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I remember wanting to learn Korean during my first semester at Richmond, but as a transfer student, it was not yet feasible to take classes that did not fulfill either general education or major requirements. I am really glad that I was finally able to fit it into my schedule because I really enjoyed returning to formal language learning. It was obviously not ideal since we had to complete the second half of the semester remotely and I regret that I was unable to complete my lessons with Jimin. Regardless, it was an interesting experience and I think that I was still able to continue learning at home, albeit in a limited capacity.

One of the main things that I learned this semester is that language learning is a continuous process. Even if one becomes fluent in their target language, there is always something new to learn to keep adding to their knowledge. Even though I consider myself fluent in English, I realize that I am always improving and learning new things. I am going to be completely honest and say that I was unable to fully accomplish any of my goals but I was definitely able to make progress towards all of them. And surprisingly, I was able to achieve better understanding in some other areas that were not originally part of my focus.

Partially related to that point, I also realized that there are a variety of ways to effectively learn a language. I initially thought that the best way to learn a language is by the traditional textbook. After being forced to improvise my language learning at home, I realize that I can continue to learn even though I did not have complete access to my language learning partner. In fact, the best way to build knowledge of a language is to learn by different methods because of the different things you can learn by each. For example, being immersed into a primarily Korean-speaking environment at home has allowed me to actually implement what I had learned in my structured lessons.

In SDLC 105, the lessons that I enjoyed the most were those that talked about the origin of languages. I really liked learning about language trees and seeing how all languages are connected to each other in one way or another. It was especially interesting to learn about Korean specifically because its language family is still being contended, even though there is some consensus. I also enjoyed what we learned in the first few weeks of class, about the different characteristics of each language. This really put into perspective the cultural aspect of language, which I did not realize had such a significant impact on language.

During the summer, I plan on continuing my language learning the best I can. I will be able to keep practicing speaking with my family and also keep learning more about Korean culture. I know that there are also countless free and readily accessible resources for learning a language like YouTube videos, so I plan on relying on the Internet heavily to aid me. In general, I am excited to continue the lifelong process of learning a language.

It is official, Reba and I had our last meeting this past week. Not to reiterate, but I will be missing the ASL course we had together. I have never had a class that was as much fun as hers, and I always find it a gift to find a subject that doesn’t feel like schoolwork, which ASL does.

            The semester has been an incredible one, and, looking back, I am very proud of the accomplishments that we have made. With the topics I have covered with Reba, such as family relationships, numbers, time, quantity, a numerous amount of verbs, sports, meals, games, jobs, tenses, holidays, places, culture, and more, I feel as though I have a strong understanding of the foundation of ASL. Although I do not think I can survive very easily in a deaf community, I do believe I now have the ability to deaf individuals in a way that could establish a basic level of friendship and respect. However, I still want to improve my ASL abilities. I do not want to stop my journey here, thus over the summer, I plan to continue my studies of ASL. I still have the books Reba has lent me, such as the “Signing Naturally textbook”, the application “Sign School” and I have my own American Sign Language Dictionary. I will also be using resources like  udemy.com and italki.com. Udemy will help me build and developed my overall vocabulary, while italki will help me strengthen my communication skills and really solidify the usage of new ASL vocabulary. Learning vocabulary through memorization is a fine way of learning, but being able to actually apply those terms in communication is a completely different skill set. Thus, italki, or any type of conversing, is important in order to solidify my understanding of the new terms and language itself. In addition, I have also been looking into what events are being held in my area for the deaf. As it turns out, there is a deaf school around 20 minutes from my house! This must mean that there is a sufficient deaf population, at least within that area. So, I have been keeping tabs as to any community events that may be occurring either to support the deaf or even to interact with the community. Although I am nowhere near the appropriate level to do so, I would love to be able to help take care of children while also practicing my ASL. Whether that means I work at a deaf summer camp, or just help an individual family out and act as a sitter for a deaf child, I don’t have a preference. But, if I could kill three birds with one stone, hanging out with kids, earning some money, and practicing my ASL, that would be an incredible opportunity.

            Reflecting upon the program itself, I was very happy with how it was structured. I apricated the time and energy I had to invest in learning the language, and I also enjoyed having to learn about the cultural aspects of the program. I knew very little about ASL before this course, not just the language, but the culture as well! This course has given me the opportunity to expand my understanding of both. Thank you.

            This past semester has been amazingly awesome in regards to my ASL journey. I originally wanted to learn terminology and phrases revolving around emergency medical situations such as anatomical and physiological terminology and symptoms. I wanted this specific skill set because I am an Emergency Medical Technique and if I encountered anyone who was deaf or hard of hearing in the field, I wanted them to be able to communicate their information, symptoms, and the preceding events of the situation to me. However, looking back on this semester, Reba and I barely covered medical terminology. We actually focused on other topics such as numbers, relationships, food, furniture, houses, places, sports, spelling practice, and emotions. Nevertheless, I am not sad or regretful that we did not cover the medical terminology. In fact, I am proud and thankful for the information I have learned, despite the fact that it did not entirely follow my learning plan. I do not think my understanding of ASL would be as strong if we solely focused on medical terminology and phrases.  My understanding of the language would be limited and I do not think I would have a great comprehension of how the language actually functions and its essential components.

            In order to effectively be able to interpret ASL in an emergency situation, I need to have a strong understanding of the basics of the language. I need to improve my ability to read signs and increase my exposure to reading spelled out words. I need to have an understanding of the sentence structure and how to indicate tenses. All of these components were imperative to learn for understanding ASL, and I believe this past semester, I have gained at least some amount of exposure to these concepts. By no means am I an expert, but I do have the confidence to say that I have a strong beginning grasps on these concepts. I do not expect my ASL language journey to end after this semester as I plan to take the Self-directed Language Learning II course in the fall of 2020. During the fall, I will continue to increase my understanding of language’s grammar and increase my vocabulary. Until then, I will be using italki.com over the summer to practice my conversational skills and I will be using the books Reba has given me, along with

            Reflecting upon this past semester though, my favorite part of the course was interacting and building a relationship with Reba. For the most part, it was just the two of us meeting together at least twice a week and I think I can say after four months, we have become friends. It was really interesting to learn about Reba’s upbringing as she is completely deaf – to hear about her family, her time at Gallaudet University, and her work with ASL champs. I had always been curious about different aspects of deaf culture, deaf interactions, and what it is like to be deaf in a world full of sound, and, although she does not represent the entire deaf community,  Reba showed me a snapshot of her upbringing, experiences and how she handled such things.

            If I had to find one part of the course that I thought could use improvement or I could change, I would try to recruit at least one other student to take the course with me. The one-on-one interaction with Reba was great, but I do wish I had a fellow classmate who I could connect with on-campus and practice our ASL together.

            The most impactful article/piece of literature we had read this year for me was during the first week, the article “How to Successfully Learn a  New Language This Year.” After reading the article, I was not shocked by any of the information, but it was somewhat of a waking call for how I should be approaching not only my ASL journey but also my Mandarin Language journey. I need to practice speaking with others and be specific about the goals I have for my languages. Simply just making flashcards and memorizing vocabulary is helpful to an extent, but it is through interactions and conversation that my language skills really solidify and my vocabulary usage transfer from short-term to long term memory. If I were to have another student on campus who was taking an ASL course with me, the two of us could really strengthen our understanding and usage of the language in a setting outside of the classroom and we could practice through fun, adventures modalities, such as playing bored games, going to the dining hall, or simply just walking around campus.

            I have absolutely loved learning ASL this past semester and I look forward to continuing to improve my signing skills.

As the semester draws to a close, I have been reflecting a lot on my language learning journey thus far. It has been a very interesting and challenging semester to say the least, but I am pretty satisfied with the progress that I made. While I wish that I could have completed my SDLC 105 classes and lessons with Jimin on campus, I was also able to supplement my learning in more unconventional ways at home. I was unable to meet all my goals but considering the circumstances, I think that what I was able to accomplish is acceptable. Although my future self-directed learning in Korean is not yet determined at this point in time due to the uncertainty surrounding the fall semester, I definitely know that I want to continue my language learning in some capacity. Since my summer is currently empty due to cancelled internships and jobs, I plan on spending most of it self-studying Korean to pass the time, as well as to improve my skills. I decided to devote my last journal to outlining what that might look like.

Since high school, I knew that learning from textbooks and workbooks is most ideal when studying language; I did really well when learning French for three years and my one year of Korean at my old university. I also know that it will be difficult to obtain those resources during this time, so I have been trying to think of alternative ways to improve my Korean. I first plan on finishing my old workbook that I found at home since it was incomplete anyways. This will also help me review some easier concepts before moving to more free learning. Another thing I plan on doing is immersing myself into Korean entertainment. In high school, I had a lot of Korean friends, so I would watch a lot of K-dramas and listen to K-pop because we shared similar interests. At Richmond, I actually know very few Koreans so I rarely indulge in those things during the school year. Since I will have so much free time on my hands, I think it would be a good time to become more cultured with Korean media. Not only will it be fun, but I personally believe that there is merit in participating in a variety of different aspects of a culture to better understand the language. I can learn new vocabulary and phrases from watching dramas as well as listening to music. The last and probably most effective thing that I plan on doing is trying to transition into speaking full Korean at home. I currently speak Konglish, a mix of Korean and English, with my family, which means that I use whatever Korean words I know and then use English as a shortcut when I have no idea how to say something in Korean. My mom and grandma are both immigrants from South Korea, so Korean is their first language and they definitely are much better at it than I am. If I am unable to think of certain English words in Korean, I can either just ask them or look it up. This might be burdensome at first but it will eventually become more fluid as I expand my knowledge. Although this summer will be unique and unprecedented, this will be a great opportunity to continue my language learning in a new capacity, and I am really excited to start once I complete my last final!

I decided to devote this past week to preparing for my final presentation. For a while I was unsure of what I was going to present on. In class two weeks ago, we broke up into Zoom breakout rooms to brainstorm some ideas. My classmates had some good ideas but I debated between various ideas, with the main topic I was leaning towards being something related to health, in light of COVID-19. One of my majors is Healthcare Studies, and I thought it would be interesting to learn more about South Korea’s healthcare system and the cultural effects of the outbreak. I ultimately decided not to because my vocabulary is still not that advanced and I wanted to invest my time in something that would be somewhat challenging but still manageable. After considering a few more ideas, I ended up selecting something that meant a lot to me personally, the Korean flag.

To me, flags are a great way to represent one’s culture, especially because of the symbolism that flags often hold. Even though I was born and raised in the United States, I personally identify strongly with my Korean background whether it be through my music or food or personality. The flag means a lot to me, so much that I have one hanging in my dorm back in Richmond and a symbolic tattoo on my back. I had done some research on the Korean flag before, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn even more about its history as well as become familiar with the associated terms.

For starters, the Korean flag is called taegeukgi 태극기. Its design is minimal but the meaning behind it is very philosophical. The foundation is a clean white background, which represents peace and purity. For this reason, many Koreans in the past have fondly worn the color white. In each corner, there is a black trigram– starting from the top left corner and going clockwise, they are geon 건, ri 리, gon 곤, and gam 감. They are derived from Chinese characters and each represents multiple different things. Some examples are seasons, celestial bodies, cardinal direction, virtues, natural elements, and members of a family. In the center lies a red and blue yin-yang symbol, which is known as taeguek 태극. The red is on top and called yang 양, representing positive cosmic forces. The blue is called eum 음 and represents negative cosmic forces. Similar to Chinese culture, the taegeuk is supposed to represent balance in the universe. The taegeukgi has a lot of meaning and is inspiring to me, especially with the values of justice, vitality, wisdom, and fruition behind the trigrams. When I reflect back to one of our earlier lessons in culturals, a lot of what I learned back then is clearly shown in the flag and physically manifested in the Korean people. While I am grateful to be an American citizen and for my Western upbringing, I am also extremely proud to embrace my Korean-American identity. I am glad that I chose to research something that made me feel more connected to my culture while also being very educational.

For this cultural post, I am going to talk about a topic that is very prevalent today, which is regarding SARS-CoV-2. At this point in time, the coronavirus has impacted the lives of everyone and has caused a halt of schools, jobs, and social interactions. The virus that had originated in Wuhan, China, has now spread throughout the world and has now been declared a global pandemic. People are coming together and isolating in order to stop and slow the spread of COVID-19, but it seems as though it will be a long time until our normal days can resume.

            South Korea was one of the first countries to get impacted by this virus, and they got hit very hard. However, South Korea has been able to deal with this pandemic very well, which caused other countries to try and follow their example. I think one of the reasons they were able to this is a result of the culture and mindset of the Korean people. While other countries have continuous new cases every day, South Korea has been able to nearly flatline their new cases back around in mid-March. A reason for this is that the Korean people emphasized that it was imperative that everyone who is sick to come out in order to contain the disease and virus. As a result, in just a month, South Korea was able to contain the disease. In the image above, we can see one of the drive-thru testing options they implemented to ensure that everyone who thinks they have it can get tested without going out and spreading the virus even further.

            In addition to providing tests, South Korea was able to produce an efficient test kit for SARS-CoV-2. A test kit produced by Seegene and his team, comprised about 80% of all South Korea’s testing kits. The testing kit targets primary structures and gene sequences, like the spike protein, of the coronavirus for testing. This efficacy has caused other countries all around the world to reach out and try to purchase these testing kits. I am excited and so glad that this testing kit was found early on and is now being used to help those around the world contain this virus.

            SARS-CoV-2 has caused an immense amount of pain and struggle for everyone around the world. As the number of cases began to rise at an exponential rate back in February/March, I was very worried. Though I am sad that daily life for everyone has become halted, I know that it is more important than we think about keeping everyone safe. During these difficult times where so many people are dying and getting sick, it is important that everyone does their part in battling this virus. That is why I think South Korea set a good example in their method of dealing with this virus because they took the necessary steps in order to contain this disease. I say this because other countries, America included, were slow to react regarding this disease. If they took precautions early on, then the situation may not have been so dire, but it is important that we continue to strive and do better for our future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmcg-ynTdJg

For this cultural post, I would like to talk about a recent Korean drama that I really enjoyed called Itaewon Class. This Korean drama was originally a webtoon, which means that this story line was originally produced as a cartoon/manga. The drama was then produced by Showbox, and then aired throughout Korea from JTBC Entertainment. Once popularity sparked in Korea, the drama was then released and streamed through Netflix. I personally did not hear about this drama until my parents and brother told me that this was a very entertaining drama to watch. So, I gave it a try and I was immediately hooked on the drama.

            The drama follows Park Saeroyi, the son of a man who works for Director Jang. Director Jang is the man who owns one of the biggest food businesses in all South Korea. As Saeroyi attends high school, he gets into a fight with the son of Director Jang, Jang Geun Won, who abuses his father’s status to rule the school with an iron fist. Saeroyi, an honest, stubborn, and upstanding individual, could not stand the sight of a classmate getting bullied by Jang Geun Won, so he decides to stand up to him and fight him. This resulted in a situation where both parents got involved. Director Jang, who likes Saeroyi’s father, tells him that all will be forgiven if he bows and apologizes to his son. Being the stubborn person that he is, Saeroyi refuses and results in him getting suspended and his father losing his job. Rather than the father being angry at his son, he told him that he was proud of him for standing up to his beliefs. Though their circumstances were not the best, they both put on a bright smile and sought for a way to continue their lives, which was to open a restaurant.

            The summary I gave here only covers about one half of the first episode of the drama. Due to spoiler sake, I will not go any further. However, I can almost guarantee that anyone who watches the first episode of this drama will immediately get hooked, and then fall in love with the characters as the story progresses. I felt like what made this drama so attractive to people are that all the characters are admirable in their own way. The main character stands up for what he believes in and that sense of goodness you get from him makes you want to support him despite all the difficult circumstances he had to overcome. Also, the drama has a mix of romance, action, and comedy so it is continuously engaging, while not being draining or boring to watch. Looking at the reviews, this drama was positively received by most of its audience, and since Netflix has a subtitle option, I think this is a great drama for those who want to get into Korean culture can try out. I know that this drama was the buzz in the Korean community, so I think it will be worth the watch.

For this biweekly journal, I will talk about some of the things I have been working on towards my Korean learning experience, while under quarantine. Over the course of these past few weeks, I found that all I am doing is eating, sleeping, and studying. As a result, I am limited to the number of things I can do. Besides the routine of talking with my parents and teaching from Jimin, I wanted to explore a new way to expand my Korean learning experience. As a result, I decided to try something new, and that has been cooking. In the last biweekly journal, I mentioned that I would be challenging myself by studying and cooking traditional Korean cuisine and talk about my experience.

            Traditional Korean food consists of rice, soup, and many side dishes. If you have ever visited a Korean restaurant, it is common to be given many side dishes along with the main dish you order. Though I do not know when this cultural tradition started, it is evident that this is now an integral part of the culture. As a result, I grew up eating this way, and I even eat like this to this day. So, for my challenge, I wanted to replicate a traditional meal that Koreans would eat. In other words, I wanted to help my mom make food/ have her watch over me and give me pointers as I try to cook for my family.

            My mom is the person who primarily makes food for our family. She cooks very well and is very knowledgeable about how to make a variety of Korean dishes. So, I asked her to help me make a Korean staple dish called dwenjang jjigae. Dwenjang is a type of bean paste that has a very distinct flavor that is like miso in Japanese cuisine. This stew is one of the most common staples of Korean cuisine and is loved by most Koreans. This is a simple dish and a perfect and easy way to get started.

            In order to prepare, I looked online for different recipes and YouTube videos that showed how this stew was made. I also asked my mom to help me. The recipe consists of the bean paste, water, onion, tofu, and potatoes. From the different recipes I looked up, I realize that there is a different variation with a ton of different ingredients, but the ones I listed were the ingredients that all of them agreed on. Once I figured out the recipe and gathered all my ingredients, I was ready to cook. I chopped up the vegetables and tofu and measured out the bean paste that I was going to use. In a bowl, I brought the water to a boil and then diluted the bean paste into the water. I tasted it to make sure that I added enough bean paste. Once the flavor was adjusted to my taste, I added the tofu, potatoes, and onions and allowed the mixture to boil for a couple of minutes. Once the potatoes were cooked, I knew the stew was done and I served it with rice to my family. I was happy with the product. I enjoyed my experience cooking, so this will definitely be something that I will continue to practice and do in the future.

            We have officially been told not to return to campus for the rest of the semester. I am concerned since there is no way in the near future for me to come and get my stuff from my dorm. However, during this pandemic, I am not complaining, since I would rather be at home and be safe. It is quite scary to hear the number of deaths and the economic impact this virus is causing. However, in times like these, it is important to remain positive and ensure that you and your loved ones are self-isolating and only leave when you absolutely have to. If we think about the vulnerable people around us, such as the elderly, and how by staying inside can help them out, it makes quarantining not so bad.

            I bring this up because I have been told this nonstop by my parents, for these past weeks. Koreans, I have learned, are very health conscious. In Korea, people are advised to go to the hospital for virtually anything. As a result, in times of illness and such, Koreans are quick to administer treatment or refer you to treatment. Therefore, I have been keeping up to date with this whole coronavirus situation through my parents and my own research. My own research is primarily America focused, while their research is focused on what is happening in South Korea. I have learned that a pharmaceutical company in Korea has been able to create an efficient testing kit for the coronavirus and is being sought out by other countries. Coincidentally, I am taking a course on molecular virology, so it is extremely relevant during this time. So, I am able to relay the information I learn in class to my parents. However, I cannot explain in English terms, so I am forced to explain a difficult concept like virology to my parents in the Korean language. This required some prior research regarding the vocabulary I would use, but I found that I was able to successfully talk about the subject matter with my family and relay the information that I was taught in my class.

            In addition, regarding my Korean learning process, I am limited to the things I am able to do except for the normal routine that I do regularly, which consists of talking with my family, talking to Jimin, and watching Korean entertainment programs. However, I believe this is arguably the best form of practice since I am constantly speaking with two native Korean speakers, my parents, who are able to teach and correct my Korean. So, though I am unable to access materials I would normally be able to back at school, I gained another amazing resource. Looking forward, I want to challenge myself by applying a passion of mine and try to learn Korean/ Korean culture along with it. Though I learn a lot regarding Korean culture through my parents and entertainment programs, this is an opportunity I can take now that I am home. This challenge is regarding cooking Korean dishes at home. I always had a passion for cooking, so now that I am home, I am able to practice it. So, on my next biweekly journal, I will talk about how I did regarding this challenge.

These past few weeks have been so hectic. As the coronavirus continues to become more and more prevalent throughout the world, it seems as though my sanity is also leaving my body. The only bright side to this situation is that I am able to be home with my family during this time of quarantine and isolation. As a result, I have the opportunity to continuously be exposed to the Korean language. My parents speak only Korean within the household, so they are always willing to teach me and correct my Korean. They also correct my grammar and give me tips on my pronunciation, which has helped me immensely.

            In addition to being at home all day with my family, I started to watch programs that my parents normally watch. By programs, I am referring to Korean entertainment programs and dramas that I normally would never be exposed to. Of these include a show called Mr. Trot. The music genre of trot is very culturally significant for the Korean people. This genre was extremely popular for my grandparent’s generation and is beloved by almost all Korean people. I say almost because I do not see the appeal of the music genre. However, I understand the genre has a significant history and is the music that resonates with the heart of the Korean people. Therefore, this show is beloved by the Korean people and is doing very well with respect to its ratings. The premise of the show is essentially an elimination-style competition program, where people from various backgrounds come out and perform in front of famous Korean celebrities to see who will move onto the next round. The show starts with 100 contestants, but as each round progresses the contestants get eliminated. I could see how this show appealed to all demographics since there were a lot of young people come out and compete singing a genre that appeals to the older generation. I found that, though I do not particularly love Korean trot, thirty minutes to an hour would pass by instantly.

            In addition to this, I found that my ability to understand the Korean language has improved. Since my parents watch Korean programs without the subtitles, I am forced to solely rely on my listening ability to understand what is happening during the show. I believe I did better than I would have expected since I was able to understand what was occurring throughout the whole duration of watching the program. In addition, I found that visual support from the program made it easier to understand, for example when the actors would act out what they were going to do. So, if I do not fully understand what they are saying, I have a general idea of what they are doing. To confirm, I would ask my parents if what I deduced was correct, and they would either tell me that I am right or correct me. So, while I am here stuck at home during quarantine, I found that my Korean learning regiment has only become more intense.

For my last cultural post, I interviewed my language partner, Jenna, about dating culture and relationships in South Korea.  I covered several topics with her to confirm what I found in my research and to add some new information to the subject.  She says that overall, the country is still relatively conservative, so certain things are taboo that are more accepted in other cultures.  For example, the LGBTQ+ subculture is typically ignored by South Korean society.  Jenna thinks this is because people are ignorant about how sexual orientation and gender identity work.  There are many wrong assumptions due to a lack of education about this community.  For the most part, her comments correspond with my post about the LGBTQ+ community.

Traditional values continue to stand even for heterosexual couples when they get married. It is less a bond between two individuals and more of marrying between two families. The paternalistic nature of marriage has the wife join the husband’s family. According to Jenna, it is very common for the newlyweds to move in and live with the husband’s family. For this reason, the parents on both sides of the family are very involved in the relationship. Sometimes parents will set up their kids on blind dates with kids of families that they approve of. Although group blind dates were more popular in the 90s, they are still used today.  However, there is a trend of more people meeting through dating apps as they become more popular.  

The standard age for getting married is between the late 20s and early 30s. While it is discouraged for teens to date in high school, university students are encouraged to start looking for a partner. When people visit their families during the holidays, their relatives will often ask very personal questions about their lives. For example, if they are single and in their 30s or 40s, relatives will have a lot of inquiries and make, sometimes unwelcome, suggestions about how to improve their lives. This can be very stressful if you do not have a stable relationship, job, or financial position. This can persuade some people to not visit their families during the holidays. This begins to address my research about single parents that I wrote about in my last post. I brought up to Jenna how some single mothers have been banned from joining their family because they are seen as a failure. Therefore, they do not have a place to go during the holidays. She had a hard time believing that was true and suggested more of the above reasons why people would choose to stay away from their families. Korean families tend to be very involved in the lives of their younger relatives and will ask many personal questions regarding school job or relationship status.  

Lastly, I asked Jenna about dating outside of your own race. She responded that the older generations hold a stigma against marrying someone who is not Korean because they have not been exposed to different races and cultures. South Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries which would lead many people to be unfamiliar with other races. Anything that is unfamiliar will be judged. Even if you are just a foreigner visiting, you will get a lot of stares and be asked seemingly rude and intrusive questions. Even in the United States, some Korean parents prefer that their kids marry a Korean, but there are many families that are becoming more welcoming to mixed racial marriages. 

April 26 Biweekly journal:

            This past week, Jenna and I met up for our second last time this year with one last lesson plan. I brought her the summary I wrote for a YouTube video I watched the week before that, and she helped me correct some of the mistakes that I made. The video was about the coronavirus and how it has been affecting the economy internationally. There were only 3 mistakes which is the lowest number I have had. After looking over my summary, she gave me one more article on the weather in South Korea. The article talked about some general weather information across South Korea such as the temperature for the week, any precipitation, and coronavirus information (number of people infected and the number of people dead). The questions asked were pretty simple to answer such as “what is the max temperature for the week” and “how many new virus cases have there been in the last week.” I was able to answer the questions correctly but with a couple of mistakes in each answer sentence. I have definitely been getting better at writing and reading faster because I finished the whole article and questions in around 15 minutes and it usually takes me 20-30 minutes. After doing the article and summary, Jenna told me to finish my cultural presentation for next week and be prepared for the podcast recording.

            This week, Jenna and I looked over my cultural presentation on Korean food and she told me some things I could fix and any phrases that I misspelled on the presentation. Afterward, Jenna and I did the podcast interview on our semester. The interview was pretty easy, and it was helpful to acknowledge what I have learned and what I have left to learn for next semester. I definitely improved in many aspects of Korean writing and reading comprehension. I will continue to work on learning common Korean phrases in simple sentences, so I know how to spell them in the future. I think next semester I will continue to focus on Korean writing and reading. A cool thing I have observed over the past semester is that I have been able to communicate with my grandma and my mother in Korean text a lot better than last year. I am able to read and understand their texts in Korean much quicker and able to respond a lot effectively as well. This was one of my goals at the start of the semester and I am happy to say I have achieved it to a certain extent. Over the summer, I hope to continue to read Korean articles on Naver as well as watch some Korean shows and dramas with my parents and sister. It’ll definitely keep me engaged in Korean reading and writing for next semester, so I won’t forget anything over the course of the summer. I had a great time learning about Korean food for my cultural presentation and cannot wait to come back next semester to continue my Korean writing and reading improvement.

For my fourth cultural post, I decided to investigate the culture of the Hanbok in Korea. The Hanbok is one of the most popular and renown outfit in Korean culture. Hanboks are often wore for special occasions and holidays. Hanboks have been worn late in South Korea’s historical past. The Hanbok is made of three main parts: jeogori, baji, and chima. The jeogori is the jacket, the baji is the pants, and the chima is the dress/skirt that goes over the pants. Hanbok can be categorized based on gender, age, and season. The Hanbok is centered around Confucian styles, with delicate lines and angles. The Hanbok is also known for its many vivid colors. Traditional Hanboks base the theme of their colors with the five elements of life: White (metal), red (fire), blue (wood), black (water), yellow (earth). Furthermore, different colors mean different social status and position. For example, brighter colors on a Hanbok are usually worn by children and girls while muted colors and accents are worn by older people. Additionally, one’s social position can be identified by the quality of their Hanbok. Furthermore, patterns represent the wearer’s desires and wishes in life. Lotus flowers represent nobility and hope. Hanbok is one of Korea’s most popular cultural traditions and remains to be a significant part of Korean history. Hanbok designs and patterns continue to change and improve, as well as the quality and patterns. Hanboks used to be worn on an everyday basis in the past, but now is worn only on special occasions such as weddings and birthdays.

In my experience, I wore a Hanbok when I was really young. I don’t remember wearing one, but since I was born in Korea, I was given a traditional Korean birthday party. There are pictures of me wearing a Hanbok with bright colors. Hanboks are also very popular during Lunar New Year. A lot of Korea’s culture is based on respect towards the elders. A popular tradition in Korea is to bow and thank our parents and grandparents during New Years. This significant gesture is called “jul”. It is tradition for the younger children to bow in front of the elders to wish them a happy new year and wish them good health. In return, the elders give the children money and toys. I remember doing this when I was young, even up until elementary school. But since I have lived longer in the United States, many of our Korean traditions have disappeared, especially since our grandparents and extended family still live in Korea. Learning about Hanbok Korean culture has been fun to learn about. I knew what they were, but never really understood the tradition and meaning behind it. I think it is important to understand my Korean culture and understand the meaning behind one of the most popular traditions. Overall, I was really impressed with the different amounts of meaning a Hanbok and how important a type of clothing could mean to a culture like Korea. I am curious to see how it differs with other countries and if other countries have similar gowns that is traditional and cultural like the Hanbok.

Outside of my regular language learning, I spent this past week preparing for my second presentation for SDLC 105. The purpose of this short presentation was to teach something new to my classmates about my target language. I decided to focus on something that had been a goal of a mine for some time now. For some reason, I have never been able to remember my days of the week, which is probably partially due to the fact that I never received a formal lesson about it. I thought it would be interesting to create a lesson based on this because of how the words were originally derived from Chinese. I was able to find a few websites that also shared some historical information about the origin of these words.

Similar to English, all days of the week in Korean share the same suffix in each word– this would be -day in English. In Korean, -day translates to -yo-il -요일. To work on memorizing them, I decided to memorize the prefixes in a sequence, kind of like a mini chant to remember the proper order of the days. From Sunday to Saturday, the order of the sequence is il-wol-hwa-su-mok-geum-to, which in hangul looks like 일-월-화-수-목-금-토. So, Sunday is 일요일, Monday is 월요일, Tuesday is 화요일, Wednesday is 수요일, Thursday is 목요일, Friday is 금요일, and Saturday is 토요일. By repeating the sequence multiple times, I have been able to recall the order of the days of the week much easier. I also use Siri to tell me what day it is, so that I can get verbal reinforcement.

I also learned some of the history behind the days of the week. Like a lot of Korean words, it has been derived from Chinese characters, specifically the five Chinese elements of nature, as well as the moon and the sun. I also found out that Japanese days of the week are based on the same characters, so it sounds pretty similar to Korean. Starting with Sunday 일요일, 일 means sun or day; Monday 월요일, 월 means moon; Tuesday 화요일, 화 means fire; Wednesday 수요일, 수, means water; Thursday 목요일, 목 means wood or tree; Friday 금요일, 금 means gold; and Saturday 토요일, 토 means earth. Something to note is that these prefixes are usually not used by themselves in native Korean, they are simply derived from Sino-Korean, or Chinese Korean words.

In addition to learning days of the week, I decided to add the months of the year, which I already knew and are much easier to learn. If you know how to count from one to twelve in the sino counting system, then you are basically halfway there. Similar to the days of the week, all the months share a common suffix, -wol -월, which just translates to -month. Once you know that, all you have to do is add the corresponding number of the month as the prefix. So, January is 일월, February is 이월, March is 삼월, April is 사월, May is 오월, June is 유월, July is 칠월, August is 팔월, September is 구월, October is 시월, November is 십일월, and December is 십이월. I also found an infographic with this information, as well as important Korean holidays for each month, which I discuss in my lesson.

These last two weeks have been all about wrapping up the final lessons with my language partner and focusing on finishing up my last assignments as the end of the semester arrives. It’s sad to think about how I will be finishing up my last week of my undergraduate career this week and it feels so anti-climatic and abrupt. It feels weird to not officially be able to close the door on the past four years of my life. My language partner and I discussed how unexpected and sad it was to end our senior year this way. It was definitely not something we ever imagined would happen to us. We were both happy and hopeful that we were still getting somewhat of a closing with the possibility of a senior celebration in the future. We also discussed how online classes at home were hard especially when taking tests. I think that the environment in my house is more relaxing and causes me to become lazy especially when needing to study and learning new material. I have always relied on the environment of the library where there are other people around me to study. Surprisingly my teachers have not become more lenient because of online classes. I am having trouble at home studying for exams and learning the material. We also reflected together on how our two semesters of lessons went. Although I am improving in some areas, we discussed how there is still a lot of room for improvement and learning. Specifically the areas of reading and writing are where I can improve the most. I think some ways I can strengthen them is rewriting vocabulary over and over and reading vocabulary lists repeatedly. It might benefit me to make actual flashcards to review which is not something I have really been doing. My language partner suggested that I continue lessons through videos as wells since I am more of a visual learner. 

Although this course is ending soon, one of the benefits of self-directed learning is that I can still teach myself and I can continue to improve and schedule lessons alone especially with the amount of online resources available to me. I will definitely be continuing my education online. The online resources I have mentioned in my last two journals have been really helpful. I think speaking might be harder to improve without the help of a language partner but there is a solution for that as I can always record myself speaking words and listen and compare it to a recording of somebody speaking. Listening will be easy as I can continue watching Korean dramas. I am hoping that at some point I will be able to watch Korean dramas without English subtitles for the most part. I think even if I learn enough Korean, I will still not be able to understand their idioms or word play. The English subtitle translations of those do not give them justice. I think I will continue learning Korean for a while at least until I master it to some point that I am comfortable with. 

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Since my last journal post, I have been trying to supplement my language learning by implementing more Korean into my daily life. In general, I have been extremely busy with other assignments for other classes so I have been trying to integrate things more casually. It has been pretty easy to do so since I am at home now and can speak my language daily with my family. I tend to use Konglish with my mom since she is also pretty fluent in English, but with my grandma, I have to use more formal Korean.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I recently changed my Siri to speak in Korean. Even though I go outside much less than I used to, I still ask her the weather every morning. It has been raining on and off for the past couple of weeks, so this provided the opportunity to learn more new vocabulary of the weather. My mom has still been working so when I need to contact her during the day, I usually ask Siri to call her for me. This might just be me, but sometimes when I get bored, I randomly ask Siri questions because she has a variety of responses and it’s interesting to see what she has to say. I have been doing this more since I changed her to Korean and I have been able to practice speaking a variety of phrases as a result. She also uses some new terminology sometimes so after going back and forth for a bit, I look up any unknown words or phrases.

I was also cleaning a few weeks ago and came across some Korean workbooks from when I took Korean at my old university. The books we used were actually published by the school I went to and I personally really enjoy the lessons that they provide. The layout is simple but it allows me to learn a variety of new material. I have been doing a chapter per week and I decided to start from the beginning of the book to refresh my memory on some of the lessons that I had already completed. Each chapter begins with some sort of story or scenario using a set of vocabulary terms as well as new grammar. I usually begin by translating the story and then moving onto a new grammar lesson each day since there are multiple in one chapter. The textbook also comes with a workbook so I have been completing the corresponding exercises, although some of them are missing since I used to study from it.

Learning Korean has been a little difficult since I have not had access to my language partner, but this has just really emphasized the self-directed part of the program. I can usually get through the lessons by myself without looking anything up, but I also ask my mom any questions if any arise. Because I have always been an independent person, I almost prefer learning Korean this way but I also really enjoyed my time with Jimin. 

Due to COVID-19, I have been spending a lot of time at home eating and cooking, so I thought it would be appropriate to explore the history of kimchi 김치 for my last cultural post. Kimchi today is a staple in Korean cuisine and is made from salted and fermented vegetables, usually cabbage or radish. There are countless versions of it, but most will include chili powder or gochugaru 고춧가루, green onions, garlic, ginger and salted seafood. It is undoubtedly one of my favorite foods, although I guess it is really more of a side dish. When I am at school, I never get to have it, which is really different from when I am at home and I get to eat it everyday. I looked up a few articles highlighting the origin of kimchi and I was able to learn some new things!

The earliest dated record of kimchi goes back to the early period of the Three Kingdoms, which existed prior to the unification of the Korean peninsula. During this time, fermented foods were widely available, ranging from fish to wine to soybean paste. Because refrigerators were not available yet, it was also common to pickle vegetables and store a variety of foods with longer lifespans than if kept fresh. This was especially useful during the winter when it was difficult to find other sources of nourishment. The kimchi would be packed into traditional brown ceramic pots and buried underground to preserve it. I was really intrigued to learn that historical versions were not spicy, even though most kimchi today is. Chili peppers were apparently introduced to Korea in the early 17th century, but did not appear in kimchi recipes until the 19th century. Since kimchi existed before the split of the Korean peninsula, it is a food that is enjoyed by both North and South Koreans, although I am unable to comment on what kimchi is like in North Korea.

I also looked up a few recipes because my family members are always telling me that kimchi is actually really easy to make and that I should give it a shot. There are various different vegetables that you use to make the dish, but I decided to focus on the most popular version, which uses napa cabbage. First, chop up the cabbage into bite sized pieces. Next, soak the cabbage pieces in cold salt water for about 1.5 hours. Rinse and drain the cabbage and set aside. Now for the kimchi paste. This varies depending on how salty or spicy you like your kimchi but most recipes include the same seasoning. Mix together crushed garlic, minced onion, minced ginger, chili pepper flakes, and fish sauce or salted seafood. Then, mix in sliced green onions, chopped leeks, and julienned radish. The last step is to add in the cabbage and to put everything in an air-sealed container. You can enjoy it fresh or wait until it ferments. I personally like my kimchi really fresh but it always tastes good either way. Once it gets really sour, my family likes to either fry it or cook it in kimchi stew, or kimchi jjigae 김치찌개.

I grew up watching my family make kimchi and it is definitely something I want to try out soon since the recipe is pretty simple.