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Some people question whether deaf culture can actually be defined as a culture, but it does have a language, folkloric tradition, social institutions, and schools, all of which are distinct social customs associated with culture. I firmly believe that the deaf have a unique culture all their own, that just happens to be within another culture.

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about deaf culture throughout the past two semesters. Deaf culture does fit in well within the culture of the country it is in, but it is clear that there are some differences and I have liked learning about them. One thing I really like about the deaf is how honest they are. They don’t beat around the bush and generally say whatever they are thinking. They also are not shy about asking questions and want you to ask questions as well, which makes learning easier. The culture is different, but not so different that a hearing person cannot become a part of it. 

Over the course of this semester, I think that I have learned a lot of Korean. This experience was particularly unique for me, because I am used to learning languages in a traditional classroom. I had also not heard of task-based learning, which was very different than the strict lesson plans that I was used to. I felt that task-based learning had both its positives and its negatives for me. On the up side, I was able to learn vocabulary faster, and felt more initial confidence in my language learning abilities. It was nice to be able to set a goal for the week, like being able to order food in a restaurant, and be able to do it with relative confidence by the end of the week. With that being said, by focusing on weekly learning goals, I have not been able to feel long-term confidence in my Korean abilities. Since I do not have a solid grammatical base, it is hard for me to find rules for the language and extend upon knowledge that I have learned. For instance, in German I was able to construct basic sentences when I learned to properly conjugate verbs. I have not been able to do that in Korean, so in practice I must learn a new word if I am addressing a situation with a verb I already know. Korean also has a lot of honorifics that you cannot find in other languages, so it has been hard for me to pick up on the grammatical rules of these honorifics. With that being said, I think the best way to move forward in Korean is for me to focus on a strong grammatical base, and then use that the apply to the words I already know. I have learned a lot this semester, and am excited to see how my Korean abilities will progress over time. 

For week 13, my goal was to learn sports vocabulary. Because sports are such a great conversational starter in the US, I thought that it was important for me to talk about sports on a basic level in Korean. I learned basic sports vocabulary, as well as some sports phrases. For instance, baseball is "yagu", soccer is "chukgu", and basketball is "nongu". There are also some cognates, like beach volleyball being "bichiballi", and tennis being "tenis". On top of these words, I learned some phrases like "to play a sport" (un-dong hagi) and "to play volleyball" (baeguhagi). This can be extended to any sport, such as say nonguhagi for playing basketball and yaguhagi for playing baseball. You can also ask someone if they play a sport by saying "_____ chiseyo?", like "nongu chiseyo?"

Since the learning plan that I made at the very beginning of the semester was heavily dependent on a language partner, I was unable to complete several of the tasks so I had to adjust accordingly. I also needed to change my main goal of improving my speaking skills to one more focused on reading and writing since I was unable to practice oral communication and conversations.  

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   Based on a lot of goals I had in this learning plan, I honestly believe I did not achieve many of the goals as successfully as I would have liked. This is primarily because I was not provided a language partner which I heavily based my language learning and improving on. My main goal was to improve my speaking abilities by practicing with a fluent Korean speaker but since I was never able to, I could not really apply what I learned through oral practice and conversation. Thus, the lack of a language partner was the greatest stumbling block for me, and also the main reason why I had to adjust my goals to be more focused on reading and writing. Practicing my reading skills was fairly simple since there were many resources I found online that helped me practice correcting my pronunciation and accent. It was more difficult for me to practice my writing, especially writing in a formal manner since I relied heavily on messaging and texting through the HelloTalk app that I used to communicate with native Korean speakers. While the app was definitely helpful and challenged me to practice my grammar and spelling skills, I could not improve my formal writing skills as much as I would have liked to since the friends I made through HelloTalk preferred to communicate in an informal manner. This is because formality between friends creates a barrier from becoming closer in Korean culture.

   The most interesting aspect of 110 that I enjoyed the most was researching about cultural topics and presenting them to the class as well as learning aspects of Korean culture that I never knew through other people’s research and presentations. For example, one of the presentations was about the architecture of traditional Korean houses which was very fascinating to me since there was so much history and intelligence behind the design that I always overlooked when I saw these houses in pictures and in real life. As for the  least interesting aspect, the assigned readings were the least enjoyable to me. Though they were helpful in learning the components that make a language and made me more aware of what could be difficult to learn in a language, I do not think I actually applied this knowledge when improving my Korean. 

   I will continue my learning by not only continuing my use of the resources that I have found by taking this course but also by going to Korea and experiencing the language and culture firsthand. This summer I will be spending three weeks in Korea taking an intensive Korean language learning program at Yonsei University. There, I hope to improve even more in not just my ability to speak, read, and write, but also gain greater understanding of how Koreans my age interact, since the use of language often differs between generations.

     In the future, I would like to learn more about the connections between culture and language, and go more in depth in the reasons why some words, phrases, or expressions are so difficult to convey in another language. I think it is intriguing how translations are often not as simple as they seem, and how in many cases understanding a certain aspect of a language has to come from one’s own intuition.

• I can introduce myself by describing my age, grade, home, school, and hobbies.

• I can describe my family in detail such as my parents’ background

• I can read at an elementary pace

• I can comprehend the majority of a typical Korean drama

• I can order a meal at a restaurant on my own

• I can hold a casual conversation regarding time, days of the week, days of the month, and months, and seasons.

I Can Statements

• I can read advanced Greek texts.
• I can read advanced Greek texts and comprehend the meaning of the text.
• I can read, comprehend, and translate into English advanced Greek texts.
• I can have a conversation or debate about information or a topic derived from an advanced Greek text.
• I can hold a conversation and adequately discuss complicated contemporary and historical topics in Greek.
• I can speak contemporary Greek slang.

The opportunity given to me to advance my knowledge of my mother-tongue has been incredibly fulfilling despite the challenges I faced during the semester. Although I cannot say that I have reached my goal of being able to write an academic paper in Greek, I can say that I am well on my way of achieving this goal. I have definitely improved my speaking and reading skills through the assistance of my language partner and various learning activities. My reading of advanced Greek comes far more naturally than it did at the beginning of the semester and I have begun to see patterns and similarities in words that are found in common, modern Greek which helps a lot in deciphering  the meaning of words and even entire texts. During my attempts to work on my reading I found that the hardest part was patiently looking up numerous words per page in dictionaries in order to understand the text, which was often frustrating. This frustration was only remedied through the positive results of my speaking sessions with my language partner, when I applied some of these words in our political conversations.

 As for speaking, my language partner has noted a dramatic improvement in the clarity of my speech and the quick use of vocabulary. This was important for me because I used to often find myself stuck in the middle of conversations trying to remember Greek words for certain things or actions, which in my perspective was embarrassing when Greek is technically my mother-tongue. During the semester, I found that reading out loud was a great way to work on pronunciation of complex words and clarity of speech, and it also helped me memorize vocabulary from the books I read. 

 I decided to stop my writing lessons relatively early on in the course for two reasons. First, because my writing abilities are far behind my speaking and reading skills it would be hard to try to learn advanced Greek and then have to revert to simpler, everyday Greek for the sole purpose of practicing spelling, writing styles, and grammatical rules. Second, I found that learning to read, understand, and speak academic level Greek was a major task and adding writing to that list would be overwhelming and discouraging due to the sheer amount of work I would have to invest.

Outside of the actual results of my Greek learning experience, I was able to gain great insight on the type of learning activities that help me learn. After viewing movies in Greek, watching the news, and reading historical books I found that the latter method was the most effective. This is because I was able to see the spelling of words which helped me in pronunciation and also in deciphering meaning from related or root words. Furthermore, seeing the words and sounding them out in my head or out loud helped develop my vocabulary. Lastly, I found the books very enjoyable which motivated me to continue reading, as well as, immensely educational since they taught me a great deal about Greek modern diplomatic and military history. The least interesting aspect of my learning experience was by far the time spent deciphering sentences that utilized ancient Greek (which many academic authors do to showcase their intellectual capabilities I suppose). Ancient Greek is vary different from modern Greek and it is almost as if its a different language.

In the future I plan to continue my study of Greek. Thankfully, I am studying abroad in Greece next semester and I am taking several advanced Greek language courses which will allow me to further develop my language skills along with my personal reading sessions. All this exposure to the language will hopefully one day translate to the privilege of having to decide whether to write my research papers in Greek or English. What an incredible conundrum that will be!

My Learning Plan

The hyperlink includes my adjusted learning plan for the semester. The plan was modified because I found it overwhelming to improve my reading, speaking, and comprehensive skills all while working on my writing capabilities. Also my writing skill is far behind my other abilities in Greek and so it would confuse my learning plan if I have to change the language level of my activities each time I try to work on my writing.

I explain some of my ideas in the discussion.

Here is some notes from my notebook.

For my fourth artifact, I will translate a paragraph from an article like I have weekly with my language partner. I chose from the lifestyle section because that is what I have been doing with my language partner.

중요한 시험을 앞두고 있거나 설레는 만남을 기다리고 있다면 밤을 꼴딱 새울 확률이 높다. 불안감이나 초조한 감정이 수면을 방해하기 때문이다. 이처럼 갑작스럽게 찾아오는 불면증 혹은 만성적인 불면증에 도움이 되는 음식은 없을까? 

If you have an important upcoming exam or a nerve-wracking meeting, there is a high likelihood of staying up all night. This is because uncertainty and nervousness disrupts sleep. Is there food that can stop suddenly onsetting insomnia like this?

밤잠을 못자면 다음날 컨디션이 엉망이 되는 것은 물론, 부족한 에너지를 채우기 위해 식탐에 빠지기도 한다. '미국임상영양저널'에 따르면 수면 부족은 칼로리가 높은 음식에 집착하도록 만든다. 이처럼 고칼로리 음식에 현혹되면 더부룩한 속 때문에 또 다시 잠들기 어려워지는 악순환에 빠진다. 이런 불상사를 막으려면 늦은 시간 수면을 유도할 수 있는 적절한 음식이 필요하다. 200칼로리 이내로 먹을 수 있는 건강한 야식들을 알아보자. 

When you can't sleep at night, your condition will be shot, and your appetite will increase to fill the lack of energy. According to an American magazine, if you lack sleep, you are more dependent on food with a higher calorie content. If you become misled into eating these high calorie foods, you enter a bad cycle where you can't sleep because you are still full. To stop this from happening, you need foods that will welcome sleep. Lets look into foods that are healthy and less than 200 calories.

◆키위= 잠들기 한 시간 전 키위를 먹도록 하는 실험을 4주간 진행하자 실험참가자의 35%가 수면 시간이 빨라지는 결과를 보인 연구가 있다. 키위에는 항산화물질, 카로티노이드, 비타민 C, 비타민 E가 들어있고 '세로토닌'이라는 호르몬도 함유돼 있다. 이 호르몬은 렘(REM)수면과 연관이 있다. 이 호르몬 수치가 낮을수록 불면증이 나타날 확률이 높다. 키위에 풍부하게 함유된 엽산 역시 불면증을 개선하는데 도움이 된다. 

Kiwi - After a test where a kiwi was consumed one hour before sleep for 4 weeks, 35% of the people fell asleep faster. in kiwi, there are antioxidants, carotenoids, vitamin c, and vitamin e, and there is also a hormone called serotonin. This hormone has a relationship with REM sleep. The lower the level of this hormone, the higher chance of getting insomnia. The folic acid that is also abundant in kiwis also helps fight insomnia.

◆체리= 체리는 운동이나 다이어트로 인한 땀 배출, 손상된 근육으로부터 몸을 회복시키는데 도움이 되는 음식이다. '유럽영양저널'에 실린 논문에 따르면 체리주스를 매일 마시는 사람은 그렇지 않은 사람보다 수면시간이 늘어난다. 체리는 수면을 유도하는 멜라토닌 성분이 함유돼 있어 자연스럽게 잠을 유도한다. 

Cherry - Cherry is food that is good for helping with recovery in the sweat lost from exercise and dieting as well as any injured muscles. According to an article from europe, people who drink cherry juice everyday sleep longer than those who don't. Cherries contains melatonin which is a substance which helps sleep.

◆탈지우유와 시리얼=아침식사처럼 느껴지는 시리얼과 우유의 조합은 사실상 야식으로도 적합하다. 단 당분 함량이 낮은 시리얼과 지방을 제거한 우유를 먹어야 한다. 우유는 '트립토판'이라는 아미노산을 함유하고 있는데, 이는 세로토닌 분비를 유도한다. 고지방 우유는 소화과정을 늦춰 잠을 방해하므로 탈지우유처럼 지방을 제거한 우유가 좋다. 

Skimmed milk and cereal - Skimmed milk and cereal, which feels like breakfast is also good as a late night snack. You must eat cereal with a low sugar content with milk that has a low fat content. Milk contains amino acids called tryptophan which creates serotonin. High fat milk disrupts sleep, so milk like skimmed milk that is good. 

This week my learning goal is the following:

• Learn words about Korean clothing
• Learn words about Study a language.

The first learning goal is related to my trip. I love Korean fashion and want to buy lots of clothing there. The second goal is related to our class. I hope I can talked a little bit about what we did in 105 in Korean. Sounds fun.

The resource I am going to use is the following:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_s5QNUQD3o&list=PLAKEOhhoOenPwU5-UIZWWw1DIZWzlPdAm&index=22 (learning a language)
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=366nmg07QlA&list=PLAKEOhhoOenPwU5-UIZWWw1DIZWzlPdAm&index=6 (korean clothing)

I also download two Korean child book to read. Unfortunately, I can only recognize the words that I encountered before. And it took me too much time to understand it. The following are the books:

1. Bear Adventure
2. Counting Monkey

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Transcript see journal #12

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1sUxOsRyHxu

http://vocaroo.com/i/s141QPKBwmdT

Since one of my goals for the semester was to expand my vocabulary and be able to use them, I will use five of the vocabulary words I learned in my last artifact to create a phrase. The vocabulary words are bolded in the paragraph below:

2주뒤에 졸업을할생각에 슬프기도하지만 뿌듯하고 후련해요. 4년동안 잠못자고 숙제를 아슬아슬하게 끝낼때와, 스트레스가 많이싸었을때도 있었어요. 하지만 생각해보면 대학교를 너무 허겁지겁보낸거같아 조금 슬퍼요. 대학교는 조금소란스러운곳이라 졸업뒤에 조용하면 이상할것같아요. 하지만 새로운삶이 시작되는거닽아서 기대되요. 

Thinking about graduating in two weeks, I am sad but also relieved and proud. Throughout the four years, there were times where I barely (in a risk) finished my homework with no sleep, and developed a lot of stress. However, when I think about it I feel like I went through college in a hurry so I am a little sad. College is a place that is a little noisy so I think it will be weird when it is quiet, However, it seems like I will be starting a new life so I am excited. 

During the final artifact, I learnt several sentences that I think might be useful for my trip.

• Long time no see.
• I do not know.
• Thank you!
• I understand.
• Sorry.
• Have a good journey!
• Welcome!

I learnt these sentence from: http://www.koreanclass101.com/2015/04/28/absolute-beginner-korean-for-every-day-1-top-25-korean-phrases/

This video did not teach me how to say it but also give a background about how Korean people used it everyday.

My goal for this week is to talk about weather and learnt some vocabulary about cooking. 

The resources I am going to use is the following:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLFtJ6iv75s&list=PLAKEOhhoOenPwU5-UIZWWw1DIZWzlPdAm&index=18 (for Cooking)
2. Dom and Hyo comic.

Actually I am a huge fan of cooking. I hope I can cook during my trip and learn to cook some Korean food in summer.

This week my goal is to meet my personal goal, which is for travel!

1. to be familiar with famous Koran attractions
2. to be familiar with korean make up products!
3. know some famous korean food! (which is different from last week!)

The resources that I am going to use is the following:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB1Giuh7gg8&index=38&list=PLAKEOhhoOenPwU5-UIZWWw1DIZWzlPdAm (Korean Tourist Attraction)
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUtLqLqBxI&index=49&list=PLAKEOhhoOenPwU5-UIZWWw1DIZWzlPdAm (Famous Korean Food)
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAn4VSpm5bk (pony make up video)

I remembered the culture presentation on Korean skin products. I am so interested in korean make up, and actually i have a very long list of shopping list. Pony is my favorite make-up youtuber and I learnt a lot of make up words from her video!:)

For my second artifact, I practiced a set of vocabulary words I did not know before. They are the following:

후련하다: to be relieved

뿌듯하다: to feel great/proud

기껏: to the upmost

도통: totally (negative)

아슬아슬하다: risky

허겁지겁: in a hurry

엿보다: peep through

흘겨보다: look out the corner of one's eye

소란스럽다: noisy, uproarious

회의장: conference room

동서고금: of all ages and nationalities

막론하다: be irrespective of/needless to say

구사하다: make full use of

추구하다: to seek, pursue

긴밀히: closely, tightly 

누누이: repeatedly

간신히: barely

고사하다: to decline

신념: faith

가로막다: to interrupt, obstruct

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