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It is hard to believe that the semester is close to end and I have learned Korean independently for three months. For me, learning Korean is not my first time of learning a foreign language. However, it is my first time to learn a new language by myself instead of teaching by professionals. After this process, in addition to my knowledge in Korean, I have evolved as an self-directed language learner.

I have met many difficulties in this process due to self-study. For example,  At the beginning, I thought it was a relax and comfortable way to learn Korean because I enjoy watching drama so much. However, later I found that nothing was learned if I just watched it for one time and paid all attention to the story. Then I had to change my way of watching K-drama. I used to watch one whole drama one episode after another, then take a break. Now I started watching dramas that were currently airing at least one episode every day. And when I was watching them, I began to pick up words and phrases that kept popping up. I wrote them down in notebook and kept re-read them everyday. Now after keeping doing this for a period, I was able to recognize the sounds and meaning of some words in K-drama without looking up online. Thanks to this learning process, I realized I have developed a better willpower and self-discipline.

I think learning Korean not only increases my knowledge, but also helps me improve my willpower and become a self-directed learner. Furthermore, this learning process also enhances my ability on staying motivated and time management skill.In general, taking this course and learning Korean on my own were the right decisions I have made. I have gained abilities including observe culture, connect culture with language, manage time and tasks and also stay motivated and be responsible for my own study all the time. Even though this semester has come to the end, I will not stop learning Korean and take it as a part of my study life. 

This week I learned some words about weather. As we all know, the easiest fall-back conversation topic when we have nothing to talk about is weather. Everybody loves talking about the weather, especially when it is bad. Therefore, I searched online and found the words in Korean to describe weather. 

Below is a list of vocabulary I think will be useful when talking about the weather in Korean.

Vocabulary

Nouns
날씨 = weather
기온 = temperature
공기 = air
비 = rain
눈 = snow
바람 = wind
이슬비 = drizzle
눈바람 = blizzard

The are all not very hard to speak but not easy to remember the shapes of words. Therefore, I still wrote them down in my notebook in case I forgot. 

This week I had learned the way for Asking for things. 

here Are / There is

The Korean verb which means either "there are" and "there is" is issoyo ( 있 어요 )
They are dependent on the context in which you use them, and on what you are talking about. The stem of the verb is iss- with the inclusion of o and the polite particle -yo, thus forming the ending -oyo. However in the case where the verb stem ends in vowel, we use -a or -o, such as -ayo.
Vowel stem - yo
Consonant stem - ayo if the last vowel ends with -a or -o
Consonant Stem - oyo

I think these words are commonly used in daily life. Therefore, I had marked them down in my notebook and practice them often. 

There is also a website which explains this issoyo well: http://www.learn-korean.net/learn-korean-classes-viewarticle-11.html

As we all know, there is polite and formal way of speaking in Korean. This week I planned to learn how to make requests more polite. The polite honorific -seyo can be used to make requests more polite, -seyo is used when the verb stem ends in in a vowel, and -useyo is used when the verb stem ends in a consonant. For example:

mashi- becomes mashiseyo
ha- becomes haseyo
kidari- becomes kidariseyo
iss- becomes issuseyo
anj- becomes anjusey

If I want to request someone to wait for me, I would say kidariseyo, which means "please wait".
The use of -seyo means that I have a special respect for the person, for example if I say hansongsaengnim-i hakkyo-e kaseyo , I am saying Mr Guo is going to school. ( But you are also showing special respect for him ).

It is very interesting to learn the use of -seyo. I will try to add this word into the sentences I learned past in order to make them more polite. 

This week I was going to learn the number counting in Korean. There is two number counting systems in Korean. The first set are known as pure Korean numbers, and the other are Sino-korean which is based on the chinese numerals.

The use of these numbers depends on the context in which it is used, for example the pure korean numbers are used when counting hours, and the sino korean when used to count minutes.

kong 0
il 1 shibil 11 ishibil 21
i 2 shibi 12 ishibi 22
sam 3 shipsam 13 ishipsam 23
sa 4 shipsa 14 ishipsa 24
o 5 shibo 15
yuk 6 shimnyuk 16
ch'il 7 shipch'il 17
p'al 8 shipp'al 18
ku 9 shibku 19 ishipku 29
ship 10 iship 20 samship 30

saship 40
kuship 90
paek 100
ch'on 1000
man 10,000

It was not easy to remember all the number counting. But I tried to match up each words to the number respectively. I hope that I can at least know what number it represents when I see the word. 

This week I started to learn basic pronunciation in Korean. Korean pronunciation is entirely different in structure compared to English pronunciation. In English, whenever a word ends in a consonant, we always make a little sound after saying that last letter. But in Korean, there is no final ‘breath’ sound. For example, 

In English: ship
In Korean: 십 (meaning ‘ten’)

In English = dock
In Korean: 독 (meaning ‘poison’)

It was quite hard for me to remember the sound of each word. Even though I can rephrase the word after listening to the pronunciation, the next day I would forgot how to say it. Therefore I still need to spend more time on practicing the pronunciation. 

I have looked up many website and this is the best one: http://www.howtostudykorean.com/unit0/197-2/

The goal for this week was learning how to order food in Korean. There are four parts needed to learn in order to be successful ordering, 

1. Hangul (in order to read the menus) 
2. The names of different foods (to pick what you want)
3. Your address (tell them where to come)
4. The basic questions you will be asked on the phone (to respond accordingly) 

Among these the 2 and 3 are the most important things to know. Therefore, I looked online and found many resources.
I also learned the sentence of getting check after eating.

계산서 주세요.
Gyesansuh juseyo.
Please give me/us the bill.

My learning goals for this week are a little bit different than previous weeks' for I've been wanting to learn more about the Korean culture. Carlos did a cultural presentation on Korean superstitions and to my surprise I only knew two of the ones he mentioned. I found a YouTube Channel called TalkToMeInKorean and they cover a lot of videos on Korean culture, such as superstitions, Korean marriage, cost of living, and so on. 

This week I've watched videos on Korean superstitions and although they may not be true, I thought it was important to know these cultural differences because it may affect others from that culture. For example, writing someone's name in red ink in Korea can be seen as disrespectful and bring bad fortune for names of those who have died are written in red ink. Another one is being careful when using chopsticks. Dropping them on the floor or placing them in "inappropriate" positions, like stick it in your rice, can be seen as disrespectful and unmannerly. 

I also learned Korean count words this week, which were a bit difficult. Like Chinese and Japanese, Korean uses special measure words/counting words to count objects and events. This is called 수분류사 (subllyusa). For example, in English people say "1 sheet of paper" and sheet acts like the measure word. In Korean, sheets are 장 (jang). I've been trying to memorize measure words and use them in context/sentences so I can use them correctly, especially when I speak to elders and family friends.

• gae (개) -- 'things' in general, often used as a coverall when the specific count word is unknown, for example by children.
• beol (벌) -- items of clothing
• bun (분) -- people (honorific)
• cheok (척) -- boats and ships
• chae (채) -- houses
• dae (대) -- vehicles (cars, airplanes) and machinery (incl. computers)
• dan (단) -- bunches of Welsh onions, green onions; a column (in a newspaper)
• dong (동) -- buildings
• geuru (그루) -- trees
• gwa (과) -- lessons (if paired with Sino-Korean numeral, lesson number)
• gwon (권) -- books
• jang (장) -- paper
• jaru (자루) -- things with long handles (writing instruments, shovels, swords, and rifles), and by extension, knives and pistols
• jul (줄) -- literal meaning: line. things aligned in a row (gimbap, desks, chairs)
• kyeolle (켤레) -- gloves and socks (pairs)
• mari (마리) -- animals
• myeong (명) -- people (informal)
• pil (필) -- uncut fabric, horses, cows
• pogi (포기) -- Chinese cabbages
• pun (푼) -- pennies
• sal (살) -- years
• song-i (송이) -- picked flowers, bunches of grapes, bunches of bananas
• tol (톨) -- grains of rice (not cooked), stones
• tong (통/通) -- letters, telegrams, telephone calls, and e-mail
• tong (통) -- watermelons
• jeom (점) -- paintings , sliced or ripped off flesh , small amount of something (cloud, wind)

Here is the PPT:

Korean%20culture%20presentation-Cien.pptx

For my first presentation, I talked about Korean Lunar New Year. 8 February 2016 is Seollal (설날 – the Lunar New Year’s Day), which is one of the important festivals in South Korea. Seollal falls on the 1st day of the 1st month of the lunar calendar and family members and relatives get together to celebrate. So, how do the Koreans celebrate

Seollal? There are many interesting rituals and I will talk about some of them and the reasons behind in.

Here is the PPT:

Korean%20presentation%202.pptx

My second presentation is about Korean history. I talked about the development of Korean and its interesting facts. 

K-pop%20and%20fans%20culture.pptx

My topic for cultural project is about K-pop music and its fans culture. K-pop music is one of the popular part of Korea culture. K-Pop is an abbreviation from the word Korean Pop. It originated from South Korea but has a steady increase of followers from all over the world. Unlike the name, K-Pop music genre is more than just pop. The K-Pop that we know today emerges around the 1990s during the Hallyu Wave. This is the period when people starts to pay attention and interested in Korean production like the Korean drama sand music industry and K-Pop starts to spread their wings to the other region.
"Fans" is an abbreviation for fanatics of a given subject.And then, "K-pop fans" are people interested in K-pop and its related subjects. K-pop has emerged as a strong global phenomenon, and their fans are found all over the world, both inside and outside of Korea. Most of the fans will be teenagers. As a part of youth subculture, K-Pop has a big influence to the teenagers and youth not only in their music taste, but as well as their sense of style and fashion.

          I agreed with the scienceline article when it comes to bilingualism. When I think about it, executive function is definitely not the same thing as intelligence and it only represents one positive of bilingualism. On the negative side, a decreased vocabulary in both languages definitely seems both logically and personally accurate. For most of my life and even until today, I believe that my learning of English while I was still figuring out Hebrew severely hampered my growth in both. Up to today, whenever I try to talk in either Hebrew or English I come across many words that feel as if they had just escaped me. I say the phrase “that thing” so often that those who know me well, are very much used to the game of charades that they sometimes have to play with me in order to figure out what I am talking about. This phenomenon is exactly the reason that I am taking the self-directed language course, I have so many nouns and words missing from my vocabulary that should naturally be there but are for some reason missing. If I know 9/10 words in a sentence, how come I do not know the 10^th? Regardless, this may be an overly pessimistic viewpoint. Of course the advantages of bilingualism is very helpful in this global world and for critical thinking due to the positive affect it has on the executive function of the brain.

Here is the document: 

Final%20Reflection%20Paper-Cien%20Zhang.docx

Omer Genosar

           To be honest I have avoided writing in Hebrew because I don’t believe it will be important to my future or my interest in the language. As for reading, I have made it one of my goals in my language plan to become a bit better at reading. It has been a great struggle for a long time for me to read without Hebrew diacritics. I grew up in Hebrew until the age of 7 and then attended a Hebrew elementary/middle school until the 6th grade. However, the transition to Hebrew without diacritics begins around 8th grade in my Hebrew Middle School and of course much younger than that in Israel. I never received the proper education to get myself to not rely on the vowel sound “crutches.” Learning to read in Hebrew without the diacritics means needing to know the words beforehand so as to understand what the letters mean with implied sounds. Because the words must basically be known beforehand, I have decided to focus more on the spoken aspect of the language than the written part. However, this did not mean that I wouldn’t attempt to read. In fact, most of my artifacts involve reading Hebrew that does not have the diacritics. I will continually try to strengthen my reading skills while sharpening my vocabulary.

Omer Genosar

          I am really not sure how many words I have learned in my target language, my best estimation is around forty or fifty maybe. Many of those words have to do with politics or just general nouns and adjectives that I was missing from my own vocabulary. I learned them through my learning plan in which I created a system in which I would keep looking up words that I describe as “gaps” in my sentences when I talk in Hebrew. I do not focus on writing those words down because it is their verbal sounds and situational positioning that I try to focus on. What I am trying to set up, is an efficient and realistic system for acquiring language based off of necessity. If I run through a word once but don’t come across it within the week/month/semester, then chances are I will not have a huge need to know it, but if another word keeps getting me stuck in my sentences then I give it special attention and make sure that it is fully learned. 

Hebrew is a very good language to include in the conversation of reviving languages. Hebrew itself was a dead language in terms of the spoken form, thankfully its Jewish roots kept the written aspect of the language alive. The work that Eliezer Ben-Yehuda did to revive the spoken language is amazing. He turned a group of people from many different backgrounds that spoke numerous languages into a fairly homogenous society through speech. Speech is one of the main pillars of society, it brings together people with a bond that is inseparable and is the foundation to most cultures. Whenever a language is lost, the culture or group it came from usually dies with it. Resurrecting or at least preserving languages is extremely important for the survival of a culture. Some words have meanings that are solely owned by one language. Of course a table is a table even if the sound is different, but what about a word like Mashuguna in Yiddish? It means a combination of silly, crazy, and chaos all in one, there is not another word like it yet when the language goes so do those words.

Omer Genosar       

            I absolutely LOVED the culture shock video, I related to it in many ways. I never thought of culture shock as a multi-step phenomenon in which it is expected to have an immediate high proceeded by a what-the-heck moment of home sickness and then ended with acclimation to the new environment. I related with the culture shock video because personally, I feel as if I am stuck between two different cultures and so if I am in Israel I get a certain culture shock (although minimal) but then after a month in Israel, when I come back to the states I get another culture shock just because I acclimate so quickly to Israeli culture and society. I’m sure that I am not the only one who gets these feelings and so I think it is important to note that culture shocks come even to a person who is fairly acclimated to more than one society. I wonder if study abroad students have a culture shock when they come back to their original home? 

Omer Genosar

           Learning about a language’s history is actually extremely helpful in learning the language. Knowing what is from the past and what is more recent allows us to put context to some words. This works the best for technology and that ideas and objects from the 20^th and 21^st Centuries tend to be in Hebrew but still in the English form. For example meecro (Hebrew) and microwave are the same word. On the flip side of that, much older words many times have roots that come from ancient Hebrew or Yiddish or other dialects. For example the word day in Arabic and Hebrew is very similar (yom) that means that the both share the same root. In fact the word yom is in the bible several times and is probably a very ancient word. But it does not take a genius to know that microwave is not said in the bible. What I am trying to say is that if a word kind of sounds like English, then meaning could be figured out just by knowing that it is a (relatively) recent word.

Here is the document: 

Reflection%20Paper%20%232.docx

Omer Genosar

           To be honest I feel as though my situation is not that of an organic learner. The structure of Hebrew is really ingrained in me whenever I speak the language. It is very difficult to explain, but the best reasoning I could give is that because I was born as a toddler with Hebrew, the structure of sentences are very natural to me. I think that Hebrew is very much like many Latin based languages in which the adjective is after the noun unlike English. On the other hand, Hebrew is like English because there are not too many grammar rules and rules for forming words, yet a large amount of exceptions. Hebrew in many ways is closer to English than Arabic because Arabic contains many different rules but a limited number of exceptions, so a “script” could be written out to figure out how to grammatically write a sentence. In my case a reference grammar is not so useful because I am not focused on the sentences themselves but the missing pieces in the sentences.