Eastern culture stresses cyclical time more than Western, that usually values a linear timeline. Nations rise and fall, people go in and out of good and bad times, etc. As Korea has become increasingly Westernized, there has been an increased emphasis on schedules in schools and businesses. The American idea that "time is money" does apply in Korea as they are notoriously hard-workers, but they often put in extra work to keep a competitive edge rather than earn more money. Punctuality is very important in Korean culture as people tend to work long days and keep very busy.
All Posts (283)
Sort by
I personally learned a lot about my own culture during the cultural presentations. I really liked Diego's and Jessica's presentation on Korean marriages and Korean universities. I did not know so much went into traditional Korean marriages and I also did not know a lot of the terms he used in Korean. For Jessica's presentation, I did not know that Korean universities had OT (orientation trainings) and were very close with their own department. I kind of wish American universities had OT because I feel like I do not know a lot of people in my own department. I think OT will also be very useful to freshmans who have a hard time socializing with others.
Korean attitude about time is very different compared to America. There is a saying that Koreans run on Korean time because we are known to be consistently late to everything. In fact, in Korea it is common to even be an hour late to appointments with friends. And instead of picking an exact time to meet up, many friends will give a rough estimate of what time they should meet up. It is not really known why Koreans have such a relaxed attitude towards time, but there are some speculations that there are historical influences.
For the cultural presentation, I plan to present on the beauty standards of Korea. Korea is known to have very high and unrealistic beauty standards. It is to the point that beauty can even dictate the success of your life and career. Therefore, I would like to present on what their beauty standards are and possible why their beauty standards have become so high. For my learning goals, I would like to learn more about Korean history and Korean government/economic and social issues. I would like to look into this because I believe that the high beauty standards do stem from historical influences but also issues with Korea's current social and economic outlook.
The Korean alphabet is called Hangul (한글) and was created in the 15th century by Sejong the Great. Before the 15th century, Koreans mainly used Classical Chinese. Hangul is comprised of 24 alphabets and has 19 consonants and 21 vowels. The letters are grouped into syllabic blocks, both vertically and horizontally. The Korean alphabet and writing system are usually very straightforward. With pronunciation, the way it is spelled is usually the way it is pronounced. There are little to no irregularities in the language. There are 4 types of sentence order in Korean: subject + noun, subject + verb, subject + adjective, and subject + object + verb.
Koreans have a very collectivist mind set. Therefore, family matters are taken very seriously in their culture. In fact, many times when a person achieves something or does something wrong, their family will also be praised or criticized. Additionally, when a son or a daughter is financially stable and married, it is normal to have in-laws or parents move into their house until they pass away. Leaving your parents at a nursing home is often looked down upon. This is very different when compared to America. America has a more individualistic mindset compared to Korea.
Learning%20Artifact%20%232.jpg
This is a picture of a journal entry I did in class. I talked about my day and how it went.
This artifact shows a text conversation between me and my mom. I say "Hi mom" to her and she answers with "Hi, how was your exam today? Love you!" and I say "It was good. Goodnight!" I think this demonstrates both reading and writing ability. I had to break down her answer and use some WordReference in order to fully understand, but I recognized the word for "today" and "exam." Texting has been a cool way to write in Korean online without using a Korean keyboard I have to copy and paste, like on my computer.
The language teacher workshop was interesting because I had to come up with a concept that would show what I had been learning, but in a way that the other students might actually take something away from it. It was hard to explain a concept, even if it was as basic as the one I did, and expect that any of it would stick for them. I taught basic vowels, which was the first concept I learned, so I thought it would be a good thing to teach for my workshop. I think the biggest difficulty I ran into was time. It took me a while to learn the concept myself, even though it is very basic to me now. To try to relay these concepts to my peers, I first taught it to them using both visuals and sounding out the vowels. Then I had them try to write out the symbols and sound them out as they did it. I figured this was a way to appeal to different types of learning. Then I used Kahoot to see if they remembered any of the concepts, which added pressure to the learning process. If I were to teach a semester-long course, I would probably try to adopt the strategy of teaching the concepts in many different ways to try to appeal to different types of learners.
One interesting thing about Korean culture is their tattoo culture. Having a tattoo in Korea is not illegal however they are still looked down upon. Many times, people would associate people with tattoos as being a delinquent or part of a gang. In fact, celebrities would even need to cover up their tattoos before going on live shows. Another interesting fact is that there are a lot of illegal underground tattoo parlors in Korea. This is because it is illegal to give a tattoo unless a person has a doctor's license. Having a doctors license in Korea is especially hard because competition in Korea is already extremely high. Therefore, a lot of people who have a doctor's license would rather be a doctor than open up a tattoo parlor.
This is a recording of a phone conversation I had with Kevin. We talked about classes and I asked Kevin if he wanted to go to a concert with me and he refused.
There are 24 letters in the modern Korean alphabet and it consists of 19 consonants and 21 vowels. The letters are also grouped into syllabic blocks, vertically and horizontally. The Korean alphabet is very straight forward and there are usually little to no irregularities in the language. For grammar, there is a subject-verb inversion present. A lot of the sounds in Korean are available in English as well. English speakers, however, may have trouble saying certain combination of alphabets. One that comes into mind is the 의 (ɰi). Many English speakers have trouble saying this combination because it is not normally used in their language. In Korean, many native speakers have trouble saying English words that contain the letter R. This is also because there is no R equivalent letter in Korean. Therefore, many times Koreans will pronounce the R sound with an L sound.
We are currently still ordering books so we have not worked on the Korean alphabet that much yet. Although we have gone through some diction and spelling mistakes that even native Korean make.
Document a learning task that you have completed that meets a personal goal.
Below is me writing about a memorable day in my life. I wanted to practice summarizing an important event concisely but properly in writing. Learning to write about something that means a lot to my life was a personal goal for me which I got to achieve through this. I have also attached a presentation I gave about 첨성대 which is a historical construction of Korea. I wanted to give a formal presentation in Korean professionally, so this was a good practice to meet my personal goal. undefined
기억에 남는 날: 제 첫 조카 하엘이가 태어난 날
그날에 대한 추억: 5월에 방학을 하고 큰언니 출산날이 다가와서 산후조리를 도와주러 샌프란시스코에 있는 언니 집에 가 있었는데, 5월 10일 새벽 2시에 큰언니가갑자기 거실로 나와서 불을 키면서 “나 양수가 터졌어.” 라고 했던게 기억이 나요. 그 전날 언니가 유난히 피곤해하고 몸이 무겁다고 느껴서 원래 저녁을 바깥에서 먹으려다가 그냥 코스코에서 큰 피자 한판 사와서 집에서 먹고 잤는데, 예정일인 23일보다 열흘이나 일찍 양수가 터져서 급하게 병원을 갔던게 기억이 나요. 출산예정일보다 일찍 출산을 하게 된 바람에 엄마도 급하게 비행기표를 바꿔서 다음날 오시게 되었어요. 저는 그때 감기에 걸려있어서 혹시 신생아인 하엘이에게 병균을 옮길까봐 태어나는 그 순간에는 함께 있지 못했는데, 5월 10일 11:59pm에 하엘이가 태어났다는 소식을 듣고 그 다음날 미역국을 끓여서 병원으로 갔어요. 하엘이가 태어나자마자 형부가 찍어서 보낸 사진으로만 하엘이를 봐서 얼마나 작은지 감이 오지 않았는데 마스크를 쓰고 병실에 들어가서 처음 하엘이를 보았을때 상상 그 이상으로 너무 작아서 깜짝 놀랐어요. 너무 작아서 건드리면 부러질 것 처럼 작았던게 기억이 나요. 형부가 너무 행복해하고 입이 귀에 걸려있던 것도 생각이 나요. 첫 조카라서 그런지 너무 예쁘고 사랑스러웠어요.
현재 생활: 지금은 벌써 5월이 되면 하엘이가 두살이 되요. 이제는 말도 꽤 알아듣고 이모한테 애교도 부리고 재롱도 부리는 하엘이가 너무 예뻐요. 신생아일때도 너무 예뻤는데 무럭무럭 자라는 모습을 보는 것도 너무 예뻐요. 아주 똘똘해서 영상통화하면서 제가 “이모 안아줘~” 하면 달려와서 핸드폰을 안고 “이모 뽀뽀해줘~”하면 화면에 뽀뽀를 해주는 모습이 너무 사랑스러워요. 지난 11월에 보고 못봤는데 5월에 제 졸업식때 온 가족이 모여서 그 때 조카를 볼 생각하니 너무 행복하고 기대되요.
Introduce yourself and your family
안녕하세요. 저는 장지영입니다. 저는 22살이고 지금 버지니아 주에서 리치몬드대학교에 재학중인 4학년입니다. 저에게는 위로 언니 두명이 있고 엄마와 아빠는 한국에 계십니다. 큰언니는 저보다 7살이 많고 3년 전에 결혼을 해서 캘리포니아 주에서 살고 있고 2년전에 제 조카를 낳아 현재는 육아에 집중하고 있습니다. 형부는 화학교수가 되고 싶어서 UC Berkely에서 Chemistry Ph. D 과정을 밟고 있습니다. 둘째 언니는 저보다 2살이 많은데 제작년 12월에 졸업을 하고 지금은 대학원 준비를 하면서 gap year를 누리고 있는 중입니다. 아빠는 30년이 넘게 경제학자로 일하고 계시고 올해 말에 은퇴하실 예정입니다. 저희 엄마는 전에는 서점 사업을 하셨는데 지금은 잠시 쉬고 계십니다.
Show that you can ask and answer questions about identity
질문: 안녕하세요. 만나서 반가워요. 이름이 어떻게 되요? 나이는요? 그리고 지금 하시는 일은 뭐에요?
답: 제 이름은 장지영입니다. 만나서 반갑습니다. 저는 1995년생으로 만 22세이구요, 지금은 대학생이지만 5월에 졸업하고 나면 뉴욕에서 일할 예정입니다.
My classmates gave presentations on Kimchi, Tae-Kwon-Do and national symbolisms. From all of these cultural presentations, I learned about the history of each topic and even what makes up the names of the topics they chose. I also learned about the benefits of Kimchi and Tae-Kwon-Do and what the Korean flag means when broken down to each symbol. I also learned about the national flower of Korea and what it means. They were all very interesting topics that I knew about Korea on a surface level but didn't really know details about.
Family is very important in Korea too. Knowing your roots is placed so much emphasis in Korea. So it is your duty as children to make choices that would honor your parents and family knowing parents have gone through so much sacrifice and hardships for the better lives of their children. Parents have and still do overwork and put up with hardships in their lives for the sake of their children and family. Children in Korea tend to be very dependent on their parents even when they get old as many still live off of their parents in their late 20s and 30s if they can't find a job. It is very common to see those grown-ups still living in the same household as their parents. Kinship is incredibly important to Koreans and family always sticks together unlike American family which focuses on raising their children to be independent.
When it comes to time, Korean culture considers it gold. There's a famous saying that Koreans live by which is 시간은 금이다 to demonstrate how Koreans value time so much and "빨리빨리" which means "quickly quickly" because Koreans are known for doing everything fast. We live in a culture where people as a group tend to be very impatient and have to have everything done quickly. So scanning items in grocery stores are done incredibly fast and even food comes out quickly in Korea. Also, the internet speed in Korea is the fastest in the world and people still complain that it's slow for them. Because Koreans value time so much, they don't want to waste time and act on anything fast and first. This probably also stems from a culture that is heavily based on competition against each other.
I have chosen the June Struggle of 1987 as my topic for the cultural project. I recently watched a Korean movie called 1987 which talked about the June Struggle and portrayed the historical events during the year. So I wanted to learn more about this historical year. To learn this topic, I will be looking at wiki pages in English and Korean and also watch Youtube videos that explain the full context of the events that led up to 1987 events and what happened in the year. I will also be looking at historical references about the year.
Hangul is the Korean alphabet. It has been used to write the Korean language since its creation in the 15th century under Sejong the Great. It is the official writing system of South Korea and North Korea.
The alphabet consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Hangul letters are grouped into syllabicblocks, vertically and horizontally. For example, the Korean word for "honeybee" is written 꿀벌, not ㄲㅜㄹㅂㅓㄹ.As it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems, Hangul has been described as an "alphabetic syllabary" by some linguists. As in traditional Chinese writing, Hangul texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left, and are occasionally still written this way for stylistic purposes. Today, Hangul is typically written from left to right with spaces between words and western-style punctuation. Some linguists consider Hangul the most logical writing system in the world, partly because the shapes of its consonants mimic the shapes of the speaker's mouth when pronouncing each consonant.
