Blogs

• Create a learning activity to teach someone else something you have learned in your language; outline this activity in your learning journal.  

I created an activity where I drew pictures of various stores on flashcards. I then plan to teach someone the various names of these stores. Then I plan to ask them to turn all of the flashcards with the drawings facedown. When they flip a card and see the photo, I will first ask them to say what it is in English. Then I will ask them what it is in Korean.

I initially thought about writing the Korean word, but I thought that a non-Korean speaker would have difficult matching the word to the picture. As the characters do not have any meaning to them, it would not make sense to use them. Therefore, I changed them to pictures instead.

-고있다, -고계시다, -을래요

These past two weeks, we learned how to describe what someone is in the progress of doing- essentially the equivalent of adding -ing to words in English. As South Korea is a hierarchical society, we learned the different structures of how to say what my friend (same age is doing) versus what a grandpa is doing (older age). For people our age, we would say _____ -고있다, while we would say ______-고계시다. The activity would be in the blank.

We also learned how to conjugate the words to fit properly in the blanks. It is interesting because I have noticed that there are always exceptions in every language. There is a universal rule to conjugating these words, but there are exceptions for when there is a special rule that needs to be followed. I noticed this trend also exists in other languages I have studied, such as English and Spanish.

We also learned how to ask people to do an activity, using the ending -을래요? We would attach the conjugated word in the beginning of the word and attach this ending to the end. It is interesting because, to my knowledge, this would only be used for people our age. For people who are older than us, we would not use a question but more of a statement- question. It is a question but it is said as a request that does not end in a question mark. In this way, it is more polite and indirect.

• In your learning journal, 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.

I think that I am doing well progress-wise. I think that I like having a learning plan because I have some specific goals that I want to learn personally. These include goals such as learning the names of countries and personality characteristics to describe others. However, I also like being in a classroom setting because I get to learn the topics other students have wanted to learn. Through this, I was able to learn about colors and the history of Korea, as well as read some cool folktales. I think that for activities,

I do agree that my learning plan is heavily dependent on speaking with my mom in Korean. Therefore, I hope to speak Korean with others, such as my Korean speaking friends on campus. I think that this is a change I would like to make because I think speaking to one person may lead to biases. My mom is biased because she knows my dialect and my pronunciation of certain words. However, I want to also elevate my Korean to go beyond these factors.

However, besides this, I am happy with my learning progress. I like that sometimes Heera chooses what we learn. I sometimes choose what we learn. And Seong Hye Teacher also decides what we learn. It is a combined effort and, in this way, I feel that my Korean learning experience is more well-rounded.

Post your third bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities

Colors, opposites, -지만, tiger folktale, countries, 3.1 day

These past two weeks, we learned about how to say colors in Korean. I previously learned about colors, so it was a nice review. However, it was also a challenge because we learned more specific colors that I did not know before. Colors such as light blue (하늘색) and neon (형광). I think that, in general, I know what basic words to use. However, it is a challenge to go a step up from there and use more specific words. We went around the room labelling objects in the room (including Heera’s sweater) with their respective colors.

We also read together a Korean folktale about a woman who was poor, but one day she worked for a whole day and was paid in rice cakes. Eager to take them to her children, she walked home but a tiger kept saying he would eat her if she didn’t give him some. When she gave all of them to him eventually, he ate her and went to her home and disguised himself as the mom to also eat her children. Eventually, the children are saved by God when he sends down a rope, but the tiger dies when he tries to climb the rope but he falls to his death. I thought this was a sad story, but I think it can possibly shed light on what values Koreans like that have developed the heroes’ personalities in this folktale. Traits such as eager to help and protect others and being moral are valued, while trying to take advantage of these efforts is frowned upon.

We also learned about the various names of countries. As I studied abroad last year, I was eager to learn the names of countries to share where I have been. Some countries I have been to include Germany (독일), the UK (영국), and Spain (스페인). I am excited to use these words when describing my adventures and experiences. We also learned about 3.1 day, a day of protest against being under Japanese rule in the 20th century. To this day, it is an important and revered holiday that is celebrated and remembered every year.

• Post your second bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities.
• Baby Shark
• Types of stores
• 으러 가다

These past two weeks, Seong Hye Teacher gave us the lyrics to Baby Shark. However, she left some areas of the song blank. She challenged us to listen closely and fill the blanks in if we could. I thought this was a great challenge because listening and reading comprehension are so different. It is one thing to read the lyrics as you listen to a song, but it is another to actually listen carefully and try to decipher what the word is. It requires a more active stance of learning that reading itself does not offer. I thought this activity was very enjoyable overall.

In addition, we also learned some vocabulary words for what types of stores we are going to. For example, if you wanted to go to a department store, such as Nordstrom, you would say 백화점. If you are going to a bakery, you could say 빵집. If you are going to a flower store, you would say 꽃 가게. I appreciated this activity because while some words were review, a lot of words were also words I never used before. Instead of saying store in Korean, the next time I go somewhere, I could be more specific and shed more light in where I am going.

We also learned how to accompany saying we are going to a store with the words -으러 가다. If we want to say someone is going to go to a certain store, the sentence structure would be: ____ -으러 가다. The words can be changed slightly to match who is doing the going to the store/ whether you want to make it a request.

Korean elder buying food relationships

I think that the dynamic of relationships are interesting in Korea. For example, I recently went to go get Cellar with Seong Hye Teacher and Angella. When we arrived, our teacher insisted that she paid for our meal. Though I insisted back to her that I would pay for her meal because it was her first time, she refused. She explained that as the oldest of us three, it was her duty to take care of us and treat us. I thought this was a novel concept because this relationship dynamic around age does not exist as much in the USA.

I think that as both Korean and American, it is a challenge for me to pick which side to go with. In the USA, it is polite that if a friend buys you a meal, you also reciprocate by buying the next meal. However, I wonder if this dynamic in Korea is not the same way in different age relationships.

Despite this internal conflict, I overall appreciate Seong Hye Teacher’s gestures because it showed us that she wanted to take care of us. I think that this experience taught me more about how to handle social settings in these circumstances. Though my American instincts may feel the urge to insist that I pay, it is also important to respect the other individual’s cultural values. I appreciate my friendship and teacher-student relationship with Seong Hye Teacher, and I want to respect and learn further about the dynamics age brings to a social relationship.

• post an evaluation of your First Artifact conversation.  Evaluate your artifact for accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy.
  • What did you do well?
  • What do you need to improve?
  • How do you plan to make the necessary improvements?

This is a conversation between my mom and I talking about what we usually do over the weekend. My mom shares that she enjoys hiking, while I share that I am usually at the library. I also told her my order when we go to a coffee shop. While I study, I like to have drinks with some caffeine- therefore, I tell my mom that I like to drink iced green teas.

I think that I did well overall explaining what I do on the weekends. I thought my pronunciation improved as I practiced saying the words over the past few weeks. I think that I also have a lot more vocabulary knowledge, such as when I explain I like to drink iced green teas. My mom corrected me, so I tried to repeat after her. I also need to improve my cultural appropriateness. In a setting such as this, it would be more polite to speak to my mom with a formal tone when I am in public.

I plan to make these changes by remembering what the word for iced green tea                                                                                                                                                                               is in the future and further practicing what else I can say when asked what I like to do. I also plan to practice using more formal terms as that is an area that I still struggle to remember to do.

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In this talk with my mom, we discuss what we did over the weekend and what we usually order at a coffee shop.

Korean differences in society (social interactions SSem mentioned in the workplace)

I was talking to Seong Hye Teacher today, and she said that she will miss the USA a lot when she leaves because the work/ life atmosphere is different from South Korea. When I asked her to explain, she gladly did. She shared that in Korea, there is a larger emphasis on working longer hours. She said that it is not unusual to work twelve hours or more a day compared to the American average of eight or nine hours. Furthermore, she also shared that the dynamics between superiors were different. When a superior asks you for something, it is highly rude to not do as they say.

She also shared that the work/life balance is very different in the USA. She shared that in the USA, she noticed that college students work very hard. This is contrasted in South Korea where college students work hard, but the hardest parts of their academic career (getting into university) is already done. Thus, the cultural norms surrounding college are different between the USA and South Korea.

I think that it is interesting to see what is normal from one country to another. It is interesting because hearing new perspectives that do not align with mine makes me curious about what made it so that our values differ in that way. I want to learn more about these cultural differences, and if the impact of Westernization is potentially changing the cultural norms in countries, such as South Korea.

In this talk, my mom and I talk about which stores to go to.

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In this artifact, I talk with my mom about the countries I've been to while studying abroad.

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During one of our meetings, Merve made Turkish coffee for me. She showed me the process of how to make Turkish coffee and explained to me the differences between Turkish coffee and the coffee we drink in the U.S. For example, Turkish coffee is thicker and is usually served in smaller servings. Turkish coffee is also not filtered like most coffee we drink, so you have to drink the liquid coffee and leave the coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup. Once we were done drinking our coffee, we mixed and flipped our cups over and left them to sit. Merve then read my coffee grounds, which I thought was really cool and interesting. The inside of the cup was stuff that related to my own fortune/future, and the drips on the plate symbolized my family. She told me that whenever she and her friends/family would drink coffee grounds, they would always read their fortunes for each other.

     If I was granted a research funding to study Korean linguistics, I will begin with the korean history because I think the history of a country is in the best position to make influence on its language. For example, only when we started to know about Korean history, we knew that Korean was created based on a lot of language, including Chinese. Although Chinese and Korean are not in the same language family, this still can help people who know Chinese learn Korean efficiently. On the other hand, it makes the language learning more structured and organized. This will lead people to understand Korean better. At the same time, Korean also contains some Japanese words because of the history reasons.  I believe study korean history will help me know more about the language relationship between Korean-Chinese-Japanese.

If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would learn more about its culture, history, society. Culture and language are inseparable. To try to learn a language without understanding the culture, a linguist will only have the ability to apply the basic words and grammar, instead of truly get to know the vivid language.

I cannot deny the truth that learning the culture along with the language is almost unavoidable. Before I actually learn Korean, I have watched a lot of Korean drama and listened to K-pop, which comprehensively helped me understand Korean culture and its history. For example, bowing is the traditional way to greet and their left hands should support their right forearms when shaking hands. Also, one of the first questions you ask when meeting someone is “How old are you?” This question is essential in determining how you will interact with this new person. Your role in the relationship is determined by several factors, including age, job, and gender. The role of Confucianism takes an important role in Korean society, and it related to the history and relationship between Korea and China. Knowing the culture and history of Korea can lead us to further learning in Korean.

I am going to introduce a Korean fashion website that sells Korean designer brands. It provides free shipping to United States for orders over $150. The overall price is pretty expensive but the design and quality is good.

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If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Turkish language and culture, I would start with the analysis of remaining influences of Arabic and Persian vocabulary on Modern Turkish I am curious to analyze how much of Turkish culture is actually Turkish, since there had to have been many empirical influences from the Ottoman Empire and other outside influences such as language development. My reasoning for this research is that Ottoman Turkish vocabulary included many Arabic and Persian words along with traces of grammatical influence. Since Modern Turkish is still being "developed" and still growing in vocabulary and concepts, studying the linguistic growth of Modern Turkish would be extremely interesting to analyze. English is becoming a growing influence on Turkish language, which might also make cultural influences on Turkish culture. I would like to analyze the remaining Arabic and Persian influences on Modern Turkish and how these linguistic influences have affected the development of Turkish cultural practices. The main tasks of the language reform in 1932 was to replace the Arabic and Persian loanwords with newly derived words from Turkic roots or with Old Turkish words, that have not been used in centuries. 

Although I have zero knowledge of Arabic and Persian, I think it would be very interesting to analyze their morphemes and how their morphology might have contributed and adapted into Ottoman Turkish, even possibly Modern Turkish. Also I would like to analyze how the Turkish Language Association (TDK) decided on the "Turkish equivalents" for replacements of Arabic and Persian loanwords. Being able to identify words of Arabic/Persian origin that still are being used today would be very interesting to analyze, along with the newly derived TDK words words that are being used alongside with them.

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If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would investigate the relationship between Korean history and the Korean language. To begin, I would research Korean history: when it became a country, the nations that invaded it, and how it progressed. Next, I would analyze the Korean language: when it was created, who created it, and how it changed over time. Then, I would compare my findings and see if there are any correlations between the history and language of Korea. I would be looking for any grammatical structures or vocabularies that were seemingly influenced by parts of history. For example, there are very similar overlaps between some Korean and Japanese words, as well as one Korean and Chinese counting system.

I want to investigate this topic because I’ve heard that learning Korean history greatly helps one’s ability to speak the language. This relates to what we learned about in week 2: how the brain handles language. Perhaps learning the history of a language would help language learners. Overall, my linguistic study relates to what we studied in week 7: linguistic change and periods of contact with other cultures, and how these factors enhance one’s understanding of the language and culture.

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