Blogs

AzinB_LearningPlan.docx

I have absolutely no knowledge of the Turkish language. Despite that, Turkey has such an interesting culture and language that I am very excited to look into. My goal in this program is to create a solid basic foundation of the Turkish language, one in which I will be able to navigate a trip to Turkey comfortably without being too overwhelmed. I also want to be able to comfortably speak with a Turkish pen pal.

I want to separate my learning program into 2 parts: the first focusing on the fundamental basics of Turkish language, and the second on immersion into the language and a deeper understanding of it. My tasks start out focusing on the first part of my program, but slowly delve more and more into the second part as the program and tasks progress.

The biggest tools I can use to achieve my tasks are my language partner, the textbook she provided, the textbook I have borrowed from the Global Studio (Turkish Grammar: For Foreign Students), other books available in the Global Studio, this great website for learning the basics of Turkish (https://utos.yasar.edu.tr/portal), Turkish to English dictionary websites (http://www.turkishdictionary.net/ and http://tureng.com/en/turkish-english/), and the Turkish music available on Youtube.

SDLAP_learningplan.docx

Overall, I am proficient in listening, intermediate in reading and speaking, and weak in writing. I can comfortably start a conversation without much thinking and express my opinions and feelings to a certain extent, but conversational topics are limited to casual everyday chats. The most I can read are short passages. Anything longer and more complex, it becomes difficult to keep up. Writing is a struggle. I can send text messages and write short statements, but that's about it.

Since I grew up hearing Korean all my life, I’ve been speaking it intuitively without actually learning grammar and vocab. So, my ultimate goal is to expand my vocabulary and learn actual grammar. I've always wanted to learn in a classroom environment, but since that is not available here, I want to improve my reading and writing skills by using textbooks. I want to be able to read chapter books for kids and also want to be better at spelling. For speaking, I want to be able to speak comfortably in formal language with people other than my family because I tend to only use casual speech. Essentially, I want to just gain a strong foundation in the language.

As I continued to take the Japanese class here at UR, I happened to wonder about one day becoming better at Japanese than Korean. Yes, it is great to improve in another language, but as a Korean American, I want to be more than just okay or good in my parents' mother tongue. I want to become fluent, and become truly bilingual or someday even trilingual. Also, after realizing how learning a language in a structured course was effective for me, I want to be able to learn Korean in a similar manner.

Because I want a solid foundation in reading comprehension, writing, grammar, and vocabulary, I will learn Korean through a structured manner, so my tasks and activities will mostly be based on textbooks.

MyLearningPlan_KellyBreakall.docx

This semester I am focusing my learning around the very basics of Hindi - almost the "survival" skills. I am focusing a lot on the basics of sentence structure and vocabulary for interpersonal communication because that is mostly what I plan to use Hindi for. I organized my plan by what I found most useful when I was studying other languages, and by what I've found are important cultural differences between India and America (who knew I was apparently being rude by shaking my future father-in-law's hand?!)

So far in Hindi I have been starting to learn the alphabet and how verbs/nouns are formed. I've also used Mango to learn some greetings and comments on the weather. I do have 2 textbooks at home (which are identified in the Learning Plan) and a few other resources at the Global Studio that I'm going to look into.

My motivation for learning Hindi is that I am moving to India soon and, although most highly-educated Indians speak English fluently, I would like to show respect by speaking the native language when possible. I also need Hindi to speak with my fiance's family, as they are from a more rural area.

The feedback I've received about my plan is mostly good. My Hindi-speaking friends are almost too quick to tell me how easily I'll pick up the language. I guess we'll see! (Here's hoping I can learn to distinguish between all the different phonemes soon) :-) 

SDLC%20Learning%20Plan.docx

This semester I want to primarily focus on my Korea speaking skills. In order to do so I have designed three tasks I want to accomplish by the end of this semester. I want to comfortable enough to speak in Korean with other native speakers. I will have conversations with language partner, and she will teach me common vocabulary and phrases that I can use. She will also work with me to improve my pronunciation and help me understand the meaning and context of certain words in Korean culture. Once I learn basic vocabulary, I want to learn how to read and write in Korean. I believe this will help me to improve my communication skills when interacting with naive speakers. I will consult with textbooks in the global studio to learn new words and grammar rules, and I will also use language apps to work on my writing skills. 

I wanted to learn Korean because I wanted to better understand the culture -- I wanted to understand conversations my friends were having and also be aware of pop Korean culture references. Initially I was planning to just work with language partner and learn how to carry out basic conversations in Korean. Now that I know about all the different resources that are available in the global studio, I plan on using the Korean textbooks, utilize different websites, and also watch videos/recordings in Korean to make myself more familiar with the language and the culture.

LearningPlan_Islam.docx

Korean%20Learning%20plan.docx

In reaching my goal of being able to hold a conversation in Korean with my parents, I have divided my plan into 10 tasks in which the primary ones focus on speaking. These tasks include being able to introduce myself, describe my and other peoples' day, know basic vocabulary, basic questions and answers and talk in the correct tense. In this way, I will be able to gradually lay the foundation of casual conversation in learning the basic aspects. In order to achieve this I will use Korean vocabulary apps to learn basic vocabulary and phrases as well as Korean textbooks to learn the correct grammar and sentence structure. I will also use videos, an online Korean course and Korean dramas to learn correct pronunciation and casual conversational topics as well as to immerse myself more in Korean culture. I will also use these methods to learn how to read and write. I will also begin to incorporate words that I've learned into my daily conversations and texts in order to enforce my learning. 

In preparing this learning plan, I've learned how self-learning a language does not necessarily have to be learned in such a rigid, organized structure with only textbooks and paper assessments. A lot of learning can come organically when you immerse yourself in the culture of the language you're learning whether it be social media, movies, or hanging out with people of that language. It is a fluid plan which depends on how much you practice actively and intentionally as well as your own motivation. With this plan I am able to flexibly learn Korean so that i may be able to communicate in the language that I've grown up understanding but never speaking. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18AX1zCARN-xxu9tcUYDwYk6tGoF9GT7BUJqxwQv7xMI/edit

So far, I have learned a list of Korean slangs, and a few common Korean grammatical mistakes and how to fix them. The resources we identified so far are youtube for video clips on daily conversations using slangs, and a list of slangs so we can learn and memorize them for future uses, and we will receive more resources as we learn different tasks later on. This will allow me to investigate my target language and culture more deeply by exposing me to an everyday life of a Korean, as if I am gaining something I lost before. I was motivated to start learning because I felt as if I was losing the sense from my root- where I'm from, the people I grew up with. And later, when I am proficient enough, I want to share this with others as well. I've received feedbacks from my classmates, most of them said that my plans were good, but some said that I needed to be more specific with my resources and the step-by-step routine, which I do agree on. My instructor and I have planned our classes and the tasks we will approach, and we plan to be more detailed as the class goes on. I will be detailed in what I learned about in my bi-weekly journal, and hope that the rest of the semester goes smoothly.

My%20Learning%20Plan.docx

I have organized my self-directed learning plan like how a beginning learner will do it. My language partner told us that the Korean alphabet is the easiest part to begin with because they form different sounds in the composition of words. Therefore, my learning plan will progress with familiarizing myself with all the vowels and consonants first, and then from there, I can learn how they make up words, to how they fit together (grammar rules), and then by writing down words and speaking them comfortably. So far, our language class have been learning how to pronounce the different syllables and we have located some videos and podcasts such as Mango and the textbook, Talk to me in Korean. These tools, along with language partner’s instruction, will allow me to learn the language quicker. In addition, our language session has set up a goal to discovering Korean culture, especially contemporary popular culture such as learning songs and watching movies, this will allow to me further grasp the current trends in Korea. My first interest in Korean began with watching a lot of Korean movies, because I really like watching movies that tells stories about humanity and public policy. What I found particularly interesting is that Korea actually changes their laws and public policy because of a movie’s controversy. For example, “Confession of Murder” prompted the murder statute of limitation to change from 15 to 25 years. I am really peculiar in how a movie can have national impact like this. Feedbacks from classmates have made me adjust my plan to be more speaking-oriented at the beginning stage and focus on reading/writing later on, because speaking is more critical to understanding.

This was my first foray into the subject of the neuroscientific underpinnings of language, and I found especially interesting the connection between movement of the mouth and the "scanning ahead" of the brain for upcoming muscular direction. This connection between the sounds desired and the physical movement of the mouth to produce this sound is likely why a lot of non-native speakers of a language have a hard time getting their accent to sound natural. Because pretty much every language has sounds (and close-together progressions of sounds) that are distinctive to it, it takes a lot of practice to get these muscular progressions of the mouth to follow how the speaker intends them to sound.

The quote from the second reading, "different languages talk about the world in different ways", highlights the importance of learning a language with a native speaker for me. The way people make sense of things happening to and around them, is tied into - or contrasts against - things from their own lives, their family's lives, their national and local identity, their ethnic background, and their interactions with outsiders of these groups. Thus it takes immersing oneself in the culture of the language being studied to understand and appreciate the way people use the words and phrases they choose to represent meaning.

Last week, we had our first group lesson in Bahasa Indonesia with Julie and Thalia. Julie, who was leading the lesson, started out by discussing our previous experiences with the language and our goals for the semester. Then, she hopped right in and began teaching us nouns related to objects in our immediate surroundings and prepositions related to the objects' locations. I enjoyed this approach to the lesson, as it led to us speaking in Indonesian almost exclusively throughout the lesson. I was surprised about how much of the pronunciation I was able to model accurately after Julie's examples, which is a testament to my auditory learning style and my long-term exposure to Bahasa Indonesia last summer.

As I am one of three students in the group, it is very useful to have two native Indonesian speakers participating, as it gives us an opportunity to hear Bahasa Indonesia in an informal, conversational setting. This will likely be the style of language with which I will be interacting the most during my future research in Java. 

The article about the function of our brain is a really interesting topic for me. I always hear people saying cerebral localization which means that each area of the brain to respond to a single behavioral ability. However, I have never known what the behavioral ability is related to. These parts must work together for speech including thinking the utterance and until finally speak loudly. Moreover, the article today makes me reflect a little on how I used to define the left brain and right brain. The left brain is related to logic, sequencing, linear thinking, mathematics, facts and thinking in word; right brain is related to imagination, holistic thinking, intuition, art, rhythm, nonverbal cues, feelings visualization and daydreaming. I always consider me as a math person, which means my left brain might be more powerful. By the way, I know that the left brain is connected to our right body and our right brain is correlated with our left body. Most people are right-handed. This somehow could be an explanation that Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area are usually located in the dominant hemisphere which is the left hemisphere in 97% of people.

Another interesting part of the article is tongue slips part talking about how these little errors we make becomes one evidence. I tend to make a lot of mistake during the speech or even daily conservation. It is the first time I know that the tongue slips are not random but are largely explicable to reference to certain basic constraints.

They talk about how we analyze the meaning and how we mean. I am fascinated by the part talking about people cannot easily find the distinction between sense and reference. It talks about there is no single word for ‘mother’s sister’, for example. But in other languages, like Australian, it is called ‘ngunytju’. It reminds me that there is a Korean word, but there never have an English word for it. The closest English explanation could be ‘pretend to be cute’. I always use flashcard when I memorize words. One of the bad habits when I memorizing new word is that sometimes I got confused with the meaning. I will memorize the new word with a known ‘conception’ or ‘sense’. This part is really interesting and helpful for me to think about how each word is defined and what they really mean, especially in the real world.

It is extremely interesting to see that this goes in deeper than what I've learned in psychology. In psychology class, there's like a way to detect someone lying by watching the direction they look to. The left hemisphere is dominant in language and comprehension of speech. You process meaning through the sounds you hear from your ear, then, this is understood by your brain. Although there are words that sound similar, we understand the meaning through the context. There are some words that mean so many different things, and in a foreign language, this becomes even harder to heard since you are not used to the language.

My previous apprehension of brain structure is rather simple. I understand that there are 2 parts of the brain: left and right. Each of the parts manages different functions. In the reading provided, however, I find that the brain structure is much more complicated and understanding it could help us generate new methods in language learning.

Broca's center, named after its discoverer Paul Pierre Broca, is an area in the left frontal lobe that is essential in language and speech. The hippocampus, that exists in both hemispheres, plays a strong role in memory and storing knowledge, therefore, affects comprehension of speech. The book also introduces language structure by levels. Semantics examines how certain meaning is expressed and understood. Grammar relates to sentence composition. The medium of linguistic transmission focuses on how the communication is processed between people.

I think our language learning process could also process by levels. First, we should understand the language itself, the culture behind it and its origin. Second, we should understand the rules of words and sentence composition and by analyzing basic sentences, we could learn the sentence structure of this language. The last step is to practice conversation and use real-life scenarios to improve language application.

From the readings assigned for this week, I learned a lot about what areas of the brain are used in the process of communication, and in the process of comprehending that communication. In the first article, a largely anatomical approach was used, where it pretty much just stated the physical parts of the brain that were used in producing speech (Broca's area) and to understand or analyze it (Wernicke's area). It gave a detailed overview of how our physical brains worked during even the most natural, and seemingly effortless, conversations we might have.

The philosophical approach to the question of whether words have meanings attached to them, was an interesting question that I had honestly never considered before reading that article. I personally conceptualize or process meaning through context and depending on my situation. A word as simple as "interesting" could have several different meanings based on who I was talking to, or what I was talking about. My language learning process could go much deeper and I could become significantly more immersed in the process if I kept all of this information in mind. While one word having many different meanings could just be a natural interpretation in my native language, when learning a foreign language, this could be a difficult hurdle to overcome. However, with these articles in mind, and an understanding that it is possible for me to overcome hurdles like this, and even more difficult obstacles, I'll be able to approach learning Korean with more confidence and also more enthusiasm. 

It was really interesting to read about how the brain processes different information and carries out different tasks. Although most of us aware of the complexity of communication, and especially the difficulty of learning new languages, we never really consider how work goes into breaking down and comprehending even the simplest sentences. Different parts of the brain work together to carry out the motor actions involved in speaking and convey and context. The Broca’s area is responsible for the ability to speak and the Wernicke’s is responsible for the ability to understand speech.

When we are having a conversation, the brain is always multitasking — it works to convey emotions, read facial expressions, predict and process the answers we receive. The text uses the word “soup” as an example. If our brains were simply processing one letter at a time, we would not be able to make the lip round sound that is required to say the word.

What I found was most interesting, and also helpful for my own learning activities is the importance of context when learning languages. I have never been a big fan of flashcards, and high school language classes where we primarily focused on vocabulary have always been a bit difficult for me. When I learn new words, I like to put them in sentences to contextualize them and it helps me remember the meanings and certain phrases better. This is what I have also been focusing on with my language partner. I have learning how to say common phrases, greetings, and simple sentences. I feel like this has not only helped to actually better remember the new vocabulary, it has also helped me better understand the new culture. By putting the new words that I am learning into context, I have been able to learn more about Korean culture and society. For example, during my last tutoring session with my language partner, we were talking about how a lot of the Asian languages, including Korean and Bengali, have honorary pronouns for the elders; which is not the case in English.

As complex our brain is, our brain is divided into two hemispheres with each having its dominant role. For most right-handed people and some left-handed people, the left hemisphere is dominant for language. In addition, different areas of the cortex correlates to different kinds of linguistic abilities. For example, Broca's area affects the ability to speak and Wernicke's area affects the ability to comprehend speech. We process meaning by having sentences to enable us to make sense of the words that we speak. The interaction between sentence structures and words conveys "sense of sense" which helps us find the meaning of the words. 

The readings provided some good strategies to advance in my new language. In order to improve my vocabulary, simply memorizing words and definitions will not work. I have to know how the native speakers use those words and how the words fit in my sentences. Comprehending how a word works within different contexts would be a key point in improving my vocabulary. On top of that, many words have so many meanings. To fully understand how one word could be used in various ways, cultural aspect is incredibly important in learning a new language. 

An important consideration for understanding which parts of the brain are responsible for the production and comprehension of speech is that communication is a complex process that requires many parts to function in harmony. According to the localization theory, there are single areas of the brain that correspond with behavioral functions, but these specific functions must work together for speech to be produced, communicated, and understood. More specifically, the front part of the parietal lobe is connected with speech and the upper part of the temporal lobe (Heschl’s gyri) is a part involved with auditory reception. In addition, Broca’s area (lower back part of the frontal lobe) is primarily responsible for the encoding of speech (Crystal 175). It is evident that there are numerous parts of the brain contributing one single communication process all at the same time.

The complex process that covers the production and comprehension of language is referred to as neurolinguistics processing. There are five major interrelated steps in the process that break down the process of communicating and accurately receiving meaning. First, a message is conceptualized and an initial intention to communicate is formed. Second, the conceptualization of an idea or thought is encoded into a language structure. Then, the encoded language structure is transformed into a code that can be spoken to transfer the message. Next, motor functions send signals to activate various parts of the vocal tract for speaking. Finally, proprioceptive feedback is constantly being generated during this process to internally monitor the communication process (Crystal 176). 

Neurolinguistics processing can offer a few general models to help us better understand the relationship between the functions of physical parts of the brain and the process steps. The three models discussed by Crystal include speech production, speech comprehension, and reading aloud.  For example, during speech production, thought is generated in Wernicke’s area and encoding is constructed in Broca’s area. Then, motor programming allows for the encoded message to be communicated verbally through vocal organs (Crystal 177).

Focusing more closely on the part of the process where meaning is analyzed, structuralist ideas suggest that language is “a network of systematic relationships between units of meaning” (Crystal 192). Phonology represents the system of sound units to produce meaning aloud and graphology represents the system of graphic units used to convey written meaning. Further, the units referred to by this concept are in fact words. Through the word choices that we make, we convey different meanings.

As it pertains to my own studies, these articles remind me that it is important to be activating multiple senses and parts of the brain while learning to communicate in a new language. The process for conceptualizing thoughts, encoding those thoughts, and transferring the meaning using written and verbal communication requires many skills and individual part functions. In order to successfully train my brain to communicate meaning in a new way, I would like to equally focus on speaking, writing, and auditory processing language skills. To fully consider myself able to communicate in another language, I will practice my abilities to speak with a proper accent, recognize new speech sounds, and learn to read an unfamiliar character alphabet. As mentioned in Crystal’s articles, the process involves motor functions of the organs (vocals/hands), as well as the brain. In learning my new language, I will seek to activate these motor functions through immediate verbal communication and quickly memorizing the new alphabet script, so that all areas of my brain and body will begin to adapt to the communication forms of Maltese.  

Learning%20Journal%20%231.docx

Learning Journal #1

Kelly Breakall

9-9-2018

Language, the Brain, and Meaning: a brief overview as they apply to my Hindi goals

     Throughout history, there has been various methods to try to determine “localization of function” in the brain, which means that specific brain areas perform specific tasks. This was explored through phrenology in the 19^th century, whose proponents believed that bumps on our skulls were clues to cognitive character traits like timeliness and ability to love! Thankfully, science has progressed since those times to understand that the key to understanding localization of brain functioning is inside the brain. J We use various types of brain scans and medical case studies to determine functional areas of the brain, and we have discovered that language is pervasive throughout almost the whole brain (or at least throughout the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain that deals with upper level cognition)!

     Like I mentioned before, we learn a lot of about brain function through medical case studies, and especially through unfortunate incidents of brain trauma. In general, if brain trauma occurs, the brain can adapt and relocate cognitive processes to other parts of the brain that would not normally handle those tasks. That may be why certain traumas, such as strokes, can remove a person’s ability to talk (and perform other tasks), but only temporarily, as the brain adapts. However, a couple of regions that are especially pertinent to language and cannot be substituted with other parts (or for each other), are Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas. Damage to these will cause inability to understand and speak language, respectively.

     In a healthy individual, the brain processes language through a complex system of collecting sensory stimuli through the senses (hearing someone talk, for example), routing it through the thalamus to the most appropriate brain region (the auditory cortex), evaluating it through different regions for emotional content, determining an appropriate response, taking steps to enact that response (such as alerting the cerebellum that it must open the mouth and engage the abdominal muscles), and engaging in constant interoceptive feedback (feeling the mouth open, feeling the sound against our own ears, being aware of our own body movements to make sure we use our body language to convey what we mean along with our words) and social feedback (making sure the other person is responding in a manner appropriate to what we uttered). Amazingly, this entire process happens almost constantly in our lives, and with very little conscious effort on our parts!

     Of course, this biological process does not explain how we extract meaning from the strange sounds or the scribbles on paper that we witness. That is a much more complicated question and one that philosophers, linguistics, and psychologists grapple with to this day. Do words intrinsically have their meanings tied to them, as Plato hypothesized in ancient times, or is there no connection between words and their meanings except what humans ascribe to them? Most modern scholars agree that reality is closer to the latter. But then, of course, is the question of where to draw the lines between words. Where does jogging change into running, and how does a chair differ from a seat? Different languages draw those divisions of meaning in very different places (as any language learner trying to learn a new kinship terminology system knows!). In everyday life we often do not have concrete definitions of words, but rather use them as they become useful to us, almost as if there is a continuum of meanings in language which we interpret through context. In fact, we often understand words as how they relate to other words, such as when we use synonyms or antonyms to elaborate on what we want to say. Semantics is a wonderfully complex and confusing thing to study.

     The readings today make me reflect a little on what language processing and communication means to me as a learner of Hindi. First, it makes me remember that language is a complex cognitive task for our brains, and furthermore that it is largely a pursuit of memory that leads us to be able to communicate with others. While I do feel like languages are a game sometimes, I also need to use my knowledge about how memories are encoded, retained, and retrieved, and treat that part of language-learning with more responsibility. Second, it reminds me that linguistic meaning is so tied up in context, and context is so tied up in culture, that I really need to treat cultural understanding as almost equally important as knowing the right words and grammar! For one example, I have noticed that my Indian friends do not understand dry humor/sarcasm (such as jokingly saying “It’s so cold outside today!” when it is 100F), and so I need to remember to speak straight in Hindi unless I get signs otherwise. I might know all the right words and grammar rules, but I need to use language that translates through cultures in order to communicate successfully!

People’s brain was divided into two halves, or hemispheres. Within each half, particular regions control certain functions. The two side of people’s brains look very much alike, but there is a huge difference in how they process information. I heard of a theory that people are either left-brained or right-brained, meaning that one side of their brain is dominant. People who are mostly analytical and methodical are said to be left-brained. And people who tend to be more creative and artistic are thought to be right-brained.

What will happen to brain if people are learning a second language? Understanding language is one of the most hardest things people’s brain does. According to some researches, learning a second language is one of the most effective and practical ways to increase intelligence, and buffer brains against aging. It is hard to believe that raising children in a bilingual home was frowned upon. Some studies suggest that children who are multilingual experience brain benefits surprisingly early. They receive a boost in overall cognitive development, do better on standardized tests, and have better self-esteem and sense of achievement. 

Moreover, in our daily conversations, brain plays the most crucial role as well, such as speech production and speech comprehension. There are several areas of brain involved in daily conversations. Both the left and right hemisphere are instrumental in this effort. To be more specific, in D. Crystal’s articles, I learnt that the Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area are responsible for speech production and speech comprehension. My mother language is Chinese, in order to conceptualize and process the meaning of other foreign languages, I think I always translate them to Chinese first and then I read to write. No matter what language I learn, Japanese, English or Korean, it seems easier to learn if I translate them to Chinese first. However, sometimes it is not the case. For example, I have been in Japan for about two months the summer. Everyday I did anything in Japanese, watching films, chatting and writing. When the program finished and I was back to China, I started to realized that when my families talked to me in Chinese, I sometimes replied to them by Japanese unconsciously, but this did not last long. So I guess if you learn a language in a deep degree, you brain might skip the step hat translates it to your mother tongue. 

SDLC%20Post%20Learning%20Journal%20%231.docx

Reflecting back on the articles on semantics, I have found the process of understanding and producing speech to be incredibly complex especially in a societal versus "real world" context. Many of the words that we use, no matter what language, hold many various meanings in which meaning becomes very relative. Words presented by themselves hold no meaning unless put in a sentence that determines its meaning. Meaning is also distinguished by sense and reference where the meanings of words differ within a language and outside of a language. Knowing the difference between sense and reference is particularly important when explaining what a word means. An explanation based on reference could be interpreted many different ways such as quality or concept whereas an explanation of sense portrays a more objective presentation of a word in which the person can then apply and sharpen the definition.

In the process in which we have learned what meaning means in a language, our brains have already simultaneously understood, delivered, connected, and produced the result of reading, writing, or speaking. For speaking in particular, many parts of the brain are involved in its production and comprehension of these is the area in the upper back part of the temporal lobe or Wernicke's area which is important for comprehension of speech and where the initial thought to communicate is formed. It is sent to Broca's area which encodes the message which then is passed to a motor area which controls the articulatory organs and thus produces speech. 

As the readings state, everyone processes meaning and meanings of words influenced by their language and its societal norms and culture as well as their physical environment. Personally, I process meaning from a westernized, English perspective as well as a Korean perspective. This combination and unity of perspectives definitely shape my perception of meaning by heightening certain parts of it due to similar culture aspects or dampening other parts to be less important or negative. Living in America as a Korean I interpret materialism and work to be very positive things as both signify success in both cultures. However, relationship wise, America emphasizes equality and individualism and portrays them to very positive while in Korea there is a social hierarchy among your friends, family and co-workers where respect for elders and humility are considered positive aspects. These two cultures provide me a unique perspective for meaning.

Due to these differences, it would be helpful in learning the cultural context and meanings of the words to best be able to use it as well as using it to better remember from the contrast of its meaning to my own interpretation.