Here's my slides from my Sanskrit Baghavad Gita presentation:
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Resurgence of Sanskrit in Modern India
Indian president Modi and other Indian politicians have pushed for a resurgence in Sanskrit learning in modern India. The new government mandates the study of Sanskrit in many of India’s schools. Many hail this as a way to preserve tradition and keep Indian and Hindu culture alive. Sanskrit is also useful as a building block to learning other Indian languages from which it was derived, such as Hindi, Bengali, or Marathi. Sanskrit is not widely spoken, but over 10,000 Indians claimed to fluently speak Sanskrit as a main language on India’s last census. The language is also kept alive by religious ceremony and Hindu priests who must memorize the language or at least parts of it. Some Indians think this is a great move that will promote nationalism, unity, and a passion for tradition. Others claim that a focus on teaching the language in schools takes away from students who could be learning more practical foreign languages such as French or Spanish.
Reflect on your experiences as a language teacher and learning in this latest speed-dating workshop. What difficulties did you encounter? How did you successfully relay concepts that were foreign to your classmates as your students? If you were eventually granted the opportunity to teach a full semester-long course on the target language, what strategies would you adopt?
For the past workshop, I talked about Korean words and phrases when describing certain countries and nationalities. It was pretty hard to manage the pace of teaching as it could be too fast to some listeners who had no background at all in Korean, while it could also be too slow for people who have already known the language pretty well. Also, it was hard to know whether I have delivered the message as I intended to, since there was no timely feedback available during the session. There are two techniques I found useful while conducting the speed-dating workshop: The use of pop quizzes and pictures. By using lots of related visual images, I found that my audience paid more attention to the contents when the photos of flags showed up. Also, by giving out pop quizzes on words/phrases I just introduced, I was able to interact with my audience more.
Speaking of some techniques that helped explain certain concepts to people who had no background in Korean during my presentation, I mainly made comparisons to how that concept would be in English. In such way, he/she could bring themselves into the Korean cultural setting and better understand the meaning behind certain expressions in Korean. If I were to be granted the opportunity of teaching a semester-long class on Korean, I would adopt a systematic way of teaching the language course such as following the agenda listed on the Korean textbook, learning the formation of sentence structures before practicing making any sentences and so on. Besides that, I would add more cultural aspects to the normal class by introducing certain pieces of Korean history each week and having discussions on what is happening now in Korean society.
Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language. Are you bilingual? If so, would you agree with the arguments made in the two readings on bilingualism?
At first it was really hard for me to memorize the formation of each word in Korean. As the Korean language adopts syllable sound, it is not hard at all to read words out by simply following the pronunciation rules. Writing, on the other hand, can be really tough for me as there isn’t a differentiated pattern or memory point for each word, comparing that to Chinese characters.
However, by practicing writing down each word over and over again, I gradually began to pick up the way of writing for most new vocabulary I learned. At this point, I would not regard myself as bilingual in Korean as bilingualism requires certain proficiency in that target language. This also reminds me of what we discussed in class: How could one person know when he/she has reached the native speaker level in his/her target language? I would agree with Dr. Marsh-Soloway that when you dream in your target language, you have probably reached the native speaker level. By comparing with my experience in Japanese, I am pretty certain that there is still a long way ahead of me before reaching the advanced / bilingual level of Korean.
How many new words have you learned in your target language? How did you learn them? Do you have realistic goals for your acquisition of vocabulary?
For each chapter of the textbook that I am currently using as my main study resource, there are two vocabulary lists. On average each list has about 20-25 terms which include nouns, adjectives, verbs, particles and common phrases/expressions. Adding up together, there are about over 100 words and phrases that I have studied over the past weeks of classes. Besides those vocabulary words, I learned some words and expressions such as different kinds of food, family, different job professions on a mobile language-learning application platform called Drops. I learned new words and phrases mainly by memorizing the formation and meaning of each word/phrase while writing them down on a piece of paper for 10 times each. The application of these words in sentences is also essential to the learning process. Also, for each learning session we have weekly quizzes to check on my memories of the new vocabulary.
Honestly speaking, I set up an unrealistic goal for how many words/phrases I will master in Korean by the end of this semester. However, by timely adjusting my learning pace and vocabulary goal, it is more efficient for me to digest the words I have mastered while keep up learning new ones.
How do languages go extinct? Respond to the reading, reflecting on what happens when a language dies. How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a language ever be brought back to life?
One simple answer to the question of why certain languages go extinct is that, when the number of speakers decreases, the language loses the ability to sustain itself anymore. When the last speaker passes away, the language he/she speaks is not able to be inherited by the decedents. Languages that are either too difficult to learn or with too limited uses are ones that are more likely to go extinct.
However, I believe that every language exists for a reason, and hence they deserve to be passed on as they all represent the history and culture in certain period of human development process. Linguists can help preserve a language in lots of ways such as analyzing the history and formation of that language and preserving those information in the modern data bank. Other ways could be that linguists could help preserve the limited population of target languages and educate them on the importance of passing on that certain linguistic inheritance. With enough information collected and preserved, I believe that languages that have gone extinct could certainly be brought back to life.
Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. To what family does your language belong? What sounds, words, or structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures?
Learning the roots and history of one language would definitely help me understand the historical settings and reasons behind the modern usage of certain words and grammatical structures. Korean is one of the oldest living languages in in the world. Hangul was invented during Chosun Dynasty by King Sejong. It belongs to the Koreanic language family. The Korean language was deeply influenced by Chinese language and even till this day Hanja which is originated from Chinese characters is still in use in Korean language. Nowadays, the influences from English have been reflected on the modern Korean language. Exotic words, such as 커피/Keopi/ which means coffee, sound very similarly to the sounds of those words in English. Other words like 도서관 /doseogwan/, which means library, have similar sounds to the pronunciations of the same words in Chinese. When studying new vocabulary, it is useful for me to relate the sounds and meanings of certain Korean words to my background in both Chinese and English in order to quickly master those target words.
Do some preliminary research on what most interests you about the target culture, and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your learning plan to engage this topic?
As I am graduating soon, topics related to future career are often mentioned among my peers. I believe that the most interesting topic to me currently would be to explore the working environment in Korea. That being said, I did some preliminary research online and found out that the work ethics in Korea is widely known for being rigid and demanding. The power distance at workplace is pretty high and a hierarchical system is emphasized within each firm. The harsh working environment is exactly one form of reflections of the current Korean societal culture. When communicating with people of different levels within the firm, people often use different sentence structures and expressions.
To further my understanding on this topic, I need to acquire knowledge of special vocabulary in job positions within the firm and daily greeting expressions to either boss or peers. Currently I am working with my language partners on greeting expressions in formal language. Expressions and words in formal language system are generally appropriate to use at workplace. In the following weeks, I am planning to learn more daily expressions and expand my vocabulary under the formal language system.
Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don't exist in English? Provide several phonetic transcriptions of important words.
What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need? Have you identified resources and textbooks to promote your task-based objectives? Why or why not?
There are many sounds in Korean that do not exist in English and some even in Chinese. The Korean language adopts Hangul System which is composed of 14 consonants and 6 vowels. It is a syllable timed language which means that each individual word stress is not emphasized when speaking. Pronunciations such as double consonants in Korean ( ㄲ,ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ) do not have exact sounds in English. For example,ㄲ is pronounced as /k͈/ which is similar to /k/ in English but with a stiff glottal opening. One common word can be 까치, which means magpie in English. Some other examples of phonetic transcriptions in Korean can be: 오빠 /oppa/ (Elder brother of a female); 누나 /nuna/ (Elder sister of a male); 동생 /dongsaeng/ (younger sibling).
In terms of the Korean language structure, it is very similar to the structure of Japanese. The word structure is composed of consonants and vowels, and the sentence structure is either subject + verb or subject + object + verb. In order to quickly master the the formation of sentence structure, I mainly learn Korean by comparing with that in Japanese to understand the meaning behind the simple usage. For the learning resources, I found both the textbook (Integrated Korean Beginning) and workbook useful as a systematic way of studying Korean. Besides that, I really enjoy using online resources and platforms such as HiNative and the Chinese language study website ‘Hujiang’. A lot of questions can be directly answered by the native speakers on HiNative. Also, Korean tutorial videos on YouTube are also helpful for me to explore various cultural concepts and current hot topics.
Here is my powerpoint for the cultural presentation!
This was my diary entry for the day in Korean.
This was a phone conversation I wrote about going to see a concert with a friend.
How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc. Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.
As a native speaker of Chinese, I would say that most aspects of the Korean culture are quite similar to those of Chinese culture, while they could be extremely different from the American culture. For example, both Chinese culture and Korean culture are based on some forms of collectivism. People like to work in groups and do anything in groups. Time after work is often reserved for some group activities such as eating out and drinking out, whereas that is not the case in United States. People value their personal and family time after work. Another aspect is the marriage culture in Korea. I had a very interesting cultural talk with my Korean learning partner Lena the other day on the marriage culture in Korea. It is quite similar to that in China as it is demanding and rigid for the female side in a new family. The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is normally intense, and the new daughter-in-law has to take over almost all the housework at home. Whereas in the States, the status relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is more equal and friendly.
Same as the general Asian culture, Korean culture as a whole is more conservative than that of most North American and European culture. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, people in not only Korea, but also most East Asian countries need to show special respect to the elderly and people of higher social status such as teachers, doctors, etc. Some interesting cultural aspects I noticed in Korean language is that they have a separate language system when speaking to people who are either elder or of higher social standing. Korean speakers also adopt different expressions when speaking in formal ways.
In terms of cultural shock, I did not really have any when traveling to other Asian countries, as all Asian cultures are similar to one another. However, when I traveled to Singapore, I was deeply impressed by how clean the city is. Later on, I knew that it is forbidden to chew gums in public in Singapore and the regulatory system there is quite rigid. When I first came to the States, I was greatly shocked by how friendly people here are to strangers. It is quite normal in Richmond to see people randomly saying Hi to strangers. However, if the same thing were to happen in either China or Korea, that would be regarded as an uncommon or even strange behavior.
How have you organized your self-directed learning plan, and what have you learned so far? How will your studies allow you investigate your target language and culture more deeply? What first prompted your interest, and motivated you to start learning?
After receiving feedback from your classmates and Dr. Marsh-Soloway, what changes do you anticipate making?
I organized my self-directed learning plan mainly based on the table of contents in the textbook that I will be primarily using, “Integrated Korean Beginning”. Additional to that, I am planning to use the workbook as an auxiliary tool to frequently check my learning process. For this semester, I hope to be able to conduct simple conversations in formal Korean on topics such as campus life, greetings, directions, etc. I then split these topics into weekly learning objectives and tasks to make my overall learning plan more plausible. With such schedules, I believe that I could have a better understanding on how the daily life in Korea is like and in what ways people interact with each other. I met with my Korean language partner, Lena, and my classmate, Christiana on Wednesday, and we went over the Korean alphabets, pronunciation rules, and some common words when ordering food. As I am basically a beginner 0 in Korean, even though I took an online course of introduction to Korean alphabet during last semester, Lena helped me refresh my memories from that class and saved time for learning new words and expressions.
By having a detailed and feasible plan, I could better follow up my learning results and make timely feedback on periodic progress. I have been interested in Korean culture since I was in middle school. Around that time, K-pop culture such as TVXQ, Super Junior and Big Bang dominated the Chinese market and almost all my peers fell for the Korean culture trend. As China is located right next to South Korea, many aspects of our culture are some kind of related. It is the same for Japanese culture too. Language could also have influences on people’s behaviors as the reflection of that country’s culture. Through learning Korean, I believe that I could have a deeper understanding on both the traditional and modern Korean culture, which may further help me explore potential career opportunities when later working in Asia. Still, after talking to Dr. Marsh-Soloway and looking through peer’s evaluations, I think I should slow down the pace of my learning plan, as it might be tough to catch up with when putting into actual work.
Reflect on the readings. What parts of the brain are most important for the production and comprehension of speech? How do you conceptualize or process meaning? Do these readings bring to mind any questions or motivations that could help promote your foreign-language abilities, retention, and recollection?
Before reading these assigned articles, I never actually thought about how I became able to use and articulate myself in either Chinese or other languages. Take Chinese as an example, words and phrases in Chinese just came natural to me and that is how I have been able to pick them up and use them. Later on, I kind of figured out that sometimes I pick up new phrases or words by observing and learning from others. For example, before coming to the States, I never learned the usage of ‘make’ as an expression of being successful in doing something in textbook. While in college, I often heard people saying, ‘We made it’ and gradually I learned the meaning and usage of this word under particular situations.
In Dr. Crystal. D’s articles, she talked about different parts of human’s brain structure and how each part manage people’s behaviors and emotions. According to her, as I am a right hander, the left hemisphere is dominant for my language activities. Besides just language activities, the left hemisphere is also in charge of general analytical tasks, categorizing, information sequencing and other activities that require rationalization. On the other hand, my right hemisphere of brain is mostly dominant for perception, emotional expression and recognition. Specifically speaking, the Wernicke’s area in our brain plays a significant part in comprehension of speech, while the Broca’s area controls the encoding process of speech. Also, according to the article, some kind of conceptualization of the message received is needed before starting the actual speech production process. Different matters and areas in our brain systems help receive and analyze the meaning of messages we received before we make any forms reactions. Personally, I think it is important to understand the mechanism of how our brain works when we are learning and trying use a foreign language. With that little background knowledge in mind, we could become conscious in ways of optimizing our language learning ability and therefore improve the overall efficiency when studying our target language.
This artifact is a made up text conversation with a pen pal that I am just getting to know. She is asking me basic identity questions and I am responding. Here is a translation of the short conversation.
Yoona: Hello!
Me: Hello!
Yoona: What is your name?
Me: My name is Kristen.
Yoona: How old are you?
Me: I am 19 years old.
Yoona: Where are you from?
Me: I am from the United States
Yoona: Where do you live?
Me: I live in New Jersey.
Yoona: What year are you in?
Me: I am in my first year.
This is conversation between my dad and I about the weather. Talking about weather was one of my goals on my learning plan and is one of the topics that I feel the most confident about at this point.
For my 4th artifact, I decided to look at a Korean song to see what parts of the translation I can recognize from my semester of studying the language. On the left is the hangul Korean writing and to the right is the translation. Below the Hangul is the romanization.
1.) 1st line, the word time is 시간 (shigan) And the particle attached to it 을 (eul) represents a subject before a verb.
2.) 2nd line, I was able to figure out that 기억 (gi-eok) means memory from the sentence structure in the first line. And the particle 도 (doh) means also.
3.) 4th line, 알아 (ala) means I know, even though in the translation, the words 'I know' are in the third line
4.) 6th line, 눈물 (noonmool) means tears
5.) 7th line, 미안 (mi-ahn) is the root for being sorry, so that probably translates to the guilt part. Also 마음 (ma-eum) means heart, chest, or soul, so I think that's part of an expression that doesn't directly translate in English.
6.) 8th line, 하지만 (hajiman) means but or however
7.) 9th line, 수 없어 (soo eobseo) means can't
8.) 11th line, 시간만 (shigan man) means a lot of time and particle 이 (ee) labels the subject
9.) 12th line, 사랑해요 (salanghaeyo) means I love you in polite form 고마워요 (gomawoyo) means thank you in polite form
10.) 14th line, 이 (ee) in front of a noun means this, 사랑 (sarang) is love, 나 (na) means me, and particle 는 (neun) means as for, so together they make 'I' in English, and 수 있어 (soo isseo) means can and has very similar structure to can't.
This Love: By Davichi
시간을 되돌리면 If I turn back time
기억도 지워질까 Will the memories be erased too?
해볼 수도 없는 말들을 I know I’m saying things
내뱉는 걸 알아 That I can’t even do
널 힘들게 했고 I’m just saying this out of guilt
눈물로 살게 했던 For making things hard for you
미안한 마음에 그런 거야 For making you live in tears
하지만 난 말야 But for me
너의 밖에선 살 수 없어 I can’t live outside of you
내겐 너 하나로 물든 For me, only times that are colored by you
시간만이 흘러갈 뿐이야 Are passing by
사랑해요. 고마워요 I love you, I thank you
따뜻하게 나를 안아줘 For holding me so warmly
이 사랑 때매 나는 살 수 있어 I can live because of this love
siganeul doedollimyeon
gieokdo jiwojilkka
haebol sudo eopsneun maldeureul
naebaetneun geol ara
neol himdeulge haessgo
nunmullo salge haessdeon
mianhan maeume geureon geoya
hajiman nan marya
neoui bakkeseon sal su eopseo
naegen neo hanaro muldeun
siganmani heulleogal ppuniya
saranghaeyo. gomawoyo
ttatteushage nareul anajwo
i sarang ttaemae naneun sal su isseo
For this Artifact, I demonstrate my speaking skills by recording myself singing the song I dissected in my last Artifact, This Love by Davichi.
