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The Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival celebrated notably by Eastern Asian countries. This festival is known by several different names: 추석 (Autumn eve) in Korean, お月見 (Moon view) in Japanese, 中秋節 (Mid-Autumn Festival) in Chinese, and Tết Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival) in Vietnamese. The festival is held on the 15th day of August according to the lunar calendar which coincides with mid-September or early October of the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is often celebrated with lanterns – traditionally only red paper lanterns were used, but colorful lanterns that depict pop culture have been gaining popularity in the past decades or so. Traditionally, the lanterns are made of paper as a way to allow people to write riddles to be solved by other people. However, the majority of people have moved away from writing riddles in favor of writing their wishes and goals.

In Viet Nam, the festival is primarily celebrated by children. At night, they would carry brightly lit and colorful lanterns and participate in a group parade while donning masks. While traditional lanterns were handmade from paper, the rise of the manufacturing sector in Viet Nam created an abundance supply of plastic lanterns that utilize the images of internationally recognized characters and mascots such as Peppa Pig, Pikachu, Disney characters, Doraemon, Hello Kitty, et cetera. These modern lanterns are often equipped with popular musical tunes.

One popular aspect of the festival involves Mooncakes, which can only be found around the time of the festival. Typical mooncakes are round and bulky. They always contain some sort of sweet filling and salted duck egg yolks. Popular fillings include – the most common found – lotus seed paste, red bean paste, mung bean paste, mixed nuts, and – the least commonly found – black bean paste and date paste. Some regions of Viet Nam have also incorporated the infamous durian fruit as a filling into the popular snack. While they serve as a popular snack food, a single mooncake can contain up to 1,000 calories and, although small, is meant to be shared among family or friends. This is to symbolize the notion of reunion among people.

Another traditionally common activity during the festival is matchmaking and courtship. This tradition is believed to have originated in China with prayers to the moon goddess Chang'e. In Viet Nam, the tradition is more festive in that a carefully selected group of people are gathered to showcase their ability to sing or recite poetry. In each round, a girl and a boy will be eliminated until there is only one couple remains, which is quite similar to the concept of musical chairs. The couple remaining is given a prize and sometimes even matrimonial prospects. This practice is now less common in modern society and urban areas like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi as people move away from the concept of matchmaking and courtship. However, this practice is still popular among the rural areas and indigenous people of Viet Nam where marriage is often arranged.

According to Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture different countries have different cultural norms. Figuring Foreigners Out organizes these traits into individualist-collectivist, monochronic-polychronic, internal-external, and direct-indirect communication. Alternatively, Hofestede organizes culture into individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty, long-term orientation, and indulgence. The fact that this model is not a spectrum may unintentionally convey that countries with more of a certain trait have a higher score and are therefore superior. In this case of Individualism, a country that has a low score on this indicator may be seen as having a deficit, though I don't think this is the intention. 

Society shapes the way people live their lives, but it is not definitive. There is variation within a culture, and sometimes an individual may feel tension with the prescribed cultural norm of their society. I noticed such a tension when I read about the monochronic-polychronic spectrum. This discussion on different cultural perceptions of time suggested that countries like the United States, which are concerned with efficiency, busyness, and see time as a scarce commodity, are monochronic. As someone growing up in the United States, I feel these pressures even though I try to fight them because I don’t feel that this is the way for me to live an authentic life. I feel that living in the moment, embracing detours and interruptions, and slowing down are key for recognizing how our lives interconnect with one another. This framing of time as a scarce resource resonates with a reading from my sustainability class. We talked about how the market economy and push for profit-centered development transformed Nature into a resource to be exploited and consumed, an environment with no agency of its own. It seems that this market-based perspective has also shaped how places like the United States view time, in an effort to always be working for progress without ever stopping to recognize the depth of opportunity offered by the single present moment. Thus, I seem to identify better with the polychronic model that is prevalent in Indonesia. 

When I compared Indonesia’s culture with the United States, Italy, and Spain, which are the two other countries I have been to, I was surprised how much each country varied. The biggest differences between Indonesia and the United States was Individualism (at 91 the US is individualist, while at 14 Indonesia is collectivist). Coincidentally, in my culture class this week we talked about Indonesian personality traits, especially those that Americans may find off putting at first. Many of these spoke to Indonesia’s collectivist culture. For example, my teacher talked about going out for dinner with a roommate even though she was very tired. People rarely express how they are really feeling, especially if they have a dissenting opinion. Students in school also wear color-coded uniforms that reinforce their commitment to the collective. Despite this commitment to the larger group, it’s important to note that Indonesian culture is not monolithic. Life is very different in metropolitan Jakarta than rural Java, and there are hundreds of different languages spoken throughout the archipelago. While these cultural indicators make helpful starting points, we should not assume that the speak for everyone in a given country.

My%20Learning%20Plan.docx

When I presented this proposal to my classmates, they were excited by my interest in learning Indonesian. Since my Indonesian studies this semester already have a syllabus provided by my language instructor, my self-directed learning plan focuses on the themes I would like to explore in order for this language learning experience to be relevant to my interests and goals. The tasks I include are more like overarching themes I will be thinking about during the classes I have with my language teacher for five hours each week. I am interested in learning about the national motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Wayang Kulit, or shadow puppet culture, schools in Indonesia, and how to have culturally competent conversations. Through grammar lessons, culture classes, and speaking sessions, I have already learned basic Indonesian vocabulary to introduce myself. I have also had the opportunity to talk to my Indonesian instructor about her experience as a student in Musllim boarding school. From the SDLC 105, I have learned about resources that can complement these in class studies, such as listening to Indonesian music and news programs. My instructor provides us with powerpoints and a textbook with a helpful glossary that I will continue to refer to as I learn the technical parts of the language. Having an Indonesian language partner is especially helpful given that Indonesians rely a lot on the context to give words meaning. My Indonesian partner provides insights on how we would use the language to navigate around Indonesia, and knowing that I am interested in being a teaching assistant there, tailors the culture classes to include relevant information. 

My interest in studying Indonesian was first prompted when I decided to begin the Fulbright Application last spring, but I’ve realized that Indonesian culture connects very well to my interests in art, geography, landscapes, interfaith dialogue, sustainability, and Indigenous cultures that I am studying in my other classes. I’m excited to have this perspective from another part of the globe inform my worldview and hope that I will have the opportunity to visit, whether through the Fulbright or another opportunity. 

Over the years, I have learned how I am very much a visual and an auditory learner. I've also learned that I study most effectively through making notecards, watching lectures on materials, and allowing enough time for repetition. I was inspired to learn about ASL through interacting with a guest at my job at Chick-fil-A. It was soon after then that I learned about how there is a significant deaf community in Richmond, and I wanted to be able to communicate with them.

Due to this, I've organized my self-directed learning plan to mostly consist of videos, gifs, and much interaction with either other people learning ASL or directly trying to communicate with individuals who sign ASL and are deaf/hard of hearing. In addition to common resources many people refer to when learning ASL (LifePrint, SignSchool) I've found YouTubers such as SignDuo and Our Signed World to be incredibly helpful as they are the channels made from individuals who are deaf. Another resource that I recently learned about is Deaf Family Matters on Instagram. This page has not only allowed me to learn more about deaf culture, but has taught me about some ableism and discriminations that deaf citizens face. It has also has exposed me to new terms that I would most likely not cover in a "traditional" ASL class.

Pinckney%20ASL%20Learning%20Plan.docx

Sunday, September 13:

       Hello and welcome back! Week three is completed and I can confidently exclaim that these past two weeks were really successful with my ASL carrier. For three out of the four of my classes, Reba and I were reviewing a lot of the material that we covered last semester including days of the week, time, numbers, colors, animals, typical breakfast foods, countries, class subjects, people, common verbs and adjectives, emotions, and several other subjects. Surprisingly, I remembered much more than expected making the conversation between the two of us much lighter and seemingly smooth. Regardless, I do find it interesting how some signs, such as the word “night” (as in the time of day), are much more difficult for me to remember than other signs. For the most part, many of the signs are institutive after guidance and teaching -an airplane looks like an airplane made with your hands, the weather is simulated by moving your hands and fingers in specific patterns to mimic specific weather patterns, and etc. As I previously mentioned, however, some words, despite the practicality and sense to the sign, some continuously slip my mind when conversing in ASL. From a neurological perspective, I wonder why some words are so much more easily lost than others?

       Regardless, the most exciting thing regarding the past two weeks was my opportunity to act as a sign language translator. When I first began learning sign language, every other class with Reba, a sign interpreter would also be present, to help me establish an initial foundation for the language and a generalized understanding of basic words and fingerspelling. This was especially helpful in the first few weeks of ASL because I could ask questions deeper than surface-level regarding grammatical structure, plural and singular forms, cause and effect, history, and other aspects of the culture that are difficult for a beginner to understand. Furthermore, Somyung, a new student of ASL with Reba, had one of her first sessions and I was asked to join as a mediator. Granted, none of the conversations was philosophical or deeply serious in any way, but, it was really cool to be able to exchange information between a hearing and a non-hearing individual. Reba and I both helped Somyung learn the alphabet as well as some common introductions and responses. I know that this opportunity does not present itself often, but it was an incredible opportunity to practice my ability of understanding ASL in real-time and translating it to someone else as well as translating English into ASL. One aspect of the translation that I found interesting was that I proved to be more of a challenge to go from English to ASL than from ASL to English.

       I am excited to see what the next two weeks will hold in our lessons. We are currently still online learning, but Reba and I have gotten into the swing of things. Although I have questions and signs I do ask her to teach me, she has an established learning plan which she has used for dozens upon dozens of other ASL beginners. Thus, I trust her judgment and guidance when it comes to her teachings.

I organized a learning plan I would like to follow when I start learning my language next semester. I am Korean but I would still love to be able to master the language. After my presentation, my classmates told me that my plan might be overwhelming because I want to accomplish so many aspects of the language in a short period of time. So I feel like I might have to take a longer span of time to explore each section that I want to accomplish. For example, repeating the 8 weeks after they are accomplished. I feel like repetition would be a great way for me to improve more in the language. I was first motivated to learn more korean by seeing how my other korean friends were so fluent to the point where they could start translating or having conversations with adults about various topics. Whenever adults talk about different cultural, historical, or political opinions I tend to not be able to reply back. I wanted to challenge myself to be able to be very fluent in korean which encourages me to build up my skills in four different parts: writing, speaking, reading, and listening in korean. My studies will help me investigate my language deeply because I will also be examining the culture and historical backgrounds of the language. That might help me gain a deeper relationship with the language.

Learning plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wtY75s21Po2B-k7IxkUiPihqPbvKaggp6PXNSUSuWjM/edit?usp=sharing

My%20Learning%20Plan.docx

I have organized my self-directed learning plan based on my background knowledge and skill sets. Since I am a beginner, I wanted to start by learning the basics like the Hebrew alphabet, grammar, etc. My ultimate goal is to learn how to read the Hebrew Bible and translate it in English (will be very hard), but I think I will enjoy it. I have learned that it is important to plan ahead and set realistic goals. If they are not "reachable," it would be difficult to motivate myself to actually learn. I have been looking at YouTube videos, but I have not found a lot of resources. I have always been curious and excited to learn more about Hebrew because my pastors would always refer to Hebrew when they needed to explain many different topics and meanings of the Bible. I thought it would be interesting for me to learn and have that unique experience of being able to understand the "original" version of the Bible. My classmates think it is interesting, and I appreciate my classmates for their support! 

My%20Learning%20Plan.docx

I have learned the Korean alphabet so far as well as several phrases that are commonly used. Some of these are greetings and goodbyes in both formal and informal style. I have identified some resources that I can use to learn Korean and my Language partner assigns specific work from a topic that we both think is a good direction to proceed in. Right now, the work is simply mastering the korean alphabet and pronunciation. My studies will allow me to engage more in Korean entertainment, specifically webtoon, novels, and shows. These same things are what made me motivated to learn Korean. Some feedback that I received from my classmates was that I should be more specific and split some tasks into parts for a reasonable learning timeline.I also specified what shows that encouraged me to learn Korean.

For the first cultural post, I will talk about the Korean Drama, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay or 사이코지만 괜찮아. This drama was released on Netflix starting on June 20, 2020, and aired 16 episodes. The story was written by Jo Yong and starred actors Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Ye Ji as the two main protagonists. This romance drama was aired internationally through Netflix and gained a lot of popularity for its interesting plot.

The story is revolved around the ill-fated love between Moon Gang Tae, a health worker at a psychiatric ward, and Ko Moon Young, a well-known children’s book author. Moon Gang Tae does not have time for love, because of his busy life and his need to protect his older brother who has a mental disorder. However, one day while working at the psychiatric ward, Ko Moon Young came to read her newly released book to the patients. However, trouble rises as an escaped patient goes on a rampage to find her daughter and take her life with his. Among the chaos, Ko Moon Young finds herself confronted at the backstage with the delusional patient and she begins to provoke the patient, calling him a coward for wanting to take the life of his daughter instead of just his own. The angered patient tries to attack Ko Moon Young, but she retaliates. Right before she attacks the patient, Moon Gang Tae stops her and begins their first encounter. Gang Tae tells her to calm down and not to provoke the patient but is surprised by her assertiveness. Gang Tae continues to be patient and tells her to leave, but Moon Young begins to grow interested and starts to pursue the emotionless Gang Tae. Thus, beginning the comedic sequence of Moon Young trying to gain the attention of Gang Tae.

I first heard of this drama through friends, who told me that this was a must-watch. I believe, this drama is unique and has a lot of charm to it. The characters are well cast, and you begin to get attached to the characters more and more as you watch the series. Another interesting aspect of this drama is the fact that the drama raises awareness regarding psychological disorders. From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Multiple Personality Disorder, various psychological disorders are portrayed in the drama to raise awareness. I thought this was very interesting and something that made the drama more informative. However, my main praise goes to the actor who plays the role of the older brother, Oh Jung Se, who plays Moon Sang Tae. This actor has gone above and beyond and manifested an autistic character very well. There was an article that came out that a fan who has autism loved his character so much that Jung Se met up and spent the day with the fan and acted as his character for the day.

I highly recommend this drama to anyone who is looking for a romance, comedy, and mystery drama that embodies a modern take on Romeo and Juliet. Though the plot may seem slow at times, it is worth the watch and one that will make a lasting impression on the viewer.

It is now the start of the Fall 2020 semester. This semester I will be taking SDLC 113. I will be working with Vivian this semester who is my language partner. This semester I am studying remotely, so we will be communicating through zoom. I have a lot of expectations for myself this semester, but I am optimistic that I will be able to achieve at least some of the goals I have set up for myself. Some of these goals include working on my pronunciation skills, learning how to read more efficiently in Korean, and to study more Korean vocabulary.

In addition, I am studying remotely this semester, so I am living with my brother and parents. I think this is beneficial for my Korean learning journey because both of them are native Korean speakers and we speak Korean at home. Though I would usually speak a mixture of English and Korean to them, I will try to solely speak Korean this semester, while I am at home. In addition, I mentioned this last semester for SDLC 112, I wanted to practice and get more immersed in the Korean culture. I wanted to engage in the cultural food of Korea. I wanted to familiarize myself with traditional Korean food and the significance of the food for the country. For example, a dish known for its historical significance is budaejjigae, which in English is translated to Korean Army Stew. This stew has a spicy rich broth with beans, sausage, onion, ramen, and rice cake. This stew was created by army members in Korea, who wanted to eat a stew but lacked the normal ingredients to make a proper stew. As a result, they grabbed whatever army rations they could find and created this stew. Now this stew is normalized in Korea and is enjoyed by many Koreans. Therefore, I want to engage and learn more about different traditional Korean foods and learn the cultural significance it had on Korea.

Since I haven’t started my lessons yet, I will talk about some of the things I did over the summer that helped with my Korean learning. I have begun to watch more Korean dramas over the summer. Though I had the subtitles turned on, I tried my hardest to not rely on them. I found that my ability to understand and comprehend Korean has significantly improved as I immersed myself more around programs that spoke my target language. In addition, I found that I was able to pick up on hidden Korean jokes that are not accurately translated in English. In addition, I have begun to listen to more Korean music. One artist I particularly enjoy is Sam Kim. Sam is a Korean American artist, but he is able to speak both languages fluently. While I listen to his music, I try my best to listen to the lyrics and try to understand what he is saying and what the lyrics are about. As I look forward to this semester, I will continue to engage in these activities to aid my Korean learning journey.

While researching, I found a quote by Paddy Ladd about Deaf culture: “Deaf people… are unique in being the only linguistic group to have a community in every country in the world.” I thought it was really interesting that even though deaf people all around the world communicate in different sign languages, they are able to share pieces of the same culture.

Literature on Deaf culture describes 5 key characteristics. They are language, the norms of behavior, values and beliefs, traditions and heritage, and possessions and artifacts. First and foremost, members of Deaf culture are deaf (with varying degrees). They use sign language (varying degrees of fluency), ASL in America, for communication. (There is no universal sign language!) Members must also value that being a person of the eye is okay and not abnormal and follow behaviors such as strong use of eye contact and facial expressions. There is also the characteristic of heritage, but since many Deaf people are only one generation thick, most deaf people are accultured into Deaf culture and it can be difficult to transmit the cultural traditions to the next generation. American culture has fast food, football, fashion, and jazz music, Deaf people have artistic expressions such as Deaf folklore, Deaf View/Image Art, Deaf film, and Deaf literature.

With that overview of Deaf culture, I thought that I would dive a little deeper into a more specific aspect of the culture. I was intrigued by Deaf folklore and decided to look further into it. Deaf folklore is a way for people in the Deaf community to pass down stories about their identity and culture through sign language. There are also deaf jokes, riddles, puns, and sign language humor included in many of these tales. Furthermore, it is a way to preserve and celebrate sign language. Many of these stories are even personal experience narratives people want to share with one another. There really isn’t an “origin” of Deaf folklore because it existed as long as sign language has existed.

I looked up some common folklores and a famous one that kept popping up was, “The Deaf Tree” (also known as “Timber”). I watched a couple versions of the story and found that the individual executing the story can make a huge difference on the audience watching. Like American folklore, storytelling is a form of art and the narrator’s skill level correlates to how well a storyteller can engage with the audience and make it interesting. Each storyteller has their own style/signature in how they narrate their story. Specific to Deaf folklore, storytellers also incorporate rhythms in their movements. I put a link to one of the versions of the story I enjoyed below. The narrator was able to deliver a great story through her use of strong facial expressions and also by emphasizing her movements. As someone who has not had prior experience with sign language, I was surprised to see that I was still able to follow along the general idea of the story even without the captions.

http://deafstudiesonline.weebly.com/3-deaf-communities--subcultures.html

https://www3.gallaudet.edu/clerc-center/info-to-go/deaf-culture/american-deaf-culture.html

https://festival.si.edu/past-program/1981/folklore-of-the-deaf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-3GxazfIw8

The readings present a more sophisticated lens on the study and origin of linguistics and language. The first reading delves into the complexity of the human brain and how each portion of the brain has a role in processing the information from our senses. One interesting part that I found in this section was that the human brain hemispheres were responsible for behavior on the opposite side of the body. This feels overly complex and not exactly intuitive since one would think that the respective hemispheres control the respective part of the body. However, although each part in each hemisphere has a main role, the brain is still connected and not at all independent halves. One claim that I find a bit strange is that after a brain has lost a part, a person loses certain functionalities. For this I wonder why can’t the brain partition that lost portion’s work to another part of the brain. Additionally, if we were to replace that lost portion of the brain, would the subject's functionality be recovered? Is there any part of the human brain that turns out to be essential? I am not sure if that idea was covered in this reading. 

I do not think that language is a purely biological phenomenon even though it is biology that facilitates many forms of communication because language can outgrow the biological necessities that it was initially formed for. Additionally, if we look at computer languages, we can see that language is not necessarily biological even though it was developed by biological beings. 

The parts of the brain that are most important for the production and comprehension of speech are the Broca’s area and the Wernicke’s area, which are the lower back part of the frontal lobe and the upper back part of the temporal lobe respectively. Heschl’s gyri also plays an important role in audio reception. 

We process and conceptualize meaning by studying the context to which that word is connected to. This is because a word can be representative of many different types of meanings and understanding which meaning is necessary. We innately break down a word and attempt to associate it with whatever context we have seen it in before, specifically sentences. Words on their own are difficult to decipher in terms of meaning because they could represent many things, but with a sentence structure, we can use experience and context to single out a single meaning.

For me, these readings do not inspire any insights or motivations for learning Korean because I have only just learned the alphabet. I’m not sure a surface level understanding of the biological brain will help me in advancing language since that falls into a different field of context. Once I have a better understanding of what words can be complex, revisiting this work may be helpful in furthering my journey into Hangul. There may be specific examples where meaning is more vague and understanding the application of and context of a character will be crucial to comprehension, but I believe that will come with time.

The task I am currently working on is learning the Korean alphabet, which is called Hangul. I hope to have memorized the 19 basic consonants and the 21 basic vowels this week. In addition to memorizing the pronunciation and characters, my language partner, Kim Somyung, encouraged me to also focus on the stroke order of the letters. During the weekly session, she worked through the basic combinations of the vowels and consonants, along with their proper pronunciation. During this process, we also established some goals to frame our lessons around. My personal goal was to be able to read Hangul at a proficient level so that I can read Korean novels/webtoons and also understand some of the quirks of the Korean language when I am watching Korean entertainment and dramas. The fundamentals of Korean language is the alphabet so my initial strategy is deliberate practice and repetition of the alphabet. This strategy has been simple but effective and I am confident that I have learned most of the alphabet and should be able to pronounce words correctly with some minor guidance. 

When Somyung and I were setting our goals, we also discussed the specifics of Hangul. One thing that we noticed was that the language didn't have tones, whereas my native language, Chinese, did. This was interesting since it did mean that the Korean language seemed to be similar to English in that way. I always struggled with intonation so that turned out well. But, I did learn that some Korean letters sounded quite similar. In addition to these musings of the similarities between languages, Somyung and I also went over our names in Korean and I learned that the Hangul does not have a sound associated with “v”. Therefore, my name would use the “b” sound rather than the “v” sound. I found this particularly amusing because this variation was already a nickname that I received from a friend who was not Korean. Another interesting discussion that we had revolved around the use of technology to generate Korean, specifically how Hangul worked on the computer keyboards. I learned that the Hangul keyboard was much more difficult to work with than something like Chinese pinyin. This will be an interesting direction when I have to write up paragraphs in Korean. 

Looking into the future, Somyung and I also discussed having collective sessions where I could listen in on some lectures that are fully in Korean once I have reached  sufficient mastery of the language. Of course this is unlikely to be anytime soon but having a complete lesson in Korean will challenge me to expand my vocabulary and concentration. In the immediate future, I received plenty of online resources to practice Hangul pronunciation and stroke order, as well as letter combinations. Once I have finished mastering basic alphabetical variations, we plan to dive into vocabulary and reading because that is my focus for the time being. I look forward to taking this dive into the Korean language and being able to read stories in their native language.

For this cultural post, I want to talk about the history conveyed by the famous TV series, the "Reply" series as we recently watched "Reply 1994" together. 

South Korea in 1988, 1997, and 1994 was very different than it is now, and the show acts as a guide to many of South Korea’s recent historical triumphs and tragedies.

By interspersing important moments into the lives of the characters of each “Reply” series, the production team is able to make seemingly remote events seem very much alive and relatable. The oldest series so far, “Reply 1988” is still relatively recent in the sense of history, but feels very removed thanks to the fast-paced world that we live in.

But the first two episodes, while hilarity-inducing thanks to the late 1980’s fashions and VHS tapes, don’t feel so old. The anticipation of the 1988 Olympics feels very much alive and high school life isn’t so different, even if the teenagers have to do without being glued to their smartphones.

Similarly, the political and financial struggles of South Korea are also portrayed in ways that are relatable, and yes, informative. The political reality of the day — the first time that South Korea had a true democratically elected leader since the 1960’s– is alluded to multiple times by characters commenting on college-age Sung Bo Ra going to protests.

Thanks to captivating storytelling, someone who has no knowledge of this period in South Korean history is drawn into the period tvN series’ world as if it is current. The previous series, “Reply 1997” and “Reply 1994” similarly bring to light events that are both familiar and historical to South Korean audiences (and likely unknown to many international fans of the series).

In “Reply 1994,” one of South Korea’s most disheartening years was brought to light. While the country is now one of the wealthiest in the world, South Korea was wartorn in the 50’s, and only intense pushes for progress have helped the country get to where it is today. But in “1994,” the feelings of South Korean dismay following the International Monetary Fund (IFC) crises and the collapse of Sampoong Department Store were brought to the surface, evoking sympathy and renewed concern for the events that occurred nearly a decade before the show in 2013. (Alternatively, the show also renewed interest in South Korea’s 1994 success in soccer with their Red Devils taking to the streets of Seoul).

If “1988” is showing an exuberant country dealing with modernization and democracy and “1994” focused on the changing world of modern-day South Korea, “1997,” the first series which aired in 2012, was the most familiar to many viewers but at the same time still introduced “retro” elements of K-pop, video games, cell phones, and many of the popular fashion brands of the day interspersed with historical events.

As each series presents its story, it showcases a way of life that is familiar to us but disappeared with the fast-paced world hardly blinking an eye. The obsession with “20 Things 90’s Kids Know”-type lists is alive and well, and “Reply” takes it to a new format, educating the viewers of 2015 about all the things we’ve forgotten about the past few decades.

Melodrama and comedy make “Reply” loveable, but it’s also a way to remind the audience of the struggles and successes that South Korea has faced over the years. These elements of nostalgia that make “Reply” popular enough to warrant not one but three seasons, and hopefully more in the future

For this week’s cultural post, I will write about Yi sun-sin. Yi Sun-Sin, 이순신 in Korean, was a Korean military general that is still talked about to this day. I’ve first discovered him while playing a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena called Mobile Legends. In the game, he is animated into a hero that uses a bow and arrow and sometimes rides a turtle boat. After further reading out him, I realize Mobile Legends does not come close to depicting the hero Yi Sun-sin truly was.

From an early age, Yi Sun-Sin always wanted to become a soldier for the Korean army. When it came time for his first military entrance exam, he impressed the judges with his archery skills but failed to qualify after he broke his leg during the horse riding exam. Yet, after fours passed, we would pass and start his military career.

Throughout his career, Yi was discharged twice after being falsely accused by his jealous military colleagues. During Yi’s time, Japan invaded Korea after a series of long civil wars that had finally ceased after Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified and led the Japanese army. In contrast, Korea had not been at war for hundreds of years. So when rumors of Japan wanting to raid Korea broke out, Many Koreans believed that the Japanese were only bluffing, but Ryu Seong-ryong recognized the threat and moved Yi to naval service to defend the southern part of Korea. Yi rigorously trained his soldiers and commissioned a new ship design called the Turtle Ship. When the Japanese attacked, they completely crushed the Korean army and quickly advanced to Seoul. However, Yi quickly realizing the severity of the situation, organized his small fleet of warships, and launched attacks against the Japanese and caught them off-guard. Yi not only destroyed 43 enemy ships, but he did not lose a single ship of his own and was promoted to become the new Southern Commander of the Korean navy.

Yi’s most well-known battle is the Battle of Myeongnang. Yi knowing the Japanese were stationed at Myeongnang Strait, took his fleet of only 13 ships and sailed directly to them. The reported number of Japanese ships was 133 but Yi hoped his knowledge of the natural current patterns of Myeongnang would help his fleet get an advantage. His plan worked: the reversing tide caught the Japanese by surprise and flung their ships against each other right as destroyed more than 30 Japanese warships. With 13 ships versus 133, he once again drove back Japan with zero losses to his own navy. 

It was joyful learning about a Korean historical figure. Since immigrating to America, I have only learned history in an American classroom. I never have realized that the people I’m learning about in class never looked like me. Thus, it was really cool to read about a Korean navy general that shows the qualities I look up to: Resilience and Integrity. I am definitely looking forward to learning about other Korean historical figures to widen my knowledge of my culture!

I am excited to be learning Korean once again! I was born in South Korea and immigrated to America when I was around eight. Ever since then, my Korean skills have definitely declined every year due to my priority of learning English. I have noticed that my Korean skills have declined dramatically since coming to college. This is due to the fact that I only speak Korean to my mother because she does not speak English. Therefore, I am ecstatic to improve my Korean so I can continue to communicate with my mother, but also use it for when I have a job after graduation.

This week I started my first meeting with my language partners! Our teacher for the group is So Myung Kim, a sophomore who is planning to major in Mathematical Economics from Maryland. She was also born in South Korea but she immigrated around the same age as I did. My other language partner’s name is Tommy Na. He was born in Korea and told us that he didn’t really begin to speak Korean until middle school. Tommy is a junior majoring in Biology and is planning to become a dentist. He said he wants to pass the STAMP test and use his Korean skills in his job after graduation. He also told me that he thinks learning Korean is important to him because it is a part of his cultural identity. 

The three of us discussed what each of us wanted our sessions to look like because we did not want to waste any time during our next session. We discussed our strengths and weakness in Korean and came up with a routine that will help us get better in Korean. We wanted to focus on Korean grammar, Enunciation/speaking in Korean during class, cultural aspects, and reading hard articles like Korean newspapers to practice our comprehension skills. One thing that we stressed was that we would be only speaking Korean during our Sessions. 

Later on, I discussed to them that I was really invested in music and that by the end of the course, I want to be able to compose a Korean song. I told them that I would pick Korean songs to listen to and look up the meanings of the words I did not understand. So Myung then suggested a Korean Christian song that I could listen to a learn the vocabulary from. She also suggested a Korean singing competition that I could watch for fun. I also shared that I want to study abroad at Yonsei University in the spring semester of my junior year because I want to take their Korean language program and learn more about Korean culture. 

We then talked about the requirements of the Self-directed language course. So Myung and Tommy helped clarify what bi-weeklys are, and how I would get to establish my own goals and pace for this semester. Although our session was conducted via Zoom, I learned a lot and was motivated just by talking to people who were also eager to learn Korean!

It has been over five years since I have learned a language “from scratch” and that was because of the middle school requirement. I had chosen French because Latin was not offered, and it was very difficult for me to progress my skills because I relied purely on memorization. Since I am now personally choosing to learn American Sign Language, I hope that I can be able to formulate sentences based on my understand of the meaning of the particular signs.

I am so excited this semester because I am starting to learn ASL! I have not had prior experience with learning this new language, so I am worried but enthusiastic to start this journey. Unfortunately, I still have not met my language partner, Reba, because there were some scheduling conflicts. We finally decided to start sessions on Monday, September 7^th and will meet for an hour twice a week. Hopefully we can meet in person when the school transitions to the green phase, but for now, we are sticking with communicating through Zoom or FaceTime.

We discussed through email and for the first day, we wanted to get a chance to introduce ourselves so we could get to know one another. We also planned to learn just fingerspelling and basic signs the first day. Since ASL is still fairly new to the SDLAP studies, there are three students taking the course with Reba. Reba decided that it would be a great opportunity if all of us could have a session together once or twice a month. I am curious about how those sessions will be planned since the other students have had more experience with ASL. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to getting the chance to talk to other University of Richmond students in sign language.

Since I am also one of the Korean language partners this year, I have been thinking from the perspective of the instructor. I really haven’t thought about how it was like to teach a language. There are just so many different components such as the alphabet, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar structure, and so much more to even start understanding a language. Because I am aware of this, I am also aware of my limitations for this semester. I would absolutely love to be conversational in ASL, but I know that that goal will take multiple years of practice and experience. Therefore, my goal for this semester is to become more aware of Deaf culture, fingerspell at a moderate speed, and to understand basic signs. Furthermore, I would like to learn the grammatical structure ASL uses so that I can start developing simple sentences.

Another thing I am curious about is the multiple sign languages and if/how they are connected. In linguistics, there are cognates that languages will share. I learned a little bit of Korean Sign Language with my friends so that we could interpret a Korean song. Even though there is no universal sign language, I wonder if there are any similar signs that have the same origin.

For our first meeting of the semester, my language study partner and I decided to just do a review of my language ability and create a new learning plan. We both agreed that I have definitely shown improvement in my comprehension of the Vietnamese language. This is likely due to the fact that over the summer, I had the opportunity to be able to work alongside many Vietnamese exchange students as well as the older Vietnamese population in my community. My hometown in Falls Church, Northern Virginia has a dense Vietnamese population that was the result of mass immigration during the Vietnam War era.

As many of the older people in my community generally do not have good grasp of the English language, I suddenly found myself forced into a situation where I must use Vietnamese to communicate with other people. Initially, I found the interactions to be extremely awkward, mostly because of the fact that I normally do not use Vietnamese to interact outside of my home (or in a classroom setting) and I was mixing up or just straight up forget a lot of words – or, more often than not, mix English and Vietnamese. However, the people were genuinely nice about my terrible awkwardness and some even offered to help me practice once they realized that I was trying to relearn the language. Due to the fact that the community is made of Vietnam War refugees, my community is comprised of mostly Southern Vietnamese accent speakers. As time went on, I was more comfortable with my speaking skill and I found most conversations I hold with people tend to flow quite smoothly.

My language partner pointed out that while I will probably need some more practice with speaking, I should not make it a high priority like I did last semester. Instead, he suggested that I focus on other things like critical reading and writing, which I wholeheartedly agreed. While my speaking and listening, skill have greatly improved in the last couple months, my reading skills are still elementary at best (considering that is where I left off anyway) and my writings is full of grammatical and spelling mistakes. So, we agreed that I should focus on improving my reading and writing skills this semester. To do that, I will start by reading middle school level literature and then write short summaries on the readings, which will then be checked for mistakes by my partner. This will help improve not only my basic reading and writing skills, but it will also allow me to articulate meanings in Vietnamese and help improve my critical reading skills.

Finally, we also compiled a list of activities that we could explore to help further develop my skills:

• Listening to music then write summaries & questions --> listening comprehension & writing
• Reading news articles then write summaries & questions --> reading comprehension & writing
• Dictation tests (weekly or monthly) --> listening & writing (spelling & grammar)
• Watching television programs then answer questions --> listening comprehension

There are many reasons an individual may learn American Sign Language (ASL). They may be interested in picking up a new language. They may want to better communicate with a loved one or friend who is hard of hearing or deaf. They may enjoy the deaf culture and hope to integrate into it. They may even be taking it to full a classroom requirement. The reasons why someone learns ASL are vast and cannot be accounted for in this discussion. However, what I plan to discuss within this paper are the vocational opportunities offered to those who are interested in using their ASL skills to work with the deaf or hard of hearing populations.

            There are many vocations one can pursue if they hope to work with deaf or hard of hearing people. These jobs include but are not limited to, speech-language pathologist, employment counselor, social workers, sign language interpreters, audiologists, and many more. Typically, when I think of a job involving ASL, I often envision the position of a sign language interpreter.  These interpreters are present in a vast number of settings and agencies including school systems, governmental institutions,  social services, hospitals, and even in the entertainment industry. One famous example of an interpreter in the entertainment industry is Amber Galloway Gallego. She was able to interpret the lyrics rapped by Twista Clocks,  one of the world’s fastest rappers, in real-time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl2uLh4Ru0&ab_channel=ABC13Houston).

             So, what is an ASL interpreter? According to the National Association  of the Deaf (NAD), a qualified interpreter is someone who is able to “both receptively and expressively, interpret accurately, effectively, and impartially, using any necessary specialized vocabulary.” It is imperative that the interpreter is able to seamlessly translate information between the parties involved without delay or confusion. Of all fields,  medical facilities, higher education facilities, elementary and high schools were the largest employers of ASL interpreters and as of May 2018, translators and interpreters across all fields earned an average salary of $55,230 following the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. However, depending on an interpreters' level of experience and place of work, the salary will vary.

Prospective interpreters are tested on their expressive and receptive signing, voice to sign skills, and sign to voice skills. Once confident, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID) has a list of Interpreting Training Programs that one can sign up for depending on what field one wants to pursue. However, one of the most prestigious and valued certifications is the RID certification. In some states, this certification is required in order to provide interpreting services of any kind. Regardless, there are three types of RID certifications – Previously Offered RID Certifications, NAD Certifications, and RID Retired Certifications. Currently, the RID only offers the latter two, but the previously offered RID Certifications are still recognized. Within the NAD Certification, there are three levels of NAD III (Generalist), NAD IV (Advanced), and NAD V (Master). Each certification corresponds to a different level of fluency and translational ability with III being average performance and V being superior performance. Holders of these certifications must also comply with all aspects of the RID’s Certification Maintenance Program which includes the completion of professional development courses.

https://www.nad.org/resources/american-sign-language/interpreting-american-sign-language/

https://study.com/articles/Be_an_American_Sign_Language_Interpreter_Salary_and_Career_Info.html#:~:text=ASL%20interpreters%20typically%20have%20at,along%20with%20sign%20language%20training.'

https://thebestschools.org/careers/jobs-working-deaf-hard-hearing/

https://rid.org/rid-certification-overview/

https://rid.org/about-rid/about-interpreting/become-an-interpreter/

Based on the reading, I think language is both a biological and a cultural phenomenon. On one hand, Figure 16 shows that Wernicke’s area, or the temporal lobe, is the key part of the brain for comprehension, while Broca’s area, or the frontal lobe’s low back, is the key part for speech. Areas around Rolando are also aid speech. On the other hand, the external cultural situation shapes how we use language to engage with the world. For example, since Indonesia has less grammatical structures and cues than English or German, Indonesian speakers need to do more “reading between the lines” to comprehend the meaning. This less direct way of defining the world speaks to the country’s culture, and illuminates the importance of cultural knowledge and context clues in semantics. Since words and lexemes have the clearest meaning when they are surrounded by other words, it is probably best to study words in groups, rather than on their own. Creating sentences may be more effective than compiling a dictionary of alphabetized words (It seems like such a method is helpful as a reference tool, but not for internalizing meaning). These articles reminded me of the need to define my terms whenever writing a paper because each reader may have a unique way of understanding the term. In my geography class, for example, I have been learning about the numerous ways of thinking about the word sustainability. The multiplicity of meanings illuminate how our social situation shapes how we use language to articulate our world views.

One final thought: I know that the right-brain/left-brain contrast is often overstated, and over contrasted, but as a left-handed person who identifies closely with the right brain tendencies listed, and wonder how these might play into my preferred language learning styles.