So far, I’ve learned Hangul (the Korean alphabet), how to introduce myself and my family, and how to form simple sentences using basic verbs. I’ve also acquired some useful vocabulary throughout the six chapters I’ve completed in the KMS book, but I’m still working on memorizing them. Actually, that’s an important point. I’ve been working on the grammar so much that I haven’t focused much on the vocabulary. I’ll probably use Quizlet to learn and process them quickly.
As for the cultural aspect, I definitely know a lot more about Korean culture now than I did before. Prior to the SDLAP program, my primary sources for learning about Korean culture were Korean dramas, music videos, grocery stores, and my Korean friends and their families. From Korean dramas, I learned a lot about the culture just from studying minor details and interactions between the characters, which I usually found more interesting than the actual plot itself. I also listened to Kpop music and I’m subscribed to a few Korean cooking channels on YouTube. Other times I’d pick up a little bit about the culture from hanging out with my Korean friends and going over to their houses and from visiting Korean grocery stores. For example, I got the impression that Koreans are leaders in the skincare realm from the sheer amount of skincare advertisements at an H-mart I shopped at once. These kinds of encounters with Korean culture began in the sixth grade for me and continued on to today. So, I thought I had a pretty good idea about what Korean culture was about before the program. But even so, I didn’t know the details and history, so it’s nice to get some researched information about how Korean culture developed into what it is today.
Communicative competence is defined by the sociolinguist Dell Hymes as “that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific context” (“Communicative Competence” reading). To build my communicative competence in Korean, I think I’d have to talk to native speakers more often since I’m prioritizing my speaking and listening skills in this program. Perhaps, I can form a weekly group with a couple of fellow Korean learners and include a native speaker so that we improvise conversations together.
I suppose the exercises and dialogues in the KMS book are helping me build grammatical competence, which involves understanding the fundamentals and technicalities of the language. The dialogues are all competent discourses between the speakers so I’m studying those examples closely. The cultural presentations, posts, and other immersive activities that I do all help with my Korean sociolinguistic competence, because the information I obtain from those activities give me a sense of what kind of speech and set of words are appropriate for certain situations. A final subcategory of communicative competence that I have yet to address is strategic competence, which is “the competence underlying our ability to make repairs, to cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, and guessing, as well as shifts in register and style” (“Communicative Competence” reading). Again, I’d need to practice speaking in Korean with others, so that I can mess up and try to recover from the situation.
I can learn about different scenarios from watching dramas, variety shows, or anything that involves a variety of interactions between individuals. Heck, I can even observe the Korean students during dinner at Dhall, but that might be a little creepy. As of now, I don’t think I know enough vocabulary or grammar to carry on a long enough conversation that would induce awkwardness such that I’d have to use my hypothetical strategic competence. I really think that the only way to get to that level is to talk a lot, so that I have opportunities to mess up and learn from my mistakes. But first, I need to learn about the structural backbone of the language before I can move on to the fancy stuff.