Blogs

In the reading from the New York Times “Why Bilinguals are Smarter and the Science Line “Are Bilinguals Really Smarter?” the authors discuss the science evidence and thoughts on bilinguals whether their smarter or more adept than monolinguals. I found these articles very interesting because I am bilingual, Spanish and English. Currently, I am learning Korean and French which would increase my sense of language and my linguistic ability. One article (NYT), the author refers to scientific studies examining bilinguals and monolinguals. According to the articles, bilingual’s brains are constantly thinking in both languages, and the constant rotation between the languages reinforces connections and brain networks (wiring) which strengthens the brain. The other paper is skeptical to saying that bilinguals are smarter, but rather more executive functions. Apparently, in the past, people or school administrators viewed learning a second language hindered and slowed education. It is interesting to see the paradigm shift in thinking because currently (modern times) the idea of bilingual or learning multiple languages help one understand the world and learn more. I have noticed that there are times when knowing a second language has given me the advantage to learn something quicker or better than my other monolingual friends. However, I agree with the author in the article from Science Line that the most important advantage of bilinguals or dual language learners is the ability and increase opportunity to communicate and express with more people at a global scale. I am very pleased to read about how bilingual (knowing two languages) has shown to help combat or delay dementia (memory loss).

In this week, the words/phrases that I learned are more personal and for day to day interactions with Korean speakers. I wanted to learn basic words to describe my interest, my surroundings, my emotions, and my interests. For example, the term “I like” has power to describe an interest and an aspect of myself. Expressive words like “Awesome” and “that’s funny” are useful to describing the situation or something. Some of the words are basic terms used in conversation or in life such as “house”, “bedroom”, “homework” and “dentist”. The sources I used to learn these words consisted of Mango app, online and most importantly my Korean language partner (especially for pronunciation).

I have homework—j/chunen suk chay yit seo yo

I love you—sa rlang hay (yo)

I like you—jo a hay yo I like…-- J/chunen…… jo a hay yo

Basketball—Nong gku

House—ch/jip

Bedroom—hwa chang shil

Dentist –chi-kwa ei –sa

Doctor—ei sa

Teeth—e ppal

Awesome—Day bak

That’s funny—Jay mi it nay yo

For my target language (Korean), I have learned over 75 words and phrases in topics ranging from family to dates. From greetings, farewells, and introductions to family, numbers, and questions, I am able to say important Korean words and phrases for day to day conversation. I have been able to learn two numbering systems, members of the family, simple expressions of emotions, basic questions in order to obtain important information, simple responses to questions, forms of identification, expression of time, months, and etc. The strategies I have used to learn these Korean words and phrases encompass repetition and practice. I write the phrases repeatedly on the board and my notebook, and then I record myself to practice pronunciation. Having other languages in my arsenal (Spanish, English and French), I am able to make connections with the Korean words and phrases that help me learn it rather than memorizing them. I think I have realistic goals for acquiring vocabulary in my target language (Korean). Weekly, I pace myself to learn about 6-9 words or phrases. The key trick is to learn the connections and find the pattern on phrasing and use of the Korean words and phrases. For example, I learned the word “I” for Korean is “j/chun” which is used repeatedly when saying “I am sad, I am mad, I am happy, I am American”. Another example is the repeated used of the word “day” (yo-il) or “month” (wull) when saying the days of the week or months in the year. I do not try to learn more than my limit of 6-9 words and phrases per week as well as practice multiple times a week.

In this week, I focused on obtaining important words and phrases that could help me in a restaurant scenario or city transportation scenario. These words/phrases are part of the day to day conversation language I am trying to obtained in order to survive a day in Korea. Examples of the words and phrases are in the bottom of the blog. The top few are for ordering or responding to the waiter in a Korean restaurant, specifically asking for food and drinks. These words/phrases express my wants and my pleasure/or dislike with the food. The lower half is focused on the public transportation. These words/phrases express my needs. I learned these phrases and words from my Korean language partner along with the proper way of speech (pronunciation).

(name of food)… chu sae yo-- I want some

(name of drink)…chu sae yo-- May, I have a drink

…ma ch/si seo yo-- This is delicious

….ma ch/si up seo yo-- This is gross

Taxi—tak si

Car—Cha

Bus—Bo-ss

I need a…-- J/chunen……pil yo hay yo

https://youtu.be/HiykIJXqVjw ;

The close family ties and dependencies are valued highly in Korea. Korean society became highly patriarchal when the Confucian system was imported from China and made the official state belief system in about 1390 A.D. For example, fathers were responsible for their families and were to be both obeyed and revered by everyone (filiopiety). Although some Koreans still adhere to traditional Confucian principles of family organization, many Koreans are adapting to more independent, less patriarchal family organizations. 

In traditional Korean society, women had set roles. They were expected to stay at home, to raise their children, keep house and prepare meals. In farming villages they also worked in the fields. When women married they came to live in their husbands' houses, but always kept their own family names. Once in their husbands' homes, they became part of the extended families. Not only were they to obey the eldest males in the family and their husbands, but to take commands from the eldest woman. Although many of these concepts are still present in many families, it is not as strictly organized. Today, women are in every occupation, from government officials to business persons and professors. Young married couples often move from their hometown, especially if it's in the countryside, to the city or sub-urb near Seoul. 

I think Korea has a monochronic behavior and viewpoints about time. Punctuality is important in South Korea and being on time is enforced at an early age. When I attended elementary school in Korea, the school bell would ring five minutes before classes began, and everyone would hurry to class. Many teachers would punish students if they were late to class. Some schools closed and locked the front entrance gates as soon as the bell rang for first period. Punctuality is an important concept in Korean society, especially in terms of customer service. For example, food delivery service is free and extremely fast in Korea, and many restaurants are open 24/7 or until 2-3am. If delivery takes longer than expected, many restaurants offer a discount, free meal, or an additional service of some sort.

For my culture project, I would like to explore fashion in South Korea. In recent years, Korean fashion has greatly evolved. In addition, the "Korean Wave" is beginning to affect the fashion world, and Korean celebrities are starting to have a real influence in fashion, especially through Korean dramas and K-pop. In this cultural project, I hope to address the following:

• The factors that have influenced that changes in Korean fashion (culture, wealth, social media)
• Korean fashion vs. Western fashion
• Korean fashion in other countries 

The modern Korean writing system, hangeul, was devised in 1443 during the reign of King Sejong. Before hangeul, other Korean scripts used a complex system of Chinese characters to represent the sounds of Korean. But because of the differences between Chinese and Korean, Chinese characters could not adequately denote Korean speech. Only the elite could afford the time necessary to study Chinese, so King Sejong commissioned the invention of a phonetic script both more efficient and more accessible to the common people.The Korean alphabet, Hangeul, consists of 24 letters (14 consonants and 10 vowels). Its three main vowels (ㆍ, ㅡ, ㅣ) represent the sky, the earth and man. The shapes of the consonants are based on the shape the mouth made when the corresponding sound is made (ㄱ is the shape of the tongue as it forms a ‘g’ sound (add a line, like so ㅋ, for an aspirated ‘g’, and double the letter , ㄲ, for one with a glottal stop). Now, most modern Korean literature and informal writing is written entirely in hangeul, however academic papers and official documents tend to be written in a mixture of hangeul and hanja.

What I have been working on: I have been working on learning idioms that are typical to ASL, but that we do not have in English.

Statement: I want to be able to incorporate ASL idioms into my conversations.

Strategies: Practice, practice, practice. I have just been practicing them when I have the chance and using them in conversation, when it is appropriate.

Effectiveness: This works well. The best way to remember the signs is just to use them when applicable and use them while also speaking English.

Building on what I have learned: I am continuing to learn more idioms and continuing to use the vocab I have learned throughout the semester.

The five-minute presentations of my classmates were very interesting. Most of the students in our class are studying Korean so there was a focus on the Korean language. An interesting fact that I learned from several presenters is that Korean speakers utilize two different alphabets. One is based on Chinese characters and another is based on Korean-created characters. This must be beneficial for Koreans since they can learn Chinese relatively easy due to the use of some Chinese characters in the language, which allows for a smooth learning curve. Overall, it was enjoyable and helpful to watch all the presentations and gain an understanding on how to present my own project. 

I was thinking about how to teach someone something in German or about the German language. I noticed that many people struggle with identifying the gender of German nouns. Although one would think that you can only learn the genders by heart, for some groups of nouns there are some consistent rules. Thus, I would teach tips and tricks about identifying the right article of a noun (der,die,das). These indicators are related to the beginning or ending of a noun. Below I will list some examples:

If the noun ends with -el, -ismums, -er ..., we can say with certainty that the gender is masculine (der Onkel, der Rassismus, der Vater).

If the noun ends with -heit -ie -schaft ..., we can say with certainty that the gender is feminine (die Freiheit, die Magie, die Manschaft).

If the noun ends with -chen, -lein ..., we can say with certainty that the gender is neutral (das Maedchen, das Buechlein).

There are also other rules. For example: dates and days are masculine. 

My goal for this week was to learn about the weather. I can ask and talk about what the weather is like and what the temperature is. As expected, they use celcius in Turkish. I practised the adjective suffix “-li” which is used to create words like “sunny, snowy, and cloudy.” I think talking about the weather is common small talk across a lot of cultures. So, in order to not be socially awkward, it’s something I should know.

My goal for this week was to learn about occupations. There are two ways to ask about jobs. The first is ‘what is your job’ and the second is ‘what do you do for a living.’ I prefer to use the first question because I have not quite grasped verb conjugation. I have mastered personal pronouns and their corresponding suffixes. I am able to talk about my job, what my dream job is, what jobs my family members have, and ask what jobs others have.

My goal for this week was to learn about adjectives. I learned a lot of adjectives describing people. To make a noun into an adjective, you can add the suffix “-li.” To make a noun into a negative adjective you add the suffix “-six” meaning “not having something.” I really enjoy the lexical flexibility of Turkish. As I learn these suffixes, it becomes easier to decipher the meaning of a sentence. Even though I don’t know a lot of vocabulary, I can take an educated guess about the meaning of a word based on its grammatical function in the sentence.

My goal for this week was to learn some vocabulary. I learned a lot of words pertaining to school and family. I learned how to ask, what is this/that/these/those? I also practised pronouns. When referring to an object as “it” you use the third person singular “O.” I also learned about family members. I can ask and tell others about how many family members I have and their ages.

My goal for this week was to learn personal pronouns and possessive pronouns. There are three singular pronouns (first, second, and third) and two plural pronouns (first and third). When using possessive and personal pronouns, there are corresponding suffixes that are linked onto nouns. The vowel in the suffix will change to harmonize with the preceding vowel. I find that the less I think about it, the better I do with vowel harmony. The correct way flows better and just sounds right.

At this point in the semester, I have come a long way as far as pronunciation goes. I struggled with the vowels a bit. My pronunciation improves every time I practice speaking. I’ve also begun listening to Turkish news to work on my accent. Perfecting the accent is my favorite part of learning a language. I am starting to learn the rules of suffixes and vowel harmony. I think I will be able to master the rules of vowel harmony by the end of the semester. I know I need to study everyday. I do way better in my tutoring sessions when I prepare. I need to continue to be disciplined throughout the semester.

This week I have been focusing on recording my artifacts so I have been working closely with Bishan to master my pronunciation. We have been practicing short conversations using the vocab that I have picked up. This week specifically we are talking about the weather. I have learned how to say it is hot and cold and that it is nice out. I have also learned how to say it is raining. I still notice that it is difficult for me to differentiate between certain Hindi phonemes that are allophones of the same phoneme in English. ठ tha and ट ta as well as ड da and  ढ dha  are very hard to differentiate. My friend Adil is very interested in the fact that I cannot differentiate these sounds and I'll spend minutes at a time just trying to copy him with little success. I have noticed that native Hindi speakers have difficulty pronouncing the English "th" it comes out more like a "d" sound.

  My learning goal for this week will focus on telling time and asking about time. 

  I borrowed a Korean teaching book from my friend and there is a chapter teaching beginners about asking time and answering questions about time. So I will work with the book in formal expressions. 

  Also, in Korean dramas, there are more daily dialogues about time between friends or same-aged people, and this is another way to know the informal expressions of time in Korean. 

  And I'd like to work with my friend such as Becky Chen, since we need to create a learning activity to teach someone else something we have learned in Korean. It is a great time to practice in Korean. We can have a dialogue in Korean and pretend we are asking time and something else. It will be fun!