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       During this spring semester, I went to study abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea for 5 months. I have always been bilingual in both English and Korean, with Korean being my first language. However, I moved to the U.S. when I was only 6 years old, so I always carried this imposter syndrome in which I felt like I was neither Korean nor American. Fortunately, this kind of mindset only lasted until the end of elementary school where I really adapted to American culture and also the English language. I was beyond elated that my English speaking abilities drastically improved and I felt like I finally belonged in the States as a valid American citizen. On the other hand, I now felt like I knew nothing about my motherland’s culture. And since I came to the U.S. when I was so young, I never got to attend school there or make any Korean friends. As a result, this is mainly why I decided to go study in South Korea (even during a pandemic), and I have absolutely no regrets. Following my experience at Yonsei, I have decided to not only be a Korean language partner for this semester, but to also take SDLC Korean II myself. Even with a very hectic academic semester, I have decided to make this work because I wanted to almost force myself to speak Korean at Richmond. In Richmond, there is an extremely limited number of Korean American students, so I end up not using Korean for a very long time. However, by teaching and also learning Korean at the same time, I hope that I can retain the Korean vocabulary and phrases I used back at Yonsei. Somyung, my language partner, and I held our first meeting last Saturday over brunch at her dorm. We first went over what my objectives were for this semester. I informed her that I would like to work mostly on conversing and putting my Korean to use as much as possible. Additionally, I informed her that I would also like to read some real-time news articles since improving my reading skills is another one of my goals this semester. I have always been an adequate reader, however, I was never good at reading very technical news articles or understanding complicated television broadcasts. This semester, I hope to be able to read and interpret many different news articles pertaining to social and political issues. For the next hour, Somyung and I competed on who can speak the least amount of Konglish (which is when someone uses English and Korean simultaneously in a sentence). As Korean Americans, code-switching is such a natural phenomenon that I do not even recognize that I do it so often. Therefore, it was great to practice with Somyung next to me since she could always inform me when I used Konglish. After that, we looked up some potential Korean dramas on Netflix that we both could watch without subtitles for the next class. All in all, I am very excited about where my Korean skills will be at by the end of the semester. 

           Before fall semester began, I have already started to learn the Hangul alphabet over the summer and found the alphabet to be very useful in phonetically sounding out a Korean character. Mandarin, on the other hand, lack an alphabet system which explains part of the reason why learning Mandarin has an additional degree of difficulty. The week prior to the start of classes, I met with my Mandarin teacher, and coincidentally, she also speaks Korean. She lived in Busan, South Korea for four years, and teaches both Mandarin and Korean on iTalki. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to learn Korean simultaneously practicing Mandarin.

          Yesterday, we had our first official Korean one-on-one lesson, and we went over consonants and vowels that are the simplest and phonetically distinguishable. For an example, we practiced these vowels 아, 이, 오, and 요 , and their individual sounds. Then, we combined those characters with consonants such as ㅁ, ㄴ, ㄹ, andㅎ together to connect the sounds between the vowels and consonants. An example that we did was ㅁ + ㅏ = ma. My tutor tried to associate that character with Korean words, and I found that to be very helpful. Through yesterday’s tutoring session, my strengths and weakness were clear.  I struggled with some of the vowel pronunciation especially when two vowels look very similar but only differ by one line or stroke. For an example, 아 has a long “a” sound while어  sounds like “ohhh”. However, I believe these differences can be distinguished if I practice and read more Korean characters that contain those vowels. As of right now, I am planning to meet with my tutor once a week for one hour on Saturdays. Eventually, I would like to be tutored two times a week that way I know my pronunciation and my performance won’t fall behind. One of the benefits of SDLAP is how flexible the schedule can be since it is based on my own schedule. However, this flexibility can also be a disadvantage because I can easily fall behind in my language learning journey without a structured schedule. I may revise my syllabus and put in a structured schedule to ensure that I won’t fall behind in learning Korean.

          In my first language partner session with Somyung, we set up our meeting times and what our plan for the semester will look like. I was able to learn a few words such as how to say “teacher” and the popular children’s TV show “Pororo”. Additionally, we explored activities that I can do to expose myself to Korean such as watching children’s TV shows, listening to Korean language podcasts, and watch Korean TV shows. Somyung, a native Korean speaker, offer her insights into how her previous student studied Korean and reveal that he learned the language quicker when reading materials in Korean. While that seems like a far goal and ability to do as of right now with my Korean level, this goal is attainable once I have a strong foundation of the Hangul alphabet. 

Nile Harris

Reflection #1

            So far, I have only had a couple of experiences as a language learner. English is my first language, which I have been learning ever since I was born. In this reflection, I will talk about my experiences learning Spanish and Portuguese. To share a little bit about myself, I was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. I have two siblings (an older brother and younger sister) and was raised by both of my parents and my maternal grandparents. When I started school in kindergarten, my parents sent me to Jones Elementary School which is known for its Spanish immersion program. My siblings also enrolled in this program in kindergarten, though I was the only one to complete the duration of the program upon graduating high school. My siblings both ended up stopping the program in middle school in order to pursue other endeavors. The structure of the program included complete immersion from kindergarten through fifth grade. Every subject (math, social studies, science, history, etc…) was taught in Spanish. Then once we got to middle school, we took three out of seven courses in Spanish per year (Spanish literature, science, and social studies). Upon the completion of middle school, in high school we only took one course per year in Spanish (Spanish for Heritage Speakers, Spanish IV, AP Spanish Culture, and IB Spanish HL). In my opinion, I learned Spanish in a similar way to the way I learned English. Because I was immersed in it, there was never a huge emphasis on “the correct grammar” in Spanish similar to the way I learned English. This very different from the way Spanish is taught when you are not being immersed in it which is why I struggle to help teach Spanish to my peers. For example: when one of my peers asks me for help with their past participle homework, I have no idea what they are referring to because I did not learn Spanish in that manner. It would be the same if someone asked me to speak in the past participle in English. I just know that the way I speak is the correct way of speaking. Also, in the Spanish immersion program, my instructors were native speakers from different Latin American countries. I am very happy that my parents enrolled me into that Spanish immersion program. It really helped me develop into the person I am today. Once I arrived to college, I decided that I wanted to attempt to pick up a new language. The language I decided to pursue was Portuguese. I enrolled in a Portuguese for Spanish speakers class which I found to be very useful. The way my instructor made a connection between Spanish and Portuguese really helped me pick the language up a lot easier. Before the class even began, he told us that if we were fluent in Spanish then we already know about 65% of Portuguese. The thing that was most challenging about learning basic Portuguese was learning the new grammar rules. This s the reason why I want to continue to learn Brazilian Portuguese.

I loved the initial involvement with a language, the first couple of weeks learning the alphabet, numbers, and basic phrases, because every day I greatly increased my knowledge of the subject matter. I went from not knowing how to read or write Arabic to being able to do both at a basic level after only two weeks of study. However, after the first year of Arabic, came the part of language learning I hate: trudging through the “middle period.” I would describe the middle period as the second and third years of learning a language when it is difficult for one to see any real progress – progress is absolutely being made during this period, but I think it is difficult to recognize that fact. Yes, I learned some new vocabulary words and more grammar rules, but I still was not able to truly read any articles or watch any videos and understand them. Also, I could not effectively communicate in the language, taking too many pauses to think and not possessing a sufficient vocabulary to converse well. This period was a time of building on the foundation; but, by then, the initial passion for learning the language had dissipated for many people. To get through this period it was necessary for me to sit down, reflect on why I was learning the language, and look forward to a future when I would be able to effectively communicate and understand others in Arabic.

I am primarily a “Visual” and “Insightful” learner according to the surveys. I enjoy having structure and a neat learning environment. I am more comfortable with written words, thus I always take notes with pen & paper in class to transcribe my professors’ lectures half-literally and half-figuratively in my own understanding of the subject matter. I enjoy creative ways of learning such as skits and role-playing and use pictures and videos as visual aids. Overall, I like the challenge of learning and dealing with large theoretical concepts that lack a clear answer. Generally, I’m a “classic” learner in that I read books, take notes, and practice/struggle with the information contained in them. However, with all the new technology and free resources available today, I should expand my learning activities to include other media. Being a visual learner, I could use other visual media besides books – like movies, videos, websites, etc. – to expand my understanding. I also love maps and charts, so I want to find ways to integrate them into my language learning. However, truthfully, I need to challenge myself to engage in non-visual ways of learning as well. In terms of language, I have generally excelled at reading, writing, and grammar because of my focus on visual learning. But, I have struggled with speaking and listening to a language because I cannot visualize spoken language well. Therefore, I want to integrate more activities into my learning that allow me to practice visualizing spoken language and associating spoken language with written words, symbols, or pictures. Finally, in order to avoid feeling “stuck” in a language, I want to set specific, realistic goals that allow me to see my progress and assess my linguistic improvement.

It’s been two weeks since the class started, during when I spoke in English, read in English, and wrote in English. Whenever I deliver my opinions, or share my thoughts with the whole class, I am certain that words coming out of my mouth mostly matches what I think should be coming out of my mouth. Now, if I look back on my journey of learning English, I would say that It is a tough journey that I had been through. As all Chinese students, I began English study in kindergarten. English letters such as A, B, C, and D are pretty much similar with Chinese syllables in terms of handwriting and pronunciation. Although we were learning two languages (Chinese and English)together at young age, we were not mentally loaded because we were only asked to memorize how 26 letters are written and pronounced. At that time, I enjoyed nothing more than being praised in front of the whole class for matching all letters with their pronunciation correctly. Clearly I am not speaking bombast, but I am retentive. Therefore, the study of letters did not really seem to be a big deal to me. I started being interested in English simply because it seemed easy. Even now, I still appreciate that period, a period which equipped me with strong language basis.

Things really changed after I stepped into a middle school classroom. We began enlarging our Vocab and learning grammars. Due to the difference in the way Chinese and Americans talk, it took me a while to understand those grammars. For example, in Chinese, verbs do not transform based on pass tense or future tense. Unfortunately, “I have dinner last night” is unacceptable to English. I was totally mixed up. The way our teachers taught us is to get used to this specific arrangement of words and phrases by reading tons of English-based materials. So, reading English passages in the morning became a routine. We had done that for three years. Gradually, I started thinking in English. In my senior year of middle school, I was able to read and write proficiently. Those reading techniques and writing skills really helped me succeed on final exams.

English is a language, and languages need to be spoken. Once, we were granted with the opportunity to share experiences with students from American schools. We were all silent, not because we didn’t want to share, but we didn’t know how. We read and write English all day long, and when we open our mouths, we became idiots. Maybe in China, English is a subject, but English is a tool for communication. If we cannot even communicate in English, why should we learn it? For exams? Later, I came to an international high school where everyone speaks English. As a traditional Chinese boy who has strong accent when speaking English, I was really afraid of speaking English in front of a lot of people. There were always those strange ideas swirling on my mind. “What would they think of me if I do not speak well?” “Are they going to make fun of me?” “Will they take me down as someone who is too stupid to befriend with?” A feeling of diffidence took over my body. It is really important that you make the first move. I applied for a speech contest. Surely everyone except me performed well. I did not so well, but I was happy because I had made my first step. Another interesting thing I found out during the contest is that one is not judged on English. Participants were encouraging, helping and making friends with each other. Hence, speech contests became my major source of friends. With a bunch of English learners, my verbal ability is improved in an amazing speed, and I turned out to be a person who is much more confident than I used to be. The joy I took from that is incomparable, far exceeding the sense of achievement when I was commended by teachers in kindergarten. English learning made me an outgoing person who loves helping and making friends. When it comes to language learning, challenges and obstacles are inevitable. Your response is the key, and the way you respond it can be applied to any aspect in your daily life. Albeit English is what it is, a type of language, the way I see English learning is that English is a medium from which we are discovering ourselves.

           I took CHIN 201 during the fall semester of my sophomore year, and the experience revealed how much I enjoyed learning Mandarin and how much I already know about the language. Most of the beginner students in the room were filled with confusion or frustration, but I felt at ease. Although I felt empathy towards them since Mandarin is one of the most difficult languages to learn and master, I felt lucky to be able to comprehend a sufficient chunk of vocabulary and grammar to converse with a native. Unlike the students in my CHIN 201 class, most of them probably enrolled in the class to fulfill the COM2 requirement while I enrolled because I wanted to further challenge myself and improve my fluency. Even though I only speak Cantonese at home with family, most of the TV shows we watch speak Mandarin, which is why I can read, hear, and speak conversational Mandarin adequately. I believe this different mindset and strategy is what motivated me to continue my pursuit of learning Mandarin. My goal wasn’t solely on fulfilling the COM2 requirement; instead, it was simply to learn the language and be more informed. In fact, this will be the same mindset that I will apply to learning Korean.

           Korean culture has trickled into the United States in the last decade, and I find that there is a thirst for Korean music, Korean dramas, Korean food among my friends and around the globe. Therefore, finding services to learn Korean is as accessible as going to the nearest McDonald. Even though learning Korean from watching TV shows or listening to music is a great way to learn the language, only doing these two activities is not sufficient to learn the language itself. Fortunately, I am a studious human.

          Often when I hear Korean phrases, I find similarities in both Mandarin and Cantonese. For an example, the word for man in Korean is nam ja and in Mandarin it is nan ren. In Cantonese, it is nam zai. Even though it is difficult to showcase the phonetic similarities through writing, the written portion is quite similar as well. Languages such as Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin all share a similar writing component where characters, which are like pictures, are used instead of spelled out words such as in English. Even with Japanese, I can read some of the characters because they look the exact same or like Mandarin characters. For an example, Japan’s capital, Tokyo, is written as 東京 in kanji (Japanese character system) and for a Mandarin speaker, they would be able to read what that means. The difference would be the pronunciation of those two characters in Mandarin compared to Japanese.

           According to the surveys, I am classified as a visual learner, and I find that to be correct because graphics, videos, drawings, etc. help me comprehend the information better. For an example, when I struggle with complex biological processes or difficult organic chemistry mechanisms, my immediate urge is to head over to YouTube or Khan Academy. Those learning platforms contain useful information and explanations that some professors are not able to provide. With there being a high interest in Korean culture, I am positive that I will have no problem locating resources that will aid in my language learning journey.