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This is a letter I wrote in Korean to let's say, a potential pen pal. I introduce and talk about myself before asking Minho (the name I gave the imaginary pen pal) to introduced himself to me.

Here is a screenshot of the conversation between me and my friend on ordering food. I asked him whether he wants to get Korean food and if so what he wants. He said he wants black noodle and fried pork. And I said I want Japchae which is the clear noodle.

For the past several weeks, I learned to describe the location of specific objects. Here is a write-up i did to describe the campus and several locations at our school.

리치몬드 대학교는 커요. 그리고 예뻐요.

제 기숙사는 도서관 옆에 있어요.

도서관 앞에는 Commons가 있어요.

Commons 안에는 서점이 있어요.

학교 식당은 Commons 앞에 있어요.

학교 식당 음식은 맛있어요. 그리고 많아요.

After having done research on Korean weddings – with a particular emphasis on customs and traditions – for my cultural project, I became interested in gift-giving practices, with respect to Korean weddings. This post highlights gift-giving practices related to present-day Korean weddings that were noted in Vivian Morelli’s “In South Korea, Weddings and Watches”.

For Korean weddings, there are two types of gifts to take note of: 1. yemul, gifts exchanged between the bride and the groom and 2. yedan, gifts given to the groom’s family from the bride’s family. Presently, couples seek to exchange gifts with practical uses, such as watches, which can be quite expensive. Due to social influences, couples are pressured to purchase lavished, brand-named gifts for their respective partners as a way to demonstrate their social standing or to match what their friends and acquaintances bought for their spouses. Instead of the costly presents couples buy nowadays, previous generations had, as Morelli claims, “simple” options, including rice and a mirror, both of which help particular symbolic meaning. Regardless, couples today are confronted with balancing the social pressure of buying such gifts for their soon-to-be spouses and the costs entailed in each purchase. According to the article, some make their purchases having been influenced by the media (including, American productions) as they showcase extravagant jewelry and other luxuries.

The gifts the bride’s family gives the groom’s family may be personalized and particular like an ingam, which is a tradition legal seal. It is also not uncommon nowadays for the groom to offer gifts to the bride’s family: such gifts include, alcohol, jewelry, a traditional dress and other accessories. While the gifts may be expensive, many argue that it is not about the cost of the present that makes it significant, instead, it is the meaning or significance of the gift that gives it value.

Bibliography

Morelli, Vivian. “In South Korea, Weddings and Watches.” The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2017. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/fashion/watches-south-korea-weddings.html.

For my cultural project, I will investigate Korean weddings and as a component, I plan to investigate the way in which the LGBT community manages societal pressures to marry despite not being legally allowed to marry into a same-sex union. Therefore, as a precursor to my cultural project, this cultural post consists of research I came across while trying to understand issues that LGBT persons face in Korea and the relationship between the Korean LGBT community and the Korean government.

After witnessing the strides made around the world – and notably in Taiwan and in the United States – for the legalization and recognition of same-sex marriages, the LGBT community in South Korean hopes to obtain such recognition in their own country despite the judicial obstacle that faced the community in 2016 when a court in Seoul barred a same-sex couple from having a legal union recognized by the state (Shim). One notable political success for the LGBT community came from a 2017 Supreme Court ruling, mandating “the government to allow a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trangender (LGBT) rights foundation to legally register as a charity, ending three years of the foundation’s leaders facing discriminatory rejection from multiple government agencies” (Human Right Watch). Nevertheless, the LGBT community continues to fight for equal treatment under the law, which has ‘criminalized homosexuality’: a Korean soldier was sentenced to jail for having consensual sex with another soldier of the same sex (Hu). Furthermore, the government is known to censor LGBT content and Christian groups represent a powerful lobbying power aimed at retaining the traditional definition of marriage (Manzella). Despite much opposition, the LGBT community continues to work hard to push for: same-sex marriage, more informative and inclusive sex education in schools, recognition, and equality (Shim).

Bibliography

Hu, Elise. “For South Korea’s LGBT Community, An Uphill Battle For Rights.” National Public Radio, Inc., 25 July 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/07/25/538464851/for-south-koreas-lgbt-community-an-uphill-battle-for-rights.

Human Rights Watch. “South Korea: Supreme Court Affirms LGBT Rights.” Human Rights Watch, 4 Aug. 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/04/south-korea-supreme-court-affirms-lgbt-rights.

Manzella, Samantha. “How Gay-Friendly Is South Korea?” NewNowNext, 5 Feb. 2018, http://www.newnownext.com/lgbt-in-south-korea/02/2018/.

Shim, Elizabeth. “South Korea LGBT Activists Seek Equality in Conservative Country.” UPI, 11 Feb. 2018, https://www.upi.com/South-Korea-LGBT-activists-seek-equality-in-conservative-country/9831518386654/.

While I plan to center my culture project around Korean weddings, I thought it would be a good idea to begin my research on the matter by looking into traditional Korean weddings. The following is what I was able to find from reading Juno Kim’s “The Complete Guide to Korean Traditional Wedding Ceremony”.

Traditional Korean weddings are inspired by Confucian foundations, as are many aspects of South Korean social hierarchies. Traditional Korean weddings are composed of various parts, all of which contain customs that carry symbolic significance. For instance, after a pre-ceremonial performance is completed and after having entered the bride’s family’s home, the groom would present the mother-in-law with a wild goose: this gift symbolizes the love between the soon-to-be husband and wife because this particular bird finds only one partner as its mate for life. Later in the processions, the bride and groom bow to each other: this act represents their commitment to one another. Then, the newlyweds drink from a gourd dipper, which is in halves to symbolize the oneness of the husband and wife when together. Furthermore, a wedding custom that follows after the marrying of the two is Pyebaek, which is when the newlyweds bow to the family (to show respect), the family presents them with fruits (to symbolize children), and the parents offer advice to the newlyweds on their new marriage. Pyebaek continues to be a tradition held in present-day Korean weddings except that the bride’s family is also allowed to take part in this custom whereas previously, it would only be for the groom’s family.

This brief research into traditional Korean weddings has made me very interested and excited to look into the matter in greater depth (for the cultural project) and to see how those traditions may resonate in present-day Korean weddings.

Bibliography

Kim, Juno. “The Complete Guide to Korean Traditional Wedding Ceremony.” Runaway Juno, 13 Apr. 2015, http://runawayjuno.com/runaway-tales/the-complete-guide-to-korean-traditional-wedding-ceremony/.

After completing my last cultural post on dining at Korean restaurants and after having talked to my learning partner about food in Korea, I became interested in researching the symbolic significance of Korean food because I have heard that some dishes have particular meaning attached to them. This post shows some of the findings I came across while reading “Aesthetics of Korean Foods: The Symbol of Korean Culture” by Chung et al.

According to Chung et al., when creating cuisine, ancient Koreans made sure to balance taste with aesthetic appeal, which was done to express particular themes: for example, some foods, like bibimbap, would symbolize harmonization due to the balance and mixture of various ingredients to create the final products (180). Harmonization is only one of various themes covered in Korean cuisine. There is a Korean dish that represents harmony and reconciliation. For instance, according to the authors, the dish called tangyungchae has a well-balanced composition of various ingredients and “it was named after the ‘tangpyngchaek’ policy [of the Joseon dynasty] that represents the motive and objective of establishing a harmonious mix of different political beliefs” (181). As such, this particular dish also demonstrates the influence politics (and in this case, political reconciliation,) may have on cuisine.

According to Chung et al., there is also a dish that addresses dualism. This would be gujeolpan, a dish prepared for burial ceremonies of ancient Korea. This dish demonstrates “the duality (yinand yang) between vegetable (yin) and meat (yang)…, [of which] each ingredient has five different colors (blue, red, yellow, white and black) and five different flavors (tart, bitter, sweet, hot, and salty)” (181). Moreover, there is also shinsunro, which also holds much symbolic meaning as it is a ceremonial dish “focused on respecting the ancestors and going together among descendant[s] with harmonization” (181).

After having looking into Korean cuisine, it has become evident that many ancient foods were made to not only taste and look appetizing, but to also hold significant cultural, political, philosophical, and historical meanings.

Bibliography

Chung, Hae-Kyung, et al. “Aesthetics of Korean Foods: The Symbol of Korean Culture.” Journal of Ethnic Foods, vol. 3, no. 3, Sept. 2016, pp. 178–88. Crossref, doi:10.1016/j.jef.2016.09.001.

This cultural post explores Korean restaurant culture, which corresponds with task 5 of my learning plan. Here, I highlight particular findings that stood out to me from Sara Thacker’s “The Culture of Eating in South Korea”.

In South Korea, food culture revolves are the communal experience that one has while eating with friends, family, and coworkers. In describing her experience in Korea, Thacker details that during a meal, everyone would share a particularly large dish, which would incite conversation about the food since no one has an individual plate (as done in Western cultures) and instead, everyone eats the same food. Furthermore, while meals are centered around a particular dish, there are also banchan, which are small side dishes that accompany the main dish, and which are also shared by all persons present (Thacker). As Thacker points out, while eating at a restaurant one should not be particularly worried about running out of banchandue everyone sharing these small side dishes or because of the seemingly limited amount of this part of the meal: banchanis actually unlimited so when a server sees that there is no more on the table, the (s)he would bring more, free of charge. As such, it is evident that there are significant distinctions between American and Korean food practices, particularly in how people eat: in Korea, people eat communally, and this effectively reinforces notions of community while in the US, people eat from their own individual plates, which may be reflective of the American values of personal space, privacy, and individualism.

Bibliography

Thacker, Sara. “The Culture of Eating in South Korea.” Greenheart Travel, 2013, https://greenhearttravel.org/teach-abroad-south-korea/the-culture-of-eating-in-south-korea.

Not long ago, my learning partner gave me a quick overview of Korean New Year’s, which was on February 16 on the Gregorian calendar. During the lesson, we covered basic topics related to the holiday, including its foundation on the lunar calendar and the way in which Koreans typically spend the day to celebrate the holiday: they spend the whole day with family, cook, eat and play games. The brief introduction my learning partner gave me during my lesson with her made me curious to investigate more into the holiday. Therefore, the following is what I found from reading an article, “Celebrating Seollal in Korea: Glimpse of Local New Year’s Customs”, by the Korea Tourism Organization.

For starters, Korean New Year (or Lunar New Year) is called 설날 (Seollal) in Korean and it marks the beginning of the new lunar year. Seollal is a holiday that takes at least a week to prepare for: nevertheless, on the morning of the holiday, everyone gathers, wearing seolbin (traditional clothing reserved for this holiday), to pay respect to one’s ancestors. Shortly afterwards, the family communally eats tteokguk, a soup holding ritualistic value. Then, younger generations perform 세배(sebae), which is bowing to show respect, to their elders who gift younger generations with sebaetdon, a monetary New Year’s present.

After these rituals are performed, the family spends the rest of the day playing games, eating and conversing. Yutnoriis a game commonly played during Seollal: it is a board game that requires players to throw four wooden sticks and move their game pieces according to the amount of sticks that fall face-up. The first team to complete the board wins and this game is enjoyable for the entire family, regardless of social hierarchy.

Moreover, it should be noted that one of twelve animal deities (or zodiac signs) represents each year. For example, “the year 2018 is referred to as Musullyeon(‘Mu-‘ means ‘soil mountain’, representing yellow or gold, and ‘-sul’ means dog) or ‘The Year of the Golden Dog’” (Korea Tourism Organization).

Reading about Seollal and hearing stories about the holiday from my learning partner make me hopeful that one day, I will have the opportunity to experience Seollal personally in Korea.

Bibliography:

Korea Tourism Organization. “Celebrating Seollal in Korea: Glimpse of Local New Year’s Customs.” Imagine Your Korea, 2 Feb. 2018, http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=941952.

I recorded myself doing a little introduction of my background in Korean.Self%20Introduction%20In%20Korean.m4a

The existence and use of Korean honorifics is an example of how culture, social structures, and linguistics complement and interact with one another. The use of honorifics is common, if not socially mandatory, to show varying levels of respect between Korean speakers of different ages and social statuses (TVTropes). While watching Korean shows, I would regularly hear characters using honorifics like 씨, which is attached to the end of someone’s name to show that speaker is of the same or lower social status than the person spoken to, unless, as TVTropes points out, it is use at the end of a surname which would then indicate that the speaker is of a higher social position than the person spoken to. The use of honorifics is not limited to the expression of social status, it is also a way to express sentiment and the relative relationship of the speakers: the use of honorifics is dependent on the relationship that the speakers have with one another as “vertical distance (gender, age) and horizontal distance (the degree of intimacy)” directly influence the use of honorifics (Ku iii). This serves to show the importance of the use of honorifics in daily conversations: if executed incorrectly, one may be considered rude and disrespectful.

Bibliography

Ku, Jeong Yoon. Korean Honorifics: A Case Study Analysis of Korean Speech Levels in Naturally Occurring Conversations. Australian National University, 2014.https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/12376/1/Ku,%20J%20Y%20Masters%20sub%20thesis%202014.pdf.

TVTropes. “Useful Notes / Korean Honorifics.” TV Tropes, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/KoreanHonorifics.

During my meeting with my learning partner earlier today, we reviewed the way in which one introduces oneself in Korean. I learned how to verbally introduce myself and how to show respect by bowing when first greeting someone. When my learning partner was teaching me how to bow, I became curious into the cultural foundations behind Korean bowing customs. As such, this post covers some findings related to bowing customs as explored in Tony MacGregor’s “Tips on Korean Custom of Bowing”.

Macgregor references Christy Yoo, the leader of a program aimed at teaching about Korean cultural traditions, to supply very useful advice to foreigners: bow when bowed to, as this custom is used in everyday greeting. At times, it is even coupled with a hand shake to compliment the respectful gesture.

The history of bowing in Korean predates the introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism into the Korean peninsula and while Buddhism and Christianity have significantly influenced present-day Korean customs and traditions, Confucianism is the philosophy that relates most to Korean bowing customs and etiquette. Confucianism has and continues to influence the way in which people behave towards each other, particularly as “it stresses duty, loyalty, honor, filial piety, respect for age and seniority and sincerity” (Macgregor). As the author points out, it is for this reason that age and seniority must be considered when interacting with others in Korea because one must measure the kind of relationship one has with another person to then allot appropriate amounts of respect that would be expressed by bowing or through other forms of etiquette. Furthermore, the general rule for bowing is: “the younger person or the person in a lower social position is expected to bow lower than the senior person, but the senior person initiates the bow” (Macgregor).

Also, the type of bow one should do is dependent on situational contexts: for instance, when apologizing, one “bows at about 45 degrees with the head lowered lasting for about the count of three” but the bow may last for a longer period of time or it may be deeper if the offense is significant (Macgregor). Other times, “the person will kneel and bow so deeply that his forehead touches the ground” to express gratitude, as done in Korean Weddings when the newlyweds express thankfulness to their parents and families (Macgregor). Moreover, Yoo points out in Macgregor’s article that because South Korea has become more international, visitors in the country should not be distraught if they incorrectly perform customs: Koreans tend to be forgiving of foreigners and are typically understanding of Western practices.

Bibliography:

MacGregor, Tony. “Tips on Korean Custom of Bowing.” The Korea Times, 29 Apr. 2008, http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/05/177_23339.html.

For the first two weeks, I learned to introduce myself in Korean. Here is a write-up of my self-introduction. I talked about my name, my school year, my age, and my major.

안녕하세요

저는 이시 왕 이에요. 저는 올해 21살 이에요. 그리고 중국 사람이에요

전공은 회계학 이에요.

감사합니다. 

Korean.m4a

This is a really short clip of me saying "I've been learning Korean for a semester" in Korean, which I figure might be a phrase that will come in handy for me.

I thought this would be a good artifact to show my handwriting in Korean. I liked finding videos of word sets, such as ones about food and restaurants like this one and practice writing them before I made online flashcards of them. My handwriting in Hangul has improved a lot over the semester.

It has been a really fun semester as an independent language learner. It reinforced that I love exploring new cultures and that learning new languages can really help me do that. Knowing a language gives you a unique insight into the culture with which it coincides rather than trying to learn about it from a more distant point. I found out that there are many ways to learn a language. I obviously learned English without much thought, it was the language spoken in my home and school growing up. I started learning Spanish in a classroom taught by American teachers in an American school. We used textbooks, flashcards, etc. I started learning Korean using primarily online resources such as Duolingo and Mango, which are different than the traditional textbook method. I also worked with a language partner, whereas with Spanish I didn't have the same exposure to native speakers at the beginning of my language learning.

            As nice as it was to have the flexibility to learn Korean on my own, I would be lying if I said I didn't struggle with prioritizing it with my other school work. Sometimes it was hard to sit down and devote the hours needed to learning this language when I had deadlines in other classes. It was also more difficult to keep up with my weekly goals without a professor making me. One the other hand, I enjoyed this freedom because I never felt I was wasting my time learning something I would not find useful. I focused on Korean vocabulary I found relevant, and only learned using tools I enjoyed and found productive. If I were in a traditional classroom, this may not have been the case. I may have been doing assignments I wasn't as interested in just because they were part of a textbook or something.

            I did enjoy learning about the linguistics part of language learning. It helped me recognize that different languages have different parts of speech and sentence structures, but they can still be broken down. Breaking down sounds and grammar rules helped me recognize patterns in Korean that I was able to apply to my learning and help me become a more adaptive and communicative learner. I especially liked the readings about bilingualism and how becoming a polyglot is not as daunting of a task as one may think. This encouraged me that it would be possible for me to make significant strides in learning Korean even as an adult autonomous learner. I hope to continue my Korean studies and eventually visit the country with my family and experience the language and culture firsthand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

This is the link to the song Gangnam Style that came out a couple years ago and got really popular in the U.S. I thought it would be a good artifact to show my listening skills because this came out when I was in high school and didn't know any Korean. Now I can read the translation of the title (Gangnam Style / 강남스타일) and even though I can't understand the lyrics I now recognize that (Oppa / 오빠) which is sung a lot in the song is the word for older brother, but also used for male friends or boyfriends in Korea. Also he sings about a girl a lot and uses the word (Yeoja / 여자) which I now recognize as well.

For my first learning artifact, I took a screenshot of me having a conversation with my friend in Korean asking what he's doing now.

He said he's studying in library and I asked him which floor he's on. He said he has a Math test and I said good luck!

The in-class cultural presentations were very interesting and it was cool to see which elements of their respective languages' cultures my peers were interested in. Some were socially focused (gender roles), some more historical (Turkey's alphabet transition), and some more cultural (holidays in Bangladesh). It reinforced the fact that culture is such an integral part of a country or group of people who speak a language. It adds daily elements to their lifestyles that make their group unique. It also showed that there are so many elements to each culture and the entire culture cannot be summed up in one presentation. For example, I did mine on university life in Korea, but I could have also done gender roles, history, holidays, etc. like my peers did for their target languages, which would have shown a totally different element of Korean culture. This was shown in the other Korean presentations, in which the focus was so different from mine that I learned a lot even though I was studying the same target language. There were also similarities, as in Yixi's presentation on Korean work culture, she showed that the terms for elder/more experienced worker vs younger/less experienced worker were the same terms I used in my presentation that refer to upper- and underclassmen.

The family is a very important element of Korean culture. Most households are two-generation because children usually live with parents until marriage. In addition, many people live with their elderly parents. Traditionally the eldest son inherits the largest portion of any inheritance in the family, but a law was past in 1989 making family inheritances split equally between all sons and daughters. Marriage is a very important institution in Korea. Many people meet spouses through school, work or arrangements from relatives and friends. A marriage is a union not only just two people, but also their families. Divorces and remarriages used to be very uncommon in Korea, but have become more common over time. The family hierarchy is crucial as Korea is an elder-focused culture. Utmost respect should be given to parents and grandparents, whereas in some Western cultures, these relationships can be more casual.