Family seems to be patriarchal in Turkish society, as it is in most societies. What is interesting though is that it shows in th elanguage as well. For example, you specify whether you are referring to a paternal or maternal grandmother through the use of different words for the two designations. Meanwhile, for grandfather there is no specification and the same title is used for both. I believe this has to do with the importance of male patriarchs in the family. I was surprised by this since the two languages I know (English and Greek) do not provide such specification. Of course this is not to say that one way or the other is superior but the difference is intriguing. I only know that in Korean there is a similar use of words to specify maternal or paternal origin of family members.
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안녕하새요!!!
I can't believe that it's already my last artifact!!!
Something near and dear to my heart this whole semester has been learning and slowly memorizing the Books of the Bible! I'm able to engage speaking, reading, and writing with learning the Books of the Bible so it's been really awesome! I mentioned this at the beginning of my posts, but I'll share it again! My heart for Korea is rooted in my love for the Church and it is wish to learn Korean to share my joy in Jesus with Koreans! For the whole nation of Korea! North and South!
I was really pleasantly surprised by some of the similar pronunciations of certain books and very much impressed of the different ways the Korean language adapted the meaning of the book into Korean!
This artifact is a really useful one for me and I think it's a success! I was able to write down some of the sounds I need to practice on the actual sheets too so that was a cool thing to realize! I still easily misread some letters ㅋㅋㅋ
Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying:
Ahhhhhh it makes me a little sad to reflect on what I've learned about the Korean culture while studying it this semester! Reflections always make things seem like they're actually coming to an end and as a senior, wow! I'm in such an emotional roller coaster of a ride with wrapping up my undergraduate career!
For me, learning Korean and about Korea and its culture has been such a dream! It's been a ride full of pleasant surprises, some upsets, and mostly a lot of self-discovery. I think what makes learning Korean even more special for me is that I was able to live and study in Korea for six whole months! South Korea to me, is truly a second home! It's also the place where I reconnected with my spirituality and where I recommitted my life to Jesus. I had such a beautiful and transformational time abroad in South Korea and I cannot wait to go back!
I guess for this semester, really learning about the Korean Church has been one of the most amazing experiences of my Korean language learning! I still remember when I was first learning how to pray my simple and short prayer to God! I was so nervous and it was such a great feeling to speak to God in a different language knowing that He knows and sees my heart in trying to connect with Him in a different language! I was just reminded of how scary language learning is and how I need to be more aware of my use of English when I go back to Korea. Really, whenever I travel to a non-native English speaking country, to be honest. So that was a really humbling moment for me, to be insecure in my language ability and realize again that this is the reality of many people living in my own country, the United States.
I think a big barrier [but that I've found to be quite beautiful] is that just like in English, there is a particular vocabulary when it comes to the Church. Certain Korean language is only used specifically in the Church and/or when speaking about the Christian religion. I've only really learned the standard form of honorifics so learning how to address God and elders in the Church was definitely an experience for me! But totally a good one!
This semester has really stretched me in growing more passionate and in love with this language! I've come to realize that learning Korean isn't as hard as I've mentally made it to be and I'm excited to dig deeper to cultivate an even more rich self-directed language learning after I graduate!
Thank you for an amazing two semesters of learning Korean when it was needed the most for my journey we call life!
[the beloved Korean finger heart ㅋㅋㅋ it was really popular when I was studying abroad there Spring 2017]
The goal for this week is to review the work I have already done, while working on the growth of my vocabulary. In class we have been trying to add words that are used everyday such as "window" which is "pencere," "computer" which is "bilgisayar", and "table" which is "masa." At the same time we have learned how to pluralize these words through suffixes but it is sometimes hard to match the right suffix with the appropriate word. So I focused on understanding the nature of the suffixes in question and how to quickly identify which is the proper suffix for a word. I found it simple when the word is written but when the word is sounded out it is far more difficult to identify the correct suffix for pluralization because it can be hard to tell which vowels are used in the word in question.
The recording shows me describing a part of my family. In it I say, "Hello, my name is Costas. Denise is my mother. Lefteris is my father. I have one sister. I have one brother. I have one aunt (from my father's side). I have one uncle (from my father's side).
안녕하새요!!!
So for the last week of my Korean lessons, Joora and I spent time writing a letter! As I was thinking about who to write this letter to, who else than my very first Korean tutor, Suyeon!!!!
수연 언니 and I are still best of friends! When she was abroad here Fall 2016 we were able to bond so much more because we got to spend time learning Korean together! My semester with her really did change and positively impact my study abroad experience so I'm so thankful for the self-directed language program! When I was studying abroad in Korea 수연 언니 and I made such beautiful memories together! She was such a great help with continuing my Korean language learning as well!
So Joora and I spent time together coming up with a letter updating 수연 언니 about my time since I've last spoken to her! I wrote everything myself and I'm really proud of how much neater my writing has become!
I know that reading and writing were two weaknesses of mine from the beginning of the semester so I'm really happy that I've been challenged to grow more in these areas of my Korean language learning!
Check out my letter to her! I'm going to mail it to her soon!
This week the goal was to work on my basic numbers in Turkish. We have learned in class how to count from 0 to 10 which is important in any introductory language course. The pronunciations are simple but memorization is key to making sure I learn them properly. A great way to do this was to count different things I saw while watching Ezel. For example when I saw two people on the screen I would say "iki" and would do this throughout the time I watched the show. I also spent time counting things in my daily life for fun. These tactics really made sure I was able to memorize the numbers 1 through 10 in Turkish.
안녕하새요!!!
For this cultural post, I'll be sharing with you what 삼일절 is all about!
삼일절 means March 01 commemoration and it commemorates the March 01, 1919 movement in Korea while it was under Japanese occupation.
Below is a short clip on Koreans commemorating this day, here's the link:
People commemorate March 1 Independence Movement Day
Joora and I also saw a video that described in Korean the main time line of historical events starting from this March 01, 1919 movement.
As Joora and I took the time to learn, I took notes from the video! Check them out here!
Notes about the movement pt. 1
Notes about the movement pt. 2
Some interesting facts about the movement was that it sparked the first mass revolt of Korean citizens against Japanese colonization. The Japanese colonization is usually divided into three main periods.
1919: The armed rule period, sparking the Independence movement because of Japan's forceful and violent rule.
1920-1929: This time of Japanese occupation was when the Japanese tried to make all the Koreans become pro-Japan so that Koreans would help the Japanese while in Korea.
1930: It's unofficial name is the Dark Period [Depression] as the fighting spirit of Koreans was greatly challenged. But some of the best trained Korean agents gathered with virtue and goodwill to show Korea its fighting spirit. This resulted in the armistice line [휴전선].
This was the short history lesson we had when March 01st was around!
I hope you've learned some cool historical facts about Korea the way I was informed!
- Post Culture Project to the Ning
- Post your sources, the slides you used in your presentation (if any), and a summary of your presentation (written or spoken).
Slides
Sources
https://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/AKR/AK_ENG_2_2.jsp ;
http://kore.am/korean-designer-modernizes-hanbok-into-casual-outfits/
http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=100729
For my presentation, I presented on Korean clothing and how it has changed through the past to present. It was interesting how they have a specific clothing for these specific holidays and occasions. Also it was really interesting to see how designers to combine both traditional aspects of the hanbok with modern aspects.
안녕하새요!!!
One of the main things I wanted to do was learn how to sing a Korean church song!
As I am mostly unfamiliar with Korean church songs, Joora picked this song out for me. She said that this song was the unofficial theme song for her high school! It was really nice to hear stories she recollected just from hearing this song play as we first took a look at it. I'm thankful that we were able to share this moment with each other!
I'm super happy that Joora and I were able to do this activity together! It was such an amazing experience, I would even say more rewarding than learning how to sing regular K-Pop songs ㅋㅋㅋ I think because the nature of church songs tend to have simple lyrics, it was a lot easier to understand what I was singing. I loved the moment that as I was learning song, I understood what I was singing and therefore was able to sing it clearer and better. Better in the sense that I had all the right emotions to compliment the lyrics. This artifact is a super super success!!! I think learning songs and decoding the lyrics is always a fun and engaging way to learn the new language you're pursuing!
I definitely have gained confidence in speaking because I can sing along and comprehend what I'm saying when I sing this song! It's such a nice feeling to really understand ALL of what I'm singing and not a sense of what the song means! I think in the future as I continue to learn Korean, I definitely want to make learning songs a more common thing as I learn. I think it'd be super cool to start singing simple songs and then progress to more complex songs!
Music is such an amazing phenomenon!
Song Recording: 야곱의 죽복
Main Vocal: 정바나
Back-up Vocal: 백주라
I outlined two goals in my learning plan.
Goal 1:
- To read a children’s book:
Unfortunately, procuring a children's book in Bahasa Indonesia is rather difficult/expensive. So, as a suitable replacement, I chose to read comic books in Bahasa Indonesia because this resource is readily available, free, and more popular among Indonesian children. Indeed, the regular Indonesian rarely read -- be it newspapers or books. But, comic books are the exception. What's more, comic books offer a unique view into the "street" culture, and thus the culture with which I will be surrounded during my stay in Bali this summer. This culture is less formal, and informal talk is the norm.
However, I did read passages from a children's book that were posted online. And for one of my cultural posts, I wrote a summary in Bahasa Indonesia about a passage that relates to my cultural presentation: dogs.
As I progressed, I began to disregard the sentences plastered onto the comic strip and instead came up with a scenario and spoke about it accordingly. This activity proved to be very effective, and my language partner guided me along the way. Each weekend, when my language partner and I would meet, I would have a conversation with her about the material that I read over the past week. In addition, I usually wrote down ten words that I had learned each day.
Goal 2:
- I will be able to describe human and animal traits. For example, he is shy (unit 6); I will be able to ask for and give directions (unit 7); I will be able to say what my hobbies are and those of others (unit 8); and I will be able to describe an object’s shape and color (unit 9).
This goal follows a more orthodox learning method, which required textbook units sourced from the Indonesia Ministry of Education and Culture. I completed all units -- unit 6, unit 7, unit 8, and unit 9. During the course of accomplishing this goal, I practiced my reading, writing, listening, and speaking through the various activities in each unit. I also took a quiz upon completing each unit.
My artifacts included:
- Describing my house's features -- rooms, garage, pool, and so on -- and my favorite things to do in my home (unit 6);
- A recording of myself giving Thalia directions (unit 7); and
- I recorded myself talking about a typical day's schedule -- from waking up to going to bed (unit 8).
During my language evaluation, my partner and I will:
- Have a conversation about my physical and innate characteristics;
- Ask and give directions from one place to another;
- Have a conversation about my hobbies and those of others; and
- Describe an object’s shape and color.
Turkey is similar to other Mediterranean cultures when it comes to time. Turkish meetings tend to start late and not go according to the scheduled time, which is also common among Greek, Italians, and the Spanish. One major difference though is the importance of Islam in society. For example, business meetings must be scheduled around prayer times during the day for the religious and no meetings normally occur during the week of Ramadan since this is the time that people go on vacations. This makes Turkey a unique Mediterranean culture with an importance placed more on life and religion rather than punctuality.
http://businessculture.org/southern-europe/business-culture-in-turkey/meeting-etiquette-in-turkey/
My goals for this week were to begin conceptualizing my cultural project, continue watching Ezel (the Turkish soap-opera), and try to incorporate my imaginary travelling task more into my learning curriculum. The project conceptualization is going well and I have decided to focus on how Greek and Turkish languages have influenced namesakes of towns and the people living within them. Meanwhile, the show Ezel has me cringing at times by its over-dramatic and corny nature but nevertheless I am starting to pick-up words said by the actors as well as the proper pronunciation of certain words. Finally, I decided to incorporate my imaginary traveller task of writing down conversations while visiting different cities into more of a research for my project. As I stated in the previous Journal Entry the task is mundane since I do not have a diverse enough vocabulary yet, but it does help me with researching different places I could present for my project and so I will continue performing the learning task for the goal of completing my project.
My learning plan has been going well those some issues should be addressed. One problem has been the use of DuoLingo. Because the class curriculum does not match well with the online language learning application, I struggle to find reason to keep using it. I mainly utilize it for practice at night or to work on pronunciation. Also the imaginary traveler task that would have me write conversations of a character travelling through Turkey was somewhat ambitious given that I do not have a diverse enough vocabulary in Turkish yet. All the conversations sound similar except for the location, which makes them somewhat pointless. Nevertheless, this learning activity has helped me learn more about Turkish geography and history and I have found myself googleing different towns and sites and Turkey for extended periods of time. The activity has convinced me that my cultural project topic of towns and cities of Turkey is a great choice and a project that I will thoroughly enjoy.
<br><a href="http://vocaroo.com" style="font-size:xx-small;" title="Vocaroo Voice Recorder">Voice Recorder >></a>
The recording is an imaginary conversation between Romario from Spain and Alex from Greece. The idea of the conversation is to showcase that I can ask and answer questions about identity of a person. Questions about name, feelings, and orgin are answered in this conversation by both Romario and Alex.
My learning goals for this week were to make sure I understand the new words we learned on the topic of origin. In class we learned how to ask where someone is from and how to answer such a question. The question would be "Nerelisin?" and the answer in my case would be "Yunanistanluyum". In Turkish "Yunanistan" means Greece and "luyum" is a suffix that indicates that you are from that place. The suffix changes depending on the vowels present in the word, which will be difficult to remember but through practice memorization becomes easy. I have been notcing some of these suffixes in the show Ezel, and so I have been already exposed to the proper pronunciation of suffixes like "luyum."
My cultural project is going to be on Turkish towns and cities and their names compared to their Greek names. I have always wanted to travel through Turkey. I believe that we share very similar cultures and that we have more similarities than differences despite a tumultuous history. I have noticed that some Turkish cities' and towns' names resemble the Greek names for those towns and so I would like to present all the different towns and cities in Anatolia with similar namesakes and their history. I want to focus on towns and cities that are not well known to most, so I will avoid presenting on cities like Istanbul and Izmir. I think this will show how closely my mother language and culture is linked with Turkish language and culture.
This cultural post was meant to discuss the targeted language's writing system. Coincidentally, I already covere that in the previous cultural post soI decided to go more in depth on the topic. Turkish is a a member of the Turkic language group, which is a language group spoken across Central Asia. The most common language of the Turkic family is Turkish. The Turkish language's writing system used to be the so-called Ottoman writing system until the 1920's when the Turkish Republic was formed from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Its leader Kemal Ataturk wanted to create a Western, secular state out of Turkey and as a result emphasized Western ideals. One step taken to achieve this was to replace the Ottoman wrting system and alphabet with the Latin alphabet. This drastic change took time to fully implement but due to the mandate given to Kemal he was able to achieve the gargatuant task of changing the essense of an entire language. And so today Turkish uses Latin letters, which allows to export better since it uses the same alphabet as the most popular language in the world, English.
My first artifact was good overall. I was smooth with my delivery of the questions and answers I believe. The only problem is that I need to work on my pronunciation. I express words with a Greek accent and do not sound anywhere close to the way Ezel sounds in the Turkish show I have begun watching. Overall I think I met my goals for Week 4 and 5 which was master these basic introductory words to a conversation. I think working with in class helped me the most to achieve this as well as working at home and doing mock conversations. I'm looking forward to the next step which should be more in depth conversation questions and answers in order to form the body of a conversation.
This is an imaginary conversation between Costas and Angela. The two characters say hello, and Angela asks Costas' name. Costas responds and ask the same. The Costas asks how Angela is. Angela responds and does the same. The conversation ends with farewells fro both characters.
