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 Introduce yourself and your family

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The translation is as below:

Hi, how are you? I am Yuchi.wu.

I am Taiwanese.

I am 23 years old and also a senior now.

There are 4 members in my family.

My parents, me, and one elder brother.

My parents are working in a company.

Both of my parents are the owners of the company.

My brother is in his 5th year at his college.

Since he majors in architecture in Taiwan, he has to study for 5 years in total.

I have been here for 4 months now, and I haven't seen my family for a very long time so I miss them very much.

It will be great if I can see them soon.

I really love my family!

Since all the goals for this semester on my learning plan have already been accomplished, so I set a new goal for this week, which is to practice all the materials I have learned during the whole semester for the final evaluation. The teacher in the class really taught us a lot, no matter on the vocabularies, writings, and the conversation. Also, they are all very useful for us! After reading these materials we had learned for this semester, I found out that we really had learned a lot! which I am very grateful. And, about the final evaluation, since it will be based on giving monologues, so I will focus on practicing the conversations we have learned for this semester, and hope that I will do well on the final evaluation. 

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Artifact%202%20-%20Identity.mp3

Artifact%201%20-%20Introduction%2C%20Greetings.mp3

I have learned more than 20 new words, and most importantly I have learned how to put those words into sentences. I learned them through constructing sentences that people usually say. Like what I stated on my learning plan, I learned them through having conversation with my language partner and also my Korean friends. I think I do have realistic goals for acquiring new vocabulary. Again, I plan to learn new vocabulary that I will constantly use in day-to-day activities so that I can easily practice them consistently. I don’t want to rush my time in learning new vocab too fast. I think it would be better for me to take it slow, but really use the new vocab over and over again so I remember them.

Learning the history of a language is essential for a language learner. It helps you to understand the context and development of the language. For example, in Korean language, the history of the language emphasizes honorifics, which is still important in Korean language today. For English, learning the origin of the word can help you understand the meaning of certain words. Also, knowing a language’s history can also help to learn about the culture since language and culture are closely linked together. 

Anyeong haseo! Learning Korean has been a mix of fun and challenging experience. The greatest challenge I have found in Korean has been the fact that I am an autonomous learner. Being responsible with my own study plans, conversation topics with my language partner, and self-assessment have been quite difficult for me. Being an autonomous learner requires motivation, consistency, and preparation, which I may occasionally lack. Nonetheless, it has been a fun experience. The fact that I can communicate simple conversations in Korean with my friends and read and write Korean are very satisfying for me, personally, since it proves that my hard work pays off.

Learning the Korean alphabet is a great start to learning Korean language as the alphabet makes up every single word just like English. So far, my progress has been excellent. I have memorized both basic vowels and consonants, which make up most Korean words. However, I have not successfully memorized some of the combinations of the vowels since I rarely use words that require the combinations of the vowels. I have been practicing writing words using the Hanggul (Korean alphabets) over and over and that way I have memorized the consonants and vowels. My language partner would say a Korean word and I would have to write it in Korean, which has been successful for my learning progress. Also, some of the alphabets look similar, hence I use graphical illustration as a reference to remember the pronunciation and the shape. Another method of learning the alphabet is through texting. I have Korean friends that are proficient in Korean, thus I text them in Korean to practice my Korean skills and to communicate at the same time. If I don’t understand what they’re saying, I could just simply ask in English. But the main point of this is for me to master the Korean alphabets, not so for understanding the meaning of each word.

Another great progress for me has been the ability to introduce myself and my family in Korean. I learned a lot of the Korean culture especially when introducing myself. They put a lot of emphasis into the age, so you often mention your age when introducing yourself to others. This is common in the Korean culture because the language has the honorific system. In the western culture, asking for age may seem inappropriate especially during an introduction. Thus, understanding the Korean culture and its honorifics has helped me to better learn the proper introductions in Korean.

Overall, my progress has been on par with my expectations. However, I still need to improve my ability to construct sentences. I know many Korean words, but I haven’t been too successful in combining them to make sentences because I still lack the grammar skills. So, from this point, I plan to improve on my grammar and constructing sentences, so that during my final evaluation I would be prepared to have a conversation. A first step to this would be understanding the general sentence structure in Korean, like where the subject/object goes and where the verb goes in the sentence. On top of practicing with my language partner, I plan to practice with my suitemates as well.

I could relate to the Culture Shock video coming to the US. However, I did not experience any extreme cases, especially about stereotypes. My biggest culture shock is probably living independently, such as doing laundry and my bed alone. Because back home, I never did them. Fortunately, when I met people they actually thought I was American. Almost all of them did not realize that I am an international student. I believe that the distinction point is accent. Many people assume that I am American because I don’t really have an accent. And thus, having an accent could lead to a stereotype that people derive from others.

Byongho’s presentation about the beanie was interesting because it explains such a strong message about the Czech culture just from a beanie. Byongho mentioned that the beanie has a rough surface on the outside and a smooth texture in the inside part of it. The beanie is common in Czech and it helps to explain the personality of Czech people. Byongho pointed out that Czech people can be a little rude on the outside, but they are nice people when you get to know them. Another point that I thought was interesting was the topic of Korean food. Korean food/side dishes are meant to be enjoyed together as a group, not by an individual. This way, Korean food emphasizes on the Korean culture of being together. Dalila mentioned that Koreans have a different dating culture that they go out on dates in groups. All in all, we can learn more about culture from little things that we don’t usually appreciate or pay attention to.

Knowing the structure of Korean will help me in making sentences. Korean language is different from English when putting words in the sentence. The object or subject tends to come first in the sentence and the verb tends to come in last in the sentence. The structure is mostly the same for all sentences, thus it is easy to learn and remember. Reference grammar is very useful to learn when learning a new language because it can simply change the whole meaning to a sentence. However, in Korean people can generally understand what you’re trying to say without having to provide the proper reference grammar, especially when you’re a beginner.

For the next 2 weeks, I plan to practice my final evaluation materials. I will do a simple monologue on introduction and greeting, and I will also be talking about my family and my background. This is one part of my final evaluation. I have done some of the parts for my artifacts, but I will have to make it conversational. So I have to understand each word so I will be able to answer the questions asked correctly. To accomplish these goals, I practiced with my language partner and also my suite mates who are Koreans. 

My learning goals for this week is to really understand and memorize the Korean consonants. Learning the Korean alphabets is very beneficial so that I can read every single Korean word. To achieve this goal, I will have to write many different words in Korean so that the alphabets will stick in my head and also I will be able to understand the meaning of each word. I think writing on paper works best for me because I learn best when I physically write words on paper.

This week I want to fully master the Korean vowels and how each is written and pronounced. The pronunciation of the vowels has been quite a struggle for me because some of them sounds very similar. To really grasp the difference, I will practice the pronunciation through different words. Also, I use illustrative reference to remember the vowels from its shape. 

My learning goal for this week is to understand directions and survivability in general. I want to be able to navigate taxi drivers or ask for directions just in case I get lost. I think this topic is essential for language learners, especially if you wish to travel to the country. My plan to accomplish my goals for this week is to practice with my language partner and watch YouTube videos to visualize and practice even further. 

I did a basic introduction and farewell for my first Artifact. Through my first artifact, I learned what Koreans usually say in an introduction. Some things that they say differ from what we usually say in the Western culture. Koreans tend to emphasize their age when they first introduce themselves to others. I would say that I successfully reached my goals for my learning plan because I could make a conservation with my suitemates about their day and was able to understand what they’re saying and they were also able to understand what I was saying.

I learned how to make conversation about the weather and just talking about the day in general when meeting a friend. I plan to practice this topic with my suitemates since they are Korean. I think it would be very suitable for me to talk about their day in Korean for practice since we usually talk about that in English anyway. I can evaluate my success through being able to understand what they’re saying and convey my messages clearly to them. I will first ask my language partner what Koreans usually say when they are talking about their day in general.

This week my goal is to practice on introducing myself again and remember the things that Koreans say when introducing themselves. It is really important to know the things that Korean say in an introduction because each culture has different things to say and it might be inappropriate to say certain things in a different culture. I plan to introduce myself in Korean to my Korean friends just for practice so that I get used to introducing myself in Korean.

Since my learning focus is about making casual conversation with my Korean friends and occasionally my friends’ parents, I started my progress with learning greetings and introductions. I met with my language partner this week and I learned the proper way to introduce myself in Korean. Not only that I learned how to say it, I also learned the things that Korean people usually say when they introduce themselves. Hence, I learned more about their culture as well. In terms of formality, I decided to learn a formal way to introduce myself since it's more likely for me to talk to my friends’ parents in Korean. Aside from that, I’ve also looked up some videos from Youtube and some websites for greetings and introductions in Korean. Youtube videos really helped me with the pronunciation of the words. 

I am a beginner in Korean. I know some basic words such as eat, hello, goodbye, thank you in Korean because I have Korean friends. Other than that, I am new to Korean especially when constructing sentences.

My learning goals for this semester would be having the ability to introduce myself, talk about day-to-day activities, making conversation about food, and talk about my family. I want to make it very conversational and casual since I have a lot of Korean friends. I plan to emphasize on interpersonal communication category.

To achieve my goals, I will have to practice having conversations with my language partner and also my Korean friends in day-to-day activities. Watching Youtube will also help my learning progress as a lot of Korean Youtubers tend to speak in a casual (informal) way.

1. Greetings and goodbyes
   1. Do it with friends
   2. Watch videos
   3. Research on things to say during an introduction
2. Alphabets
   1. Practice writing over and over
   2. Read Korean menu and figure out the food
3. Simple conversation about food/meal
   1. Do it with friends
4. Conversation about the weather
   1. Friends
5. How’s your day? Both formal and informal
   1. Do it with friends
   2. Youtube
   3. Language partner
6. Asking for direction/taxi conversation
   1. Youtube
   2. Language partner
7. Ordering food in Korean (formal)
   1. Actually go to a Korean restaurant
   2. Youtube
   3. Asking friends