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I used to think that Korean and Western cultures were very distinct and different. However, when I visited South Korea two years ago, I realized that Korea had become more westernized over the years. There were a lot of English signs and words in the streets, especially in the cities, and many Koreans were bilingual. 

Even after studying Korean idioms and expressions, I realized that there were many idioms that were equivalent or similar to an English idiom. A common difference in the idioms was that Korean idioms incorporated food/rice a lot more compared to English idioms, but the overall message was the same. Also, because tourism has been growing in South Korea, there are a lot more foreigner-friendly spots and places in Korea. I have never encountered a foreigner when I attended first grade in Korea (shocking when I think about it now), but now there are a lot more tourists and foreigners studying in Korea. 

• Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.

I practiced reading short sentences, mostly dialogues and daily conversation. In perspective of writing, I also studied writing short sentences and dialogues. I am able to read and write based on the vocabularies that what I learned. I want to improve my writing skill, since it is easier for me to read Turkish alphabets than to write. I sometimes confuse 'c' sound with English 'c' sound. I should be careful pronouncing it because it sounds like 'j'. Through the Turkish class and Mango Language, I am becoming better in reading and writing. Accomplishing tasks on Ning also helped me, too. I think there are still lots of things to improve, but I think keep learning Turkish in next semester will allow me to step up.

• Respond to the readings.

Since I have learned English since I was 9 and have been living in English speaking environment, I think in English or Korean. I think being a bilingual is a merit and helps us to express ourselves in a diverse way. It can be true or not that bilinguals are smarter, but I believe being able to speak more than two languages fluently is beneficial in career, and daily lives. And because the standard of being smart is different from person to person, it does not matter if the first reading is true or not to say bilinguals are smarter. Regardless of the truth, I will keep learning new languages, because I enjoy it and it helps me to understand different cultures. 

• Respond to the reading, reflecting on what is lost when languages die.  (You might want to watch the interview with David Harrison posted to the front page of the Ning.) 

I think we need more interests and supports for languages that are dying. There are not enough ways for some tribes to express their feelings, values and etc if they do not have their own languages. If it is the matter of the number of people that are speaking the language, it can be harder to solve the problem, but to protect the variety of languages in the world, we need to document the diverse languages and learn them. It is necessary for some tribes that do not have a written language to adapt a new method (or more productive language to write). By doing so, they will be able to preserve their vocabularies as well as culture. I know there are some tribes like Ciacia that use Korean as their written language. I think it is a good example to secure their language.

Summarize your work this semester, the progress you made and the difficulties you encountered.

I really have done a lot of work during this semester. I had practiced not only the weekly goals on my learning plan but also learned a lot from the Korean classes. I accomplished most of my weekly goals by reading or watching the films on the Youtube. About the conversation part, I did quite a lot during the class as well.

I think the most difficult thing for me is still the speaking part, and I think it really takes time to improve. Situation such as " I can write, but don't know how to speak without writing it first" happened a lot. Thus, I think if I want to improve my language skills more, I definitely should find a Korean friend and only talk to her/him in Korean. Except this part, I think I did quite well this semester, and hope I will be better at communicating in the near future.

• How many new words have you learned in your target language?  How did you learn them?  Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary? 

Every words that I learned were new. I think I learned approximately a hundred of words in Turkish. I learned them through a class with my language partner and by myself using applications like UTalk Challenge and Mango Language. I think dialogues and practices with other Turkish learners helped me a lot. By studying together, we motivated each other. Watching a Turkish historical drama also increased my interest in Turkish. I had plans that I can achieve and I did most of them. I accomplished learning goals like learning how to talk about myself, soccer, holidays and festivals in Turkish. I think I studied the topics and reviewed them on the following week, I could remember the vocabularies better.

Over the course of the semester I have learned a lot about myself as a language learner. First off, I learned the importance of having regular practice. Without regular practice, I could clearly see my decline in what I knew in Portuguese. I also learned that when learning a language there are multiple elements. There is vocabulary, culture, and grammar. Each play a crucial role when trying to learn a language. By knowing vocabulary, you have the tools to say what you want to say. But you can’t put those tools to use without knowing grammar, as grammar helps you to put together sentence structure. Finally, there is culture, which helps you to understand under what context a phrase or word should be said. Without a good understanding of culture, I feel that knowing a grammar and vocabulary are only knowing the language at a surface level. I learned that each language has a culture of its own and its the mesh of the culture and language that makes each language unique. As cultural explorer, I found that being immersed culture helps to you to understand the culture a lot more. Although I was not able to be in Brazil I immersed myself by taking a class on Capoeira. By taking Capoeira I learned a lot about singing in Portuguese, Brazilian customs, and Afro-Brazilian history. While going through the language learning process I found grammar incredibly difficult. I thought that learning vocabulary relatively easy as there are many ways to remember words, and their association, but without a textbook, or an instructor I found it almost impossible to learn sentence structure, or sentence forming. I also found learning tenses and conjugations difficult without a textbook informing me about strict guidelines on when and where to conjugate. While learning Portuguese I enjoyed applying it to what I enjoy, which is soccer. I particularly enjoyed learning slang phrases about soccer in Portuguese, as in the language rather than saying what happened, commentators often like to use analogies or short phrases that literally translate to something else, but are used for certain actions in soccer. I will continue learning Portuguese by continuing to better myself in soccer terms in Portuguese. I also have a friend who is currently on a mission in Brazil. When he returns in a year I hope to be able to practice my Portuguese with him.

              The cultural presentations helped learn about knew perspectives of other cultures. For example, I learned a lot about the high-pressure society of Korea. By learning about, how much work, and stress South Koreans must endure to get into college and get an unpaid internship, truly made me feel quite fortunate. The presentations also made me really realize how different each culture is. For example, having studied Portuguese culture the difference between the cultures in Portugal and Brazil, is very different than the difference between cultures in North and South Korea. The most obvious difference is that North and South Korea are hostile, while Brazil, and Portugal are not, but there are also other differences. For example, North Korea and South Korea now have different languages as North Korea, as adopted a more traditional version of Korean with integration of Russian, whereas South Korea has a more modern version of Korean. This is different than Brazil and Portugal as aside from a few minor slang terms the two have relatively the same language.

              Of the readings, and activities I found the article about how people who are bilingual are smarter very interesting, as I am bilingual in English and Mandarin. The explanation of an executive function was quite interesting, and made me try and think of the process of how I think when I respond to things in Mandarin. I also found the article about how languages die quite unique. I had no idea that so many languages were dying. At the same time, I found it very interesting that to try and preserve a language linguists are creating dictionaries. I have never thought of a dictionary as an entire language. In terms of activities I really enjoyed the presentation where we had to teach the class a little bit of what we had learned.  I really enjoyed not only being able to show other what I have been learning all semester, but also seeing how others have progressed throughout the semester.

I would like to learn more about sentence structure in Portuguese. More specifically how to formulate sentences and conjugate verbs. When conjugating verbs I would also like to know how to conjugate in to multiple tenses. 

documentation (slides, summary, sources) of your research-based cultural project

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Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying.

I have learned a great deal about Indonesian culture -- and in particular, that of Bali -- this semester. Here is a summary of what I have learned.

Dogs' role in society:

• At the beginning of the semester, I posed these questions: How are dogs viewed and what are their roles in households? Why do Balinese families -- for the most part -- understand dogs as "guard" dogs? And how are these families' mindsets different from the more urban, younger individuals who view dogs as part of their families? I believe I have some answers. Indeed, I have found answers through ostensibly unorthodox mediums (like a children's book) and more traditional means like a literature review on the topic. Through my children's book on animals and the many animal rights associations' websites and articles I have surfed, the conclusions for the questions I presented are straightforward and could be boiled down to: pragmatic calculations in response to the difficult shifts of a developing country. The dog's role in society serves as a constructive microcosm for Indonesia's status as a growing nation. For example, the dog is both food to consume and protection from mischief-makers on the street. Indonesians' homes are not demarcated by a fence or an expanse of land. The homes -- as a general rule -- are close in proximity if not attached to one another. Hence the dogs live on the streets, usually tied to a pole so that the dog has enough latitude to fend of persons close to the perimeters of the home but not too much distance to run amok (an Indonesian word). That's is why we see in the children's book (from a few cultural posts ago) that the dog was considered "bad" or aggressive, and, as a result, he was fettered to an object -- most likely a pole. This story is meant to teach children not to stray onto someone's property, otherwise, the guard dog, if the family has one, may confront them. With regard to the more urban, younger individuals who view dogs as part of their family, in contrast to the more traditional communities, the answer is simple too. These people are tech savvy (Indonesia has the highest rate per capita of social media use), and thus learning-by-osmosis is central to the younger generation's view of animals. This group adopted this practice, along with many more (like writing only in English when posting and Instagram post, for example), of treating animals as family members and the chores that come with it -- like grooming, walking the dogs in the park, and so on. It is considered "trendy," if you will. Lastly, this population interacts with like-minded individuals, much like those of the older generation who are likely to live in villages in the peripheral. I will talk more about this during my cultural presentation.

Pasung:

• My second learning goal for this semester was to research the phenomenon called pasung, or the practice of shackling persons with mental illness. Thalia and I will be conducting research on the perception of mental health and mental health treatment across various populations this summer in Bali, Indonesia. And we may come across pasung during the course of our research. Ultimately, we hope that our research could contribute (however insignificantly) to the eradication of pasung in Bali and throughout Indonesia. This is what I have learned about pasung -- and the state of Indonesian mental health care -- this semester. Fifty-seven thousand people with mental illness have experienced pasung at least once in their lives, and 18,800 people are believed to be shackled in Indonesia today. Approximately 300 people in Bali, Indonesia, are currently suffering from this practice. Because of the scarcity of resources that provide mental health treatment — there are 48 mental health institutions for the country’s 250 million people and only one in Bali, for instance — families with loved ones who have psychological disabilities resort to either social care institutions or their homes. Social care institutions are known for their practices of “arbitrary detention, physical and sexual violence, and involuntary treatment” while administering medication. Despite the government’s long-standing positions and recent initiatives to put an end to pasung, hurdles such as 1) a lack of access to medication, 2) education, and 3) traditional belief systems about mental illness make it difficult to eradicate pasung entirely. Indeed, the government formally banned pasung in 1977 and set into motion a program called “Indonesia Free from Pasung” in 2014. Nevertheless, access to medication remains a large headwind in decreasing pasung. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, 90% of individuals are unable to enjoy mental health services. As it stands, Bali only has 25 psychiatrists for the island’s 4.2 million inhabitants. 

In this artifact, I describe the apartment that I will be living in Bali this summer, as well as the duration of my stay. I also describe the apartment's surroundings. This artifact demonstrates my grasp of Chapter 9: Characteristics of Humans, Animals, and Objects.

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I designed this dialogue by myself to show one of my learning goals. The translation is as below:

A:Excuse me! Is there any Korean restaurant near here?

B: Yes, there is! It's quite far from here, but it's really delicious. The restaurant is called "zzaam".

A: Oh really! But how can I go there?

B: First, take the Richmond shuttle bus and get off at Walgreen stop. From there you can see Panera Bread. Pass by the Panera and then turn right. You will see a CVS in only 3 minutes. Then turn left and go straight near the CVS, and you will see the zzaam restaurant.

A:Ah~ok! I see! Thank you!

For this presentation, I will be talking about Ukrainian political music and the various ways it is used. 

I feel like I accomplished my goals of being able to improve my listening comprehension skills. By watching children's shows, game shows, movies and the news, I was able to slowly start understanding speech patterns better. I am also a lot better at being able to tell when something is being spoken in Russian, and when it is being spoken in Ukrainian. Through all of the Ukrainian language I have listened to this semester, I started to be able to tell the differences in sounds a lot faster than last semester. 

I still have a little more trouble pronouncing things in Ukrainian than I do in Russian. I'm not sure if Russian just feels more natural to me because I have more experience with it, or if Ukrainian is just harder to pronounce. In any case, I have grown to like the sound of Ukrainian better than Russian, which I think can be attributed to the massive increase in the amount of Ukrainian I have heard this semester. 

Overall, I am excited to increase my grammar knowledge this summer at Ukrainian language school. I think that because I have taken this semester to improve upon my listening comprehension, I will have an easier time absorbing the instruction at the Ukrainian language school. 

Over these last two weeks, my language partner and I watched a Frozen in Ukrainian without English or Ukrainian subtitles. We thought that it would be a good idea to try that because I already know that film pretty well (younger siblings), and I actually was surprised with how much I was able to get out of it. It helped that I pretty much know the dialogue by heart, but seeing it in Ukrainian was interesting because I was able to hear different ways that things would be said in Ukrainian. We also continued to watch/read the news in both English and Ukrainian, and that has been helpful too. As of now, I am feeling more prepared to move to Ukraine in September. 

This week, my goal was to learn the names of different parts of the body.  In class, we learned the different parts of the face and practiced by playing rounds of Simon says with my learning partner and classmates.  Outside of the classroom, I googled other parts of the body such as the arms, legs, feet, hands, and belly.  I recorded this information of my notes and continue to read review them outside of class.

This week, my goal was to learn the days of the week, months, and seasons in Turkish.  Our learning partner provided us with the proper vocabulary and practiced our pronunciation  by having us repeat after her.  In order to try to help us remember the vocabulary, we went through and indicated which months sounded similar to English such as Mart=March and Mayıs=May.  Similarly we went through the days of the week and looked for patterns to help us remember them better.  We saw that Friday=Cuma, Saturday=Cumartesi, Sunday=Pazar, and Monday=Pazartesi.  These endings simply mean the day after so it made it a little simpler trying to memorize those four days of the week.  After class, I continued to study my notes.

This week, I wanted to learn how to describe the weather in Turkish.  In class, our learning partner taught us different ways to describe the weather like sunny, cloudy, rainy, hot, and cold.  From there, we learned to construct sentences like "Today, the weather is cloudy" or "Begün, hava bulutlu."  We practiced by asking each other questions like "Is it cold/rainy today?" and responding with phrases such as "No today it is not cold/rainy."  I then continued to practice by watching Youtube videos of Turkish weather broadcasts and reviewing my class notes.

My goals for these past two weeks were to:

• A) Complete Chapter 9: Characteristics of Humans, Animals, and Objects, sourced from the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture;
• B) Continue reading Indonesian comic books, sourced from the internet; and
• C) Continue reading about Indonesia's political environment -- especially the state of mental health in Indonesia  
• D) Meet with my partner for four hours

Strategies to accomplish these goals:

• A) I completed Chapter 9: Characteristics of Humans, Animals, and Objects. At the end of each session, I collected the new vocabulary that I learned. In addition, I worked on my speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills through the units' activities. I have amassed a large vocabulary pertaining to the topics that will prove useful in daily conversations. The unit's goals are to learn about Human, Animal, and object characteristics; and to give information about colors, shapes, and the location of objects

           -I have completed all of the chapters for this semester.

• B) I continued to read comics whose genres range from comedy to drama to fairytale. Here, this exercise allows me to get a better grasp on the "street" language as these comics use informal speech. It is important for me to not only learn the vocabulary but gain an understanding of the informal sentence structure patterns as well as the culture behind the conversations.
• C) I met with my language learning partner for 4 hours over these past two weeks. During these meetings, we worked on my speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills.

This week my learning goal was to learn the different members of the family and how to pronounce them in Turkish.  In class, our learning partner taught us how to say each relative of the family.  We practiced the pronunciation of each out loud by repeating our learning partner and then we completed worksheets by indicating the names of each relative in the activity.  Additionally, we incorporated our knowledge of numbers by learning how to say things like "I have 2 younger sisters" and "I have 1 aunt."

This week, my goal was to extend my understanding of vowel harmony by learning how to make words plural in Turkish.  Rather than simply adding an -s or -es to a word to indicate that there is more than one, Turkish requires that you add either -lar or -ler to verbs depending on the vowels preceding it.  If the last vowel in the word is a, ı, o, or u, then you add -lar because these are considered the thick vowels.  If the last vowel in the word is e, i, ö, ü then you add -ler because these are considered the thin vowels.  After an in class lesson, I completed a worksheet that required me to make singular plural by adding the appropriate endings.  This lesson has aided me in my understanding of vowel harmony which applies to other circumstances in the Turkish language.