language gives identity to groups. When we talked about the Chinese letters being mixed in with the Korean language and the discussion of "purity" of language, we can see how people think of language as the symbol of identity of the group. Many Koreans wanted to make the language "pure" by getting rid of the usage of Chinese letters(hanja) because they felt that by using having these Chinese letters mixed in with Korean, they were tainting the identity of Koreans with a hint of Chinese. Similarly, if you think about what is lost when a language goes to extinction, the group that the language belonged to loses their identity. Once Siletz Dee-ni goes instinct and English takes over, they will slowly start losing their cultural identity. Language is a main tie one has to one's heritage. Without it, it is hard to feel the connection to one's heritage and culture. 

The New York Times article “Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction” and the video interview of David Harrison talked about the seriousness of losing a language and efforts being made to rescue/ prevent the loss of languages. Due to globalization, the world has found established predominant languages like English, Spanish, and Mandarin which have been enforced in society thus pushing minority languages. In the article, the author discusses how the Siletz language, a tribe language, reached a point of near extinction due to historical and social pressures pushing it away. Many languages around the world that are at risk of being terminated are spoken by indigenous people. Many people, specifically anthropologist like David Harrison, are examining the causes and locations of this language extinction. They noticed leading causes are due to the lack of continuity and reduction of the population by an aging population. It was interesting to see the data collection and challenges of their studies in Siberia. I like how the very thing that can result in the extinction of a language is the same thing that can help revive it or strengthen it, globalization. The internet helped Siletz come back by providing websites or online dictionaries to record and spread the language. Many people have shown interest in Siletz which has allowed it to increase in numbers and use. Language extinction is severe because it is a huge part of a culture, potential a crucial aspect. A language offers much knowledge and understanding of the world, hence knowing more than language helps one in comprehending this diverse world. One’s language shows a small aspect of the world. I believe languages are a pieces od the puzzle of the world, and the lost of one is detrimental to the wholeness of the puzzle. It affects by leaving a gap socially, historically and other aspects of life.

The New York Times article “Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction” and the video interview of David Harrison talked about the seriousness of losing a language and efforts being made to rescue/ prevent the loss of languages. Due to globalization, the world has found established predominant languages like English, Spanish, and Mandarin which have been enforced in society thus pushing minority languages. In the article, the author discusses how the Siletz language, a tribe language, reached a point of near extinction due to historical and social pressures pushing it away. Many languages around the world that are at risk of being terminated are spoken by indigenous people. Many people, specifically anthropologist like David Harrison, are examining the causes and locations of this language extinction. They noticed leading causes are due to the lack of continuity and reduction of the population by an aging population. It was interesting to see the data collection and challenges of their studies in Siberia. I like how the very thing that can result in the extinction of a language is the same thing that can help revive it or strengthen it, globalization. The internet helped Siletz come back by providing websites or online dictionaries to record and spread the language. Many people have shown interest in Siletz which has allowed it to increase in numbers and use. Language extinction is severe because it is a huge part of a culture, potential a crucial aspect. A language offers much knowledge and understanding of the world, hence knowing more than language helps one in comprehending this diverse world. One’s language shows a small aspect of the world. I believe languages are a pieces od the puzzle of the world, and the lost of one is detrimental to the wholeness of the puzzle. It affects by leaving a gap socially, historically and other aspects of life.

A language’s history can help me learn the language, because I will have context for why certain words are used more often than others or why some words don’t exist in the language. For example, I know that Koreans follow Confucianist principles heavily in their daily lives, which explains the existence of honorifics and formal speech that Koreans use to show respect for elders, strangers, and family members. If I didn’t know how important filial piety was in Korea, I could probably still train myself to say honorifics and formal speech in the right situation. But, it’ll be a thousand times easier if I knew the history, because then I would probably understand cultural mannerisms and infer the right things to say. And, I'd much rather prefer improvising my conversations than remembering a fixed dialogue from a textbook. 

Learning about the history of Hangeul allowed me to discern when to use hanja and Hangeul. I now have a greater appreciation of Hangeul, because I learned that it’s an alphabet that persevered through times of power and class struggles. The fact that nearly 100% of Koreans are literate now amazes me because that’s a wonderful status for any country. So, in that case, I think learning about the history helps motivate me to learn the language as well. In the end, you can’t separate language from the culture. You have to learn them both to be a truly proficient language learner.

For the most part, I think Korea is mostly a polychronic country. Although they acknowledge the importance of time, Koreans also don’t let it confine them. Of course, this may not apply to the corporate realm, where businesspeople in any country are expected to be timely and efficient. But, I’m talking about the greater masses. The Korean people's’ attitudes towards life is probably not unanimous, but in general I think Koreans are flexible with time.

But, I also don’t think it’s totally black and white. I see a bit of monochronic behavior in Korea depending on the situation. For example, trains have to follow a strict schedule. Most people with jobs understand to be timely. People with appointments are expected to show up on time. I feel like this is the basic necessity for being a respectable member of society. The Westernized Korean society is showing increased awareness for time which is apparent in institutions such as schools, companies, factories, hotels, and stores. So, in this case, punctuality and diligence is a basic criteria for being a respected member of a specific community.

It's a different case for traditional Korean society, however. Back then, there were no such modern institutions so punctuality and diligence were mainly things that women, servants, and manual workers had to worry about. High-class men, or yangban, were not expected to show diligence because they did not do much (or any) physical labor. The servants and women were given those jobs, which included preparing food, sewing, cleaning, and washing.

In general, Koreans like spending time together especially with the family, which further supports my claim about their sense of polychronism. It’s more obvious if I compare Korea to America, which is a country that highly values punctuality. Korea appreciates leisure time and it shows in their sense of community and collectivist mindset.

My learning goal for this week is to ask for the date and learn the months in Korean. I would need to learn how to ask “what day is it today” in Korean and learn how to say January-December. I accomplished these goals by looking at:

YouTube videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Le2OdXZnk
Practicing with my Korean friends
Practicing with my language partner
BYKI
Mango Languages

The reading talks about the American-Indian language Siletz Dee-ni that is on the edge of extinction with only 5 people speaking. While after persistent effort by tribe members and linguistic professionals, the language is now being protected and taught by local schools. This article reminded us the importance and urgency of protecting extinct languages because language is a carrier of culture, and the death of a language is actually the death of a culture. We have 56 races in China; each of them has their own unique language and culture,although some of them only have less than 10 people in the tribe. However no matter how few people are speaking the language, they are representatives of their history and culture. It is terrifying if a language died with no records or dictionaries left since this race would probably be forgotten by future people and wiped on the history forever. Therefore, although it is necessary for us to learn most spoken languages like English under the globalized society, it is also important for us to know the significance and trying to protect minor languages since they also represent the history of human development. There are more important or less important among languages and all of them are worth treating equally in research. 

For my culture project, I’d like to research on traditional Korean houses, or hanok. I became curious about hanok when I first saw them in dramas. They appear very cleverly built from natural materials and they’re aesthetically pleasing too. I also like being resourceful and lead the green effort in my own home, so I'd love to learn about the architectural design that makes it such an efficient home. Anyways, I’ll talk more about hanok in my presentation. My learning goals for the project include the following: 1) learn about the history of hanok houses up to present-day, 2) use at least 20 relevant Korean phrases/terms in my presentation, 3) extract some cultural insight from the history of hanok and share it with the class.

 A home in Bukchon hanok village

The reading on the revival of the Siletz language and culture was very interesting because it was temporarily a dead language and through great effort, it became a language once again. This is important because language is what defines a culture and a persons' identity. 

Most of the world’s languages that are dying are oral languages that have no written tradition. However, just because these languages have no written existence doesn’t mean they are less advanced. A changing culture is also responsible for the demise of oral language—humans increasingly live in an era where the preferred medium of communication is through written words and even symbols such as emoji.

Language is one of the things that defines a culture, both through who speaks it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea can never be translated exactly into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures, with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, but no written form of the language. Without speakers of these languages, an entire culture is lost.

Most endangered languages are spoken by indigenous groups that have interacted closely with the natural world for thousands of years. These languages have developed words that hold huge amounts of information about the natural world, with information about species or natural phenomena that has not been recorded by scientists. Learning from these groups may be key to preserving species and ecosystems.Therefore, when a language dies we lose knowledge about the natural world.

Each human language teaches us about how the human brain can work. Without studying each language spoken in the world, we will never understand all the ways humans can communicate and store knowledge. Every time a language dies, we lose part of the picture of what our brains can do.

The term language encompasses reading and writing. Historically, the Korean language was heavily influenced by the Chinese as demonstrated by their Hanja, meaning Chinese characters, which was an old way of writing. Hanja was predominately used by the wealthy high class. One day, King Sejoung the Great wanted a language that could be learned and used by all classes so he established the Korean alphabet, termed Hanguel. The history of the Korean language is interesting, especially how it still influences modern day Korean. Currently, modern literature is heavily written in Hanguel but academic writing still uses a mix of Hanguel and Hanja. There are a lot of debates on whether to only use Hanguel or have a mix of Hanja and Hanguel. The history of the language has helped me learn the language more by understanding why they emphasize certain words. Korean is a language with dual form within the language: formal and informal. This is due to the social division and hierarchy from the past and Confucian ideals.

      In my journey to learning Korean, I have found it to be extremely interesting and challenging because of how different it is in sound and formation compared to the previous languages I have been or currently exposed to such as French, Spanish, and English. At first, I started learning some random words that are used in daily conversation like “Please” and “Thank you” (“Putak-hamnida” and “Kamsa-hamnida”). However, eventually I ran into a road block when my mind began to overload on words. This is when my language partner helped me by demonstrating some connections in words. In other words, he began to break down phrases and words to basic meanings in order to show me commonality and differences. For example, I thought the only way to say “I” in Korean was “J/chen” because I learned “I am well” (J/chen chal ji-nae yo). However, if someone wants to say “I am sad”, they do not start the phrase with “j/chen” but rather “chun”. The whole phrase is “chun k/gi-bbo-yo”. One can use “chun” as “I” for other emotions besides “sad” like mad and happy. So in Korean, there are exceptions and rules that many who are unaware can easily commit. My language partner and other articles have explained the importance of Korean language to the culture. There are different ways of speaking or addressing someone who has more power (social standing) or older. The language is very intertwined with honorifics which are a grammar formation to convey honor and respect. There are special nouns and verbs used to show respect and honor to social superiors. Without honorifics, one can offend a lot of people in Korea. An example of this can be seen in the way you greet someone. The formal (honorific) way to say hello to someone older or higher socially is “annyeong haseumnikka”. Meanwhile, a way to greet others while still maintaining a level of formality is “annyeong haseyo”. The complete informal way to greet a love one or friend is “annyeong”.

      One aspect in learning a language for me that makes it difficult is my mind makes to many connections with phrases or words that I learned. However, through the help of my language partner, I can stop myself from making these false and erroneous connections and stick to the proper and correct way to speak Korean. A technique that has helped my communicative competence is writing down the phrases or words several times in a notebook. Another aspect that I can improve my communicative competence is pronunciation. This can be difficult for me because Korean uses a lot of sound that are hard and different for me. Compared to the other languages in my arsenal, Korean, I think, requires slightly more discipline in enunciation and annunciation. I think listening to my friends speaking Korean and Korean music can elevate my speech pronunciation as oral listening is a technique that helps drill sound and noise into my mind. Conditioning my ears to familiarize the Korean vocal is a way to increase my communicative competence.

Reflect upon my Korean learning progress to date, I think that everything goes pretty well and satisfied with my learning plan. I have looked and save a lot of valuable resources such as videos, pictures and websites about learning Korean. Every weekends I will go to Youtube to see if there is any videos update and learn the new topic; if not, I will keep looking back the old stuffs and practice. Every week I will try to remember at least 2 new sentences and six new words in Korean. In leisure time, I will watch some Korean dramas or TV shows in order to get more familiar with the Korean. For the next following time this semester, I may add more time to learn Korean and try to accomplish my final goal, which is learning the daily Korean conversations to the level that I can travel to Korean alone. 

My goal of this week was learning the grocery shopping in Korean. I want to go travel to Korean this summer, and shopping in grocery is one of my favorite things to do.  I searched online and happened to find this interesting picture to learn about grocery shopping in Korean with specific vegetables. I think this picture served as a good study tool for our Korean language learners because it not only has English meaning, Korean pronunciation and words, but also some interesting facts.