My culture presentation revolves around the Korean drama scene which is incredibly popular both in Korean and in many other nations. A great deal of work goes into producing and filming a Korean drama, and the more popular dramas often hold historical significance behind their stories. I enjoyed making this presentation and learning more about a field I had little to now knowledge on previously. The first drama I have seen is Strong Woman Do Bong-soon on the cover slide, but I have also recently started watching Secret Garden. I hope to watch many more dramas in the future.
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I decided to do some research on Korean dramas as a topic for my cultural project. Many Korean learners have watched a fair amount of dramas but I have never seen one yet. However, I have just recently started my first drama called 힘쎈여자 도봉순 (Strong Woman Do Bong-soon) which I’m enjoying a lot. Watching the drama got me thinking into how they became such a large part of modern day pop culture and the process that goes behind producing a drama.
The Korean alphabet, Hangul, is one of the most, if not the most well thought out and well designed alphabets in existence. The alphabet is phonetic, meaning the letters correspond to sounds and contains 24 letters. The letters are broken down into 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Since Hangul is so well designed, it’s actually very easy to learn. I spent some time on my own and was able to learn the entire alphabet in about half a day of diligent studying. When it comes to writing, the letters are placed in a quadrant system and read in a top-down style from quadrant to quadrant. It sounds complicated but it’s an easy system to get used to.
I think a huge aspect of Korean culture or any culture in general revolves around the type of food they prepare and eat. I am a huge fan of Korean food and I eat it quite often here in Richmond and back at home. Much like language, a culture’s food provides a sense of identity and wholesomeness because it’s so unique among different cultures. I have tried a lot of different Korean dishes but there are still so many dishes I have yet to experience. There’s one dish in particular that I’ve been eyeballing for a while now but isn’t really offered in Korean restaurants in Virginia. The dish is called sannakji or “live” octopus. The octopus isn’t alive per say but is cut into pieces on the spot and the tentacles are still moving while the dish is served, making it appear as if it were still alive. There’s a risk in eating this food, however. The suction cups on the tentacles can and will suction to the walls of your throat if they aren’t chewed properly and will cause you to choke. People have died from this dish which is a reason why I’m so attracted to it. Aside from looking delicious, I enjoy that small thrill/danger that comes with eating the dish.
Honorifics are a huge part of Korean culture. I mentioned in my second learning journal for 105 that there are in general 3 forms of politeness used in Korean culture. The most polite honorific is mainly used in a formal business setting to address higher ups. The second most polite honorific is used when addressing people older than you or someone you just met. Lastly, the final honorific is just casual talk and only used with people younger than you or people you have a very close relationship with. It’s imperative to become familiar with all the honorifics when learning Korean because it’s very easy to offend someone by not using the correct honorific.
As I reflect on my experience with learning Korean throughout this semester, I have come to the conclusion that learning a language is incredibly difficult, especially a language like Korean. As I mentioned in my mid-semester reflection, my biggest challenge to overcome was finding the time to sit down and study only Korean for a couple hours. I need a lot of time to study Korean because it takes me forever to memorize new vocabulary and to make sure I can pronounce what i'm trying to say clearly. I mentioned before how there are almost no connections or patterns I can make that can help me memorize words more easily. With the inclusion of grammar in my studies, this has only become more difficult. Sentence structure is also very confusing because it's almost reversed compared to English. I have to completely rethink how I want to say something so that it makes sense in Korean.
Although I had a lot of difficulty learning Korean this semester, I definitely think I've improved overall. I can formulate basic sentences, but I'm still trying to improve on my speaking and accent. I think my writing has improved to a point where I'm rather satisfied with but obviously still needs a lot more improvement. Also my reading has slightly improved but not to a point where I'm satisfied with. I'm still a very slow reader but I can definitely see the improvement in my speed.
I enjoyed making and listening to the presentations we had to make for class. I was able to learn a lot more about Korean culture that I only had a little knowledge on before. I can't say what other things I want to learn about. It was usually the topics that were unique that grabbed my attention the most. However, I'm confident that over the summer I'll have enough free time to learn Korean and reach the goals I planned at the beginning of the semester.
I have not been able to learn as much Korean as I intended to. I often find myself putting my language learning off and prioritizing studying for completing work for my science classes. One of my biggest challenges at the moment is finding time to sit down and diligently practice my Korean. I have been learning a lot of new words, however, I don't currently possess the grammar skills to piece them together and make coherent sentences. Despite learning a lot of new words, I have a lot of trouble memorizing new vocabulary. It's difficult for me to memorize Korean words because I'm unable to make any connection or find some pattern that would help me memorize the word. It's a lot different from learning new words in Spanish where I can sometimes find an English equivalent or latin root word that can help me memorize the word. Because of this, I need to invest a lot more time than I initially anticipated into memorizing new vocabulary.
Currently, my speaking skills have barely improved and I think it's my worse area. I get a little nervous when speaking Korean because of my American accent. I try my best to enunciate and say the word correctly and I hope with time my accent will become far less noticeable. My comprehension skills have improved slightly due to my increased vocabulary. I'm able to figure out the subjects for some basic sentences. I have recently started watching a Korean drama which I hope further helps me in comprehension of Korean. I have been slowly improving the speed at which I read in Korean. Whenever I see something written in Korean on Facebook or some other social media platform, I take the time to read it out and comprehend what the sentence means with the help of google translate. I've also gotten faster at typing in Korean on my phone. Most of my problem there was not being familiar with the placement and location of the alphabet. However, I still need visual cues to know where all the letters are and I'm currently unable to type in Korean from my laptop.
Overall, my Korean has improved a little, but not to the extent that I wish it did. Learning a language is very difficult, especially with a language that shares no connection to the languages I currently know. I only wish I had more free time to devote to learning Korean.
I’ve been gradually trying to improve on the speed at which I read Korean. I have gotten slightly faster and I’m improving slowly but surely. I think the most difficult part about reading is being able to connect every word together, so that when I speak the sentence I’m trying to read it flows well and sounds natural. I haven’t been trying to improve my handwriting but I’ve been focusing more on typing on both computer and phone. I still haven’t memorized the placement of the Korean letters on my laptop. Visual aid helps me type much faster and I have noticed an increase in my texting speed on my phone.
I don’t like the topics of these articles. You can’t really say someone is just “smarter” because intelligence isn’t quantifiable and bound to knowing more languages than someone else. I wouldn’t say bilinguals are smarter rather they possess a set level of cognitive skills that surpass those of monolinguals. You can be “smarter” in languages, but doesn’t that make you “smarter” at knowing complex mathematical theories? Intelligence covers too many topics and areas where any one ability would make someone distinguishably “smarter” than anyone else. I know people who are really good at learning languages, but others who are also adept at understand complex mathematical theories, however, these areas of intelligence don’t intermingle.
If I had to estimate how many word’s I’ve learned, I would round it to about a couple hundred words in Korean. It’s difficult to list how many I words I know off the top of my head but I know I would be able to recognize and understand a lot more words if given to me. It’s a lot like thinking about how many words you know in English. I could list a couple hundred if not a couple thousand off the top of my head but in reality I know thousands and thousands more than that. When I compare learning new words in Korean and Spanish, I find it a lot more difficult to memorize Korean words. With Spanish, I’m able to create some connections with English that help me memorize the word rather quickly but Korean is so incredibly different from either English or Spanish. It’s incredibly difficult if not impossible for me to make some sort of association with new Korean words that would help me memorize them. I have to use pure brain power to learn new vocabulary.
I think knowing the history of a language helps more in understanding the linguistics of a target language more than it does actually learning to speak the language itself. For example, when looking at the Korean language there are noticeable Chinese influences incorporated into the language. However, this would only be beneficial to current Chinese speakers or others somewhat familiar with the Chinese language. I know that Korean is heavily influenced by the Chinese language but it doesn’t benefit me in the slightest because the only thing I know how to say in Chinese is “hello.” On the other hand, I noticed the Chinese students in our class meetings having the ability to deduce the meaning of some Korean words due to their familiarity of the Chinese language.
Korean culture places a huge emphasis on close families ties and family bonding. Korean parents generally want what they think is best for their children and place emphasis on their education and upbringing in order to attain those goals. Korean mothers often wake up very early in the morning to prepare fresh meals for their children to bring to school and eat during lunch. Unlike Wester culture, it’s fairly common for young Korean adults to remain living with their parents until they achieve financial stability and finding a significant other.
The biggest thing that is lost when a language dies is cultural identity and diversity. A culture can exist and function without a language, however, this is not entirely feasible as language greatly helps cement a concept of identity and wholesomeness. Language is so central to the identity and unity of a culture that the extinction of a language almost certainly means the extinction of the culture itself. For example, Korean existed without an official written language for quite some time and was mainly just expressed through Chinese characters. The spoken language was unique, but it didn’t entirely mesh well with writing. Sejong the Great helped develop the Korean alphabet, hangul, and it greatly helped unify the country under a common writing system. I can imagine that if Korean suddenly died out, all of that culture would slowly dissipate with it.
It was interesting learning about completely new aspects of culture in the target languages that wasn’t Korean. The Korean presentations were fun because most of them covered topics I was already familiar with but I didn’t know too much about the specifics. One topic that was completely new to me was the use of 우리 or our/we. That aspect of Korean culture emphasizes the collectivist culture expressed by the Korean people. It was also interesting learning more about traditional Korean culture and the significance behind the use of the hanbok and other traditional clothing.
My experience with culture shock comes from my transition from high school to college life. I came from a very diverse high school in a very diverse area of Virginia and it was very off putting when I arrived at the lesser diverse community of the University of Richmond. The biggest trouble I had was being able to connect with people who didn’t come from culturally diverse backgrounds e.g. white people. Because of this I had trouble making friends my first year.
I think as I move on to life after college I’ll experience another culture shock as i transition into a new environment. I also plan to travel to Korea next winter break and I might experience some culture shock when I arrive.
One of the most confusing things about the Korean language is their sentence structure. In English, sentences follow the structure of subject + verb + object. For example, Enzo eats an apple. However, Korean sentences follow the structure of subject + object + verb. Ex. 엔조 사과를 먹어요 (Enzo apple eats). I have a lot of trouble getting used to this since I’ve been following the former structure all my life in both English and Spanish. I think with enough practice and exposure I’ll finally get used to it.
I think a reference grammar might be useful for learning Korean. I’ve been told Korean grammar is very difficult and a reference grammar would be useful in helping to understand some of the more grammatically complex or situational uses.
A major aspect of Korean linguistics lies in the use of honorifics. It's not uncommon or rude to ask for someone's age in order to use the correct honorific. In comparison to Western culture where it's rude to ask for someone's age, it's rude to use the incorrect honorific when addressing someone you’re talking to. Honorifics generally follow 3 levels of politeness: deferential polite, standard polite, and casual. The most polite form is most commonly used in a formal business setting when addressing higher ups. The second most polite form is generally used when addressing those older than you and people you meet for the first time. The casual form is used with people younger than you or people with whom you have a very close relationship with. As a beginner to the language, becoming familiar with all the honorifics is a difficult thing to learn, especially since honorifics don’t really exist in English or Spanish.
In this artifact I explain and give examples of how the Turkish number system works. This is important for my goal of travel vocabulary in that you can ask how much something is, or ask for a certain number of things, or ask for a building number or bus number.
This semester I learned a lot not just about the Turkish language and culture, but also about myself as a language learner. At the beginning of this semester I was nervous that it would be really hard for me to start learning a third language given that the only other language I know other than my L1 is Spanish which I started learning at the age of 5 and in an immersion program. I was apprehensive about learning a language in the conventional classroom style and on my own through technology. However, this semester has shown me that I think my brain having already learned a second language is primed to learn other languages as well. I have re-established techniques that I've used in learning Spanish when it come to learning vocabulary or constructing phrases. Obviously I am still very much a beginner level Turkish learner, but I hope that I can keep learning on my own until I can find someone to practice with and teach me more Turkish back at home.
