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Korean “Bali Bali”  Lifestyle 

Korea’s lifestyle is a very fast paced and competitive one, known as “bali bali” culture. The word "bali bali" refers to a society that embraces a fast-paced lifestyle. "bali" literally means "quickly" or "hurry up." The desire for speed is tremendous, and everything is done in the blink of an eye, from eating to erecting a thirty-story structure. "Bali bali" has become a distinctive characteristic of Korean culture, as well as one of the pillars of the Han River Miracle.

Even with enjoyable vacations, education is vital to the Korean people, and the holidays should not divert students' attention away from their studies. The literacy rate in South Korea is 99.2 percent for males and 96.6 percent for females. If you believe school in America is difficult, you are mistaken. In Korea, most high school students attend school from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extra night and after-school classes. Students, on the other hand, only attend high school for three years because a year in a grade is often longer in Europe than in America. 

The thousands of food delivery motorcyclists you'll see traversing the streets of Seoul are one of the most visible manifestations of the "ppalli ppalli" lifestyle. Regardless of what you want or where you reside, food will be at your home very soon. Food is on the table in restaurants in a matter of minutes, and people are on their way to the next assignment after a brief lunch. "Getting things done" appears to be a life mantra that pervades the entire culture. Even marriages are brief occasions, with the majority lasting only a few hours. This also applies to building and infrastructure. In just a few years, entire communities have been built, and the 428-kilometer Gyeongbu Expressway has been completed.

Public Wi-Fi is available across Seoul, and with one of the world's fastest internet speeds, everything is accessible at any time of day. It is a vibrant country where everything moves at the speed of the internet. At the corner, there is a BBQ restaurant one day and a coffee shop the next. High-speed industrialisation and rapid technological innovation have become the norm, and the rest of society is following suit. This "ppalli ppalli" catchphrase, on the other hand, was not introduced with high-speed internet. After President Park Chung Hee pushed for rapid industrialisation in the 1960s, the need for speed grew. The Miracle on the Han River was made possible by industrialization. 

Even if the Republic of Korea is ahead of the curve in terms of technology and infrastructure, simple phrases like "ppalli ppalli" should not be used to define a full civilization. Because, while foreigners usually use the phrase to describe the Republic of Korea, Koreans do not always use it to describe themselves. However, there has been a national conversation about work-life balance in recent years. The idea is to provide individuals less work time and more leisure time, as well as more time to relax. Koreans appear to be attempting to slow things down in order to find peace.

References: 

https://medium.com/bigberry/korean-pali-pali-culture-9c7ab4d5e516

https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/no-en/brd/m_21237/view.do?seq=103

Korean Holidays 

One of the interesting cultural concepts to me is Korean holidays, festivals, and celebrations. These aspects became a very important part of Korean culture because during the early days, Korea was predominantly an agricultural nation until the mid-twentieth century, and the lunar calendar controlled the seasonal rhythms of daily life. Because farming was so vital to the members' survival, such societies evolved a wide range of semi-religious activities to pray for a successful crop and plenty of food. Eventually, these gatherings became communal celebrations and festivals.

Chuseok, also known as hangawi, is one of Korea's most important holidays, occurring on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, alongside Lunar New Year's Day. On this day, the entire family gathers and performs a rite with newly gathered crops and fruits to show their gratitude to the gods. Koreans also celebrate the Lunar New Year's Day (Seol or Seollal) with tteokguk, or rice cake soup, a distinctive holiday delicacy. They think that by eating a cup of rice cake soup on that particular day, they will grow one year older. In addition, younger people give their elders a deep ceremonial bow and wish them a good new year. These are two major Korean festivals. Both years are marked by visits with relatives and the consumption of a wide variety of foods. Tteokguk (rice cake soup) is a traditional dish served in Seollal. They think that by eating a cup of rice cake soup on that particular day, they will grow one year older. In addition, younger people give their elders a deep ceremonial bow and wish them a good new year. Songpyeon, a Korean traditional rice cake stuffed with sesame seeds and honey, but with additional ingredients such as black beans, mung beans, cinnamon, pine nut, walnut, chestnut, and jujube, is eaten and traded with neighbors during Chuseok. Koreans pay homage to their elders and ancestors on both festivals by wearing traditional Korean clothing called Hanbok, which is also worn by the bride and groom at weddings. Both holidays have no set date and fluctuate year to year based on the Lunar calendar. Aside from these holidays, Koreans celebrate a variety of unique occasions. On November 11th, for example, it is Pepero Day. This day has no significance, but it is a pleasant day when Pepero offers special discounts and promotions. Because 11/11 is like the Pepero sticks, it's on November 11th. There are also a slew of other pointless yet entertaining "holidays", such as Pepero Day. Children's Day, for example, is another holiday. When I was studying abroad in Korea, I got to celebrate this holiday. Even though I didn’t have a Valentine, my friends and I still did a Pepero exchange. In the end, it is a day to appreciate your loved ones. 

These are just some of the few interesting holidays and traditions that are part of Korean culture. It is a vital part of community building and engagement. 

References: 

https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/Korean-Life/Festivals

https://english.seoul.go.kr/service/amusement/traditional-culture/koreas-four-major-national-holidays/

https://asiasociety.org/korea/chuseok-korean-thanksgiving-day

During the final weeks, I felt like I really had developed my Korean skills and improved a lot. My goals at the beginning of this class was to expand my vocabulary, improve my grammar in terms of using the correct subject marker and verb conjugations, and speak in daily conversation. I was really surprised at how much I could learn specifically for vocabulary, I was actually able to accumulate when I used them and practiced on the daily. Unlike my class in Korea, I just had to memorize them for the week and then would most likely forget about them. But with Vivan, we went through all the vocabulary we practiced every week and reviewed the words from the week before. Same thing with grammar, reviewing the previous concepts helped me grasp the new concepts. And in the long term, helps me actually learn the language better.

Also, during this time I was able to reflect on my learning styles and find out what kind works best for me. I was always a visual learner, but I realized that my learning styles may be different from the way I learn in my business classes vs. Korean classes. I also found out that I learn best through repetition, as many others may, with languages. I found out about an app called Drops, which is a vocabulary builder game. Everyday, you can play matching games but the special thing about Drops is how repetitive it is. Unlike Quizlet, everytime you click on a word or match a word, it says it. Hearing it along with thinking about it really helps it stick in my brain. I still remember the first word I learned from that app because it stuck with me. 

We were also able to get some cultural immersion experience by going to get Korean BBQ at Korea Garden in Richmond. During this experience, I could use my Korean skills to order in a restaurant. I remember being in Korea I was a bit uncomfortable speaking the language because I didn’t have anyone there to check or correct me. But getting to go to Korean BBQ with Vivian was as helpful as she was in our classes. If I used a wrong measure word, she would correct me right away on the spot, which I feel is the most useful way to learn something. 

This week was also the preparation stage of my final presentation for the class, so I decided to explore the topic of Hanja, which I was specifically interested in because of my background in Chinese. Hanja are Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation. Korean has many Sino-Korean words because they had adopted the Chinese character, Hanja, which allowed for both an acceptance of Chinese culture and for the expression of the Korean spoken language. What first sparked my interest in this idea was after seeing a video of people speaking Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, and Japanese. They spoke specific words that all somehow sounded the same throughout the four languages. I was really intrigued because in class, we learned about language trees, language families, and how different languages actually stem from the same parent language. I actually didn’t know that Korea used Chinese characters in their language before, so this gave me the opportunity to explore more of the history and cultural significance of Hanja. 

During these weeks, my main focus was to develop more grammar skills because I had minimal grammar skills. In other words, I could form sentences together, but they were usually half gibberish because there were many grammar aspects I was lacking in, such as using the right grammar structure, subject marker, verb ending, etc. So, I wanted to make sure that my grammar was more specific to what I wanted to learn.

This week, I also had to revise my learning plan a lot because of how general it was. I had a basic idea of what I wanted to learn and achieve, but my goals lacked definition and it wasn’t well organized based on my learning style. For example, one of my goals was to “learn more grammar”, but I didn’t have a goal in mind of what specific grammar structures I wanted to cover. So, Vivian and I spent some extra time revising specific grammar topics. In the end, one of my main goals was to get better at daily conversation, so the grammar structures centered around those that would be used on the daily. 

These topics that we covered included the basic sentence structures of: SOV. An example would be 나는 피자 먹어요 (I eat pizza). From Korean, it would literally translate to “I pizza eat”. This sentence structure was very hard for me to get familiar with because when I learn languages, I usually link the English to Korean, but it was more difficult with Korean just because I had to think ahead about what the object was before.

 In addition, another important structure was the verb 이다 (ida - to be) is one of the most distinctive sentence constructions in the Korean language. This is especially true for English speakers because the word "to be" changes form when you conjugate it when talking about yourself or to other people so you can define what people or objects are. It's an important aspect of learning Korean, and it's pronounced similarly to how it’s said in English. For example, the sentence 저는 학생입니다  means “I am a student” or more literally in Korean to English, “I student am”. This sentence structure combines the knowledge of verb conjugations and verb endings from the previous weeks. 

Another topic I learned was about subject markers. A topic marker helps to indicate the subject of a sentence. For example, 저는 고양이를 봐요 means “I see the cat”. But after each subject word (I and cat), there needs to be a subject marker to complete the sentence. This sentence has the particles 는 (neun) after the word for “I” (저 | jeo) and 를 (reul) after the word for “cat” (고양이 | goyangi). This topic was easy to learn but challenging to master because there is nothing like it in English. Also, because there are so many variations of subject markers and rules for which one to use, I often get confused with another subject marker. I find myself having to think about which subject marker goes with the sentence I am trying to speak. But after more practice, it will come more naturally. 

During the next couple of weeks, the main task I was working on was to develop my vocabulary. For each week, Vivian and I planned it out so that we would study a certain subject along with a certain topic. For example, one of our weeks was to study vocabulary with the focus of food and ordering food. Before we started learning more words, I wrote down a list of topics and specific words I wanted to not only learn but to memorize as well. When I was taking Korean lessons in Korea, I had to memorize about 50 words each week, which we were tested by reading. To meet that goal, I challenged myself to learn around 20- 25 new vocabulary words each week. Some words that fell into the food category were 파 (yangpa) Onion, 마늘 (maneul) Garlic, 봄양파 (bomyangpa) Scallion, 당근 (danggeun) Carrot,  무 (mu) Radish. Along with the vocabulary words, we would learn things such as how to order food, restaurant courtesy such as not tipping the waiter, and how to use correct measure words when referring to each item. In addition to using flash cards, I have been using a lot of different apps and texting with my language partner. For example, if one of my vocabulary words was “breakfast” and I am asking her to get breakfast, I would text her in whatever I could in Korean. Instead of saying “breakfast”, I would use “아침식사” instead so I can practice typing and also reading and saying the vocabulary word. I think I learn best through an interactive environment, meaning I want to be exposed to the words as much as I possibly can and use it on a daily basis. 

The good thing about separating my learning into different topics each week was how much my language partner and I could cover because of how they relate to each other. In addition to the vocabulary itself, I was also able to learn how to conjugate verb endings with words to describe food such as 쓴 맛 (sseun mat) Bitter taste, 매워요 (maewoyo) Spicy,  두거워요 (dugeowoyo) Hot,  달콤해요 (dalkomhaeyo) Sweet, and 맛있어요 (masisseoyo) Delicious just to name a few. When I would describe a specific food, for example, 떡볶이(tteokbokki), which is a spicy sweet rice cake dish, I would say “떡볶이는 맵다”, which means “tteokbokki is spicy.”  In the original form, the word 맵다 has a different ending, but when you conugate it,  ‘매’ remains, and ‘ㅂ’ changes to ‘우’ and add ‘어요’ after that. It becomes ‘매워요.’ Verb endings are important to keep in mind especially when speaking to different people. When speaking in a more formal setting, “매워요” should be used instead of the original form. 

At the end of each week, Vivian would test me on the vocabulary that I’ve been studying that week by giving me the English word and then I had to say the Korean word and write it. If I could get the word on the first try, then I would move on but if I didn’t get it within two tries, Vivian would also put that word onto next week’s pile so I get an extra week to review and study those words. 

Coming into this class, I had minimal knowledge of Korean culture and language. During studying abroad, I was actually able to take a Korean language class and really enjoyed it. Through that class, I got an introductory understanding of the Korean alphabet, grammar structures, and developed reading abilities. Although that class was only one semester long, I didn’t have enough time to learn everything I wanted to or develop my skills to the fullest potential. I actually had no idea about this class until some of my other friends told me they were going to enroll in it. After studying abroad in Korea, my interest in Korean culture I built a greater interest in the language and really wanted to continue learning. Although Richmond doesn’t provide any formal Korean language classes, I still thought having a language partner would be valuable. 

I met with my language partner, Vivian first to develop a schedule around what times every week we would meet. We decided to meet every Wednesday for two hours in the evening. Then, we had to put together around eleven to twelve learning subjects and preliminary ideas in order to create a semester syllabus. Korean slangs, memorizing the Korean keyboard/improving my writing, reading Korean articles, learning more Korean vocabulary words relevant to everyday life, learning more about Korean culture through youtube videos and Korean dramas, texting in Korean practice, and practicing speaking scenarios in Korean were among these goals and ideas. Although our list was very extensive, we had to narrow down the ideas later to really emphasize what specific topics we wanted to focus on. 

During the first couple of weeks, Vivian and I started with some review from what I learned when I was in Korea. This included the alphabet, reading simple words and sentences, and reviewing pronunciations. Vivian created a simple worksheet for me to review the alphabet and she quizzed me after. I also brought her my Korean textbook and workbook that I used in my beginner Korean language class. She was able to go through that with me and review the concepts that I had learned. It really made me realize just how important practicing and exposure to a language is important. Because I had stopped Korean lessons for about a month, I actually had forgotten some things, but didn’t even realize it. When I was in Korea, I was also surrounded by the language everyday. And coming back to America, it’s been harder to get that exposure just because the language is different now. Because of this, we spent some extra time on the basics to make sure I had the skills to move forward. This meant that I had to be comfortable with speaking and reading at least the alphabet and simple words. So at the end of every week, Vivian would test me on reading, speaking, and vocabulary. We did this for about two weeks after I had a more solid understanding and was more comfortable with the basics before we moved onto learning new things. 

Unfortunately, my language learning did take a bit of a dip in the past few weeks, both for the sake of other classes and life circumstances. One of my senior capstones, a stage management independent study, reached tech / performance April 9 – 17^th, and I was not able to dedicate the same amount of time that I normally do to learning Hebrew, as I was spending anywhere between 6-13 hours in a theatre each day. It was also the week of Passover where I had to prepare (and re-prepare, and re-prepare…) a kosher kitchen, while not having roommates keeping kosher. My uncle also passed away, which while not unexpected still took a toll.

That being said, all this did present me an opportunity for language learning that I didn’t expect; I spent a decent portion of this month working on prayers, both for Passover and the other circumstances I described above. I presented the kiddush (קידוש blessing over wine, text below) for my final in 105, which Maddie and I spent multiple sessions reviewing until I had every word and every pitch correct. I presented a short version (first paragraph) during the UR Hillel Passover seder, and I’ll also be leading the prayer at this week’s Shabbat Service. It’s especially important to me that I get it right in front of them, as many of my peers have been speaking Hebrew, and hearing this blessing, their entire lives.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ
אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ, מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם,
 בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּֽפֶן.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ
 אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ, מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם,
 אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֺתָיו וְרָֽצָה בָֽנוּ,
 וְשַׁבַּת קׇדְשׁוֹ
 בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן הִנְחִילָֽנוּ,
 זִכָּרוֹן לְמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית.
 כִּי הוּא יוֹם תְּחִלָּה לְמִקְרָֽאֵי קֹֽדֶשׁ,
זֵֽכֶר לִיצִיאַת מִצְרָֽיִם.
 כִּי בָֽנוּ בָחַֽרְתָּ, וְאוֹתָֽנוּ קִדַּֽשְׁתָּ
 מִכׇּל הָעַמִּים.
 וְשַׁבַּת קׇדְשְׁךָ
 בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן הִנְחַלְתָּֽנוּ.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ, מְקַדֵּשׁ הַשַּׁבָּת.

I also spent time reviewing the Mourner’s Kaddish. (Kiddush vs Kaddish – I told you vowels were important! Text below.) This one I don’t have down quite as well yet, but I’ve made a lot of progress on it. While this next bit is probably verging into “cultural post” territory – this prayer really helped me process the grief of passing. It’s not necessarily mourning for the dead or bemoaning that they’re gone; it’s much more focused on praise.

אבל: יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא. [קהל: אמן]
בְּעָלְמָא דִּי בְרָא כִרְעוּתֵהּ וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ בְּחַיֵּיכון וּבְיומֵיכון וּבְחַיֵּי דְכָל בֵּית יִשרָאֵל בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב, וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]
קהל ואבל: יְהֵא שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא:
אבל: יִתְבָּרַךְ וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח וְיִתְפָּאַר וְיִתְרומַם וְיִתְנַשּא וְיִתְהַדָּר וְיִתְעַלֶּה וְיִתְהַלָּל שְׁמֵהּ דְּקֻדְשָׁא. בְּרִיךְ הוּא. [קהל: בריך הוא:]
לְעֵלָּא מִן כָּל בִּרְכָתָא בעשי”ת: לְעֵלָּא לְעֵלָּא מִכָּל וְשִׁירָתָא תֻּשְׁבְּחָתָא וְנֶחֱמָתָא דַּאֲמִירָן בְּעָלְמָא. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]
יְהֵא שְׁלָמָא רַבָּא מִן שְׁמַיָּא וְחַיִּים עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשרָאֵל. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל:אמן]
עושה שָׁלום בעשי”ת: הַשָּׁלום בִּמְרומָיו הוּא יַעֲשה שָׁלום עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן

Last on the prayer list: I broke Passover by making challah. I did not do the prayers during the making of the challah, as they’re mainly associated with married women, and I did not have the opportunity to discuss it with someone more learned than myself first. This was one of the prayers that, while I’ve never presented it, I know from the repetition of it being presented. I said the blessing over bread (below) every time I ate the challah, and it was a reminder to stay grateful for what I had, and what I had learned.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ

Moving forward with my language learning after UR, I look forward to growing in my vocabulary and grammatical skills. I plan on moving to a city with a larger Jewish population than the one I’m from, so I’ll hopefully be able to find more formal Hebrew language learning programs there, as well as keeping up the skills I have now with apps like Duolingo until then, as well as more immersion-type activities like listening to music in Hebrew.

Month two down! At the beginning of February, I switched language partners from Pazit with iTalki to Maddie, a fellow student at UR. We continued to focus on the alphabet, as I hadn’t made much progress yet. Unfortunately, it was rather slow going – while a straight-forward font like Calibri gives more distinction between letters, ones like Times New Roman make it much harder for my brain to process (in the following examples: dalet vs resh vs khaf sufit). Calibri: ך ר ד Times New Roman: ך ר ד . Admittedly, I’m doing much better than I did with my letters in kindergarten (dyslexia, am I right?), but I was disappointed that my memorization of the alef bet was taking so long. It was probably mid-February until I got it perfect every time.

In the meantime, I started learning small common words that were recognizable, and stayed away from letters I was having trouble with, such as אמא “mom”, and אבא “dad”. Since I’ve changed my focus to Modern Hebrew, we’ll be focusing on words that will occur more frequently in daily life, so started working on simple things, like colors and other basic adjectives.

After I had the alef bet down, we moved onto Hebrew vowels. Vowels normally aren’t written, which is one of the challenges for pronunciation – it’s a struggle to remember what sound is there if you don’t have a clue to it. I’ve learned that the language is very contextual, and so some words can have multiple meanings, or that the slightest stress on syllable can completely change the meaning of the word. Having the vowels there is helpful for me in terms of pronunciation, but I’m leaving them off the “Hebrew” side of my notecards since I wouldn’t have them if I just read them on a page.

Once I had learned the alphabet and the vowels, it was easier to learn new words, and Maddie would give me vocab lists each week to memorize and spell by our next session. As I had with the alphabet itself, I would write down line after line of the word I was trying to memorize, as well as make flashcards. I found that rote repetition was usually the way to go for memorization. On the other hand, this meant that I usually had the spelling down for whatever I was being quizzed on, but my pronunciation usually needed work, so Maddie and I would go over that often in our sessions, enunciating every word until I got it right.

As of right now, my plan to proceed id to continue learning new words, and to start with some basic grammar. Most of what I’ve seen of Hebrew is pretty similar to English in terms of word order, but we haven’t started working on it in our lessons, so I’m excited for that. I’m going to continue to work on growing my vocabulary throughout these processes so I can speak about (or at least understand) a variety of topics.

So, this cultural reflection is coming late, but there wasn’t a holiday until March 16-17^th. (And yes – these dates meant that Purim shared part of its celebration date with St. Patrick’s Day.) Purim is my favorite holiday for none of the reasons you’d expect: it was the first one I ever got to celebrate properly. I started my journey with Judaism shortly before lockdown in 2020, and one of the things that drew me to Judaism – its sense of community – was of course impacted by the lack of ability to gather in person for services and holidays.

Purim celebrates the story of Esther, the wife of a Persian king who hid the fact she was Jewish. The story goes like this: Esther is crowned King Ahasuerus’ queen after winning a beauty contest. She is advised by her uncle, Mordecai, to not reveal that she is Jewish to her husband. He discovers a plot to kill the king and thwarts it, granting him the king’s favor. Haman, the king’s vizier, has a run in with Mordecai and then seeks to destroy all Jews. Haman puts this plan in place, and Mordecai begs Esther to entreat the king for her people, citing Haman as the mastermind of the scheme. The king grants Esther’s request; Haman dies, and his forces are used to kill those who were going to kill Jews.

Now, when looking at it historically, we can see that there probably wasn’t a genocide of Persians, and it’s likely just a fable meant to teach us a lesson, which adds some levity to the story. It’s also much lighter when you look at the celebrations for Purim; the notion that everything is upside-down is very much a part of the tradition. You make hamantaschen, a triangular butter cookie that is said to be shaped that way due to Haman’s extremely large ears (pictured below, with fig jam!). You dress in costumes and masks to hide your identity. You tell the story of Purim, often in the form of a group story, play, or song, and every time the name “Haman” is said, people shout and make noise to cover up his name. And in the theme of the topsy-turvy holiday, another tradition is to drink to the point where “you cannot tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai”, because all people have a bit of both in them.

Given that one of my primary interests in Hebrew is its religious significance, many of my cultural posts will likely be about religious holidays that take place and how I honored them. Those, as well as regular Shabbos services, are my primary exposure to Jewish culture, and Hebrew being used in the real world rather than academically. To begin, in the Hebrew calendar days end at sundown, so holidays start in one day and end in another by the Gregorian calendar. For example, Shabbat starts on Friday evening at sundown and ends Saturday evening at sundown, so when I refer to a holiday as taking place over multiple days, that’s what it’s referring to.

January 16-17^th was Tu Bishvat, the “New Year for the Trees” in the Jewish calendar. It occurs on the 15^th day of the month of Shevat. Historically, the fruits that ripened from Tu Bishvat onward were counted for the following year’s tithes, though in modern times it’s kind of treated like an Earth Day. The day is spent raising ecological awareness, and trees are planted in celebration. I unfortunately was unable to plant a tree as I had rehearsal, but I planted a rosemary bush in a pot that lives in my living room! It was a lovely addition that’ll come in handy over the next few months.

I also made a traditional meal (or at least, the best I could do on an Aldi budget), which includes the foods wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. Though I missed dates and barley, I had a lovely meal of Fig Newtons (wheat and figs), grapes, pomegranate juice, and ratatouille (olives in the sauce, and raising livestock is one of the primary polluters in many regions, so figured it’d be best to stay veggie-friendly.)

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I also attended UR Hillel’s Tu Bishvat discussion on how Judaism relates to the environment, which I found fascinating. This talk was led by Josh Jeffreys, the Jewish Chaplain on campus. In essence, Judaism is intrinsically tied to the environment. Everything, from the set up of the calendar (follows the lunar cycle, day is defined by the sun, holidays follow agricultural seasons) to practices we celebrate every week (blessing the bread we eat, wine we drink, resting on Shabbos, just as the earth can’t handle constant farming or it’ll wear itself out) are all tied to the earth. It raises the question: what is Judaism in the diaspora? To some people, it means that you cannot properly practice Judaism outside the land of Israel. To others, and to me, it means that you have a responsibility to treat the land around you just as the lands of Israel that you have a named duty to.

In a world dealing with climate change, a world literally on fire, this becomes more complicated. There are a million other issues you can dedicate yourself to with the same logic. Try as we might, not everyone can be a champion for everything; they’d burn out, hard. Just as we must take care of the earth, so we must take care of ourselves. So, the key is finding that balance; doing what we can to leave a better tomorrow, while also taking care of ourselves. And as shown by the prayers mentioned above, we have a responsibility to the world around us, as well as finding comfort in it.

Once again, I’ve been spending this month learning new vocabulary. This time, it’s been more focused on greetings, introductions, things I will use in my daily life. I’m a huge cook, so I took to my pantry labelling things in Hebrew, and now have many common cooking ingredients memorized. I might not always remember the word for shirt (חולצה) but I certainly know the word for garlic (שום). It was a good reminder of the effect of immersion, because while I was clearly not completely immersed, that’s some of the vocab I can easiest call to mind because of the number of times I saw it. Another fun fact pertaining to food: I’m deathly allergic to several different foods, so I also made sure they were top of my list to memorize! If I do get to travel to Israel, I’ll most have to worry about nuts (אגוזים eh-go-zEEm) and peanuts (בוטך bot-en) as they’re a super common food group.

I’ve continued to work on vocabulary lists with Maddie, and we’ve now covered the entire Hebrew calendar as well as basic numbers. I went through my Google calendar and customized it to include the Hebrew names and when they start, as well as all Jewish holidays. This is where I got the idea to do my final cultural project about Passover, or Pesach (פסח), as well as the ritual surrounding it. I’ve also started listening to pop music in Hebrew, and while I can’t really understand it, I do feel jolts of excitement when I understand a phrase here and there. It makes for great background music while doing homework, and I’m certain “Israeli Pop” is going to wind up in my Spotify Wrapped. That being said, I do recognize and can sing along to several simple tunes from religious service, and I feel like that has really helped me with my pronunciation for those texts. Music has been a great tool for my learning, and I’m excited to utilize it more when I can.

As for a less successful experience… It was advised to me to watch some children’s programming like Shalom Sesame to gain a good understanding of different basic Hebrew concepts, and I tried, I really did, but I found a lot of the children’s TV grating and slow. While it might’ve been helpful, I found it too annoying, so did not end up using it as a resource.

I’m rather unsure of my next step yet. I want to continue learning vocab, but I feel that I haven’t really learned much about grammar. While I can struggle through simple readings, I’m sure all my writing beyond those same simple sentences would be atrocious. Since Maddie is familiar with the religious text I’d like to learn, I’d also like to review them with her, as I know the sound of the prayer from the repetition of saying them in services, and I know their meaning because I know the English translation, but that’s clearly not the same thing as understanding the actual Hebrew.

So far, I think the first couple weeks of Hebrew learning have been going well! I have been working with my Israeli language partner Pazit over iTalki. We spent the first week going over my goals for the semester as well as all prior knowledge that I have. Unfortunately, the answer to that is not much, just what I know from religious service / have picked up from being around the Jewish community. I can recognize some common phrases, greetings, and holidays, but am overall not educated in the language of Hebrew. Our knowledge bases don’t really match up, as I’m approaching it mostly with a religious background and my tutor is not religious, but I don’t think that’s a barrier; I’ll simply be learning from a different point of view. My focus was originally supposed to be Biblical Hebrew, but upon further conversations with my tutor and my rabbi, it will be easier to focus on Modern Hebrew and put Biblical Hebrew on the backburner until I have better fluency.

So, given where I’m currently at with the language, we’re going to start with the beginning: the alphabet. I purchased a Hebrew writing language book to practice the different letters, which I’m going to supplement by making flashcards, both so I can easier recognize the letters on sight, but so that I also can get practice writing them. I’m admittedly having a bit of memorizing the letters, but I’m also still in the first part of really learning them. I’m going with the philosophy that “a steady base is what I’ll build the rest of the language on”.

As well as this, an English / Hebrew dictionary should be delivered by Amazon later this week, so I’ll be able to use it as a reference when learning new words and phrases, or when I find new words that I’m unfamiliar with.

Reflecting on this past semester, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have started my learning journey with Hebrew at UR. Overall, I think I’ve done a better job at the “cultural exploring” part of that than the language learning, but I have confidence that it’ll come with time. Culturally, I was able to accomplish many things: reading through the entire Torah (in English) and gaining confidence with familiar prayers in Hebrew, attending regular shabbat service, and learning about holidays and traditions. This came with learning many new words, phrases, and customs in Hebrew to be appropriate and respectful. In my language learning specifically, I gained familiarity with the alphabet, basic grammar, months of the year and days of the week in the Hebrew calendar, colors, and numbers, as well as greetings, introductions, and other words I’ll use in my daily life.

My greatest struggle is probably reading. I’m much better at recognizing words in isolation than when combined in proper sentences, and because I only have a keyboard with an English face (and it’s not a 1 to 1 ratio sound-wise on the keyboard) I get little practice typing Hebrew. Since I mainly write it, while I can recognize words in different fonts, it definitely does slow me down, particularly for letters that look similar that I mix up more frequently in words. (Of course, I have the same problem with English, so that’s not surprising!) I haven’t reached the level of fluency to speak beyond practiced phrases, so have the least practice with it, or else I’d consider that my biggest struggle.

One of my favorite things I’ve done is learn through music. The prayer that has been the easiest for me to understand and memorize has all been because of its musical element, and it’s been amazing to listen to modern Israeli music. Even if I can’t often sing along, I truly think it’s made a difference in my pronunciation. Also, it’s just impressive! The skill of someone to be able to wrap the sound of a chet (ח) amazes me. I’ll try to continue to focus my new learning with this in mind, and work with translations of songs to help my vocabulary grow. As I memorize songs, I’ll be able to grow in my everyday vocabulary, as well as grow more familiar with modern usage of words and slang.

Interestingly, I found the article about dead languages the most helpful – since I knew Hebrew had been considered a dead language for a while, I dove into the language’s history and the revival of it as a language, starting with some basic internet articles, then a couple scholarly ones as well as several, several Wikipedia pages.

My interest has been quite piqued by modern Hebrew; originally, I was just planning on learning Biblical Hebrew, and I didn’t even know enough to know that would be a challenging idea. I want to grow my vocabulary and usage so that I can grow in skill with reading and speaking Hebrew; I’ve just expanded the scope. While practically this will likely stay on the religious side of things, my goal is still to be fluent one day.

Reflecting on my experiences this semester, I am very happy with the progress that I have made as a language learner. I enjoyed having the autonomy to create my own learning plan while learning at my own pace. At the same time, I think the most challenging part was following the weekly learning schedule that I planned out for myself at the beginning of the semester. I definitely made changes along the way but I think it was still a good way to organize my goals.

Some of my favorite learning activities included singing Korean karaoke, texting my language partner in Korean, and cooking Korean food with my language partner. All of these activities strengthened my listening, reading, speaking, and writing abilities, in a fun way. I also learned a lot about Korean business culture through my final cultural research project. It was insightful to learn about the differences between what I am accustomed to seeing here in the U.S. compared to Korean business settings. I also really enjoyed hearing the cultural presentations of other language learners in my SDLC class and, overall, it was really great to see the progress each of us made in our own target languages. 

In class, I found our unit on grammar (morphology and syntax) to be very useful. Our discussions on derivational and inflectional affixes helped me learn how to break down Korean words to better understand their meaning. Moving forward, I plan to continue developing my Korean language abilities, with a stronger focus on speaking in case it becomes useful in the workforce. I also look forward to learning new vocabulary as I continue listening to Korean music and watching Korean content on YouTube and Netflix.

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken the time to improve my Korean listening skills by watching Korean television shows that are available on Netflix. One that I particularly enjoyed watching was Twenty-Five Twenty-One, starring Nam Joo Hyuk and Kim Tae Ri. I thought that the story was well written and I loved each of the characters’ personalities. The show takes place during the 1990s during the Asian Financial Crisis and follows the story of a teenage girl and a young man who are working to accomplish their dreams during hard times. 

From watching this drama, I learned about the IMF crisis and some of the difficulties that South Koreans faced due to the unprecedented foreign exchange shortage in December 1997. I learned that this was a very painful period in Korea’s history because so many people lost their jobs and their livelihood. I also learned a lot of new Korean vocabulary on topics like fencing and reporting. For example, breaking news or 긴급 속보 (gingeub sogbo) was a word that came up very frequently throughout the episodes as one of main characters becomes a reporter. 

In addition, my language partner and some other SDLC students took a trip to Northern Virginia where we enjoyed our last Korean meal together. We ordered our food in Korean and thoroughly enjoyed the Korean BBQ and the variety of side dishes offered at the restaurant. We also talked about our experiences taking SDLC this semester and how we planned to continue our Korean language learning moving forward.

Something that was very interesting to me is how friendly and tight-knit Turkish people are. Turkish people love Turkish people. They also love Turkey. Nationalism is huge in Turkey. Even to the point that Görkem was keeping up with the World Cup qualifying matches during our class meeting because Turkey was playing. The people of the United States do not share those same nationalistic qualities. These qualities also translate to them supporting local fellow Turks rather than big businesses. Görkem was telling me that when he was a little boy, him and his mom would go to the different farmers markets around the city. Each farmers market had a specific day of the week that they were open. Depending on the day would determine how far they would have to walk to get groceries. These farmers markets were much cheaper than grocery stores, and you were able to get exactly what you needed. For example: if you only needed one egg, you were able to buy one egg rather than having to buy a whole dozen. This also exemplified the gender roles that were in place at that time in Turkey. He talked about how the men were the breadwinners of the family and worked during the day to make all of the money. The women, on the other hand, were in charge of the duties around the house which is why he was always with his mom when she went shopping during the day. He also said that every single person at the farmers markets were also women taking care of the duties around the house. I think it is very interesting to see the shift from these farmers markets to grocery stores over the years. Nowadays it is more common for people to go do their grocery shopping at the grocery stores. My Italian classmate also said that this was the case in Italy. When he was a child, they also had the farmers markets while now they mostly have grocery stores. I guess it is all part of the evolution and industrialization of a nation. Grocery stores probably in bring a lot more money to the government rather than the farmers markets. Over the course of the semester, I have learned so much about Turkish culture. I feel that it has not only given so much insight into Turkish culture, but also a lot of insight about the culture in which I live. To truly know about a culture, you must live for an extended period of time in that culture. I would love to live in Turkey for an extended period of time just to experience the culture and better me Turkish language skills. I would also like to personally express how grateful I am for my language partner Görkem. He has been nothing be the best for me on this Turkish learning journey. I would also like to thank Dr. Soloway for always facilitating my language learning journeys over the past year. Without them, my knowledge would be extremely limited. This has been such a wonderful experience and I look forward to continuing this over the years.

One day in class, we were completing an activity in our textbook that had to do with the different modes of transportation. Görkem asked me questions like about how I get to different places like: “how do I get to the store?” “how do I get to school?” “how do I get home?” “how do I get to class?” “how do I get to work” etc… I actually get to class by walking. But every other question, the answer was “by car / driving”.  Even my roommates consistently want to drive to class or to work even when they are well withing walking distance. Görkem was astounded by how much we drive here in the United States. This is a huge cultural difference between us and Turks. He also told me that he lives over 2 miles away from the University of Richmond’s campus and he walks to the university every day. He also has friends here in the United States that live a little more than a mile away from the grocery store. The consistently drive to the grocery store rather than walking there. I found hilarious how surprised he was about this phenomenon. Apparently, in Turkey, the prefer to walk everywhere. He told me that he typically walks over 10 miles every day in Turkey. He walks to school, he walks to the store, he walks to the café, he walks home, etc… Typically the only time he drives is if he is going somewhere over 10 miles away, or if he is going to different city. Also, the Turkish city infrastructures allow for it to be easy for people not to use motorized vehicles to get to and from places. They have many sidewalks and designated areas for walking and biking. I also do not think that it is a uniquely Turkish practice to mostly walk to and from places. I have many friends from Europe who have also said that they mostly walk to and from places and rarely use cars to get to different areas. Honestly, if they are going somewhere out of walking distance, they prefer to use public transportation rather than their own cars. I honestly believe that we should practice walking more here in the United States. It would be a lot more economically efficient, it would be more environmentally friendly, and it would be healthier to get that form of exercise. This was a very interesting thing to learn about. I feel that I would like to practice that when I am all settled into my career. I do definitely feel that I would get some weird looks though, especially if people saw me walking to and from the grocery store, or if people saw me walking to and from work. I am very sure of myself and do not let what others think affect my actions. I will say that Americans have more of a culture plagued by laziness than Turkey does, which is why it would make sense for these norms to be different.

In one of our sessions with my language partner, he asked us if we liked coffee. My other classmate, who is Italian, loves coffee. Apparently, coffee is a huge part of Italian culture. I am personally not a fan of coffee. I hate the way tastes. My language partner said that he was thinking about doing a session on Turkish coffee culture. Even though I do not like coffee, I was very curious to see what Turkish coffee was really about. Coffee is a huge part of the Turkish culture. It is used as a social outlet. Friends and family spend hours on end at coffee shops just sitting there talking and laughing, and enjoying time together. It is similar to the vibes of a bar in the United States. My language partner also explained how coffee readings are a technique that guys use to pickup girls. Girls like coffee readings and horoscopes. It is a form of fortune telling similar to what palm readers use for palm reading, and what psychics use to tell the future. Turkish people love their coffee black as hell and strong as death. So in our session, Görkem made our coffee and served to us in his authentic Turkish coffee dishes. The dishes were very similar to what is used for espresso shots (though it is not called that in Turkish). I drank it and it was extremely bitter. After drinking it, there were coffee grinds at the bottom of the cup. We would then proceed to turn our cups over onto the saucer and let the coffee grinds make distinct patterns all over the cup and saucer. Then we had to wait a few minutes for it to cool down. After it cooled, we picked the saucer and cup up and rotated it three times counterclockwise. We then flipped the turned the cup over either away from you or towards you. If you turn it away from you, the coffee reader will talk about your future and if you turn it towards you, the coffee reader will talk about your past. I turned mine away from me to see what my future held for me. Görkem looked at the distinct patterns in the cup and said that I would have a celebration of sorts soon and that I will be very stable. For me the celebration could represent me graduating college, and I also have a very stable household. I then proceeded to do a coffee reading for my classmate. I told him that I saw a ladder in his cup which meant that he would metaphorically climb a ladder soon. He said he literally has to climb a ladder to clean his gutters. I also saw a river in his cup which means that he will travel somewhere soon. This is actually how we learned to form the future tense of verbs. Overall, I enjoyed doing the coffee readings with my peers. Hopefully, I will be able to travel to Turkey and actually do one with a Turkish girl.

Turkey has a very fascinating culture. Geographically, Turkey is located on the Mediterranean Sea. It shares borders with Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria to the south; and Bulgaria and Greece to the northwest. Greece and Turkey have a rich history empirical and political conflict dating back to the Ottoman days. Greece used to be a part of the Ottoman Empire until it declared its independence before the fall of the empire. Since those days, there still remains cultural conflict between Turks and Greeks. The sentiments seem to be that Greeks hate Turks and Turks hate Greeks. My language partner used to share those same sentiments until he met Greek people and realized that they are very much similar people. Even to the point to where he could say “Greeks are just Christian Turks and Turks are just Muslim Greeks”. Greeks and Turks do have very similar cultures. A huge part of Turkish culture is the authentic Turkish food. But there are some specific foods that Greeks have tried to market as traditional Greek food, when in reality, it is Turkish. One food that is authentic Turkish food, but around the world is always advertised as Greek, is baklava. Baklava is a pastry made of dough, nuts, and syrup or honey. It is very delicious. The word “baklava” itself is of Mongolian and Turkic origin which shows its Turkish origin. Also, the pastry dish uses pistachios as one of its main ingredients. Turkey is actually one of the world’s largest producers of pistachios, which are cultivated in the southeastern part of the country (very far away from Greece). Another dish that was originally Turkish, but also claimed by the Greeks is dolmades. Dolmades are grape leaves stuffed with various things such as rice, vegetables, and ground meats. The word “dolma” itself is of Turkish origin and means to fill or to stuff, which supports that it is of Turkish origin. Dolmades are actually one of my favorite Turkish dishes. One last thing that is claimed to be Greek, is Greek yogurt (strained yogurt). This type of yogurt has become popular in the western world and is marketed as authentically Greek. The word yogurt comes from the Turkish word “yoğurmak” which means “to knead; to be curdled or coagulated; to thicken. The yogurt food probably is not originally Turkish, but it is definitely not of Greek origin. Also, the most popular brand of “Greek” yogurt, Chobani, was really made by a Turkish man. When my language partner told me these things, I was astounded and very intrigued because I thought that only of these things were authentically Greek because they are always advertised as Greek. But it definitely makes sense that these things have made their way to Greece, due to the historical power of the Ottoman Empire. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that these foods are all of Ottoman origin rather than just Turkish origin. Because the Ottoman Empire was centered around modern-day Turkey, that may be why those dishes are considered Turkish.