This semester I have progressed in two major categories of Portuguese. The first is soccer. I feel as though I am able to play a soccer game in Portuguese with other people, as I can clearly communicate what I want in a game. I can also speak a little about current soccer event in soccer, however, not very well as I still really don't know sentence structure in Portuguese. I can also listen to soccer commentary Portuguese. From the commentaries I can get the basic idea of what the commentators are trying to say, but I cannot specifically translate each and every word. The commentator also has to be speaking slower than normal, because I cannot understand Portuguese at the pace in which they typically speak. The other are I have progressed in is the culture of Brazil. I have come to know the Afro-Brazilian culture quite well as I have been studying Capoiera in another class. I can confidently sing songs in Portuguese and perform the movements of Capoiera. I can also translate what the name of each movement is in English
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I taught my friend Nang on the learning activity that I previously learned with my learning partner, which was about some common phrases and words that can be helpful for a tourist in South Korea. I taught him around only 15 vocabulary words and phrases that were not too advanced so that he could easily create sentences with with the amount of Korean that he already knew. He is learning Korean this semester for SDLC as well but in the more beginner level so while it was a bit difficult for him to learn all the words at first, he got most of it down by the end of our learning session.
I made sure to put more emphasis on the words and phrases that I believed would have been the most used or practical in an interaction with a Korean person. We practiced a bit on the pronunciation since Korean is still a new language for him. We utilized the Korean website that Joora had found so that Nang could pick what category of phrases he wanted to specifically learn. I think the website was very helpful since we were able to focus on his needs and wants instead of learning vocabulary that wouldn't have been that useful for what we were trying to accomplish. Overall, it was a fun and enjoyable time teaching him and I think he did really well for learning all these new words at such a quick pace.
For the past two week we emphasized on learning more vocabulary since this was one of my main goals in my learning plan. This time our learning partner provided us vocabulary based on the topics of the many labels of measurements. Koreans use many different measurement labels when describing the amount of items such as trees, pencils, flowers, chopsticks, books, socks, medicine, letters, and much more. They each have a different label so I was a little bit intimidated by how much more there must be to describe other daily artifacts. To make sure we mastered the new vocabulary, we took a test in our next lesson of the week to make sure the newly obtained knowledge was reinforced. I did well so I was happy with my results. We spent the majority of the next week learning to write a proper letter. My letter was addressed to my parents. I particularly enjoyed this lesson because it was practical and I was able to write a personal letter to my parents, which I normally do not do.
For one of the weeks we analyzed poems. We learned a lot of new vocabulary and phrases that are not usually used in English. Since these were poems, direct translation of the Korean words led to nonsense in English. As a result, it was a little difficult to fully grasp what was being presented. It was interesting to learn the beauty of poetry in a different language. Some of the poets that we learned about were those who were living in Korea during Japan's invasion. Through their poems, we got insight into the minds of what some Koreans were feeling and thinking during those difficult times. On another week, we read a brief part from a book. This helped us practice our reading skills. This is something I found a lot more difficult than I expected. It felt like reading a tongue twister every sentence because I was not used to reading and saying Korean that I am not used to saying. This exercise assisted me in learning more words and being able to read a little more efficiently. I think more of this type of practice would be good for me.
Magnificent Century Episode 1 - English Subtitles - YouTube
Watching this TV series has given me real insight into how the Turkish language has contributed to the culture and visa versa.
SDLC 110 Learning Journal #14:
Learning Journal 14: Summarize your work this semester, the progress you made and the difficulties you encountered.
Overall, this semester was eye-opening. I learned new phrases in Korean that I did not know before, such as how to properly talk to someone formally and informally. I learned basic words and sentences in everyday topics, including shopping, food, school, dreams, future goals, and more. I learned how to properly say phrases I had a habit of shortening, while also relearning phrases I did not use for years. To be honest, I underestimated the amount of work learning a language takes. I thought that I would reach an advanced level by the end of the semester, but I have not. I was overly ambitious in my goals of believing I would be able to understand the news in Korean. I thought I would be able to describe my day in Korean to the advanced level I am able to describe my day in English. However, I do know that though I do not sound like a native speaker yet, I still have made much progress from where I was in the beginning of the semester. I am able to talk to my mom for fifteen minutes in Korean, I am able to listen to music and understand, for the most part, what it is trying to say, and I am able to read basic Korean books with proficiency. My mom told me that she saw me improve this semester, and I am glad that a native speaker such as herself noticed my efforts. Some difficulties I encountered were forgetting my old ways of speaking Korean and learning a whole new way to say something. For example, my parents are from the countryside of Korea, so many of my phrases are learned from people with a dialect. It is difficult learning between dialects because, on the one hand, I know that I am still saying something that makes sense. However, I am more tempted to learn the more popular dialect way of saying certain words and phrases. It was difficult rewiring my brain like that. I also have many words in Korean that I have made up or shortened that my family members have come to understand. Therefore, it was difficult at times to speak in Korean because many of the words I thought were real words were in fact words that did not exist in the Korean language. From that perspective, it was difficult to once again rewire the way I learned a language because I had to relearn the basics all over again.
I created a learning activity on how to refer and designate specific days in Korean, such as day before yesterday, the day after tomorrow etc. I created a timeline of days on a piece of paper and put the days of the week on the top. I used Wednesday as the middle point (today). And then I put number of days after and before Wednesday. I then wrote down the terms to designate those specific days in Korean. For the activity, I would cover the last line with a piece of paper and point to a certain day and the person would have to tell me the correct designation term.
일 월 화 수 목 금 토 일
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4
그끄저께 그저께 어제 오늘 내일 모레 글피 그글피
My sources and slides are in the link above. Overall, my presentation was an attempt for me to understand why academics are so heavily valued in South Korea. In South Korea, the one test that holds the most importance of measuring a student's academic aptitude is the College Scholastic Aptitude Test. With this exam determining the future of a student's life, it is extremely prepared for and prioritized by the country. With such emphasis on doing well on this test, it also comes with negative side effects such as South Korean teenagers being chronically unhappy and often resorting to drastic measures to alleviate their struggles, such as committing suicide. Though South Korea's education system is often heavily praised, including by President Obama, it comes at a high cost. It left me thinking about how even though I was in America, I am also accustomed to this way of life to a degree because of the large Korean population in Los Angeles.
I had some difficulty uploading the cultural presentation. It currently says that it works, but I am not sure if something strange will happen to it again.
If anyone would like to see my cultural presentation and is not able to, feel free to email me at sharon.shin@richmond.edu so that I can share it with you in Google Docs.
SDLC 110 Cultural Post #8:
Eighth Cultural Post: Reflect upon what you have learned from the cultural projects presented in class
It was very enjoyable learning about the cultural topics my classmates presented on this semester. Since many of my classmates chose Korean as the language they wished to study, it was interesting learning about my culture without it being my presentation. Overall, I think I became more knowledgeable about different countries that I never knew about, giving me insight about the values and norms the country strived for. For example, I learned that Korean standards for hiring is very different than the United States’. The Korean round is extremely intensive, with potential employees having to prove themselves by passing multiple rounds of interviews and taking a test that bookstores often have practice books for. In addition, after passing all the rounds, it is still necessary for the individual to work overtime without extra pay for three straight months to prove themselves as hardworking employees. It gave me insight about how this attitude about the job force often spills into other aspects of one’s life in Korea such as academics, friendships, and more. It explained a lot to me about why Koreans often overexert themselves, attempting to compete and overexert themselves to make a point. I also learned that not all countries share basic university norms that we have in the US. In the Czech Republic, it is extremely rare for students to go to their professors during office hours. I thought this shed light on how individuals in the Czech Republic operated. They are very individualistic and do not tend to rely on others. Through learning about little things about how countries acted, I began to slowly understand what they valued, what they despised, and ultimately what they strived to be.
In this artifact, I answer the question of who my favorite contestant on Ukraine's version of "The Voice" is. I tell that my favorite is Elena, because she has a great voice and she is young, but extremely mature. I also talk about my favorite song that she performed. The song was called 1944, and it is about the Crimean Tatars being deported under Stalin.
Fourth Artifact: Document a learning task that you have completed.
Fourth Artifact: Document a learning task that you have completed.
This past week, I learned about basic color words: red, green, blue, yellow, purple, black, and white. In class, we used two activities to practice. At first, one would say a color, and the other person would find an object that matches the color. Through this process, the combination of vision and listening allowed me to memorize those words. Afterwards, one would point at a random object and ask “what is the color of this”. The other just responded to the questions. In this case, we know how to say those words besides just knowing them. From my learning experiences, it was kind of interesting to notice that the word “color” in Korean actually sounds like that in Chinese.
There is a dearth of information about animal rights legislation on the Internet. Similarly, one cannot easily find information on animals' role in society and Indonesians' perception toward animals.
Nevertheless, I stumbled upon a controversial article about the relationship between consuming dog meat and ethnic groups. According to the non-profit Animal Welfare Organization located in Jakarta, Indonesia, there is a myth that certain ethnic groups scattered across Indonesia eat dogs regularly. For example, the Batak people, predominantly located in North Sumatra, and the Manado people, located in North Sulawesi, are believed to include dog meat in their diet. Why? A part of the reason for this myth's longevity is the lack of a nationwide effort to centralize data on the subject. That is, there is no authority on the subject. So, word spreads by mouth, and the myth becomes further entrenched into the general knowledge of the people.
There are implications for the prevailing stereotype. First, outsiders looking in towards these groups may view their culture as primitive, wild, cruel, and so on. And so, the logic goes, whoever is associated with these two ethnic groups bears a certain marker of sorts: less developed, etc.
Having said that, the Animal Welfare Organization does not imply that consuming dog meat does not happen in Indonesia. And dog meat consumption occurs in the two ethnic groups stated above. Yet, the majority of people in these groups do not take part in the "practice." The article mentions that dog consumption is increasingly less common now than it was a decade ago.
What's more, there is a bottom-up push to expel the practice from the disparate ethnic groups. Animal rights activists and other relevant organizations have sprung up in many of the nation's large cities, a trend that coincides with the expanding economy. There remains more to do, however, but grassroots organizations such as the Indonesian Society for Animal Welfare give us hope.
안녕하세요!
So at this point in the semester, we were about mid-way through the semester! I can't believe that! It's so crazy how fast time moves! I'm not ready to graduate! I am, but I'm also not!
Some of the key things Joora and I have been able to work on during this time of our Korean language learning was writing, reading, and comprehension. We've spent a lot of time improving my reading and writing, so I'm really thankful. With Suyeon unnie, my first language partner when I began self-directed Korean, Suyeon and I spent a lot of time learning the alphabet and speaking the most basic survival language. She was preparing me for my time abroad in Korea and I will attest that learning Korean with Suyeon was so beneficial to my study abroad experience!
Anyways, Joora and I focused for a bit on my reading skills. I severely lacked in that department! I was able to find a children's book online and I printed it out! We spent a week going through reading and comprehending the book and from time to time after that week, I would review the book with Joora! It was so cool to see how at the beginning it was so hard to even pronounce the words and then by the end be able to read smoothly without any hiccups! And even more worthwhile that I knew what I was saying! ㅋㅋㅋ
I would say that reading a book (even if it's just a children's book) was one of the most rewarding moments during my self-directed Korean learning this semester. It was really a task that resulted from my own intentionality. And evening with reading, it combines speaking too! So I know that this exercise definitely helped me overcome some of fear of speaking!
I've attached a copy of my printed storybook! It has all the notes and vocabulary on it too so you can see some of the processing I went through trying to understand and get down on reading the story well!
After reading the book, Joora and I spent some time learning a church song too! More information about that whole process can be seen with my Third Artifact post!
During this interim time, Joora and I had also gone through all the books of the Bible and we focused on the book of Luke as well! We went through scripture and vocabulary!
안녕하세요!!!
So during a weekend a while back, I was spending time with friends and thought I would try out this learning activity I hashed out the last time I posted about teaching someone how to order food in Korean!
Maybe it was because these friends were really close friends, it was a bit hard to stay super serious as I taught them different phrases in Korean. But one good thing from the situation was that I was super relaxed and because my language partner wasn't there, they looked to me for everything. So I remember being quite surprised that I knew a lot more than what I was giving myself credit for.
That's always a pleasant surprise!
I would say that my learning activity was effective.
At the end of the role-play, my friends were able to successfully order food in Korean, even if it was super basic. Survival language skills are so integral though, so I'm happy with what my pupils were able to get out of the learning activity!
In the Korean culture, there are significant differences to the Korean language when speaking to family versus strangers. In the Korean language, formality is not only suggested for people who you don't know, but it's a sign of respect. Especially in the sense of you speaking to those older than you- seniority is a thing. You speak formally to those older unless they choose to drop the language and allow for the both of you to speak informally with each other. In that same vein, speaking informally to others usually only happens with family, close friends, and young children. While living in Korea, I spoke formally with everyone but my friends. As a foreigner, I think Koreans give more lee-way if you mess up and don't speak formally on the first meeting with them. Koreans are pretty understanding to foreigners who are learning their language- understanding that you're still learning. So there's definitely a different standard to Koreans respecting the language system dynamic and an outsider learning Korean.
This is a picture of the cast of Abnormal Summit. I believe it is no longer airing, but when it was, it was a variety show of different foreign celebrities presently active in South Korea. Each week, they would speak about different issues and provide South Koreans with a broader knowledge of different perspectives from all around the world.
This show represents a lot of what I spoke about earlier. How even though their Korean is impeccable and fluent, Koreans still hold them to a different standard from a native speaker. It's really interesting to experience and witness.
I've always loved the Korean language and culture and having had the privilege to study abroad in South Korea in the Spring of 2016, I definitely have such a big heart for this country!
For this semester, my main interest lies in the church. I've learned how to pray in Korean, how to interact within a small group Bible study, have read a few scriptures of the New Testament, and have also learned how to sing a church song in Korean! It's been a really beautiful ride of being introduced to the Korean church culture!
I'm hoping that the basics I have learned so far this semester will help kindle a greater growth into navigating the Korean church language. It is my wish to work with Korean churches when I return back to South Korea!
Something I would like to teach to someone else in Korean is how to order food! Joora and I spent some time going over diction and we used food as a category! Because of that, we practiced as well how to order and ask questions in Korean!
The activity I have lined up to teach someone else would be role-play!
I specifically want to teach someone else how to order in Korean, so for a change I will be the host/waitress haha.
Before role-play though, we'll start with the basics. Learning how to say hello, please, portions, excuse me, and getting the attention of the staff. I will also teach them short food phrases, like "this is delicious!" or "it's hot!" or "I don't like this."
After going through vocabulary, I'll focus on putting together a small script where the person I'm teaching knows how to interact in a role-play situation.
When they're comfortable with the Korean, we'll dig right into the role-play!
Here are the artifacts I mentioned in my second bi-weekly post!
I'm really proud with these learning activities! I had so much fun learning some of the basic prayer language in Korean and even more fun constructing my own simple prayer with Joora! I was able to practice it everyday!
I think my pronunciation is done well and I think because I wasn't so much anxious about the recording, I didn't seem too nervous in it. I think also that it was a prayer and I practiced it a lot, I got really comfortable with speaking this particular dialogue.
Overall, I deem this a super success!
