My learning goals for this week are to learn about the Korean drinking culture project presentation and learn about basic survival skills when visiting Korea. For learning about the Korean drinking culture I will read articles, as well as watch various videos about the culture of drinking there. In regards to basic survival skills I will have to consult videos for that, my Korean peers, and if I get a language partner, then my language partner as well.
During last class, my partner Ann and I decided to come up with a Korean language lesson about the different body parts. There is the English song that goes "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes", so we decided to incorporate that, but by using Korean instead. So the English song goes as follows:
Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes
Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose
Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes
The way that Ann and I did it was
머리, 어깨, 무릎과 발가락; 무릎과 발가락
머리, 어깨, 무릎과 발가락; 무릎과 발가락
눈과 귀와 입과 코
머리, 어깨, 무릎과 발가락; 무릎과 발가락
I think that it was fun to do, but the rhythm was at times difficult to catch
My experience trying to read and write Korean has been difficult because since I do not have a language partner, it is rather hard to know if I am pronouncing certain words correctly. I do my best to study on my own, but with reading I am often slow and saying that words because I am still getting used to the characters. There are only two names that I know how to write properly which are Cho Kyuhyun and Kim Soo Hyun. The only reason why I know these two is because one is my favorite Korean pop idol and the other is my favorite actor. I think that if I keep trying and immersing myself into the language, I will eventually be able to read at a decent pace. I changed my phone to Korean in order to get one step closer to that goal.
My learning goals for this week are to work on asking for direction and giving directions. I am just going to look it up on Talk to me in Korean. I am also going to start on some vocabulary for transportation using Korean from zero and talk to me in korean. I will brush up on the rest of the grammar that I have been working on in Korean from zero so I can continue on to how to order food in restaurants. So mainly this week will be focused more on the how to say specific phrases rather than focusing too much on the steps of the grammar.
I am not sure how related this is to culture, but I think this would be the best forum for me to talk about it.
There are tons and tons of apps, websites, programs, etc...to help people learn ASL. Some of these are sub par, but some of these are amazing and I would not know near as many words in ASL if I did not have them. However, there is one issue I have and I have not yet found any way to remedy this. Because ASL is not a written language (and because it relies entirely on sight), there are plenty of English to ASL translators, but there are no ASL to English translation devices. I would love to be able to sign into the camera on my laptop or phone and have some application that will tell me what that sign means.
I am able to ask the meaning of signs when I am speaking with someone, but there are many instances in which asking someone is not possible, like if I am watching a video with no subtitles or if I am at church watching someone sign.
I think it would be really helpful for those learning ASL if there was some way for us to ask the Internet what sign we are using. It could also potentially prevent some embarrassing situations.
Growing up in my Korean household, I had the opportunity to learn a lot of vocabulary that was used in daily life. Unfortunately, I never learned some of the more specialized vocabulary. During my Korean assessment a few weeks ago, I was asked to read an article that dealt with international soccer and I realized that I was unfamiliar with the terms used to describe countries. I did not realize that names of countries in Korea were different. My recent goal has been to learn some of the European countries. I've been using flashcards to learn the various countries. As I continue to study various forms of vocabulary, I've recognized that I need to learn specialized vocabulary for the topics I'm interested in discussing with my family when I visit South Korea this summer. The best strategy has been utilizing flashcards with the English term on the front. I hope to continue to expand my vocabulary so I can have more in-depth and specific conversations with my family and so I can interpret various the news when I'm in Korea.
When languages die, cultures die (although, it's hard to say which one happens first). Your language shapes the way you think and see the world. In the case of Native American languages, these tribes have taken a preference to speaking English. They now think and go about their life in a way much more like the rest of English speakers than when they spoke their native tongue. Speaking English is necessary for success in America, but sadly, hundreds of native tongues have been lost due to the dominance of English. I hope that native communities place more value in their unique languages and continue to teach it future generations.
Learning a second language has many practical benefits. Bilinguals have an advantage in many areas of life, however I do not think that makes them any smarter. The Sciencelink article touched on the fact that bilinguals know more words altogether, but their fluency in just one language is lacking compared to monolinguals. I completely agree with that fact. The more languages I pick up, or the more fluent I am becoming in another language, the more I struggle to keep up with my English. Each year that I progress in my Arabic classes (and now Turkish ) I find it harder to progress in my courses taught in English. Reading and writing at a college level in one language while building a lexicon in a couple other languages is a struggle I know all too well. But this does not stop me from pursuing other languages. In the long run, being a polyglot will benefit me in more ways than reading and writing at a collegiate level in English ever will.
This week I will be learning how to get around in the streets of Korea but learning how to say “Where is...? and “How do I get to…?” and “Airport, bus station, train station, subway station.” The resources I am using are very helpful in teaching me this vocabulary:
Link:
My learning goals for this week is to learn how to describe my house and use words that describe a house such as, dinning room, bathroom, backyard, living room, kitchen, bedroom, etc. I have been using all these sources in order to help me learn vocabulary in Korean that describes places like home:
This week we had to read two articles. The article "Why Bilinguals are Smarter" states that people that are bilingual are smarter than people who are not. The article mentioned that bilinguals can concentrate better than monolinguals and that they are good at moving their attention from one thing to the next without a problem. As a bilingual myself, I think that being bilingual is awesome! I don't know if that makes me smarter than a monolingual, but I do know that I think and experience things differently as a bilingual. Knowing both Spanish and English is advantageous because not only can I understand and relate to other cultures, but I can express myself in many other ways.
The second article we had to read was called “Are bilinguals really smart?" In this article, the author was wondering is bilinguals are actually smarter than monolinguals. The author mentioned that bilinguals have the advantage of knowing more vocabulary words than monolinguals, but the amount they know is specific to the language they speak. Like I mentioned before, I think bilinguals have a great advantage when it comes to understanding and relating to other cultures as well as expressing themselves, but I am not so sure if they are smarter than monolinguals.
I have learned a lot of new words in my target language. I learned how to say the numbers 1-10 in Korean and how to say the months. I also learned the how to describe my family members and say mom, dad, sister, brother and grandmother. Right now I am learning how to talk about my home and words that describe one's home. I have been learning all these new words by watching many YouTube videos. I also use online resources and webpages like rocket languages. I think my goals are realistic because I am learning a little bit of everything without overwhelming myself.
Learning Journal 7: Reflect upon your progress to date, consider the effectiveness of your learning plan and activities, and discuss what changes--if any--you will make to finish the semester.
Since this is my participating in a self-directed language program at an institution, I believe it is going well, but not smooth. What I mean by this is that all my expectations I had set for myself in the beginning of the semester were just that: expectations. This may just be idiosyncratic, as I do not know if others are in sync with their expectations they had set earlier on. Nevertheless, my self-studying is going well in that I have been learning a great deal -- no matter if the material I am learning is out of sync with my expectations. I have learned / relearned a good deal of vocab, I have refreshed my mind about the customs and norms if Israeli society that are pertinent with my targeted areas, and I have been meeting with may language partner on a weekly basis to review and learn. However, with this procured experience, I would be lying to say that should I continue with my self-directed learning language studies in future semesters that I wouldn't go about it differently.
First, I would truncate my range of goals and expectations so that I could produce more coherent, narrowed narrative whereby I would value vision instead of multifaceted goals. Next, I would assign a video -- to grasp the context of the vocab I study every night. Moreover, I would like to match the aforementioned with a more assertive approach to speak and use the material in which I learned. These are the things I will implement from now until the end of the semester.
Therefore, I will truncate my vision with my current learning plan and its approach in order to narrow the superfluities in order to channel this energy into my plan mentioned above. My current learning plan and activities include vocab, speaking to myself and videos. Implementing this new method will allow me to better learn my material, and in turn, succeed in my objectives.
Respond to the reading, reflecting on what is lost when languages die.
An interesting correlation between the increasingly quotidian critical languages and the many local languages seems to see the former sweep away the latter. However, and interestingly enough, the web -- which is dominated by the ruling language elite -- offers a pathway whereby these "hidden" languages could manifest and become popularized. Alas, language stabilization requires more than the headcount of those who could speak it, but by those with whom securitize it by "enforcing" it. Nevertheless, language preservation is in fact challenged more by the inevitable progression of life with all of its nuanced contours than by the amount of tongues who could in theory relearn or lean.
Writer Kirk Johnson notes that the "coolness" factor the language may exude certainty helps with language procurement, especially among children. Technology too can help pave the way for language preservation as it collects and organizes vocabulary and other grammar-related material and serves as a source for interaction with the end-user. Cultural practices that have prevailed against the test of time, such as songs and dances, act as a source of customs and information for the next generation of learners. In somewhat of an ironic circumstance, offering a local language as fulfilling a requirement at a charter school will make up grown within which the language was nearly swept under.
As a bilingual person, I haven't personally felt like I'm smarter than my monolingual friends. The only thing I can think of is that I feel like I have better memory than most people I meet, but that goes for both monolingual and bilingual people I meet so I'm not sure about that. After reading the 2 articles, I feel kind of convinced that bilingual children have an advantage over their monolingual counterparts. While the advantages may be subtlly enhanced abilities in executive function, any benefit is better than no benefit. But I often associate the advantages of being bilingual with more cultural and social factors. Since most children who are bilingual are likely to be multicultural or have parents who come from another culture such as immigrant parents, the exposure they have to the different cultures than the ones they are surrounded by everyday open up their eyes to the world and the many possibilities. They see that there are many different kind of people and give them that cultural competency and be able to interact with people of different cultures than their own. At least, that is one benefit I think I have from being bilingual. Being able to speak more than one language also means you have the ability to communicate with even more people. I think people are really starting to tune into the benefits of being multilingual and the rise of bilingual immersion schools have been a part of that trend. I know people who have gone to French school in the U.S. all their lives and they're american, but that gave them the advantage of being able to attend university in France, completely conducted in French. Plus, tuition is a lot cheaper.
For Week 12, I will learn how to talk about the weather and how to speak with negation. I’ll achieve this by reading Chapters 11 (Colors) and 14 (Negative Sentences) of my KMS book and doing the corresponding exercises. I’ll also watch sweetandtastyTV’s “Korean Phrases 5: Describing the Weather.” By the end of this week, I want to be able to talk about the weather with a Korean friend. I'm also going to search for a Korean newspaper online and see if I can read the weather forecast.
At this point, I'm accumulating a good amount of vocabulary, but I need an efficient way to memorize them all. I think I'll start giving myself vocab quizzes and maybe start using Quizlet to compile my Korean vocabulary lists. However, the Quizlet might take a little longer since I haven't gotten used to the Korean keyboard yet, so I think I'll stick to regular written vocab lists for now.
For Week 13, I will learn how to use Korean markers and about family relationships. I’ll achieve this by reading Chapters 15 (Korean Markers), 18 (Relationships), 19 (Informal Korean), and 20 (Past Tense) of my KMS book and the corresponding drills. I know this seems a bit ambitious so I'll probably do Chapters 19 and 20 next week. I will have finished the first KMS book by Chapter 20 which is exciting!
If there's time, I'll also try to watch some of the following YouTube videos: "2. Introducing family, Grand Father, Grand Mother..." by seemile.com, "Learn Korean Ep. 15: Past Tense" by Billy Go, "How 반말 Works - Casual/Informal Language in Korean" by TalkToMeInKorean, "Learn Korean Ep. 9: Topic and Subject Markers" by Billy Go, "Learn Korean Ep. 56: Object Marker" by Billy Go, "Learn Korean Ep. 43: Possessive Marker" by Billy Go.
For Week 11, I will expand my Korean vocabulary by studying more adjectives. I’ll accomplish this by reading Chapters 9 (Adjectives) and 10 (More adjectives) of my KMS book and doing the corresponding drills. I’m also going to watch Billy Go’s video “Episode 70: Adjectives” and “Basic Korean Classic 03 - Adjectives.” I’m working on elaborating my sentences, so hopefully these tasks will help me build a stronger vocabulary to convey my thoughts better. I also want to spend some of this week reviewing the previous lessons if there's time.
I found this reading particularly interesting since I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where Native American tribes are obvious influences in the history of this region. It was intriguing to read how the Siletz language was able to overcome its near extinction largely thanks to the preservation of its songs and dances. Based on this miraculous resurgence of the Siletz language, it is evident that upholding the culture of a language plays a key role in maintaining the language's existence and presence within a community. The death of a language, I believe, extinguishes a unique identity and community that cannot ever be recovered without the language. It is clear that the culture found within a language must be maintained and continuously practiced through things such as song and dance in order for a language to continue to exist. Therefore, without the culture to uphold the language, it is impossible for the language to stay alive.
In this week, I decided to focus more on phrases and words pertaining to time used in day to day interactions. I learned last week how to read time, ask for time, dates, months and weeks. I learned more conversational words and phrases such “good night” and “good morning”. Here I list some phrases and words that I found online and my language partner taught me in our meeting. These are common words and phrases used in Korea. My language partner helped me with pronunciation.
“it is early” (“il-jigk wat seo”), “hurry up” (“pali-pali”),
“it is late” (“neu y/jeo seo”), “slow down” (“chen chen hi”),
“Good night” (“ch/jal ja yo” or “ch/jal ja”), “tomorrow” (“nae-il”),
“Good morning (“cho-eun a chim”), “today” (“o-neul”),
“Now” (“ji-gum”), “Later” (“na jung ae”)
