How to introduce myself in Korean:
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Ask and answer questions about identity:
I used my phone to record my words. The following youtube videos helped me a lot in doing it.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9_BmcUk_Xs (Introduction)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFRq1Zz-9A (Greetings)
The sentence I talked in my voice records:
- Annyeong. Yi ya Bangawo (Hi, I am Yi. Nice to meet you) [informal]
- Annyeonghaseyo Yi-eyo Bangawoyo (Hi, I am Yi. Nice to meet you) [formal]
- An-nyeong (Hi) [formal]
- Annyeong-haseyo (Hi) [formal]
- An-nyeonghi-gyeseyo (Bye) [when you go, formal]
- Jal isseo (Bye) [informal]
- Annyeonghi-gaseyo (Bye) [when you stay, formal]
- Jal ga (Bye) [informal]
Though I did not find a Korean friend to evaluate my work, I am very satisfied with my work, in terms of accent, cultural appropriateness and linguistic accuracy. I reached this standard by listening to the teaching video several time and repeated myself a lot.
For the goal I set last week, I fulfilled it with fun. Attached is a picture of Easy Korean. It is fun to say "That's awesome" and "It's the best". Such sentence is very useful in the school life.
Translation and evaluation see the learning journal 5
My goal for week 4 and 5 is the following:
- learn some Korean Culture, more specifically holiday culture.
- learn some simple conversations during the holidays, like greetings.
- learn some simple slang words in daily life.
My resource:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgqwLXpJ8yg (Christimas)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T3L6Ufk2iI (Pepero Day)
- Easy Korean Series 286
- The first video I found interesting, since it does not only talk about the Korean culture on Christmas but also teach me to learn some simple dialog in everyday life. Like "where are you heading to?" Also there are two ways to say "Christmas", the first one sounds like English and the second one sounds like Chinese, (Actually it means the same in Chinese as well.)
- The second video entertained me a lot. i never thought 11/11 is a festival for snacks. In China it is a holiday for singles. And single people go shopping crazy on that day.:)
- The last one I found is very useful in everyday like. Being able to say "you are cool." lol
Evaluation:
- It is hard to evaluate my achievement without a language partner. I will try to ask my Korean friends for her suggestions and will replay the artifact to myself. Though I cannot speak well, but I can hear the difference, hopefully.
Actually through the Hana Hana Hangul, I found a lot of other interesting Korean Language learning video on the Youtube. The series is called the "Weekly Korean words with Jae". The following are the two videos that I watched.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOBZn7LunhM (About School Supplies)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOBZn7LunhM&index=5&list=PLAKEOhhoOenPwU5-UIZWWw1DIZWzlPdAm(About Study Subjects)
I am a huge fan of these video. Because he not only teaches the words very clearly but also explain how the words is composed. Like the word "notebook" is consist of "empty" and "book", an empty book for you to write. That's notebook. He also make use of the words in the sentence. Though it is hard for me to repeat what he say about the sentence but it really gave me a feeling about Korean conversations!
I did not try to learn a language through online resource before. I found that it is hard to follow the instructions and also I cannot concentrate on the language studying. But I will give it a try here. Indeed, there are lot of educational resources online about Korean language that I found interesting. There are two websites that interest me most. (Besides Mango, Byki and Diigo).
- Youtube series "Hana Hana Hangul"
The first one is the Youtube series on teaching Hangul. The videos using simple steps, showing you the correct stroke order, helpful tricks for memorization, and proper usage in common Korean words. I think this is a perfect place for me to start.
The second website is Pinterest. I found this website when I search Korean vocabulary through Google. I saved most of the resources that interest me on it instead of Diigo. (I hope i can do it.) The reason why I like the Pinterest so much is that most of the korean vocabulary cards are with cute comics and are sorted into groups.
My Plan for this week:
- watch the Hana hana series 1-2 videos
- learn vocabulary from the Easy Korean series about greetings
For week 8, I decided to expand upon what I learned in week six. There are a lot of things that you can do once you have learned the numbers in Korean, so from there I went on to learn the months as well as how to count up to 100. I also learned how to say my age, as well as ask others about their ages. I found that the native Korean numbers were much harder for me to learn than the Sino-Korean numbers. On top of learning how to say the numbers, I also learned their character representation.
Please see the 105&110 reflection
According to the Can-Do Statements, my current level of Korean is Novice Low, which means I can only communicate with very simple words and phrases that I had memorized and can only copy some words and characters. But I am not very ambitious about my study in Korean, since I only want to study it for my trip to Korean in summer.
I want to start with a reachable plan and as the semester goes I can add more into it.
- to master the Hangul, pronunciation and the writing.
- be able to read the character and words according to Hangul
- counting number from 1 to 10 and 20,30,40... to 100
- be able to have some casual conversation such as asking for price/ direction or weather
My goal is to reach the novice mid especially in the speaking and listening aspects.:)
How to say welcome and hello in Korean:
This semester, I decided to learn more about the lifestyle of Korean students as well as Korean food. I was able to learn more about the Korean drinking culture which was great because I always hear about how it is a huge culture in Koreans for numerous generations. Because I moved to the US at a young age, I was never was able to participate or know much about the drinking culture and other activities students partake in. Therefore, I enjoyed doing research as I could imagine what my life would be like if I still lived there. It was also interesting because it was a continuation of my cultural project last semester. After the end of the semester, I felt that there was more I could expand on, but was limited to due to time and the length restriction of my presentation. Throughout this semester, I was able to expand on it and feel like I have a more rounded knowledge on the culture.
Another aspect which I focused on was Korean food. What I ended up researching about was the starting and expansion of Korean fusion. In the past few years, I've definitely seen a wide expansion on Korean fusion. While I thought it was cool, I didn't think much else of it. But through research, I found that Korean fusion has made it much easier for "gypos" which are Koreans who live in foreign countries to fit in their societies. For gyopos, they don't necessarily fit in Korea because they often have different cultural ideas and/or accents. In the countries they live in, they also don't necessarily fit in because they have different appearances and may have a different cultural background. I definitely understand what that is like because I moved here from Korea, and struggled with differences in the first few years. It is great to hear that even things like food can bring different cultures together.
My culture project this year was about the process Korean trainees go through to become idols. Through my research, I found how difficult it is to even get signed with an entertainment industry - as they have a grueling and extremely competitive audition process. I also learned that these trainees often train for years starting from even elementary or middle school. They have to sacrifice their education as they are often not able to make their school. To be an idol, you have to be trained in acting, singing, dancing, speaking, different languages, etc. In addition, it is extremely important to be fit and pretty, which often requires plastic surgery. Because there is no guarantee that you will debut as an idol, they struggle through a lot of insecurities. I think this fits well with the fact that the Korean society is extremely competitive and fast paced, and it is amazing what these young children go through to follow their dreams.
Here are the questions translated in English that I asked and answered in Korean.
What is your name?
My name is Jinree is Korean. My English name is Esther.
How old are you?
I am 18 years old.
When is your birthday?
My birthday is May 1st.
Where were you born?
I was born in America.I live in Washington state.
Are you a student?
Yes, I am studying at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
What grade are you?
I am just ending my first year.
What do you do in your free time?
I like to dance and play piano. I like to play tennis and ping pong with my friends.
What kind of food do you like to eat?
I like Korean food the most but I also like sushi and bread
In the past two weeks, I've discussed what I've learned with my language partner and what I plan to do after I graduate to keep up with my Korean skills. Since I am graduating this semester, obviously I am not able to continue on with taking SDLC classes. Therefore, in order to continue on to develop Korean skills, I have to be able to continue on my own. While I am concerned that with my work schedule, it will be difficult to find time to do so, I think I have learned through this class how to learn on my own while managing my time.
We also read articles as we always do when we meet. This one was about "luxury camping," a common vacation that many Koreans seem to take. I have briefly heard of this because I saw it on a show and thought it would be a fun, quick trip. In the US, when you think of camping, most think of being in the middle of the woods with a tent, toasting marshmallows on your own. However in luxury camping, there is a outdoors "tent" set out for you, or there is a trailer already at the camping sight. At some places, you can order restaurant quality food, and at others you bring the food to cook in front of of your trailer or tent. I think this is a great way for areas especially like Seoul to bring camping right next to the city. It's more convenient and takes less planning, so I think it fits very well with the Koreans' hectic lifestyle.
The article itself was one of the easier ones we've read this semester because most of the vocabulary used was more simple. Therefore, I was able to get through it with less help from my language partner. While reading, I also remembered some of the words which I had learned before this semester. It was great to see the improvement that I have made throughout the semester, and realize that a lot of the things I am learning was really sticking with me.
In the past two weeks, we decided to try something new and I took a Korean intermediate language quiz to see how I would score. I did a few when I took my language assessment at the end of last semester, and I thought it was a fun way to see at what level my Korean skills were. I took another quiz at an intermediate level, and found that the quiz wasn't too hard. It basically just made me read passages and tell them what it means. I think because my strengths are speaking and understanding every-day words and phrases, quizzes like this are easier, but may not be a fair representation of my Korean skills. Therefore, I took another quiz which focused more an grammar where I performed not as well. This quiz made me identify grammatical errors in a given sentence. Because I know Korean grammar by basically what sounds right, some of them were difficult to identify. As I continue to progress in Korean, I think coming back to these quizzes to test myself will be a good way to see how much progress I have made.
An article I read with my language in one of the weeks was about a new way of counting calories.This article was somewhat harder to read because it contained a lot of health terms that I was not sure of. However, my language partner helped me through it, and I was able to make through it. We also talked about the Korean culture and their almost obsession with appearance. I've heard about Korean celebrities who only eat less than 1,000 calories a day, or only eat sweet potatoes for a week in order to loose weight. This obviously is also an issue in the US as well as throughout the world, but I often feel that Koreans take it to another level. I think this relates back to the importance they put on appearance.
In my own time, I've also been practicing writing more and watching and reading more of the news. As I've stated before, I think practice over time is what will allow me to improve Korean and let it stick for the long run. I think this in combination with the work I have been doing with my language partner has definitely helped my Korean skills.
An assignment we had this week was to teach someone something in Korean. I had this same assignment for SDLC 110, and I taught my 105 class how to order food in Korean. This semester, I decided to teach my friend how to say different colors in Korean. The colors I taught her included red - 하얀색 pink - 분홍색 purple - 보라색 green - 초록색 orange - 분홍색blue - 파란색 yellow - 노란색 white - 하얀색 and brown - 갈색. I taught her the colors by showing a sample of these colors and saying them out loud. I then had her repeat after me a few times so that it would be easier for her to remember. Then, I wrote out the colors, and had her practice a few times. After all of that, I finally quizzed her on whether she could remember how to say and write them. Since this was one lesson, she obviously did not know how to write/say all the colors, but was able to remember some of them. This experience was a bit different from last year, as I was teaching one of my friends and not the whole class. Therefore, I was able to get more personal, and it seemed a lot easier to teach her since I could correct her mistakes at an individual level.
With my language partner the past two weeks, I read an article as we always do every time we meet. One of them was about a cherry blossom festival that is coming soon. Cherry blossoms are a huge deal in Korea and Japan, and I have always wanted to go back to see them. The last few times I went were in mid-march, and so I always missed them by a few weeks which made me sad. The article we read talked about a festival at a horse-themed park, where not only would there be cherry blossoms to look at but also activities for children and couples as well as a horse themed light show that would happen at night. When reading the article, I was able to identify the majority of these words. However, I had a little trouble with technology words that were used to describe the light show. In addition, I do generally have trouble with words that are in english but are written in Korean. People in Korea seem to be using these words increasingly over time, and it's hard to identify quickly when reading because they're spoken in such different ways since Koreans don't use "r"s or "fs" For example, "Paris" is pronoucned "Pah-li" which makes sense when you know that's what the reading is talking about but it doesn't seem to click as quickly sometimes when I'm reading quickly.
During our meeting, we also talked about different aspects of culture such as relating to the cherry blossom festival. My language partner explained to me that Koreans enjoy things that are beautiful like outdoor festivals. He said this also relates to the fact of why Koreans like plastic surgery so much. I never thought of it in this way, and it was interesting to think of it in a more positive sounding way.
I recorded a journal/dialogue about my trip to Korea last winter break with some dialogue lines from Berkeley's Online Intermediate Korean website. It takes place in the airplane from U.S. to Incheon International Airport. One of my main goals for this semester was to work on my reading and writing skills. By creating a journal/dialogue, I was able to work on my writing, spelling, vocabulary, and reading.
Translation:
The plane to Seoul is very big. I sat in my seat comfortably as the plane took off. The sky was clear and bright blue. I'm on my way to Korea for the first time in nine years. Because it's winter break, the plane was pretty packed. There was a young couple with a baby sitting on my right and a young man reading a magazine on my left. I was about to fall asleep when the baby suddenly started crying.
Woman: I'm sorry. My child's crying must be disturbing.
Me: No, that's okay. The child must be tired and uncomfortable on the plane.
Woman: My child's usually very quiet, but he didn't get to nap earlier so he's crying a lot.
Young man: Are you going to Korea for Winter Break?
Me: Yes. I'm going to travel and try to learn some Korean.
Young Man: Is this your first time going to Korea?
Me: No, but I haven't been there in nearly ten years. I was born in Korea but lived in U.S. since I was young.
Young Man: Oh, your Korean is very good. Where did you learn Korean?
Me: When I was younger I went to Korean School and I learned a little bit in college. But I'm not very good and have a lot to learn.
Young Man: If you live in Korea for a year I think your Korean will become really good.
The plane landed in Seoul Incheon International Airport and I went to the exit gate. I exchanged dollar currency to won, because I needed cash to take the taxi or the bus.
Throughout this semester, I was able to further my Korean vocabulary, speaking skills, reading skills, knowledge on cultural background and history, and writing skills. My main goals for this semester were to improve my vocabulary, writing, and speaking skills. Although I wasn't able to improve my speaking skills as much as I wanted to, a lot of the online resources that I have found really helped me improve my fluency in Korean. I personally really enjoyed cultural presentations we had in class for I was able to gain knowledge on language as well as culture from different countries. Although I was born in Korea, there were so much I didn't know about the country's culture and history. Although I knew that King SeJong created Hangul I didn't know the history or the reason behind it until my classmates' presentations. I was able to learn about the language and the culture in a deeper level and was able to further my understanding and knowledge on the language I was learning. With all the resources I have found online and skills that I have obtained as a self-directed learner, I plan to continue working on my Korean skills.
