Blogs

 What is your interest in 'your' language and what do you hope to accomplish this semester?

As a Korean American who moved from Korea when I was five years old, I have always desired to perfect my mastery of the language. I do speak it with my parents despite it being broken Korean and my parents have become used to it. As a Korean I want to be able to speak my mother language. Having family abroad such as my grandparents who are unable to speak any English, and other family members, I want to be able to communicate with them comfortably, and be able to read, write, and speak fluently. My reading and speaking skills are much stronger than my writing skills as I have been practicing for the past 15 years speaking with my parents and reading things here and there, but my writing skills are lacking. Being in a position where I didn't need to write often, my mastery over the language has waned and I hope to be able to sharpen those skills this semester. I can write the language and convey my meaning behind it, however, the spelling is incorrect as I just write as I hear which can get tough as Korean can be tricky in the balance of sound and writing. 

Do some research about the culture of your target language and write about the 'linguistic aspects', e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc.

The culture in South Korea is quite different from the culture in America. Although Korea does not hold a completely collectivist ideal, they are more centered around that aspect. There are some aspects in its culture that may seem individualistic. People are more self-oriented in terms of what they desire. They have a greater emotional distance from one another in an everyday life. Where in America, people often acknowledge people passing by or even stop to hold brief conversations with random people throughout the day, that is not a common deed in the Korean culture. Family plays a big role in Korea as often a member of the family represents the entirety wherever they go. Gestures are extremely important in the Korean culture. People often hold more meaning in gestures and facial expressions than using direct words. Actions such as bowing your upper torso before elders as a gesture of respect and courtesy is a common one. Where in America, every person is generally treated equally, Koreans hold great respect for their elders. For example, while it may be common for students in college to call their professors by their first names, in Korea that would be considered rude. Titles are another important aspect of the Korean culture. Each position, and title holds a value and people are often judged based on that. Other gestures in the Korean culture such as drinking alcohol revolve around respect as well. Younger people are not allowed to just drink in front of their elders freely, but instead have to turn their faces away, and shield their faces while they drink, as a sign of respect. Koreans are more monochronic in that they don't waste much time. Time is money in their eyes. The culture in Korea is usually to be as efficient as possible, as their railroad systems, other modes of transportation and lifestyles reflect. The Korean culture often pushes time efficiency and do their best to not waste any of it. Students are seen in school from morning to noon, after which they immediately go to an afterschool academy where they will spend the rest of their day at studying. Restaurants are all over the place, as they offer quick services and try to feed as quickly as possible because people are not looking to wander about and waste time. It is eat quick, leave, don't waste any unnecessary time. From my personal experience I believe Koreans are more external in terms of believing that success is a combination of both hard work and good fortune. Unlike the American Dream where you can get where you want to be just as long as you work hard enough, the Korean culture generally believe in good fortune. And lastly the Korean culture is more indirect in terms of their confrontations. As mentioned before, gestures play a big role in the culture itself, so people are not often willing to speak their minds directly, but often place great meaning in small little expressions and actions. 

Like Russian, Ukrainian has two different ways of addressing a person. You can use the formal (ви) or the informal (ти). I talked to my language partner about the situations in which I would use the formal versus the informal, and what I discovered is that the rules are pretty much the same as they are in Russian. It is very rude to address someone who you have just met using the informal. The basic rule of thumb is that if the person is older than you, new to you, or not someone who you have a very close relationship with, you should always use the formal. I was also told that as a foreigner, the safest thing for me to do is always use the formal (unless it is a child) until I am asked to use the informal. 

My family is Ukrainian, and I have always wished that the language would have been passed down to me and my sister. I also have a very strong interest in Russian/Ukrainian history, and I have gotten fairly good at Russian, so I decided that it would probably be good for me to add Ukrainian. I am also applying for a Fulbright in Ukraine for next year, and although mostly everyone in Ukraine knows Russian, I feel like it will demonstrate a better effort to understand the country’s culture if I make an effort to learn the language. I know that I will not be anywhere near fluent by next year, but my Russian abilities will be able to fill in my gaps in Ukrainian while I am (hopefully) completing my Fulbright there next year. 

I have discovered through working with Bohdan, my language partner, that I have become somewhat stuck in my Russian pronunciation habits. My main focus this week was really trying to nail down the differences between Russian and Ukrainian pronunciation, which has been somewhat challenging. The Russian and Ukrainian alphabets are almost identical, however, some of the letters are stressed in a slightly different way, so my habits from Russian hard ones to break.

For practice this week, I just read some simple children’s stories aloud in Ukrainian to try to drill the Russian pronunciation out of me. It was hard to silence those habits at first, but it is starting to become easier. I also have been watching some Ukrainian children’s cartoons so that I can get used to hearing the language being spoken. 

I spent this week looking for resources to use for my studying. I settled on using Duolingo and it seems to be a helpful resource. However, if I didn’t already have previous experience with Russian, I would have been confused with some things. For example, they show you that modifiers change based on what word they are paired with, but they do not explain why, nor do they give you a chart showing you when to use what form. I was able to pretty quickly piece together what was going on, because Russian does something similar, but without that prior knowledge, I think I would have been a little confused.

My strategy has been to go from Russian to Ukrainian, instead of going from English to Ukrainian, so I have been making Russian-Ukrainian flashcards and trying to build my vocabulary that way. 

I like to think that I am an avid language learner. I have tried to learn Portuguese, Spanish, German, Dutch, Bulgarian, and Basque over the years, to little success. Reading these articles helped in reminding how I learn language, why, and what it means, but I am not scientifically inclined enough to find the articles particularly useful for my own learning. It isn't the learning itself that I've consistently had trouble with, it's finding the motivation to continually apply the learning strategies. That in particular is something that I know can be explained, but I still have a hard time with it anyway.

The readings revealed to me how much more there is in the process of learning a new language. It also made me appreciate how learning different languages can make me less ignorant and understand that if we restrict our view to just one language, we will never truly understand the difference between sense and reference. The articles clarified how I cannot simply learn the meaning of a word. I must understand that the interaction between words and sentences is what conveys the meaning. Words by themselves cannot truly make sense since a word can have multiple meanings behind it. For example, the word table can either mean the furniture, or the graph in a textbook.  I learned how complex the neurological planning and execution process was in saying a simple dialogue. For example, when producing speech, an initial intention to communicate is followed by some conceptualization of the message. While this is happening, the brain is constantly self-monitoring itself and providing feedback from different senses. Overall, the readings made me aware that learning a language is not a simple procedure.

After reading the articles, learning a language is extremely complex and it is amazing how our brains are able to process and learn it. The article talks about knowing several languages increase your ability to better understand your own language and provide better sense and reference. This was very interesting because I think of Chinese and English as extremely different languages, but it did make sense at the same time. In the article it also talks about phonetics and how hearing the language can help with pronunciation. This is very applicable to be in the sense that watching and listening to Korean would better help with learning/pronouncing the words compared to me reading a textbook. I also thought that their section talking about the use of lexemes and collocations are extremely helpful in my new endeavor to learn Korean. When I was learning Chinese I often made synonyms/antonyms with the new words I learned, which helped increase my vocabulary and better understand the different words. Furthermore, learning words that are in a certain category would help with memorizing much more easily than just random words all put together.  

The readings for today's class touched upon the importance of understanding how arbitrary the relationship is between the signifiers and the signified. For example, there is nothing essential or specific that makes the signified object (a chair) be called chair (the signifier). In relation to language learning, it brings home the point that the signified can be called anything, and there are many names for it, depending on the language you are learning. 

The very first reading discussed how the left hemisphere is dominant for language for most right-handed learnings. As a righty, this was an interesting fact for me as I have always been analytical when it comes to learning (always understood learning through logical patterns that I had to follow) as opposed to being creative and learning through visuals and spatial processing. Although its not as cut and dry and oversimplification of the brain should be avoided, it makes sense to me now how I caught on to language so quickly over the years. I always had an ear for languages, and although they may be difficult to learn at first, I sensed the patterns and was able to learn fairly easily. 

My main goal in learning Korean is in speaking, reading, and interpretation (with main focus on speaking and interpretation). However, I also hope to improve my writing and listening abilities in the process. I am a novice beginning 1 in all modes of communication, although my goals are mainly in the interpretive and interpersonal modes. Before beginning the self-directed study of the Korean Language, I was able to read Hangeul, introduce myself in Korean, and say basic phrases, which I have memorized. The goal of my lesson plan is to learn situational vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures that I will be able to pull out and use during my semester abroad in South Korea in the spring. 

I hope that by the end of the semester I will be able to form sentences that go beyond simple structure, and be able to answer basic questions about myself, my family, and what I did that day. 

Reading this article cleared up some things about learning languages. I learned about the anatomical side of learning a language down to the structure of not just our English language, but also other languages. Learning about the differences between the grammatical structures of the different languages made me realize that learning a different language is no easy feat. I remember reading somewhere that different language speakers hear things differently due to the different words and phrases that describe sound. 

The section in chapter 30 about the idioms also highlighted the difficulties of learning a new language. Even if I knew the words' meanings separately, I would not know what the words are trying to represent. I did experience some of the difficulties that the reading outlined with learning Spanish, but since Korean uses a completely different alphabet system, it might be even more difficult. These readings have helped give me a sense of what to expect when learning a different language.

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I am a novice low for interpersonal communication, interpretive listening, interpretive reading, presentational speaking, and presentational writing. That being said, I have been communicating (a little) in Indonesian with my language learning partner.

By the end of the semester, I want to be able to be at a Beginner (Level 2) on the Levels of Competence list. I want to be a Beginner (Level 2) for my interpretive (for listening and reading), interpersonal (for speaking), and presentational (for speaking and writing). I know that this is a tall order, but I am confident in my motivation to learn this language and my partner’s patience and skills to succeed in this task.

In the future, I want to continue taking Bahasa Indonesia at U of R until I graduate, and perhaps continue my learning process for a while after that. I believe that Indonesian will be a big part of my life moving forwards. Moreover, this skill may help me down the line in terms of landing a job. I also have a personal stake in this. My girlfriend (who is my language learning partner) is from Indonesia. Therefore, I want to be able to learn Bahasa Indonesia to be able to communicate with her in an alternative matter, as well as with her family.

My assessment of my task at hand is that I know it will be a difficult start, but one that I know will push me to succeed because of my relevant goals. Once I get this base for the language down, I can then move on to more challenging aspects of the language.

Born in Korea and brought to America at the age of five, my first experience as a foreign language learner began young. I had just finished the basic skills of the Korean language at the age of five, but I was forced into an environment where I had no background of its language nor its culture. I can’t recall too much of how I learned Korean as a child, so my first memories of learning a language would have to be of learning English. 

As a five year old, being forced into a country where I lacked basic skills to communicate, I remember not enjoying many things. I disliked being unable to understand what other kids were saying; I disliked being unable to do anything because I was afraid to explore and hated being outside my comfort zone. The biggest thing I disliked was just the feeling of being helpless. But once I did start getting some understanding of the English language, I loved practicing. I enjoyed the idea of being able to communicate without hesitation. I enjoyed having the ability to communicate with both my parents, who only speak Korean, and inhabitants of the foreign country I now call home. 

In terms of learning a language, I am insightful in that I learn best when provided with rules and given questions where I am challenged to reason through. I value practical knowledge and desire my work to be as accurate and precise as possible. I also value time to plan and think things through before working. I excel at memorizing facts, and prefer objective tests. I expect detailed and precise course descriptions, expectations, and grading policies. I like worksheets, drills, task-oriented activities that build skill competency and mastery of facts. I dislike open-ended questions which require opinion or have no clear-cut answers or which have complex directions. I appreciate being acknowledge for work that is prompt, complete, detailed, and thorough. Overall, I learned through the FIRE model for integrative thinking, I am a factual learner. I think I could definitely spread my learning activities by being more evaluative and rational. I think reaching out to different styles of learning and understanding languages and culture could definitely improve the way I learn and bring new insights. 

The articles really help break down language and see it in simple terms. Knowing that in speech production, an initial intention to communicate is followed by some kind of conceptualization of the message allows me to prepare for speaking languages by first practicing writing. By allowing my eyes to see the words on paper will advance me to speak them. And in order to speak, I must know how these words sound, so phonology is also necessary. Constantly listening to the language spoken helps in pronunciation. Discovering that sentences are the foundation of grammar has convinced me that writing sentences and thinking in terms of sentences will help me master the grammar of a language much more quickly. And lastly recognizing lexemes, or words that belong to a certain group such as how the group of body parts consists of neck, head, arm, and etc. Recognizing lexemes might help me memorize more quickly and be able to think faster in the language. I never really thought of synonyms as great ways to master a language, but looking back at learning Spanish and English, I realize how useful synonyms have been.