For this cultural post, I am going to focus on Kimchi. Kimchi was originally just pickled vegetables that were fermented. Kimchi was not originally spicy until the American army introduced Korea to the red pepper. Although it was introduced, it was not adapted into Kimchi until a few decades later. The importance of fermentation was due to the fact that there were no refrigerators to keep the food fresh. Since Korea was not a very affluent country and was one of the poorest countries in the world, people needed to think of other ways to keep their food fresh. Fermenting it meant that the food could have been eaten for a while after it was made. There are different types of Kimchi, like cucumber kimchi and water kimchi. Each region has its own specialty in Kimchi. This combined with many other vegetables made it so that there are over 100 varieties of Kimchi. Kimchi is something that was eaten for hundreds of years and has not really changed in its shape, size, or form.
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For this cultural post, I will focus on Korean cinemas. Korean cinemas have been starting to gain worldwide attention. This started with the movie The Host. This movie has garnered worldwide attention and even got a limited release in the United States. After that, movies like Oldboy and Taegukgi has started to surface and gotten more attention. These two movies were known for their story telling and twists. Oldboy is part of a trilogy that has to do with revenge. With these popular movies, came Korean movie theaters that opened up in select parts of the United States. These movie theaters show Korean movies with english subtitles and even Korean movies that are popular. Although these cinemas are not too prevalent, their popularity is rising. Okja, a Netflix special that was set and directed by a Korean director is also a sign of this Korean cinema revolution too.
For this semester, I want to learn more about the culture in terms of movies and Korean cuisine. I want to explore the Korean cuisine side more, because I want to learn more about the details of the background of the food that I grew up with.
I plan to explore these topics by doing some more research about each one and seeing what interests me the most. I have already decided that I will be going with a culture presentation of Kimchi, because it is a staple in the Korean dish.
I hope to learn why Koreans are so dedicated to Kimchi and its origins. I also want to learn more about the history of why Kimchi became one of the most important dishes for Koreans.
I believe that my Korean is adequate in terms of casual speaking, but not in formal speaking. Here are the results:
Interpretive listening: Developing 1
Interpretive Reading: Developing 2
Interpersonal Speaking: Expanding 1
Presentational Speaking: Beginner 3
Presentational Writing: Beginner 3
For these final 2 weeks, we focused on our cultural presentations. I decided to do my cultural presentation on Kimchi. It was interesting to learn about this staple dish, because even though I grew up with it, I did not know much about it. After doing the research, I became more interested in Kimchi and Korean cuisine. I understand the importance and the cultural aspect of the dish. It was something that reflects the Korean culture. For example, Korean Kimchi was actually not spicy until the Japanese invasion when the American soldiers introduced the red pepper for the Koreans. The hardest part of this presentation was actually condensing the information into a presentation and finding reputable sources. Since most sources are just casual websites for people who do not really want to get too into the nitty gritty, it was hard to get actual insight on the dish. However, after digging around a little more, I found out the history of Kimchi and it gave me a broader understanding of food in Korea. Giving the presentation was actually helpful, because Youngmin and my classmates gave me critiques on the presentation. This was helpful because I did not know how my presentational skills are on Korean topics. Some critiques were that they wanted to know more about a certain topic. I have added these information to the cultural presentation and have greatly increased my knowledge on presenting in a foreign language.
For these two weeks we learned about traditional Korean buildings. Youngmin brought our class easy assembly toys that we were required to make and learn about. After we made the buildings from some styrofoam, we were supposed to give a presentation on them. This was interesting to learn about because it gave us a hands on experience on how the buildings are actually structured and the special parts of the assembly process. The building I had was a national treasure and a palace for the King and Queen and the family of the royals to sit down near a lake and rest. This was a two story building that was tall to overlook the whole palace. This was good in learning because before this experience, I had no idea that the building even existed. The presentation also allowed us to learn about other people's buildings as well.
For the next week, we went over the workbook a little more and did problems from there. These were situations like texting conversations. We were supposed to text each other in class and talk about what that text message said. This was fun for me because it allowed some room for creativity. The most difficult part of this assignment was to actually describe what was happening in the text messages. Since it is not something that is used as a daily conversation material between my parents, it was something foreign to me. However, it gave me a chance to text my friends and use Korean in a more casual manner.
For these past two weeks, we watched a movie and summarized it. Since Youngmin was not able to make it to class, she assigned us a movie to watch and to write a reflection on it. When we wrote the reflection, we typed it up and read each other's in class. It was an interesting way to learn Korean and to reinforce the first topic that we learned about writing a reflection paper in Korean. This was an interesting way to learn and a good exposure to Korean cinema. The movie was about a Korean native who is taking up odd jobs in foreign countries to help support his family back home. I liked this balance between learning about Korean culture and the Korean language.
For the next week, we went back to working on the workbook. This time, we learned about descriptive words. These descriptive words were words like "next to" and "behind of". She showed us a picture of a scene and we were required to describe each object like "The lamp next to the bed is turned on." This was something that I had trouble with because it was hard for me to form my sentences in formal settings. When I have casual conversations with my parents, I have no problems forming my sentences, but when I am forced to, I have a harder time. This is something that Youngmin and my class will work on continually.
For these two weeks, we worked on the workbook again. She made the class more interactive and put impossible scenarios on the whiteboard. These situations were like "If I won the lottery, I would..." and "If the world was ending tomorrow, I would..." This was an interesting topic for me. It was something different than the usual curriculum, so it was fun to be creative and learn Korean at the same time. After we went onto the board and wrote our different scenarios, we spoke about them in Korean and asked each other questions. I believe that this was something that was very effective in keeping my attention in the class and actually being engaged to the content that we were learning. We also did a couple of problems in the workbook to reinforce those concepts.
For the next week, we did charades on descriptive words that are specific to Korean. It was a fun way to learn unusual words that are commonly used in Korean. Some of these examples were "bzzzz" or "bark". It was entertaining to see my classmates acting these scenarios out and actually learning these topics. We reinforced these topics by doing some workbook problems in class.
For these two weeks, Youngmin and our class worked out of the workbook that we have been working on last two weeks. We have been talking about performances and grammatical rules based on that. We have been learning about speaking in the third person and how to write in them as well. Since I told Youngmin that I wanted to focus more on writing and speaking, she has structured the class in a way that has a lot of writing and speaking involved. In terms of speaking, we go around the class and answer questions out of the workbook verbally. We also have more writing involved in the class. She gave us homework that reviews what we have learned in class.
For the next week we went over the same concepts and watched some videos of actual Korean traditional performances. We then did a writing response on a performance that have impacted us. This could either be a movie or any other performances that we watched. I did my writing response on Inception and why I liked the movie so much. We wrote it in Korean and typed it up which gave me a chance at practicing my Korean typing. This was an effective way to practice my writing on something that actually took some thought and insight. After we typed up the report, we sent it to Youngmin, who gave us corrections. This was effective and something that I could see myself using for my future studies in Korean.
Document a learning task that you have completed.
I asked my teacher some confusions that I had such as when to use ㅎ when saying 안. 안 and 않 is pronounced the same way but adding the ㅎ depends on the word and context of the sentence. She explained it on the board with some examples.
This week we just started off with the work book and focused on proper grammar. Sentence structure can be very complex for the Korean language, so we explored many different examples and situations where we would use the appropriate suffixes. At the same time, we worked on our out-loud reading capabilities while doing the exercises.
- First Cultural Post: What are your cultural learning goals for this semester?
- Which one or two topics will you explore during the course of the semester?
- How do you expect to explore these topics?
- What do you hope to learn through your exploration of these topics?
My learning goals for this semester is to focus on Korean literature, grammar, sentence structures, vocabulary, and slangs. In 110, we focused on speech and conversational Korean. Therefore, in 111 I hope to focus on proper Korean writing as well as continue to improve my reading. We will explore many topics ranging from sentence structure, politics, entertainment, and general Korean culture. We will utilize a work book and do independent research/presentations.
I thought the readings were very interesting and informative, mainly because I have no knowledge of the anatomy of the brain. I especially thought it was interesting that if you are right-hand dominant, then the left-hemisphere of your brain is the leading hemisphere for languages. I also thought the part about the tongue slip was also fascinating because I do it so often. I would tend to speak before I even think about what is coming out of my mouth, leading to mistakes and words that I did not mean to say.
In the reading, it mentions that the Broca and the Wernicke's area is responsible for the production and comprehension of speech. The Broca area is in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere while the Wernicke's area is located on the temporal lobe on the left side of the brain.
Because I have experience learning a language at home and in the classroom setting, I would say that I conceptualize meaning through feeling. Every language has a word for a feeling that another language might not have. Therefore, it is hard to recognize a word if you do not have another word to compare it to in another language. That is why I think having a feeling or a sense of what it is suppose to mean is significant.
Reflect on your experiences as a language teacher and learning in this latest speed-dating workshop. What difficulties did you encounter? How did you successfully relay concepts that were foreign to your classmates as your students? If you were eventually granted the opportunity to teach a full semester-long course on the target language, what strategies would you adopt?
Before teaching my peers a Hangul lesson as part of the speed-dating workshop, I knew that there was the probability of not having all of my peers engaged in the lesson. Therefore, I had planned ahead and created a handout that outlined the lesson we covered, provided examples of the material, and offered online citation in case anyone would like to do more research on the topic after the lesson. The handout worked well and as a result, I did not encounter any significant difficulties during my experience as a language teacher. Aside from providing my peers with the handout I mentioned previously, I also made a PowerPoint to relay the material to my peers/students. Each slide had examples of how to accurately use the material I covered and at the end of the PowerPoint, I included an example of how people address each other in Korean using a picture from a Korean variety show that I enjoy watching (SBS’s Running Man). After I was done with the presentation, I opened the floor for questions, which was a successful way to engage further with my peers and to respond to any of their inquiries. As such, if I were given the opportunity to teach a semester-long course on the Korean language, some strategies that I would adopt include: using PowerPoints to convey information, providing handouts so students may follow along, and offering various examples to ensure proper usage of the material. One strategy that I would like to improve however is the manner in which I would get students more engaged. While the handout and the Q&A session worked effectively during this short experience, I believe that I would need to include more interactive exercises (such as group activities and worksheets) to confirm that students truly understand the lesson and are able to apply what they have learned.
Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language. Are you bilingual? If so, would you agree with the arguments made in the two readings on bilingualism?
While reflecting on my experiences of reading and writing in Korean, I would say I am nowhere near being bilingual (under the term’s connotative interpretation). I would, however, say that I am bilingual in English and Castilian (both languages I grew up with), and French (a third language I learned in school and have used regularly while abroad). After watching “The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain” in class, I think that my relationship with Korean may at most place me under the term, subordinate bilingual, which is, according to the video, someone who processes a target language through one’s primary language. This is because although I am able to read hangul and understand some words in Korean, I am unable to understand the majority of what is said in conversation or what is said in articles I’ve tried reading, as most written pieces focus on topics and writing styles that are well beyond what I’ve been covering in my learning plan. Additionally, I have not reached the level at which I would be able to think in Korean to process aspects of Korean linguistics: I continue to filter Korean through English.
With respect to the readings, I do not agree with Bhattacharjee’s position that characterizes bilinguals as smarter than monolinguals. The author recognizes that the brain’s executive function is increased as a result of knowing more than one language, but the writer stretches this information by assuming and suggesting that executive function (which is a system of cognitive processes) equates directly with intelligence. As such, I agree with Bialystok, who is cited in Ossola’s piece and who argues that it is problematic when people interpret scientific conclusions – which state that bilinguals and monolinguals use executive function differently –to argue that one group is more intelligent than the other. As discussed in the article, people may reach the misconception that bilinguals are smarter than monolinguals as studies show that bilinguals have increased executive function (when compared to monolinguals) which “can help [bilinguals] do a lot of things that may make them seem smarter, such as doing a lot of things at once and cancelling out distractions” (Ossola). Nevertheless, one should not forget, as mentioned in the article, that the two (intelligence and executive function) are not the same. Therefore, one cannot assume that bilinguals are more intelligent than monolinguals on the basis of increased executive function.
Bibliography
Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit. “Why Bilinguals Are Smarter.” The New York Times, 17 Mar. 2012. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html.
Nacamulli, Mia. The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain - Mia Nacamulli. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBLY. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Ossola, Alexandra. “Are Bilinguals Really Smarter?” Scienceline, 29 July 2014, http://scienceline.org/2014/07/are-bilinguals-really-smarter/.
How many new words have you learned in your target language? How did you learn them? Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary?
As I’ve reflected on my Korean language learning experience, I’ve realized that I cannot pinpoint a precise number to indicate the amount of new words that I have learned in my target language. While I have learned many Korean words by using a list of words that my language partner and I have derived, I have also learned some words during my Korean lessons and during less formal settings of which I did not included in the vocabulary list because I learned them quickly. As such, I would estimate that I have learned about 300-400 Korean words thus far. This estimate also includes suffixes that I’ve learned during sessions with my learning partner.
I learned much of the vocabulary I’ve acquired over the semester from my lessons with my learning partner, from a vocabulary list that I review regularly, and from Korean media (music and shows). I have also enriched my Korean vocabulary by speaking or texting with Korean friends (who would correct my grammar and/or spelling), by taking an active approach to complete the tasks I have set for myself in my learning plan, and by researching the Korean words that are applicable under particular cultural or contextual settings.
Moreover, after further reflection, I believe that I have set realistic goals for myself to acquire more Korean vocabulary. This is primarily because each of my tasks focuses on being able to converse with someone in Korean about a new topic; therefore, each new task requires that I learn the vocabulary associated with it in order to complete the task adequately.
How do languages go extinct? Respond to the reading, reflecting on what happens when a language dies. How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a language ever be brought back to life?
A language goes extinct when its usage becomes minimal or nonexistent and when there are no longer any living native speakers of the language. As mentioned in Johnson’s article, languages may also go extinct when geopolitical influences inhibit the prosperity of a language: take for instance the example of how government boarding schools were used by US state officials as a tool to eliminate indigenous languages and customs. As such, political influences can force languages into extinction. Furthermore, languages may become endangered when dominant, foreign institutions exert their cultural linguistic influence over less prominent languages, forcing such languages into a liminal stage between existence and extinction.
As Johnson details, the Siletz Dee-ni language was characterized as a terminatedlanguage by the federal government in the ‘50s but regained federal recognition in the ‘70s after there was a revitalization movement of the language via cultural factors like song and dance. The author further details how linguists have engaged in innovative practices to preserve the language by recording native speaking, building dictionaries, and – more recently – creating online dictionaries for various audiences around the world. An example of an online dictionary of this sort is the “Siletz Dee-ni Talking Dictionary”, which, as Johnson’s mentions, was created by linguists, students, and indigenous community members. Another way to help a language regain its strength is through education, as is being done with the introduction of Siletz Dee-ni in the local public charter school. Overall, linguists, community members, and policy-makers have the ability to revive languages and keep them from extinction by allocating resources to language programs – that create dictionaries and online resources for language competency – and to schools or community centers that provide lessons and training in the target language. With proper resources and dedication, deadlanguages do have the potential to be brought to life. Hebrew was a language that, for centuries, did not have a native speaker until it was revived in the 19thcentury. Now millions of people speak Hebrew around the world: it is even one of the official languages of Israel. As such, it is not impossible for a dead language to be brought back to life if people properly engage in revitalization efforts to revive dead languages.
Bibliography
Johnson, Kirk. “Siletz Language, With Few Voices, Finds Modern Way to Survive.” The New York Times, 3 Aug. 2012. NYTimes.com,https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/04/us/siletz-language-with-few-voices-finds-modern-way-to-survive.html.
Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. To what family does your language belong? What sounds, words, or structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures?
Knowing a language’s history not only enables the learner to be more conscientious of the language’s origins, but, in some cases, it may even help one incorporate what one knows in one language into the target language – if both languages share historical and linguistic similarities. The following are significant findings I found regarding the history of the Korean language.
Most scholars agree that Korean is part of its own Koreanic language family, but some scholars argue that it is actually part of the Altaic language family, which includes Mongolian and Turkish (Asia Society). While Korean is largely considered a language isolate, it is evident that contact with other cultures has linguistically influenced various aspects of the Korean language. With respect to the origins of the Korean language, scholars are largely unaware of the languages or dialects that were used in the Korean peninsula prior to the standardization of the Korean language in the 15thcentury (Martin). Before King Sejong of the Yi Dynasty (1397-1450) ordered for the creation of hangul (the Korean writing system) in the 1400s, Chinese characters were used to represent Korean sounds; the characters’ inability to adequately reflect Korean sounds resulted in King Sejong’s decision to codify Korean phonetics via the creation of the alphabet system that, with some modifications, is largely used today (Asia Society; Martin).
Furthermore, standard Korean no longer uses the accents 15thcentury speakers/writers would use that would make the language have a distinct musical touch to it (Martin). Furthermore, the evidence of how influential Chinese has had on the Korean language is found within the language’s vocabulary: it is estimated that “roughly half the Korean vocabulary consists of words derived from Chinese, mainly through the Confucian classics” (Asia Society). While the Korean language incorporated many Chinese words, Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korean) are not widely used anymore; nevertheless, Korean has incorporated some Chinese punctuation into its current writing system as well as many English punctuation marks (and words) that have been introduced during contact with Anglophone countries in contemporary history (Asia Society; Martin). Regardless of the large influence other cultures and languages have had on the Korean language, one must not forget that “Korean is completely distinct from Chinese [and English], in sound and in sentence structure” (Asia Society). Lastly, Asia Society argues that there are two standardized variations of Korean: the Seoul dialect (of South Korea) and the Pyongyang dialect (of North Korea), which have developed differently in sound and in use of Hanja due to geopolitical influences.
Bibliography
Asia Society. “Korean Language | Asia Society.” Center for Global Education,https://asiasociety.org/education/korean-language. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Martin, Samuel E. “Korean Language.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Korean-language. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Throughout this semester I learned a bit about the history of South Korea. My comprehensive outlook on the history is that it is kind of depressing. I learned about the concept of Han when I took SDLC 111 which denotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overcoming insurmountable odds. I think this perfectly encapsulates Korea's history and what the Korean people had to go through based on what I learned so far.
In the past, Korea has always been overtaken by other stronger countries such as Japan and China. Korea has always been on the weaker end of the spectrum and had to overcome overwhelming circumstances. There is also the Korean war where Korea became separated into two countries. The significant impact of this on the Korean people never really hit me until I watched Ode to my Father, which was assigned by Youngmin. In the film, there was a scene where the main character gets to reunite with his sister who was lost in the Korean war through a television broadcast. Before this emotional scene, the film shows real life broadcasts of separated family members reuniting through the television network. I had no idea this reunification happened until I saw the film and it was heart wrenching to watch. I imagined how I would have felt if I was separated from any of my family members for decades and finally being able to see them. The depressing part was that they were able to physically see each other, but only through the television screens. I was an emotional wreck after this scene. There is also the history of the demonstrations against the corrupt government where a college student was murdered in 1987.
All these events culminated together just make me feel sorry for all the things the Korean people had to suffer through. I can finally see why the term Han has been specially created for the people of Korea. Fortunately, South Korea now has a booming economy and is not suffering anymore.
