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In preparation for artifact 2:

Goals:

• have both number systems written down
• say the number systems in a clear tone and slowly
• know when to use each system
• Can say the words
• For this artifact I'm more focused on the speaking aspect

Tasks:

• Write down the number systems
• Have Alvin tell me what the difference is between the 2 systems
• Recognize the distinctions between the 2 by comparing the 2 systems together
• Practice saying the words a loud and then practice saying it in front of friends
• Practice writing down the numbers
• Get my pronunciation right

Evaluation of Success

• first off how the words are pronounced must be accurate or at least sound close to it
• Then I need to see whether I am able to recognize the phrases characters
• Can recognize the difference.  
• Ask friends to listen to the recording and be critical about any mistakes that I may have

After having done artifact 2:

This recording is one after several attempts were made. In previous recordings, I had trouble with my pronunciation of 7 - 9 in casual system. But after a few more tries I kind of got it right. The rest of the numbers I pronounced accurately. Since both systems don't require formality, it's easier to learn. For this artifact I didn't apply it to a particular thing, so it didn't need to be appropriate in a particular context. I did write both systems down. In the recording, I probably should have paused in between systems to make it easier for a listener to distinguish. I can say the words for sure. My pronunciation isn't exactly perfect. Even today I still have trouble saying two certain sounds. But with more practice, I'm sure I'll get it to be excellent.

It was an interesting and a good learning experience reading about cultural competence. The first type addressed in the reading was grammatical competence. It is language competence with regards to sentence structure, syntax, and vocabulary usage. With regards to Korean, if I know how to write words in Hangul and know the subject-verb placement in a sentence, that means I have attained some level of grammatical competence.

The next type was discourse competence which deals with the ability to connect sentences to express a tangible meaning as a whole. With discourse competence in Korean I would be able to have at least a basic conversation with a proficient Korean speaker.

The third type is sociolinguistic competence. It involves understanding the social context of language usage. This competence is essential especially while communicating with a native speaker. Sociolinguistic aspects connect a language to culture and show that it is more than just an abstract structural method of communication. For example, how I interact with someone in Korean depends on the age and social standing of that person.

The fourth and the last type is strategic competence which is the ability to communicate despite having insufficient competence in the other three types. If I had to speak with a Korean speaker but did not have enough competency in the other types to put my message across, I could try to make them understand by using hand gestures. These competencies allow a speaker to perform the seven functions of a language given by Halliday.

MarkKligmanSDLC111LearningPlan.docx

Mark Kligman
SDLC 111
Dr. Scinicariello
Ukrainian

I Can Statements

1. I can participate in conversations on a wide variety of topics that go beyond my everyday life, such as my career path, etc.

2. I can explain absentee and sick leave policies and answer questions about them.

3. I can compare and contrast life in different times and different locations.

4. I can explain how life has changed since I was a kid and respond to questions on the topic.

5. I can compare different jobs and study programs in a conversation with a peer

6. I can resolve an unexpected complication that arises in a familiar situation.

7. I can explain why I was late to class or absent from work and arrange to make up the lost time.

8. I can tell a friend how I’m going to replace an item that I borrowed and broke/lost.

9. I can communicate effectively on a wide variety of present, past, and future events.

10. I can give a clear and detailed story about my childhood memories, such as what occurred on family vacations or memorable events and answer questions about my story.

11. I can talk about present challenges in my school or work life, such as paying for classes or dealing with difficult colleagues.

12. I can discuss future plans, such as where I want to live and what I will be doing in the next couple of years.

13. I can exchange general information on topics outside my fields of interest

14. I can exchange general information about my community such as demographic information and points of interests.

15. I can handle a complication or unexpected turn of events.

16. I can return or exchange a purchase when a vendor makes a mistake or when parts are missing.

17. I can clear up a personal, school, or workplace misunderstanding.

18. I can support my opinion and construct a hypothesis.

19. I can give a supported argument about work-related processes that would benefit my employer and me.

20. I can usually defend my views in a debate.

CareerPathDiscussion.mov

PoemRecital.mov

PoemTranslation.mov

CrimeanCrisisPresentation.pptx

Mark Kligman
SDLC 111
Dr. Scinicariello
Ukrainian

Learning Journal

The overarching goal of my learning plan this semester is to emphasize and understand the major differences between the Russian and Ukrainian language. With the development of current events on Ukrainian soil, it is apparent that both the Russian and Ukrainian culture is very different. My goal is to learn how history and culture has influenced the differences in both languages and use that insight to my advantage as I further embark on my journey to learn the Ukrainian language.

Week 2

In order for me to better understand the complex features of the Ukrainian language, my language partner and I decided to focus on reading, analyzing and memorizing Ukrainian poetry. My language partner and I both agreed that the memorization of poetry is an effective way of implementing complex language in my speech, since it forces me to understand the context of the material and make sense of words that I am unfamiliar with. The poets that we decided to focus on primarily are: Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka. According to my language partner, the three mentioned artists are considered the most influential to the Ukrainian culture and even language. The three poets were rebellious in their work, since they directly attacked the Russian oppression of the Ukrainian people in their notorious pieces of work. My language partner and I focused on not only reading the work by these artists, but understanding the historic background to ensure full comprehension of their use of irony, alliteration and other various writing techniques. It has not been easy to comprehend complex Ukrainian language, especially since these three artists make an effort to use very distinct and traditional Ukrainian language to differentiate their work from the Russian language and culture as much as possible. Although my knowledge of Russian continues to contribute to my understanding of the text, it has definitely become increasingly difficult to rely on that aspect of my language skills and I am excited to see where this journey takes my abilities in the Ukrainian language.

Week 4

As my learning of the Ukrainian language continues, my language partner and I have noticed that my pronunciation has become an issue that we have decided to focus on a little more. Since the level of language difficulty that we are learning now is far more advanced than last semester, it has exposed some of my weaknesses in the language and put me in a position where I need to overcome these language deficiencies in order to further move on with my learning. My language partner and I have been working on intonation and tone throughout my speech. It has been very difficult and challenging to overcome my deficiency in correct intonation, especially since my language partner makes sure to correct me every single time that I make a mistake in my pronunciation. However, I have definitely been seeing improvements in not only the eloquence of my speech, but more importantly in my level of confidence when I speak Ukrainian. As my language partner put it, Ukrainians express themselves as if they are orators especially if they are passionate about their topic of conversation. Ukrainian is a beautiful language that puts emphasis on descriptive techniques and tone of speech; therefore I have continuously been working on improving my felicity of phrases so that I can better express my thoughts and feelings on a subject matter.

Week 6

Time is passing by and my language partner and I have seen drastic improvements in my language capabilities. Currently, we are focused on weeding out words on my vocabulary that are too similar or even identical to Russian. The Russian language heavily influenced Ukrainian language and therefore over the centuries, some Russian words simply replaced traditional Ukrainian words in regular speech. Poets such as Taras Shevchenko made it their goal to restore the distinction of the Ukrainian language in relation to Russian, specifically through applying pure Ukrainian vocabulary and stressing the relevance of language distinction in their work. My language partner and I wrote out sentences that had an identical meaning but used different vocabulary to get the point of the sentence across. The reason we did this was to practice the application of more traditional Ukrainian speech, which is considered formal and eloquent, opposed to the more colloquial Ukrainian, which makes use of words that are identical in sound and meaning with the Russian language. There are several words that I had not encountered in our previous semester and that are very different from Russian. I have definitely noticed myself putting in effort when making word choices that can be deemed more Russian than Ukrainian.

Week 8

My language partner and I have had fun in our learning of the Ukrainian language and the way it can be perceived, depending on eloquence and application of richer vocabulary. We watched several videos of Ukrainian politics making embarrassing speeches in parliament, where they were frequently confused and embarrassed by their lack of eloquence and application of pure Ukrainian vocabulary. I can relate to the politics, since Russian is the language of choice in the Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine. I can also relate to the politics making speeches, since Ukrainian to Russian, is in a way similar to the relation between English and Spanish, where it is easy to make an assumption of what the correct word is. For example, in Spanish, many words end with the letter “O” and many words are also similar to English, therefore it is easy to simply use an English word and end it with the letter “O”, in order to get the point across in Spanish. Similarly, there are Ukrainian words that are very similar to Russian words and it can be assumed that replacing letters “E” and “O” in that specific Russian word with the letter “I” will translate to Ukrainian. Therefore it is easy to make assumptions on what the correct way of saying a word that is similar in intonation to its Russian counterpart. My language partner and I made sure to go into detail of what words can be considered a hazard for making an embarrassing mistake in pronunciation. We made a list of similar Russian vocabulary words, in order to make sure that I remember the correct formulation of their potentially mispronounced Ukrainian counterparts.

Week 10

It is now past the middle of the semester and my language partner and I are very satisfied with my abilities in the Ukrainian language. We are continuing to study poetry but we have decided to deviate a little bit and dedicate some time to learning how to apply technical terms to bolster my practical ability in the everyday use of Ukrainian. Specifically, we decided to focus on my ability to communicate on a wide variety of present, past, and future events, since I experienced some issues in cohesively talking about events that are beyond the present timeframe. My language partner and I worked on building the structure for my stories, memories and past experiences so that I could express myself sensibly and clearly when reflecting on my past. We also worked on improving my descriptive abilities in terms of expressing human character, personality, and physical traits in order to improve my ability of expressing emotions towards individuals both figuratively and literally. In addition to working on the structure of stories and past experiences, my language partner and I made an effort to improve my capability in defining and expressing my future plans and goals logically. We put an emphasis on making sense of statements, focusing on expressing current issues and explaining how they translate to the decisions I have made that influence and guide my future plans. My language partner and I also dabbled a bit in political discussion and the application of debate terminology to further improve my ability to drive my point through statements.

Week 12

My language partner and I continue to focus our efforts on the practicality aspect of the application of Ukrainian language. With the amount of cultural study and research that I had completed at this point, I believed that it was relevant for me to be able to express my opinion on social and cultural issues that are relevant to Ukrainian people. Therefore, my language partner and I exercised short one on one debates in English, where we would take notes of what our main points were and then attempted to do the same but this time in Ukrainian. This learning method worked very well because I was able to preliminarily identify the terms I would use to support my claim in English, and follow by giving my best try to solidify these points in Ukrainian. Of course, I was very unclear on some terms and had no idea how to make sense of some claims, however because of the English discussion, I was able to identify what was unclear or unknown to me, which made it easier to learn from my mistakes as we went along with the debate. My language partner and I further worked on my ability to support a claim or viewpoint by exercising common day-to-day scenarios, such as returning or exchanging a purchase from a vendor as a result of a mistake or misunderstanding. My language partner would play the role of the vendor and I would be the customer who needs to defend his claim that the product he/she received was not representative of their expectations. We would switch roles as well to make sure that I gained as much exposure to various standpoints and positions as possible.

Week 14

I expressed to my language partner that I wished to improve my professional terminology in terms of being well versed in business aspects, since that is my area of study at the University of Richmond. Although my language partner is not a business student, he expressed that he had a solid background in business terminology. We focused on improving my ability to exchange information on topics within my field of study and interest. Specifically, I worked on expressing myself, in terms of what my professional interests are, as well as the reasoning to why I chose a specific career path and what I aspire to make of myself in that field. In order for me to be better prepared to take on a professional setting, my language partner and I went over some cultural basics, such as common business practices and mannerisms and how they relate to my expression of career choice. We further worked on bolstering my ability to support and construct opinions and standpoints, specifically ones that supported my argument in regards to work-related processes that could potentially benefit my colleagues in the workplace. My language partner further taught me how to acknowledge and react to mistakes in both a professional and social context. This was very challenging since even in English it can be difficult to correctly address a mistake or the mishandling of a situation. Once again, we applied our scenario method where I played the role of an employee who committed a mistake and had to own up to his mistake, while my language partner played the role of the supervisor who addresses the mistake made by the employee. We practiced the scenario method multiple times, playing out social scenarios as well where I learned how to express regret, sympathy and responsibility through my speech.

Week 16

On our last week, my language partner and I decided to perform a culmination of what I had learned throughout the semester. We decided that we would have a debate on the currently ongoing crisis in Ukraine that is heavily influenced by Russia. My goal was to apply what I had learned from the historically relevant poetry works by prominent artists such as Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, and the Ruska Triytsia. On top of applying my cultural knowledge, I was also responsible for being able to exchange factual information about social and environmental questions that surfaced as the result of the crisis. This was a very difficult task, as I had to pull together everything that I have learned not only this semester, but last semester as well. Clarity of thought and clarity of expression are two very different aspects of a debate and I definitely learned to make use of my thoughts through applying them in speech but I did struggle at times with wording and phrasing of sentences. I was put on the spot and I had to dig deep into my knowledge of the Ukrainian language to answer some of the concerns that had been raises by my language partner. In other words, this exercise taught me how to explain myself, as well as my viewpoint, in a setting where I was given the opportunity to express my take on a certain matter. Although I stumbled quite a bit, there were moments of brilliance where I was able to eloquently explain and ratify my opinion without resorting to Russian speech or mispronouncing a word. We have achieved a lot this semester and I have learned to define and defend my persona in the Ukrainian language, which is something I am proud of and excited about. I can confidently state that I have learned to express my true self appropriately in a given setting and that I am culturally conscious of the Ukrainian language and culture in relation to history.

Mark Kligman
SDLC 111
Dr. Scinicariello
Ukrainian

Cultural Posts

1.

Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian artist/poet-public figure: 1814 - 1861

Taras Shevchenko is easily the most famous and recognizable Ukrainian poet both domestically and internationally. In addition to Shevchenko’s work in poetry, he was also a successful writer, artist, public/political figure, ethnographer and folklorist. Despite his already impressive portfolio, Shevchenko’s most important achievement is being the foundational representative of the modern Ukrainian literature and language. Shevchenko’s impact on Ukrainian culture was so influential that the gravity of his relevance in Ukrainian culture had to be completely downplayed, in some cases, even prevented from being taught or mentioned at Ukrainian academic institutions during the Soviet era. The reason for this behavior was linked to the Soviet government’s fear of Shevchenko’s strong Ukrainian-nationalism views, which were commonly expressed in his work. The Soviet administration had a concrete way of diffusing the Ukrainian-nationalism message being sent in the works of Shevchenko, through emphasizing the social and anti-Tsarist components of his legacy, such as the class struggle of ethnic Ukrainians within the Russian Empire, while simultaneously casting a shadow on any patriotic and nationalistic observations in his work. Shevchenko himself was born a “serf”, which is the equivalent of a slave in a feudalist society, and he suffered immensely for his strong political views and opposition towards the established order of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. During Soviet times, Shevchenko was portrayed as an internationalist who’s objective was to support the poor classes in society through his work. In reality, Shevchenko was a vocal proponent of the Ukrainian national idea.

Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CS%5CH%5CShevchenkoTaras.htm
http://www.univ.kiev.ua/en/geninf/Shevchenko/

2.

Mykola Khvylovy, Ukrainian writer/poet-public figure: 1893 – 1933

Mykola Khvylovy was a Ukrainian writer and poet who is credited for being one of the founding fathers of VAPLITE (Vilna Akademiya, Proletarskoii Literatury - Free Academy of Proletarian Literature). VAPLITE was a literary union in Ukraine during the Soviet era that existed for roughly two years before being disbanded by the Soviet government, due to its sharp views and expressions against the reigning Communist Party. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin considered Khvylovy a major threat to the Communist Party, specifically because of his unfinished work “Valdshnepy”, which was an ideological text that has drawn comparisons to George Orwell’s “1984”. The first part of “Valdshnepy” was published in a VAPLITE pamphlet under Khvylovy’s pseudonym: “Artem Sokil”. Stalin persecuted members of VAPLITE as a result of the “Valdshnepy” publishing and sent many to oppression camps in Siberia as punishment for their choice to not identify who wrote the text. Khvylovy committed suicide shortly after Stalin carried out his verdict, citing that he could no longer bear the pain he felt as a result of the oppression of fellow writers and Ukrainians. His suicide note read: "Arrest of Yalovy - this is the murder of an entire generation ... For what? Because we were the most sincere Communists? I don't understand. The responsibility for the actions of Yalovy's generation lies with me, Khvylovy. Today is a beautiful sunny day. I love life - you can't even imagine how much. Today is the 13th. Remember I was in love with this number? Terribly painful. Long live communism. Long live the socialist construction. Long live the Communist Party." After Khvylovy’s death, his literature work was banned in the Soviet Union until its eventual collapse; the second part of “Valdshnepy” was eventually confiscated and never retrieved. Khvylovy advocated an orientation towards cultural trends in Western Europe, with an objective of loosening Ukraine’s dependence on Russian forms and inspiration. Needless to say, Khvylovy created major controversy, divided the Ukrainian literary scene, and created tension with Soviet authorities.

Citations: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CK%5CH%5CKhvylovyMykola.htm
http://www.ciuspress.com/catalogue/culture-and-society/3/the-cultural-renaissance-in-ukraine%2D-polemical-pamphlets%2C-1925%2D1926

3.

Lesia Ukrainka, Ukrainian writer/poet-public activist: 1871 – 1913

Born as Larisa Kosach-Kvitka, Lesia Ukrainka is considered as one of the most influential Ukrainian cultural figures and the absolute foremost female writer in Ukrainian literature. In addition to being a writer, Lesia was also a political, civil, and female activist. Encouraged at an early age by her uncle to study traditional Ukrainian folk works and history, Lesia started writing her works at an early age. Ukrainka’s work reflected her belief in Ukraine’s freedom and independence, leading her to receive membership of the Literary and Artistic Society in Kiev, which was eventually banned in the early 20th century due to its relations with revolutionary activists at the time. Ukrainka revealed an inclination towards Western ideologies early on in her life, when she and her brother established a literary circle called “The Pleiades” inspired by the French school of poesy “Pleiade”. The purpose of “The Pleiades” was promoting and developing Ukrainian literature and translating foreign classics into the Ukrainian language. Shevchenko and Franko inspired Ukrainka’s work and as a result, the Russian Empire immediately banned her first published text “Na krylakh pisen” in 1893. “Na krylakh pisen” was however distributed in Western Ukraine, which was a part of Austria-Hungary at the time, and smuggled into the Russian Empire by many. Ukrainka actively opposed the Russian Empire and was a member of several Ukrainian Marxist organizations. Ukrainka has been credited for being the first to officially translate the “Communist Manifesto” into the Ukrainian language. Shortly after her translation of the Marx text, Ukrainka was arrested by Russian police and remained under heavy political surveillance for the remainder of her life. It has been frequently expressed that it was the police incident, and not Ukrainka’s deteriorating health, that lead her to halt all literary work.

Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainkaLesia.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/613095/Lesya-Ukrainka

4.

Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer/economist-political figure: 1856 – 1916

Ivan Franko was a radical political figure and the founder of both the socialist and nationalist movement in Western Ukraine. Ivan Franko is credited for writing the first detective novels in the Ukrainian language and being one of the pioneers of translating classic foreign works by the likes of William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, and Victor Hugo into the Ukrainian language. Along with Shevchenko, Franko is considered as one of the major contributors to modern literary and political thought in Ukraine. Franko’s meeting with Mykhailo Drahomanov at Lviv University (Western Ukraine), who was considered a radical political and economic theorist by the Russian Empire, was instrumental in shaping the literary and political association that Franko expressed in his work. Franko’s association with Drahomanov led authorities to accuse him of belonging to an unidentified secret socialist society and resulted in a nine-month arrest in 1877. After his release from prison, Franko studied the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, contributed articles to European newspapers and assisted with organizing workers’ groups in Lviv. Franko went on to found his own magazine: “Hromadskyi Druh” (Public Friend), which was discontinued by the Russian government after only two issues. Franko was arrested again in 1880 after being accused of arousing Ukrainian peasant to a state of civil disobedience by Russian officials. This time, Franko was sent to an oppression camp for three months to endure exile and suffering for his social and political views. Upon his release from prison, Franko was kept under political surveillance, which many cite as the reason to why he was dismissed as a lecturer from Lviv University. Ironically, Lviv University went on to be renamed “Ivan Franko National University of Lviv” after Franko’s death. Ivan Franko was eventually arrested a third time in 1889 for his contributions to the journal “Pravda” (Truth), and collaboration with the patriotic and anti-Russian compatriots of Central Ukraine. Franko eventually died in poverty and poor health; he struggled immensely in his later years, as he no longer had the health and energy to constantly battle the Russian regime and was limited in his writing due to the full paralysis of his right arm.

Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CR%5CFrankoIvan.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/217438/Ivan-Franko

5.

Holodomor (Extermination by hunger), man-made famine/genocide of ethnic Ukrainians in the Soviet Union: 1932 – 1933

The Holodomor roughly took five million Ukrainian citizens’ lives in a single year. Holodomor was a man-made famine resulting from the deficiency of crops from the weak harvest of 1932. The process was fully controlled by the government, specifically because the urban Ukrainian citizens received their food portions through a government rationing system. Initially suburban Ukrainian citizens were affected the most since they were disconnected from the rationing system, however eventually urban citizens faced the same challenges as their portion sizes continuously dropped lower and lower. Despite various theories, historians believe that the Soviet government used the famine to their advantage to attack the increased sense of Ukrainian nationalism among the Ukrainian people resulting from the advocacy of popular Ukrainian poets, artists, and public figures. Although the Soviet government denied ethnic targeting throughout the famine, there is widespread evidence that the leader of the Communist regime, Joseph Stalin, deliberately targeted the Ukrainian people. The evidence focuses on the extraordinary and especially hostile rationing policies that were for some reason not adopted in any of the multiple Soviet republics, other than on the territory of Ukraine. In 1953 Dr. Raphael Lemkin, a Yale professor who famously coined the term “genocide”, remarked in his speech on the Holodomor: “the Ukrainian is not and never has been a Russian. His culture, his temperament, his language, his religion, are all different...to eliminate Ukrainian nationalism the Ukrainian peasantry was sacrificed. A famine was necessary for the Soviets and so they got one to order. If the Soviet program succeeds completely, if the intelligentsia, the priest, and the peasant can be eliminated, then Ukraine will be as dead as if every Ukrainian were killed, for it will have lost that part of it which has kept and developed its culture, its beliefs, its common ideas, which have guided it and given it a soul, which, in short, made it a nation. This is not simply a case of mass murder. It is a case of genocide, of the destruction, not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation.”

Citations:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CA%5CFamine6Genocideof1932hD73.htm
http://www.uccla.ca/SOVIET_GENOCIDE_IN_THE_UKRAINE.pdf

Artifact 3

This is my friend and I having a conversation that I would typically have at a Korean restaurant. This whole conversation is in the formal form.

My friend (A): Welcome

Me (B): Hello.

A: How many people?

B: 2 people

A: What do you want to drink?

B: Water please

A: Yes

A: What do you want to eat?

B: Can I have bulgogi please

B: More water please

A: I will do it

B: Excuse me, one more chopsticks please

A: Yes

A: Are you done with your plate?

B: Yes, I ate well (after a meal is over)

A: Do you want the check?

B: Yes thank you

B: Stay here well.

I believe that I achieved most of my goals this semester. My plan was not to become fluent in reading and writing, but to be able to learn the foundations of how the writing system worked. In terms of speaking, that was my main focus. This semester might be one of the only chances I get to learn from a native Korean speaker, so learning how to speak properly was more important to me than learning how to read or write. As long as I know how the writing system works, I do not necessarily need to learn how to read everything because I can self-teach that in the future without the aid of a tutor.

I knew from that start that learning raw vocabulary would not work. It would be near impossible to just memorize words from a list. This semester I made an attempt to ensure that the majority of what I learned could be reapplied to my own life. I believe that applying words to specific memories help with memorizing words and phrases. I do not think I have remembered everything, but for those things I do remember, it will be difficult for me to forget.

One stumbling block I encountered was trying to learn double consonants/vowels of the alphabet as well as the two lines of numbers (Sino-Korean and Native-Korean). In terms of the alphabet, single consonants and vowels would make one sound, but then double consonants and vowels would make a completely new sound, which made it hard to remember. Think about having an alphabet of 24 vowels/consonants, and then having dozens of other sounds based on how you combine the vowels and consonants together. That is what made it difficult to learn.

In terms of numbers, it was difficult to learn two separate number systems: the Sino-Korean and Native Korean. The Sino-Korean number system was easier to learn because it was more in line with the American numbers. I could see a trend with the numbers, making it somewhat easier to memorize. However, for Native-Korean numbers, I felt like there was no trend, making each number totally unique. This reminds me of the major difficulty I had with learning Chinese. If you do not know a word, you just do not know it.

I overcame most of the stumbling blocks by pure memorization because I could not find a trend among the words. In the future, I plan to find easier ways to memorize those words I had stumbling blocks with. I found interesting cultural links such as how the writing system has Confucianism influences, but nothing that directly helped so far. In general, for the other parts of learning, I found that having everything in diagrams, pictures, and dialogues helped me learn most efficiently.

The most interesting part of this semester was self-guiding my learning experience. In the past with other languages, I found some chapters and subjects mundane because they did not apply to me. This semester I could choose my own topics and relate a majority of the words back to my own experiences, making the process more entertaining and less stressful.

I would not say that there was a least interesting part, but I found pronouncing words to be frustrating. I believe everyone suffers from frustration when learning a new language. I often felt emotions such as "my pronunciation sounds so Americanized," or "it doesn't sound smooth at all." However, I believe that I am slowly improving with more practice. That is why, this semester, I focused more on speaking than on writing.

In the future, I want to continue my self-directed study on Korean. Consistent practice definitely is important and I feel that I have also made friendships with other peers and tutors to ensure safe and strong progress with the language. The SDL course at University of Richmond helped me immensely and gave me new perspectives and powerful resources to give me the jump that I needed!

1. I can read and speak Hangeul (very basic)

• I cannot write.
• I know single consonants from the alphabet.

2. I can greet people, introduce myself, and say farewells

• Informal and formal

3. I can describe myself. 

• I can say that I am a student, my age, where I am from.

4. Family

• I know the main family members
• honorifics

5. time

• I know the very basics of how to tell the time.

6. dating

• I know how to ask a guy out based off of a specific script.

7. order food

• I know the basics of how to order food on the phone (order delivery)

8. hobbies

• I can say a few of my hobbies.

9. weather

• I can describe the weather: good, sunny, cloudy, rainy.

10. home

• I can describe my house: size, color, has flowers.

Artifact 2

Artifact 2 is on the 2 Korean number systems from 1-10

The first system is used for casual conversations and about age

The second system is used for when talking about math and dates

Finally the last 5 words are from 1-5 and is used together with an object only.

Learning Plan

"I Can" Statements

1. I can read and say basic Korean words.

• Single consonants and vowels only.
• I cannot write.

2. I can conduct basic greetings, farewells, and introductions

• Formal and informal

3. I can give basic descriptions of identity

• Where I am from, age, what I do, what I am studying, hobbies

4. Talk about basic family

• I can tell how many parents and siblings I have
• Name each of my family members based on their honorifics (e.g. older brother, younger brother, etc.)

5. I can tell time, though it is not easy

• I know the Sino-Korean and Hangeul Korean basic numbers

6. Dating

• I can ask someone out on a date
• I can name basic items at the dinner table

7. I can order food from a restaurant

8. I can talk about my hobbies

• what I like to do and why

9. I can talk about basic weather

• good, sunny, cloudy, rainy

10. I can describe my home on a basic level

• size, color, what you might find in the yard

Useful Phrases and Self-introductions

For this first artifact, I did pretty well. I had learned enough phrases in Korean that when combined together they made up a decent monologue about myself. How the recording sounded was good, my Korean friends approved it and said it sounded good. Accent sounds good. The consistency of formality was good and was appropriate in a formal setting. Words were said correctly and slowly so that the listener could hear it. Overall good job to me.

I accomplished all my goals in weeks 4 and 5. Two of the goals I needed to learn before I could do the artifact so that was accomplished. The other goal I learned but time will tell whether I retained the information or not.

Though the Global Studio has a lot of resources such as a Korean dictionary and books in Korean, I didn't really have the time to look at them during the semester. Therefore, it was easier for me to just go online and look up the phrases. If I did have time, I would probably use the dictionary to look up words from Korean to English. Using the dictionary would probably have provided me with a number of different ways of saying a particular English word than would a Korean speaker.

For weeks 4 and 5,

my goals for this week are:

• finish off introductions in order to be ready for my first artifact.
• Learn the number systems
• Know what I'm going to say for my first artifact

Tasks:

• Find out how to say my name and ask for a name formally.
• Learn how to describe myself as a student by asking friends
• Start to put the phrases together into a small monologue for my artifact
• Ask Alvin what the differences are between the 2 number systems
• Learn from Alvin the 2 number systems

Resources:

• I used my friends and Alvin to acquire the information
• I started to prepare for my monologue and so I was already starting to put the information into a one sided conversation
• I went around asking my friends how to say things
• Alvin used the whiteboard to show me how the number system is written, to which I wrote down.
• I will record myself speaking this monologue and post on ning.

Evaluation:

• I will evaluate my success by determining whether I acquired enough information to create a small monologue for my artifact
• Then I will evaluate whether my artifact recording sounds right by asking my Korean friends
• If they approve then I did a good job, if not, then I didn't do so well. 
• I'm going to evaluate how well I remember the phrases through review and being tested by friends.

Week 2: I met with my language partner a little late, probably around week 2. During this week, I reviewed what I know with my partner. I knew a scatter of random phrases here and there, which I told him. But I mentioned that I didn't really remember anything too well because hello. Basically I needed a lot of review on the alphabet. While I had them written down, I didn't necessarily remember them. During this week we learned the basics to formal and informal greetings.

• Resources I used: google, a few online dictionaries, my Korean friends
• Language partner: First we reviewed my pronunciation of the alphabet first, since if you don't know the alphabet, then you can't really learn the language. We reviewed the characters and how to read them and write them. Before the meeting, I looked up some greeting words. And so I asked Alvin if they were correct. He also mentioned how in Korean there are different ways to say each phrase. We first learned formal greetings first then informal greetings.
• I found it more effective to ask friends than look online. When I look online, I really don't know if the word is correct or not. For example, how do I know that the word is spelled correctly or is a particular word the right translation in the context that I want. Therefore it's easier to just ask friends, who can automatically tell you what the translation is.

Week 3: Building on the work that I did last week, I learned how to say farewell formally and informally.

• Resources I used: google, and Korean friends
• Language partner: this week we learned formal and informal ways to say farewell. I asked him if the words are right and I would practice saying them. I learned from my friends that there are also 2 more ways to formally say goodbye to someone in terms of whether the older person stays or leaves and whether I stay or leave. Then he would quiz me on the words to see if I was able to retain anything.
• I found it very effective to be quizzed on the stuff. It makes me try harder to remember the information so that I don't mess up.

Week 4:

• resources I used: my Korean friends
• Language partner: I learned how to say my name and ask for a name formally. I learned how to describe myself as student that was to be used for my first artifact. I reviewed the words with him to ensure accuracy. Through him, I learned how to say "how are you?" and respond to the question when asked. After learning these words, Alvin made all the words from greeting and farewell sections into a conversation along with the name and how are you parts. And so in the end, I could talk in a conversation with someone.  To wrap up, we kind of did a little conversation with the words that I learned
• It was very effective to do a mock conversation without notes to get some practice in conversing with a Korean.

Week 5: This week we learned the 2 number systems and how to write them. It was basically more of him giving me information than me being very engaging.

• Resources I used: Alvin this time actually told me how to say the number systems and write it.
• Language partner. He told me what the difference was between the 2 number systems. Then he wrote out how to say each number in each system on a whiteboard.
• More effective for Alvin to give me the information directly.

Week 6: This week we reviewed the number system. We practiced saying the number system and writing it out. Then he would quiz me on the numbers.

• resources I used: My notes and Alvin
• Language partner: I would say the number system over and over until I was sure that I retained the information. Then Alvin would take my notes away and verbally quiz me on the numbers. He would say a number and I would have to say the translation of the numbers on both systems
• Very effective to have the quizzes.This time though it was information that I learned up to this week and this week. So the quizzes forced me to actually try to retain the information. When I'm under pressure, information sticks more in my brain.

Week 7:

• Resources I used: Alvin
• Language partner: This week, Alvin taught me another way to say the number system. But this time a certain way to say the number system is only used when it's used with an object.  So I learned this this week. I also learned 3 I like sentences. I also learned a few more new words, which are a little difficult to remember.
• This week I didn't get quizzed and so not getting quizzed isn't very effective in my learning.

Week 8:

• Resources I used: Korean friends and experiences
• Language partner: From multiple experiences at restaurants, I learned a few phrases of what I should say when I'm at a restaurant. And so I had already knew a few phrases. For this week, I asked some of my friends what should be said and not said when first entering a restaurant. I learned how to order for a drink or a dish. But the downside is I don't necessarily know the different ways that could be said in order to ask for something at a restaurant in Korean.  This week was a busy week for both of us and so I was sick during this week.
• Going to a restaurant is an effective way to see how each phrase is used and where and when it is used.

Week 9:

• Resources I used: Korean friends, experiences, online dictionary, Alvin
• Language partner: This week we reviewed what I learned last week and added more to it. I learned what questions would be asked by the waitress when she's asking us what we want to order. For example what do I want to eat and what do I want to drink. We reviewed whether the terms from last week are correct. Then he put all the information into a typical conversation at a restaurant when first entering. Also this week I learned a variety of food related words. Such as pizza, pasta, hamburger. Then we had a mini conversation.
• Like I said before putting the words into a conversation is easier and more effective than having random phrases everywhere. 

Week 10:

• Resources I used: Alvin and notes
• Language Partner: this week I learned months and dates. Unfortunately though, I didn't learn the year. Almost 85% of the words associated with months and dates comes from both number systems. Therefore he only needed to tell me how to say in Korean month, day, before noon, and after noon.The rest I had already knew. And then we reviewed basically everything that we had learned this semester to prepare for the final.
• Review is very effective. It's like a refresher of everything that I learned.

One of the coolest things that I've done with my Swedish this year was actually over winter break. Mrs. Andersson asked if I wanted to be Santa for their Christmas festivities-- it was a fun surprise for everyone! Louise helped me write a speech and I had to dress up like Santa and create my own Santa persona. The speech part was fun but I was really nervous... I also had to read poems that they'd written to each other and that was tricky because it's hard to read another language in their short-hand and script-like style. For instance, Swedish has special vowels (Å, Ä, and Ö) and they look really different when written in short-hand than when typed. The two dots on the ä and ö become one straight line but I hadn't realized that before reading the poems over Christmas so it sent me through a loop! The whole ordeal was a great learning experience though. Here is the script I wrote: Jultomten%20Tal.docx

Practical use of Swedish! Learning Swedish has been really helpful and on numerous occasions I have been able to use it to communicate with Louise or Freddie or with their parents. For instance, I recently sent their parents an email and started it off with some Swedish for practice/to show them my progress. I said: