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- State your learning goals for this week and how you went about accomplishing these goals.
My goal this week is to learn miscellaneous terms (filler) and verbs that could help me in everyday situations. I did this by using Mango Languages; Hebrew podcasts on youtube and Hebrew vocabulary websites. I will meet with my language partner later this week. This is the podcast (Hebrew Pod 101): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHwWXmReTxNWPaGbgfYeQog
I went further in this podcast using the "learn Hebrew with pictures and video" section such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEpsY97oJU, which covers the family and activities in the evening. And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=injb0xNYx7Q, which covers rooms in the house.
Moreover, within this podcast, "Hebrew phrases,"Hebrew verbs" and Hebrew nouns."
I learned/review:
a male friend/boyfriend
female friend/girlfriend
friends
to sleep
ocean
I want to go to the beach
to travel
tired
I am hungry
I am full
What time is it?
To receive
I am sorry
I feel like...
Enough/stop
How was the trip
It was great
no problem
Happy birthday
Outside
It is raining
All day long
Next time
Most
To learn
What university do you attend?
Language
Large/awesome
was
show
Can I have a bite of your...?
Freedom
Can you help me?
I am looking for...
Home
I have a new job
I went with...
Watch a movie
How many children do you have?
World
Week
Have a good week
To go/to walk
To walk by foot
To come
To do/to make
To take
To buy
I don't have any money, so I cannot buy anything.
To give
I wanted to give you a present
present
I wanted
To love
To work
I don't like to work on the weekends
weekend
To speak
I am going
Game (match)
Television
brother
baby
State your learning goals for this week and how you went about accomplishing these goals.
My Learning goals for the week were as follows: To go over personal identification and family communication to fare better in social conversations. I used websites such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpDZtWcE1EQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cln7j8Hi9ZA and eTeacherHebrew podcast: Lesson 19, Family at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFmUj4d6G_8. The latter is a good interactive video that promotes engagement which is good for learning the family in Hebrew. I have spent chunks of time throughout the week with my learning. Both by reviewing my past lessons as well as continuing learning new vocabulary and sentence/phrase structures. I have met with my lanugages partner to discuss the vocabulary as well as to further my pronunciation. I have also spent considerable time on Mango Languages, specifically chapter three which covers names and identification.
I have learned/reviewed:
my name is
I am from
I live in
I am 20 years old
I have one sister and two dogs
I am a student
I like politics
My mom's name is
My dad's name is
My sister's name is
My mom is 50 years old
My dad is 60 years old
My sister is 23 years old
What is your name?
Where are you from?
Where do you live?
How old are you?
What do you study in college?
Where do you work?
Personal pronouns: he, she, we, they (m), they (f), them (m), them (f) and you'all (m and f)
see you tomorrow
I understand a little bit of Hebrew
name
blessed be the name
your name (f and m)
Lady
Called
to
to me
In this semester self-directed language course for Korean, I not only learned a lot of Korean, but learned a lot about myself. I am very proud of the level of success I had in learning to speak Korean. I am able to introduce myself, greetings, farewells, tell time, months, days in the week, count in two numbering systems, express emotions, explain my identity, family, school, transportation, personality, and simple survival language.
As a language learner, I realized exactly what it takes to learn and understand a language. From some of the assigned readings, I learned how the brain process languages and how we structure meaning and language. Korean language is vastly different from the languages that I have learned in the past: English, Spanish and French. For instance, Korean holds more similarity to Chinese and Japanese in terms of the syntax structure to the pronunciation or writing than the Romance language. Hence, I struggled in learning to say some Korean words or phrases because of the tongue movement or noises that were foreign to me. One important aspect that I learned as a language learner is the important of listening and practicing. For me, Vocaroo served as the best tool to practice Korean speech as it provided me with a way to repeat and listen to myself. It helped me with pronunciation and learning. However, the greatest resource was my Korean language partner who is responsible for teaching me many Korean words and phrases. He helped me with my challenges of speaking Korean, in correcting my pronunciation and making connections.
As a cultural explorer, I discovered a lot about the Korean culture through the research for my presentations and other Korean learners’ presentations. I have the privilege of having many Korean friends who talk to me about the Korean culture. Through dialogue and conversations with my friends, I am able to become more informed and educated in the Korean culture. I have listened to many Korean songs (by David Choi). I have watched many Korean movies (like “Old Boy”) and game shows. I have eaten a lot of Korean food; thanks to my Korean roommates parents (cooked in my kitchen or Korean BBQ restaurants). I have learned about the history of Korea and the Korean language (Hangeul and Hanja). All of the aspects I learned from the Korean culture through my friends were applicable and facilitated my process of learning to speak Korean. From the video assigned on “Culture shock”, I realized the difficulty and challenges of foreign exchange or study abroad students in relations to assimilating and comprehending a different culture. It shaped my perspective as a cultural explorer. It is not as simple as finding new information on the culture, but attempting to understand the reasons and effects on the culture. I think this part is difficult to some degree, even though my experience does not compare to a student experience in a foreign country.
Another thing, I enjoyed were the presentations because I was able to get a glimpse of other students learning another language (Urdu, Turkish, German, Greek, and Hebrew) and aspects of their culture. The presentations from other Korean learners’ also offered more insight in Korean culture and language. My favorite readings were on bilinguals and language extinction. I consider myself bilingual, so the reading on studies on it was fascinating. Language extinction was interesting because of the effect it has on the world, by losing a language equates to losing a culture. I would have liked to learn more about this topic because of the magnitude and severity of a language disappearance. Another area that I would have liked to learn is slang, dialects, or mixture of languages. For example, I know in Miami, Fl there is a mixture of English and Spanish dialect referred to Spanglish. It would be interesting to learn if other cultures have that same experience and what is the effect of it on the culture and society.
Lastly, I will continue on my journey of learning Korean by learning how to read and write. Having learned a lot of Korean speech, I think it would ease me into reading and writing. I will continue to keep in touch with Alvin (my language partner/ great friend) and with my other Korean friends who can help me with Korean. I also have access to other online resources and apps that can aid me in Korean.
I found that learning to read in Korean was pretty difficult for me. For some reason, the characters seemed less intuitive than Cyrillic for me (possibly because the characters look more similar/are harder to differentiate). Also, the fact that the sound of the character is drastically affected by it's surrounding characters has made reading a lot harder for me. As a result, sounds that are considered drastically different in the English language, like t and d or r and l blend together.
With that being said, I like how some characters in the Korean alphabet are predictable. For instance, the "yah" character looks very similar to the "ah" character. This repetition cut down on some of the time that it took to learn the alphabet. Also, the fact that the Korean alphabet only has 30ish characters makes it much easier to learn than other alphabets that have more (like Chinese).
Reading and writing in Korean is more difficult than speaking. I organized four simple strategies for reading in a foreign language including Korean. First of all, carefully choosing what to read. Since I'd like to learn more daily conversations, most of time I read non-academic writings such as fashion and fitment magazines. Although there still have a lot of new vocabularies, I can get a sense of how the sentences form and the way that native speakers describe the goods. The second method is to read before I read, sometimes the article has both English and Korean versions. I will read the English version first and then go over the Korean version. For both reading and writing, vocabulary is always the learner's arch nemesis but it is unavoidable. So the third method is to underline the unfamiliar vocabularies and look them up later. The last one I think is the most useful that combining speaking and reading together. Trying reading aloud will help ingrain proper pronunciation and build confidence in both reading and speaking. Also, I will benefit from using some tools to record myself as I read aloud that helps me to pay attention on the pronunciation and the sentence structure.
After reading two articles, I still believe there are several advantages of being bilingual. Nowadays, more and more children have capacity and facility to learn more than one language, and more and more parents want their kids to speak more languages other than their native languages. Sometimes the parents expect their kids to speak more than one language not for improving the intelligences, but for mastering another ability so that their kids would get more opportunity in the world communicating with different people. To be global.
Personally, I prefer to be multilingual and from my personal experience. I think being a bilingual is helpful for me to learn new words easily, to use information in new ways, to put words in categories, to come up with solutions to problems, to have a good listening skills and become easier to connect with others. I agree with the sentence in the article that the key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. Therefore, I think being bilingual is "smarter" .
In week 11, I will prepare for my culture project presentation. Since the topic is about the Korean traditional wedding, I would like to learn the background information and details about Korean traditional wedding. Also, I want to learn some vocabularies of traditional Korean dressing for both groom and bride. Then, I will talk to my Korean friends and learn the wedding blessings in Korean language.
For accomplishing these goals, I will do some research online researching Korean traditional wedding ceremony for the background information. Also, I will talk to Korean native speakers in campus for studying some blessings in Korean.
Overall, this semester was a success in learning Korean because of the help from my Korean language partner, Alvin Yang, and the resources available to me such as the Mango app, vocaroo, and other Korean students. My personal reason for learning the Korean language was to be able to understand and communicate with my Korean friends and their parents. I can proudly say I am able to initiate conversation and respond to certain situations. A brief overview of what I have learned this semester are simple greetings, farewells, introductions, expression of emotions, counting, months, days in the week, description of time, explanation of identity, asking questions, terms for personal use, and general survival language. To see a list of the words and phrases that I have learned, one can view them in previous learning journals. To hear me speak, one can hear the four artifacts which contain vocaroos that facilitated practice of pronunciation and enunciation while reinforcing my learning. The progress I made in Korean this semester sets the ground works for further study and practice of Korean language. My next goal for the following months is to learn to read and write. The difficulties in learning Korean, particularly speech, were the pronunciation due to contrast of Korean to my background languages (Spanish, French, and English), as well as the discipline to learning a language. At times, it can be challenging to practice Korean due to the work load of a senior but having a language partner as a roommate and many Korean friends allows for practice to take place at any moment of the day or day in the week. Both my language partner and I are very proud of the amount of words and phrases I was able to learn in this semester. The words and phrases are really applicable to the day to day life of Koreans and people in general.
For week 10, the learning goal for this week is to know how to order dishes and purchase goods in the restaurant. As far, I've learnt how to ask request in the restaurant such as "Could you please give me xxx?" or "Please give me xxx". Also, I've learnt the way to ask for more, such as "I want to have more water" or "I'd like to order two more pork belly". Since in the restaurant, sometimes the waiter will ask how spicy the dish you would like to have. So there are several ways to describe your taste, such as "Please don't make it too spicy" and "Please don't make it salty". Another interesting thing is that I learnt how to ask where is the restroom.
I watched teaching lectures from Youtube which was very conversational and commonly used in the restaurant. I tried to order dishes in the Korean restaurant and it is very useful.
My learning goal for this week was not focused on learning more words or phrases in Korean, but more on understanding the history of Korea in regards to the South and North. I feel like comprehending the history of Korea, specifically the Korean War and the division of the North and South, would help me in learning more about the Korean culture. The results of the war are still felt in today’s world. North Korean remains in the control of the communist party, and has turned into one of the most repressive and horrifying regimes in the history of the world. Examples of the state of North Korea are reports of a large segment of the population suffering from famine, poor living conditions, brain washing, torture, and working in concentration camps. The effects of the war can be observed in modern day South Korean politics, economics and culture. For instance, there is a South Korean draft, mandatory military serving to the South Korean army for the men, because of the constant threat of the North. Having Korean friends, I hear of the difficulty decisions on whether to join or not join the Korean army, as well as stories from some who have joined and their 2 years serving time. The penalty of not doing the draft for Korean is high for instance public backlash and the loss of citizenship/ Korean nationality.
My study of the Korean War consisted of using University of Richmond online databases and books as well as online research in Google. I watched videos on the Korean War and read articles on the effects of it in today’s South Korea. The Korean War occurred a little after the occupation of Japan in Korea during World War 2. The major parties consisted of communist Russia and China helping the North; meanwhile the South was supported by the United Nations (UN), specifically the United States with Truman as President. The North was under the rule of Kim Il Sung and the South under Syngman Rhe. The back and forth pressure and battles between the sides lasted a couple of years, each gaining and losing territory. The war ended in an Armistice, which succeed in ending conflict (the fighting) but left nothing resolved. The country remained divided. As an American, I learned about the Korean War as a proxy war for the Cold War which was between the Soviet Union and the U.S.
The major learning topic for this week is about numbers and dates. I’d like to learn how Korean asks about time and dates in both formal and informal forms, especially in the conversations with friends and classmates. Also, understanding the expression of weekdays such as Monday, Tuesday and so forth.
In order to complete my learning goals, I will watch the teaching lectures form Youtube. Also, the study group would definitely be helpful to memorize those expressions.
For my target language (Korean), I did not try to learn how to read or write because I wanted to focus on speech. However, in the process of learning how to speak Korean, my language partner would write down the words or phrases in the way one would pronounce it. This is different from the actual writing of Korean using Hangeul and Hanja, but helps in speech. In my opinion, speech has a more practical use for me because I am instantly able to communicate and express myself more directly in a social setting which would not be the case if all I knew was how to read or write. I feel like speaking Korean will facilitate an easier transition to learning reading and writing. Reading and writing may be the next steps in the process of learning Korean next year, beginning with the alphabet and children’s book. Interestingly, I learned more about the grammar and syntax formation of Korean. For instance, the noun, adjectives or object is presented first, and the verb is always at the end. In English, one would say “What is your name” but in Korean that is switched to “Name what is”. I assume that learning how to read and write would be a challenge to me based on the inversion and reverse function. Despite the challenges, I am interested in learning how to read and write in Korean. This can be something I can focus on in the future.
I decided that this week I would learn how to describe and explain the weather in my target language (Korean). I also wanted to learn some terms to describe my education such as “biology”, “healthcare” and “college”. My Korean language partner taught me basic sentences and words for this topic on weather and education. This will serve me well when having a conversation with a Korean speaker. My language partner served as the main source for both finding these words/phrases and correct pronunciation.
It’s a beautiful day – nal ch/si ga chjo a yo
It’s raining – bi ga wa yo
Its hot - nal ch/si ga teo wo yo
Its cold – nal ch/si ga chu wo yo
Weather – nal ch/si ga
Spanish- ss pay in aw
French-puh lang ssaw
School—Hak kyo
College—Day hak
The fourth artifact contains words and phrases learned from the learning tasks covering weather and personal information ranging from hobbies to house. Some personal words/ phrases learned regarded school life, expression of like or love, and common terms that I use in English and Spanish such as "awesome". In addition, I learned a couple of words for my future profession, dentistry, such as words like "dentist" and "teeth". More importantly, this learnign tasks focused on describing the day and time in regards to weather. This artifact has a vocaroo of me speaking Korean in order to practice my speaking skills while helping learn the words or phrases.
In this third artifact, I want to present the next topics covered in my Korean learning class. I thought it was important to learn more basic and common phrases or words regarding time and restaurant setting. It is important to be able to speak of time like "good morning" and "good night" or "hurry" and "slow down" in a language. The terms I learned are very applicable to Korean day to day interaction. I learned to express needs and wants, which can be helpful in a restaurant setting for ordering food. Expression of emotions and taste were other areas expanded more in these past learning tasks. Another aspect covered in this tasks was learning words regarding transportation. This is important for me in case I need to get around in Korea. The vocaroo serves as guide to practice my pronunciation and Korean accent as well as reinforcement of the teachings. I can see the progress.
- Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.
I have decided not to learn how to read or write while learning Hebrew. Here is why: history, migration patterns, and geopolitical reasons underscore the necessity of English as a spoken (and reading) language through out the State of Israel. First, Israel's recent history upends (purposely) the vastly diverse population and their cultural backgrounds, namely language. Modern Hebrew is a fairly new convention spearheaded by Eliezar be Yehuda upon the termination of the 19th century up until the 1920s. He had a purpose: to blend a smorgasbord of peoples into one coherent and functioning society. Hebrew was the glue by which to mold, and their mindset was the engine to accomplish such a feat. However, since this phenomenon is quite recent, and the fact that Israel from its inception is a receiving country that has received over 120 different nationalities, original languages amongst the immigrants have not been wholly defeated. As new immigrants are learning Hebrew, English serves as a medium by which to communicate for the time being. Lastly, the geopolitics Israel espouses as well as the region dictates play an important role for the flourishing of English in the land. Hebrew and Arabic are the state's official languages, and English is an unofficial language. All three languages are posted on most highway and street signs as well as on those of stores. Moreover, all children are required to learn English in all public schools, and the majority of institutions in Israel are public. Therefore, I have decided not to learn how to read or write, but just to lean to speak Hebrew.
- Respond to the readings
In Why Bilinguals Are Smarter, the author rightly notes that being able to speak more than one language is, in fact, advantagous in today's world, albeit to a degree as many persons I know from older generations are monolingual, and they are not fettered by this reality. However, the younger generation's propensity for grasping two or more will keep them in sync with the currents globalization dictates. The author's argument: being bilingual makes you smarter. The dual-capacity of two languages sitting juxtaposed, he argues, makes the brain work harder, and therefore increase its cognitive capability and provides more cross-fertilization within regions of the brain that are not necessarily active. Citing as evidence a performance study done on preschoolers, the author thus maintains that know two or more languages renders the brain's executive function superior to that of monolinguals -- from infancy to old age.
In Are Bilinguals Really Smarter?, the author argues that the cognitive effects of bilingualism are still yet ambiguous -- as in, what does the real meaning of the word "smart." Moreover, the today's groundswell provides ample room for multiculturalism, so does this fact skew our emotional reasoning when it comes to the monolingual-bilingual debate? The author cites one researcher's work and the unintended consequences thereof as evidence that suggests yes, this normative zeitgeist does influence our opinions of the aforementioned debate. One important deviation from her counterpart's argument is that executive function does not equate to intelligence. For example, neuroplasticity and its bonus of efficiency within the executive system may sound good within the context of popular science, however, the author questions this pretense because the ability is not the same as intelligence.
For my cultural project, I researched on Korean traditional houses, or hanok (한옥). I found these houses interesting, mainly for their scientific design and practicality. Some unique features of the house include an underfloor heating system (온돌), the use of open wooden floors (마루) to foster community among the inhabitants, and the special paper (한지) windows for ventilation. The main concept of hanoks is to welcome nature into the home and to incorporate it into the occupants’ lives: that is, the Korean people believe that human and nature should willingly coexist. This idea is different from most Western style homes, where there’s usually a fine line between home and the outside world.
Nowadays, traditional hanoks are less common due to the industrialization of South Korea after the 1960s. Although many hanoks have been demolished and replaced with apartment complexes, there has been a recent renewed interest in environmentalism and Korean history in South Korea, so modern hanoks have emerged. Impressed with the functionality and efficiency of hanoks, some Western architects have even incorporated elements of the hanok design, such as the ondol system, into their own projects.
I chose this topic for my cultural project, because I was curious about the way that Korean people think. And, I thought "what better way to find out than to look at how they live ?" And so, I decided to study Korean homes. After completing this project, I learned that the Korean people, as a collective whole and perhaps more so the past generations, are very resourceful and incredibly knowledgeable about human well-being to come up with such clever designs. I mostly appreciated their use of the floor and value of empty space, because it’s humbling and suggests that people don’t need materialistic goods to spend good quality time together. For soju, though, that’s another story.
My Hanok presentation (descriptions in notes section of each slide):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4C94ZXjSLU7bUY3WFVVSGJWXzg/view?usp=sharing
Sources:
Content
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BnYTQBlctg
- http://theculturetrip.com/asia/south-korea/articles/hanok-the-forerunner-to-eco-architecture/
- https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294197-d3595091-Reviews-Bukchonmaru_Hanok_Guesthouse-Seoul.html
- http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/CU/CU_EN_8_1_3_1.jsp
- https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/exhibit/korean-house-hanok/gQR542M5?hl=en
- http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20110505000190
- http://www.antiquealive.com/Blogs/Hanok_Traditional_Korean_House.html
- http://koreancultureblog.com/2015/03/19/eco-friendly-architecture-hanok-korean-traditional-houses/
- http://www.koreaexpose.com/culture/hanok-reconfiguring-traditional-architecture-in-seoul/
Images
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/greathomesanddestinations/01location.html?_r=1
- http://www.antiquealive.com/Blogs/Hanok_Traditional_Korean_House.html
- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/17/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/after-decades-of-growth-south-korea-is-now-a-land-full-of-apartments/#.VwvrxxMrJKM
- https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/exhibit/korean-house-hanok/gQR542M5?hl=en
- https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294197-d3595091-Reviews-Bukchonmaru_Hanok_Guesthouse-Seoul.html
- https://asianinspirations.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Bukchon-village.jpg
- http://lh3.ggpht.com/-s1WMgrK2eDQ/UjqKWk6mVMI/AAAAAAABYG0/YnSAo1A1qOI/bukchon_hanok_village_011.jpg?imgmax=1280
- http://res.heraldm.com/content/image/2012/04/13/20120413000980_0.jpg
- http://41.media.tumblr.com/621e298beca76475ed7c0f98b4072f44/tumblr_nj3j8ombnB1ql3r9do3_1280.jpg
- http://blog.kozaza.com/homestay,guesthouses,vacationrentals,seoul/seoul-hanok/
- http://d1udmfvw0p7cd2.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/wn20130918n2a-870x580.jpg
- http://eatseestay.blogspot.com/2013/10/bukchon-hanok-village.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BnYTQBlctg
- http://impakter.com/hanok-the-remodeling-of-a-traditional-korean-house/
- http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QuC1i-A-KAc/UNx6z7NJWKI/AAAAAAAAAgc/dnezjxC5QYI/s1600/ondol.jpg
- https://jl3fp.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/zoom5_3l1.jpg
- https://pseudoai.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/14bf93aeb43e1b.jpg?w=490
- https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/90/44/3c/90443c122d63817187640dfc379dd2fe.jpg
- http://f.tqn.com/y/architecture/1/S/_/t/JacobsHouse_exterior.jpg
I really enjoyed everyone's cultural presentations for they allowed me to learn about different cultures that I had little to no background on. I learned the importance of Israeli Holidays, such as Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and Yom Hazikaron (day of remembrance where Israelis commemorate all of the fallen Israeli soldiers during the wars Israeli had to fight). During these holidays, a siren rings throughout the nation and people stop what they're doing and take a moment of silence to commemorate for the lives that were lost in wars.
Although I lived in Korea when I was young, I learned a lot about Korean culture through my classmates' presentations. I learned about their drinking culture, which I was not very familiar with, as well as Korea's education system. I generally knew that many Asian countries focused on the importance of education, but Rosemary's presentation on the academic pressure in Korea furthered my knowledge regarding the education system in Korea.
For my culture project, I explored fashion as well as fashion trends in South Korea. In recent years, Korean fashion has greatly evolved, due to several factors such as more inspiration from the West, country’s industrialization and economic growth, social media/technology, and the Korean Wave “Hallyu." I talked about how Korea’s developing economy had a profound effect on fashion. After the Korean War, South Korea’s economy grew and the country achieved economic growth through exports of goods. The industrialization allowed the expansion of the fashion industry and currently Seoul, Korea has the fourth fastest growing luxury goods economy after India, China, and Hong Kong. Moreover, the "Korean Wave" has been affecting the fashion world significantly, and Korean celebrities are starting to have a real influence in fashion, especially through Korean dramas and K-pop. I learned that in South Korea, aesthetics are very important, thus many people, especially the younger generation, are very sensitive to new fashion trends.
