Blogs

• Complete the self-assessment of your learning plan.

I can introduce myself.

I can say different dishes of food.

I can somewhat ask questions depending on the situation.

I can somewhat remember how to count in Korean.

I can say I like or do not like something.

I can recognize some of the occupations when I hear them.

I can somewhat read Korean and sound the words out.

I can ask about family and the number of family members someone has.

I can tell you what I did on the weekday specifically the time. 

I can somewhat say that I am wanting to do something like sleep, eat, or buy.

Turkish%20Hamam.pptx

I decided to do my final cultural presentation on Turkish baths or hamams. I thought this topic was interesting because it has such a long history in Turkish culture and because we don't have a bath culture in our society. My list of vocabulary not listed in the presentation but read out loud included: 

hamam - bath

vakif - charity

camekan - entrance hall

sicaklik - hot room

gibes tasi - the big pedestal thing in the middle 

sogukluk - cooling down room

nailn - bath clogs

tas - bath bowl

kese - bath mitt

pestemal - thin bath towels in a plaid design 

What struck me the most about the cultural presentations that were given in class, was the fact that almost all of the Korean presentations were about education or jobs or stress. Even considering that it is well known that Korean culture is one of high-stress and high expectations, I found myself wondering if the side that was being presented over and over again was actually all that you could see in Korean culture or if there is a more relaxed side but that just didn't get presented on. I also didn't know that it was so difficult to live there. It seems to me that even Koreans have a difficult time living in Korean society. Simple things like getting a job seem nearly impossible and I'm not sure if they just meant within the big cities or if there are just a load of unemployed people all over Korea. Overall, these presentations about stress did not make me want to visit Korea as much as I had thought I wanted to because it seems that Korean society could be very preoccupied and very difficult to interact with as an outsider. 

I think that Turkish people have a great sense of family bonds. Sezgi often uses the example of a Turkish wedding in our class to help explain cultural concepts that we are learning. She describes the act of proposal where the groom-to-be along with his ENTIRE family (extended family as well) goes to the house of the bride (she basically knows it's coming, it's not a surprise) where she and her ENTIRE family are waiting to receive them. He then has to ask the girl's father for his daughter's hand and with her parents' blessing they can be engaged. The bride-to-be then has to make and serve Turkish coffee to everyone from both families and she puts salt in the groom-to-be's coffee to represent possible hardship in the marriage. If he can stand to drink it, it means that he will be able to take the hard times in their marriage too. From this example of the Turkish wedding, I think it shows how close families generally are and how important it is that they are involved in each others' lives. 

According to Sezgi, people in Turkey have a very relaxed attitude towards time. She says that for the most part Turkish people are always late or it is expected that people will be late. She says that even transportation runs behind schedule. Although she says that public transportation in-between cities does not generally run late, it is more so the buses within the cities that are never on time. This doesn't really surprise me given what I have learned from my research on things such as raki culture or when Sezgi talks about meals in Turkey. It seems to me that Turkish people value time spent with people and on conversation rather than valuing a more strict sense of being on time. 

For my research based project as mentioned in my earlier cultural post, I decided to do it on Korean String instruments. I first researched on the type of music that was traditionally played. That is court music, religious music, and lay people music. Then decided to look at instruments. I decided to focus on stringed instruments because I was first drawn to the Gayageum by listening to a similar instrument from the Japanese culture, the Koto. I then looked into Korean instruments and found that it was too broad of a topic with too much information. I knew I had to cut it down to a particular type. I chose stringed instruments particularly because I play a stringed instrument. I spent more time watching videos on how the instruments were made and the technicality of it. I also spent a lot of time on listening to the type of songs that are played on the stringed instruments (plucked, bowed and struck). However, I could not share as much as I wanted with the class because I did not know how to show all the videos I watched on instrument making and music videos in a more interactive way for such a short time. Thus, I decided on just going through short clips of the types of instruments and briefly explain their shape and what they are made of. 

Link - Stringed Instruments

Over this semester, I believe that I have greatly improved my speaking. I am more comfortable and more confident when speaking than I was before. I contribute this to the change in scenery in my tutoring class as well as the practice I have been doing outside of class in conversations with my boyfriend. I am still not the best and I have a lot more improvement to do, but I am a lot better than I was before. My reading and writing have also somewhat improved as well. In regards to my learning plan, I definitely set my goals too high, but it was good experience to try to complete the tasks I had suggested for myself. I think I have set a good foundation for future language learning.

In this project I talked about the boom of Korean beauty products and how they made their way to the United States and across the world. The gap between Korean products and American consumers has been bridged by startup companies that are usually headed by young Americans of Korean descent. Also, American brands and stores are selling these products under the term “K-beauty” and are even making their own versions of these products. The appeal is that these products are luxury quality for a low price. This project also talks about the Korean mindset regarding beauty products as well as the use of traditional herbal medicine within them.

Project Link:

Korean%20Beauty%20Boom.pptx

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35408764

https://www.fastcompany.com/3038283/why-korean-skincare-is-booming

http://www.beautypackaging.com/issues/2016-03-01/view_features/korean-cosmetics-setting-the-pace-for-global-beauty

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-south-korea-beauty-is-skin-deep-just-make-sure-to-pierce-the-stubble/2015/05/10/4779f642-f354-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html?utm_term=.152f8f23ba37

http://www.byrdie.com/korean-beauty-2016/slide7

I have learned many things over multiple areas of culture. I have learned about the traditional aspects with traditional music and pansori. I have learned about traditional games that are older versions of games we know and love. I have learned about the more modern concept of beauty and the importance of skincare and makeup. I have even learned about the Korean mindset regarding politics and how Koreans live their everyday lives. I have learned about the past, present, and implications for the future. I feel that my cultural experience with South Korea this semester was very well rounded and interesting.

Over these last few weeks I have been taking more of a realistic approach to Korean learning. I have been watching a Korean news source on YouTube and trying to gather what they were talking about. I couldn’t understand most of it but we have had some conversations about it in class. We talked about the current situation between Trump and North Korea and what this means for South Korea as well as the situation with South Korea’s former president Park Geunhye.

Other things I have learned these past weeks was about hobbies and what we do in our free time. The grammar we learned for this topic pertained to present tense (는 것/기) and if-then statements ((으)면).

I also learned about describing travel plans like where we would want to go and what we would do there. The grammar we learned for this topic pertained to something you are going to do in the future ((으)ㄹ 거예요).

South Korean women and men cherish their beauty products. Korean beauty road shops are on every street in Seoul and carry every kind of makeup up and skincare with every kind of ingredient. The focus of Korean beauty is to correct and repair the skin rather than to cover it with makeup. As a result, makeup is usually very light and natural looking. South Korean women will spend twice as much of their income on skincare and other beauty products while men buy more than men in any other country. The look everyone goes for is bright, clear, soft skin that glows and is very dewy. Many Korean products are geared toward this dewy finish that many Americans would consider oily. The mindset is that plump, dewy skin allows them to look younger and fresher. Korean brands have begun to launch skincare and makeup products specifically for men, providing them with specialty cushion BB creams, brown products, and even military face paint that is less harsh on the skin. Skincare and makeup is a very important concept for Koreans of all ages from children to the elderly.

Mock application essay about my interest in Korean language

사람들은 저한테 왜 한국과 한국 문화를 좋아해 물어볼 때 나는 대답을 찾고 있습니다. 저는 항상 "제가 언어를 좋아해서" 먼저 말합니다. 옛날에 제가 5 년의 스페인어, 3 년의 독일어, 1 년의 중국어를 곻부했습니다. 저는 항상 많이 언어를 말할 수있는 사람들을 매력적이 있고, 그 사람들처럼 되고 싶었습니다. 이 모든 언어와 모든 단어를 기억하고 생각없이 문장이 만들는 것을 어땠습니까? 제가 많이 언어로 할 수 없다면 제가 적어도 하나를 할 수 있기를 좋겠습니다. 제가 "왜 한국어" 물어볼 때, 언어를 독특하게 만드는 작은 것들을 생각합니다. 이름끝에 추가 사랑과 존중의 단어 있고, 다른 단어을 만들기 위해 두 배로 된 단어가 또 있다고, 또는 어떤 단어는 더 귀엽고 엄격하게 소리를 낼 수 있습니다. "편하게 어떤것 하고있다"거나 "잘하고 있다"라고 말할 수 있습니다. 아무도 생각하지 않은 언어의 작은 것들은 제가 항상 생각하는 것들입니다. 언어를 영어와 더 멀리하고 감정이 넣는 단어와 구에 가장 좋아합니다. 그것을 말하는 사람들에게는 더 좋아합니다. 저는 모든 것이 공유하고 있고 식사를 할 때 사람들과 함께하는 것을 좋아합니다. 저는 사람들이 장로들에게 존경심을 표하는 방법과 그방법이 다른 언어가 있어서 좋아합니다. 저는 그들이 메이크업과 스킨 케어 및 패션에 관심이 많아서 저같은 큰 관심을 가지고있는 것을 좋아합니다. 한국인의 삶의 방식은 미국인 들과는 너무나 달라서 저는 이 삶의 방식이 저의 성격과 관심에 더 적합하다는 것을 알게됩니다.

I am often asked why I am so interested in Korean and Korean culture and every time I am asked I struggle to find an answer. I begin by saying that I have always been interested in languages. In my lifetime I have taken five years of Spanish, three years of German and one year of Mandarin Chinese. I have always found people that could speak multiple languages so fascinating and wanted to be just like them. How was it possible to remember all these words in all these languages and be able to put them together in strings of sentences without a thought? If I can’t do it with multiple languages I at least want to be able to do that with one. When I ask myself “why Korean” I think of the little things about the language that make it unique: the terms of endearment and honorifics that are added to names, the fact that there are words that are doubled to make onomatopoeia, or the fact that some words can be altered to make them sound more cute or strict, even the way that you can say you are “comfortably doing something” or you are “doing something well”. The little things of the language that no one really thinks about are the ones that I think about constantly. The things that separate the language further from English and the emotion that can be put into words and phrases is what I find the most interesting. When it comes to the people that speak it, I find even more interest. I love how everything is shared and how everyone likes to be with people when it is time for a meal. I love how people show respect to their elders and the fact there’s a whole different method of speech for it. I love that they care so much about makeup and skincare and fashion which are things I take great interest in as well. The way of life of Koreans is so different from Americans and I find this way of life more suited to my personality and interests.

Over these last two weeks I went back to my roots and used online language learning programs. I also downloaded software on my computer that changed certain words on the current screen into Korean as well as dabbled into Schola. The learning program was not as fun to learn from since it was just dialogue and reading comprehension and I prefer to talk through the lessons. The computer program would have been a good concept except the program I downloaded was translating easy words or words that didn’t need a translation (the, it, etc). Schola was harder than I expected but I got the hang of it.

Other things I learned these past weeks was about shopping and what goods we wanted to buy. The grammar we learned pertaining to this topic were units for nouns like we would use in two pairs of socks or one bunch of bananas.

I also learned about places and we described places we liked, wanted to go to, or had specific meaning for us. The grammar we learned for this topic pertained to alternative suggestions (지 말고) and explanations to why something couldn’t happen (어/아서… 지 못하다).

The game I made to teach someone something I learned was pretty fun and very competitive. There was a lot of shouting but the purpose of the game was received. Playing a game to learn a language (especially using candy as an incentive) really influences people to want to learn. My friends said they will never forget which modifier to use ever again.

Yut Nori (윷놀이) is a traditional Korean game that involves a lot of strategy. It consists of four wooden sticks which are flat on one side and rounded on the other, a game board, and 8 playing tokens. The object of the game is to return all of your tokens back to start and you can take shortcuts if you land on a corner. For a score of Do (one stick flat side up) you move one space, for Gae (two sticks) you move two, for Geol you move three, for Yut you move four and throw again, and for Mo (all rounded side up) you move five spaces and throw again. If you land on a space occupied by an opponent they are forced to return to start. In American terms, it is basically an old version of Sorry and will cause a lot of tension between players.

An activity I can create to teach someone something I learned is a speed guessing game to correctly matching the modifier to the recipient according to formal speech. There will be a sentence that describes an adult/elder receiving something and a younger person/child receiving something with the reception modifier omitted. The players have to guess if it is the formal modifier (께/께서) or the informal modifier (한테/한테서). Points will be given in the form of candy. If someone answers correctly they get the candy, if not then someone else gets to steal. Whoever ends up with the most candy wins.

Over these last two weeks I’ve been trying to have some conversations with people around me outside of the classroom. Lately I have been having conversations with my boyfriend who is Korean. One of our more difficult topics was about family and the occupations family members have. He had to explain some words to me in English but he said I did well for the most part.

Other things I learned in these past weeks was about life as a college student (대학생활) and schedules. It was a little difficult to describe the other classes I was taking in Korean. The grammar we learned pertaining to this topic was the uses of “or” ((이)나) and “besides/outside of” (밖에), and asking if someone should do something ((으)ㄹ 까요).

I also learned something that coincided with my independent study, family introductions. In class we also introduced family members and talked about their ages and occupations. The grammar we learned pertaining to this topic was about sympathizing with something or someone (겠어요).

Based on the previous weeks I already see a lot of improvement. I am a lot more comfortable within my group now so I am not as afraid to speak in Korean as I was before. I am not as intimidated and I can easily talk with my classmates. Because I am more comfortable now, I am more confident in speaking, even if I am wrong, which is what you need to do in order to improve. I think I will be able to easily improve from now on.

Over these two weeks I did some Flipboard article reading. One of the articles that stuck with me was one about the burger that is served in a North Korean airport. Apparently it got a lot of attention after an LA times reporter talked about his experience eating the burger, calling it mysterious yet legendary. I also found a recipe or two I am thinking about trying in the future.

Other things I learned in these two weeks are about school majors, why we chose our majors and what we plan to do in the future. Grammar that we learned along with this topic was a form of polite refusal or rebuttal ((은)ㄴ데/는데요).

I also learned about roommates and introducing them, along with reading exercises about problems someone has with their roommates. Grammar that we learned along with this topic concerned being in the process of doing something (고 있다) and suggesting something ((으)ㄹ 래요).

One of the most popular films that are about pansori is called Seopyeonje (서편제). I watched this film when I was studying abroad in South Korea. It is a 1993 film that tells the story of a “family of traditional Korean pansori singers trying to make a living in the modern world”. It follows the story of Songhwa, her brother Dongho, and their father Yubong, a pansori singer that strictly trains his children to be pansori performers, believing that a truly great pansori artist must suffer. Dongho runs away but Songhwa stays and takes all of the suffering. Eventually Yubong blinds Songhwa so she can experience true suffering. Years later, Dongho finds Songhwa and performs with her once more. This film seemed to give an analogy to a deep part of the Korean mindset: one must suffer to achieve greatness.