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Welcome back! I hope my readers had a wonderful weekend and are staying safe during this time. These past two weeks of ASL have been fun and productive, as usual, J. Reba and I have been able to have a full conversation with little to no use of fingerspelling. We have talked about family dynamics, vocations,  past history, homes and etc. This past Tuesday, we spent a fair amount of time learning about time and how to sign months, minutes, hours, years in both a future and past regard as well as being able to indicate numerical value. I believe the hardest part about time right now for me is remembering the difference in signs between the time measurements. Each sign is so similar in shape that I have to considerably think about which sign for which unit of time. I know that with practice, I will become more familiar with the units, but it is frustrating to not have a strong grasp on something so important. I also find it interesting how different languages end up expressing time, especially the months. In English, months are given names- January, February,  March, etc. In mandarin,  months are described in terms of the numerical value plus the word for moon (月). For example, the word for January would be one month. December would be for twelve months. I soon discovered during this lesson that months, at least in ASL, are expressed through the fingerspelling of the English month, but the word is abridged. For example, January is Jan and December is Dec.

       On another note,  I was walking outside this past weekend when I bumped into four individuals who were all signing! After I was able to calm myself, I tried to translate what the group members were signing, but they were extremely fast. I was able to understand a few words such as turnover and people, but I could not understand the majority of the story. Although it was a bit disheartening as I have been studying ASL for some time now and still could not translate as much as I would have hoped, I am once again inspired to learn ASL and I am willing to work hard for it. I rarely encounter any deaf people and when I do, I wish I could at least say “hi” and show them in their language that I am an ally. I have been considering what I would like to do after graduation and then I will most likely take a gap year of some sort before P.A. school. However, besides work, I was thinking about what else I could do in my spare time and I have been looking into some ASL interpreter programs! I do not want to have worked on ASL for two semesters (three semesters after graduation) and suddenly drop the language. I would like to continue it!

       Also… great news! An ASL original series is coming to Netflix! The series is called Deaf U and will be released in  November. From what I have gathered, the series follows several Gallaudet University Students as they go through college. The show is a reality TV show which I have never gotten into, but because of the show’s nature, I am beyond excited for the premier.

During these two weeks, I definitely have been using Korean more than last year. Due to the more frequent usage, I feel like talking in Korean requires less effort. Also, I tend to stutter less while speaking in Korean. 

I have been reading Korean Webtoons to better my reading comprehension and learn more about Korean culture. One webtoon is called the Tower of God and the other is called the God of highschool. I noticed that because webtoons are designed to have limited words, the words are very informal and concise. This makes it a lot easier to read and understand compared to a Korean novel. Reading the webtoons has weirdly led me to think more in Korean. When I say think in Korean, I’m talking about the voice in your head that talks when you think. It had been a while since I thought in Korean so that was very cool. I also have started studying a Korean song called Me Before You. On a google doc, I translated the lyrics into English and tried to understand each word. Now every time I listen to Me Before You, I will be utilizing active recall, and will help me memorize the phrases and words in the song. 

I practiced my Korean conversational skills with my brother. We talked in Korean over FaceTime for several minutes. He was pretty surprised that I could speak Korean more comfortably since before coming to college, my Korean was getting worse every day. He jokingly told me that he will also have to improve his Korean lest my Korean will be better than his. I also practiced my Korean conversational skills with my mother. I could not talk to her as much as I have wanted to because she is recovering from surgery. But during the time that we were able to talk, she told me that she noticed how I seemed more comfortable when I was talking to her in Korean. Yet, I still have a lot to work on. I get stuck sometimes when I speak because of my lack of vocabulary. 

I met with my language partners So Myung and Tommy. One week we just focused on our conversation skills and just talked about how our week was going, career goals, and family situations, etc. in Korean. During the second week, we read and analyzed two Korean articles. One article was about the weather forecast, and the other article was about how supermarkets’ sales of masks and over the counter medicine surged as COVID-19 initially hit South Korea. Tommy and I took turns reading each line out loud in Korean and translating them in English. The articles were definitely challenging to read because they use a lot of words that I did not know.  I had to use a lot of context clues using the words I already knew to figure out the articles were saying. But I think reading the article out loud helped me be more intentional with my pronunciation and analyzing the text.

This past week we finally overcame the technical difficulties and Reba and I had 2 1-hour lessons! Since we used Zoom for our classes, I was able to record the sessions so that I could go back to reference if I forgot a sign. Since I only had a handful of sessions with Reba, we are mostly working on vocabulary and learning new ways to ask questions.

One of the most interesting things I learned were the sign for our family members. As we are trying to get to know one another, Reba asks me questions and I try to reply back by fingerspelling. She would then teach me the sign for that particular word. She always tries to make a connection to the sign so that I can remember it more easily. For an example, when talking about family members, the signs for males are above the nose near the head while the signs for females are under the nose near the chin. An easy way to remember is that a while back, men would wear hats while women wore bonnets and tied it under there chin. I really enjoyed learning about family members because I knew it’d be useful and also because all the signs made sense.

This also meant that I had to make sure to sign in the right place. The signs for “right”, “sister” and “brother” are the same and the signs for “fine”, “mom”, and “dad” are also the same but are referred to different parts of the body. It was interesting to see words that had different meanings could have such similar signs. After a couple of lessons, I taught my family some of the new words I learned during our FaceTime calls and they also enjoyed it.

Reba and I also spent a good chunk of our time working on numbers, time of the day, and days of the week. We did an activity together where she would sign a number then I would have to sign the next number. Afterwards she would ask me questions that involved numbers just so I could practice more. I will still occasionally mess up the sign for three. The proper way is to hold up your thumb, first finger, and middle finger, but I keep holding up my first, middle, and ring finger. Although most people use them alternatively, in ASL, it must be signed correctly, or it can be confused with the letter “W”.

Some of the most useful signs I found during the sessions were “understand” and “slow”. Since we communicate through sign and I am still very new to the language, I have to ask Reba to slow down when she fingerspells. I still have to practice more because I need to translate each letter and then put them all together to make the word. Whenever I do understand something, I can sign that to her so that she doesn’t have to elaborate. Occasionally, there were some questions I couldn’t understand even after some repetitions. In that case, Reba will write it down on a white board to clarify. I’m excited to continue learning more vocabulary words and recognizing the questions she’s asking me.

For the third individual meeting, we were going to take the day off by simply chatting with each other about life and other things because the past month has been super busy for both me and my partner. We talked about the drama we watched during the group meeting-- about the plot, the historical background, and things that are interesting about the drama. For example, basketball was very popular in Korea during that time and basketball players were almost treated as celebrities. Also, from the first episode, I got to see that college students in Korea at that time were protesting the government, which I could never know if I didn't watch the drama. 

However, we still learned some Korean about how to encourage people.

파이팅! hwaiting

파이팅 hwaiting is borrowed from the English word “fighting”. However, this word does not necessarily mean to engage in the act of “fighting” rather it is a Konglish word that refers to fighting spirit and it is often used to wish good luck or to lift the team spirit by saying cheer up!

괜찮아 gwenchana [It’s okay]

This word is used to comfort someone who is feeling sad, depressed, or worried with a low pitch.

힘내 himne [Cheer up!]

This word is also used to cheer up someone who is feeling sad.

할 수 있어 hal su isseo [You can do it]

This phrase can be used to someone who is feeling doubtful about doing something or to simply encourage someone before they do something important – exams or sports

포기하지마 pogihajima [Don’t give up]

This phrase can be used to cheer on someone who is feeling discouraged, demotivated, and on the verge to give up on something.

정하지 마 geokjeonghaji ma [Don’t worry]

This phrase can be used when someone is worried about an issue.

자랑스러워 jarangseureoweo [I’m proud of you]

This phrase can be used to tell someone how you are proud of them or their achievements!

잘했어 jalhesseo [You nailed it]

This phrase is used when somebody did something exactly right or perfect.

haengbokaseyo [Please be happy]

We also looked at some motivational sentences just wanted to motivate ourselves and cheer ourselves up. 

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

•  멈추지 말고 계속 해나가기만 한다면 늦어도 상관없다.
• Meomchuji malgo gyesok haenagagiman handamyeon neujeodo sanggwaneopda.

There are no short cuts to any place worth going.

•  어디든 가치가 있는 곳으로 가려면 지름길은 없다.
• Eodideun gachiga inneun goseuro garyeomyeon jireumgireun eopda.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

• 치지 않은 공은 100% 골인되지 않는다.
• Chiji aneun gongeun baekpeuro gorindoeji anneunda.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

• 나무를 심는데 가장 좋았던 때는 20년 전이었다. 두 번째로 좋은 때는 지금이다.
• Namureul simneunde gajang joatdeon ttaeneun isipnyeon jeonieotda. Du beonjjaero joeun ttaeneun jigeumida.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

• 행복은 이미 완성된 것이 아니라, 당신의 행동으로부터 오는 것이다.행복은 이미 완성된 것이 아니라, 당신의 행동으로부터 오는 것이다.
• Haengbogeun imi wanseongdoen geosi anira, dangsinui haengdongeurobuteo oneun geosida.

I hope these words and quotes can help everyone who feels depressed or down whether in learning languages or worrying about the overwhelming workload. These definitely gave me strength and motivation. 

The task that I am currently working on is learning the specifics of Korean grammar and some special rules that affect the pronunciation of words. Specifically, I am learning about 받침(batchim), which means the pedestal of a character. The 받침 delves into how the last letter of a character can drastically change how a character sounds in conjunction with another character. This is especially important because this sound can overlap or replace the sound in the following word. This sometimes gives the appearance of a fluid motion through the word rather than it being choppy. Initially, I learned that each character in Hangul consists of a consonant and a vowel, and sometimes another consonant. However, I recently learned that the pedestal, or ending consonant, can be a double consonant, which is a combination of consonants. This is common is American English with combinations such as ‘th’ or ‘ch’. In Korean some examples of double consonants are ㄳ, ㄵ, ㅄ, ㄼ, ㄺ, ㄾ. Although these double consonants seem intimidating to a novice language learner, my language partner explained that the Korean language and grammar is very logical. The first part of a double consonant is voiced in the first character, and the second in the next. However, this set of rules is followed by some exceptions in that it depends on the consonants found in the next character. There are many rules for batchim and double consonants that are affected by the letter ‘ㅎ’. 

In addition to these basic grammar rules, I am also learning about introduction to verbs and tenses through particles. These particles are not useful alone but are additives necessary for sentence construction, which is one of my main goals in learning Korean this semester. Being able to understand particles effectively is crucial to being able to voice original ideas in sentences because they can add plurality, opinion, ownership, direction, and time to a sentence.

To practice the batchim, double consonants, and particles, Somyung gave me several worksheets to work through as well as several YouTube videos that go over particles in an introductory fashion. This is quite a lot to memorize so I am not sure if I can remember everything in a week but I should be able to apply these rules over time as I learn more words that need such rules for pronunciation. 

Along with these grammar rules and particles, I learned a variety of words during my session on Monday. These words mainly came from the topic of animals. There are too many animals to go over but using animals is fantastic for a visual learner like me since I can relate the animal easily to the word, making memorization simple. Most animals also have simple work construction so that will give me a chance to practice writing some Hangul. 

I am eager to learn more Korean words but the grammar seems complicated at the moment. The list of exceptions is not as complex as English but learning Korean can still get tough when dealing with a combination of syntax and pronunciation. I can currently sound out most words albeit slowly, even if I have not seen them before, so that is encouraging!

For the Korean language, there are sounds that do not exist in American English. Take ㄹ for example. This consonant sounds like something between a ‘r’ or an ‘l’. Additionally, depending on the positioning of this letter in a character, it may tend towards either side. I don’t see any character like this in American English. According to Wikipedia, the closest approximation of this sound is the ‘l’ in ‘alike’. The phonetic transcription of this character is a l (voiced alveolar lateral approximant). When I was first learning this character, I tried to use my experience with English to pronounce it but after working with my language partner; I learned that despite it sounding very simple, using the tongue in such a manner is difficult. The ㄹcharacter was also pronounced as a stop sometimes as well depending on the word. One example of this is the word 잘 가, or goodbye. By placing the ㄹ as the pedestal of the character 잘, the sound abruptly stops by pushing the tongue against the roof of the mouth. 

The sound system of Hangul is very similar to American English in that words are pronounced exactly as they are written left to right. The majority of the time this is true and there are no issues but one aspect of Hangul that I have been delving into is the subtleties of the Korean syntax. The position of certain letters can greatly affect how the resulting sound will be. Certain combinations of letters cause certain sounds to be replaced by another and thus confusing the novice learner. Additionally, some phrases are shortened or have a certain character replaced in pronunciation for fluidity even though they are written and transcribed differently. Thus, the sound system of Korean is very much based on left to right syntax and comes naturally to many English speakers unlike Mandarin Chinese. One nice thing is that Hangul does not have any clicks or variations of clicks. If it did, the difficulty level of speaking Korean would skyrocket. 

I will acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segments and learn how to produce these natural sounds through practice. Frequently practicing the Korean alphabet as well as common words that may utilize different grammar rules will give me the experience necessary to do these. This will take a significant amount of time however, since I am just a novice at the moment. I do not think that using the IPA phonetic translations will be necessary at this moment since I will be even more confused trying to understand two different, though related, linguistic systems. With that being said, having some approximations back to English will be helpful in moments where muscle memory fails me. I have found a useful article on Wikipedia that highlights the IPA translations of Korean and provides an analysis of IPA pronunciations. This article points out the approximations that I need for Korean to English as demonstrated with the character ㄹat the beginning of this post. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Korean

When I first started my studies in Bahasa Indonesian, I was grateful to see that Bahasa Indonesian uses the Latin alphabet and includes the same letters as in the English one that we use. As I have gotten deeper into my language studies and SDLC 105, I can more clearly determine some differences between English and Indonesian phonetics. 

I studied the pronunciation of the alphabet a few weeks ago with my language instructor. Interestingly, I found that there are a lot of similarities between the German and Indonesian pronunciation, especially for vowels (my language instructor speaks German, so she noticed the similarities as well). Like German, Indonesian is much more consistent than English in how words are pronounced. While in English, the letter “a” can sound like “hat,” “hate,” "car," "carry," in Bahasa Indonesia, "a" is always [a] as in "bersama," unless the vowel is paired with another one as a diphthong, in which case there are a few different sound possibilities. 

Indonesian intonation has some differences from English. When Indonesians ask questions, their tone tends to go down rather than up. I am paying careful attention to intonation when we listen to native speakers recorded for dialogues in our textbooks. I then try to replicate these tones in videos I record for speaking practice. 

In researching the differences in phonetics between Indonesian and English, I came across some helpful articles that point out where native Indonesian learners struggle with English. As someone who is hoping to teach English in Indonesia, knowing these potential points of difficulty will allow me to best assist my students in improving their English skills. In addition to a much more complicated grammar system (articles, past tense, plural), some of the tricky parts for Indonesians include æ, ʌ, ɜ, v, θ, and ð because these are not in their alphabet and b. d, g, z, s, ʧ, and ʤ which are pronounced differently (download). As an instructor, I can anticipate that students may say "ket" for cat ket, "enkl" for ankle, "pool" for pull, and "dat" for that. Using context clues may sometimes be important for me to understand what my students are trying to say.

Vowels in Indonesia are pretty straight forward, but there are some other sounds in my target language that will give me trouble. For example, [ñ], which can be found in words like nyanyi [ñañi]. When I see words with the letters nya, I need to slow down and think about the part of the mouth I need to engage with to pronounce correctly. The hardest part of Indonesian for me is the letter r, because it is supposed to be trilled, and I still have not mastered the art of rolling my rs. I tried to learn last year when I was studying Italian since it is also used in this language, but I was not successful. Hopefully, with continued practice and an understanding of the anatomy of my mouth, I will be able to use my tongue and air stream to create this sound. It would probably give my Indonesian skills more credibility when I am in Indonesia. 

Phonetics provides a helpful context for both learning and teaching Indonesian in relation to English. It helps to illuminate that while these two languages have the same alphabet and same symbols, there are still linguistic challenges that require language learners to alter their air stream in different ways. To acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segment in my listening, I will ask for clarification when my language instructor pronounces words with different sounds. To produce these in my speech, I will be conscious of the helpful diagram on speech physiology, and keep trying (especially in the case of trills!). 

This semester, I am learning ASL. A "basic" ASL sentence can have a sentence structure of time-subject-predicate, but it can also have a sentence structure of subject-verb-object. Like some other languages, the sentence structure changes depending on the type of sentence. When rhetorical questions are asked or imperative and emphasis words are used, these words are signed at the end of a sentence. A noun is signed before an adjective. For example, to ask “Where do you live?” I would sign, “You live, where?”. I am still a bit confused on when it is appropriate to use S-V-O structure and it not count as Signed Exact English, I am hoping to speak with my instructor for clarification. The structure that makes the most sense to me is “topic + comment”. If I wanted to talk about a party being on Saturday, I would sign the topic “Party” and comment “Saturday”.

That being said, based on what I know now, I do not think there is one disciplinary approach that is preferenced over another in ASL. I can see how all of the branches of linguistics can play an important role in teaching and communicating in ASL. In particular, computational linguistics reminds me of the newer devices that can translate signed words into written text and vice versa. However, I have particularly been interested in learning the anthropological linguistics of American Sign Language. My knowledge that there is usage of sentence structure that is different than it would be in English has been causing me to really think about sentence structure formation as I continue to expand my vocabulary. I appreciate how Reba instantly corrects me when I sign a sentence in the incorrect format. In becoming more informed on the ASL sentence structure rules, I think it will help lessen the amount of hesitancy I have when I try to formulate sentences that I haven’t already learned the phrase from elsewhere.

Some structures that I have observed in my language study is the structure of phonetics and phonology. Frequently, I delve into the subtleties of sound and mouth positioning that greatly affects the quality of spoken Korean. Somyung has demonstrated how certain letters have a certain expression tied to them. For example, the letter ㅡ, requires the mouth to open like a smile or a locked jaw. These slight modifications demonstrate how phonetics lies at the foundation of Hangul. Similarly, Hangul also explores the use of phonology because some characters that have a similar shape, have a similar sound. The difference between certain letters may be minor, which is a hint that the sounds when spoken are not that different from each other. One clear example of this pattern and study is the characters ㄷ and ㅌ. The additional line introduces the idea that characters have a fundamental relationship with one another because the character ㅌhas the same sound as ㄷbut harsher when spoken. This minute difference can be related back to tones in Mandarin Chinese for me. I have also observed syntax as being a core component of my Korean studies. Even with a comprehensive mastery of the Korean alphabet, the practice of constructing legible words greatly relies on the use of syntax. For Hangul, one important rule is that vowels are associated with the consonant ㅇwhen the vowel is alone. This elementary rule introduces the significance of syntactical structure in Korean. Another fundamental rule would be the collection of consonants and vowels in a character and how they are structured. For Korean, each character must contain a consonant and vowel, as demonstrated by the ㅇ rule. There is also a sense of verticality in Hangul, where letters must be positioned in an appropriate manner. 

With this myriad of disciplinary perspectives in Korean, it is important to select a direction to dive into first. It is difficult to learn a language without understanding the syntax of words and sentences so I have chosen to first proceed with mastering the structure of the Korean language. As interesting as learning the meaning of words and having a vast vocabulary is, the insight needed to learn and construct original thoughts in another language is inherently tied to understanding the syntax of that language. This is very different from my experience in non-natural languages because syntax is not as important as understanding fundamental concepts that transcend a specific language. However, I believe that in natural languages, understanding syntax is the pinnacle to my learning journey. With that being said, I have not changed the direction of my learning process based on these methodologies. I do find it intriguing that computational linguistics is a branch of linguistics because certain ideas behind artificial intelligence challenge the learning process that us humans are familiar with. There is murky water behind many learning algorithms where the proof of understanding a language seems to be indecipherable.  I know that much of these learning systems is based on pattern recognition which Jean Aitchison had brought up as a fundamental function of human languages.

After three weeks of learning Indonesian, I have learned a lot, and my vocabulary notebook is overflowing with new words. My instructor asked us for feedback on the format. My classmate and I both said that we’ve appreciated the frequent class meetings but were hoping to have more time for speaking practice. As we learned in SDLC 105, this is the most important skill to practice when studying a language. Based on our feedback, my Indonesian instructor revised the syllabus and adjusted our weekly schedule. Here are some reflections on the new format:

• Grammar lessons on Monday: technical notes, new vocabulary, and themes for the week. This week, we talked about birthday celebrations, practiced numbers, learned the days of the week and months. I can say Saya ulang tahun 4 Desember 1998. 
• Independent speaking practice assignments on Tuesday: Instead of in-person grammar class, we now are working asynchronously on Tuesdays to complete 2-3 minute speaking tasks and short writing assignments. For example, this week, we recorded ourselves wishing happy birthday to a friend. I was able to write out what I was going to say and practice using the correct inflection. This assignment allowed me to be creative with the new vocabulary. For the remainder of my time, I transferred my new vocabulary to my glossary notebook and reviewed the list of verbs. 
•  Speaking class on Wednesday: my instructor gives us prompts, first for individual speaking challenges and then for my classmate and I to have a dialogue with one another. This week, we had two minutes to talk about different occupations and repeated this exercise five times. Being a visual person, I found it helpful to take the two minutes when it was not my turn to gather some key vocabulary words that were associated with the occupation I would be describing. With these keywords, I was able to speak relatively fluidly. The spontaneity of this speaking assignment and time constraints were helpful because I saw patterns in which words and sentence structures I use most often. I really like modal verbs and using the word “because." (This is a pattern I've noticed in other languages I've studied as well.) I also appreciate that my language instructor encouraged us to speak with a mix of English and Indonesian and then recorded the words we didn’t know how to say. I found this approach to be less pressure because it emphasized that the purpose of language is to communicate with one another. 
• Independent culture class on Thursday. Instead of powerpoints, we now have a reading assignment to respond to in a brief reflection. This week, I discussed why I would like to attend an Eid, Christmas, and Batik celebration in Indonesia. 
•  Language table on Friday. Fun activities to come! 

I feel that this revised format allows me to be creative and use the language rather than trying to passively absorb it. Focus on quality rather than quantity. When I use the vocabulary through various writing, speaking exercises, I find I remember it so much better. Plus, the process is fun and reminds me that I am very fortunate to be learning the language with a native Indonesian speaker. Although speaking class pushes me outside of my comfort zone, my teacher and classmate were very supportive, and I really enjoyed the sense of community and confidence that I was able to express myself in Indonesian. 

With this new format, my goal is to make learning Indonesian a personal process and recognize the importance of committing myself to the process of learning by practicing it in various communication formats.

The diagram on page 9 of Aitchison’s "Linguistics" shows that linguistics can be approached from a range of different disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, philosophy, literature, artificial intelligence, languages, and psychology. While my main fields of study--art, geography, and religion--are not included in this diagram, they will significantly inform the way I approach language learning.

Throughout my college experience, I have found that a holistic approach to learning makes the experience more fulfilling. As an art major, I have been able to take classes I am interested in that connect to one another and provide conceptual frameworks for my art projects. For example, during the spring of my sophomore year, I took a geography course, pilgrimage studies class, and Humanities Fellows Seminar on human migration and then created a series of map prints about the movement of people. This semester, I have been humbly surprised by how well my classes are supporting each other. A common theme has been thinking about the role of colonialism on Indigenous cultures, which are themes that have touched Indonesia in unique ways. Cultivating a deep relation with Indonesian culture through the process of language learning becomes a way of celebrating perspectives beyond the western worldview. 

I see many parallels between art and language learning. For me, both of these are methods of communication. Last semester, I took an art theory class where we discussed semiotics. This study of signs and signifiers relates well to semantics, the study of meaning. In my artmaking, I have been thinking about my visual vocabulary and how painting shapes the way I relate to the world, just as language shapes our worldviews. Art theory helps me to approach language learning as another creative act. 

Learning Indonesian also connects with my study of geography, the study of where. Indonesian is an ideal language for illustrating the geographic concept of scale because there are regional dialects, the national language of Bahasa Indonesia, and opportunities to learn international languages like English. Geography helps us to ask questions of how location shapes the way certain groups communicate, and tools such as GIS to learn more about the place. The physical geography of Indonesia as an archipelago influence the way language spreads. 

My language studies are also informed by my interest in religion. In particular, the way we interpret sacred texts has many insights for me as a language learner. There are many ways of interpreting scripture because there are so many variables: we have to consider when it was written and the historical context, the bias of who was writing it, the audience, and the interpreter's bias, not to mention the fact that the original language does not usually have words that directly translate. In other words, trying to preserve meaning between languages is complex! When learning Indonesia, I must be culturally aware of acknowledging my own biases that may make it difficult for me to fully engage with the language and culture, simply because my worldview is different. I will incorporate the disciplines of art, geography, and religion into my studies of the Indonesian language. Not only will these approaches help me understand the language structures, but by making the language learning part of the disciplines I am already invested in, I will see Indonesian as an integral part of who I am as a person. 

UNESCO officially inscribed Wayang kulit on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. This traditional shadow puppet art, a surface-level cultural artifact, illuminates many of the deep norms, attitudes, and values shared by many Indonesians. From Wayang kulit, I reflected on indigenous heritage, religious and spiritual tendencies, and collectivist attitudes common in Indonesian life. 

To begin with, the art of Wayang kulit reveals Indonesia’s indigenous roots. Wayang kulit most likely began in Java many centuries ago, though some scholars think the tradition may have come from a neighboring Asian country. In either case, the art has become deeply intertwined with the common Indigenous belief in animism, in which natural objects have souls. Such animist rituals still shape how Wayang kulit is used. For example, some Indonesians use these puppets to connect with their ancestors or to honor the dead at burial grounds. This engagement with Wayang kulit suggests that Indonesians have a deep connection, one that is often spiritual, with their ancestors and nature. The use of natural materials and simple light and shadow for these performances also shows a connection to nature that is tied to traditional indigenous practices. 

The spiritual dimensions of Wayang kulit speak to Indonesia’s religious identity. While Wayang kulit is not connected to one specific religious tradition, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and Hindus alike participate in these performances. For many Indonesians, sponsoring one of these puppet shows is a form of sacrificial offering for their understanding of the divine. Furthermore, the stories performed with Wayang kulit address questions of interest to religious worldviews, such as loss, pain, and suffering, using myths and simple characters as vehicles for these heavy topics. The puppets also offer political critiques. The national doctrine of Pancasila supports the religious tendency that is embodied in Wayang kulit. The first Sila, or point, states a belief in the divine, through different religious worldviews are encapsulated. Not all Indonesians are the same religion, but the norm is for them to be part of some religion and have a strong sense of spirituality.

The connection with religion in Wayang kulit also points to Indonesia’s collectivist culture. I asked my Indonesian language instructor about her connection with Wayang kulit, whether rural communities created their own puppet variations, and how to attend performances. She explained that the puppets are an art form reserved for the skilled craftsman that people can buy. Though many of the iconic performances are in big cities like Jakarta and Bali, she explained that Indonesians have collectivist and nationalist tendencies in which they feel very proud of these cultural traditions even if they are not practiced directly in her community. Indonesians celebrate these arts and traditions of their country as a whole, which connects with the Pancasila belief in national unity. 

The puppets are often intricately decorated and created by skilled crafters. Today, students can seek professional training in the art of Wayang kulit through high school and university programs. They are also performed by a skilled puppeteer. While many traditional scenes can be expected to viewers and common motifs, the stores do not always follow a clearly progressing plotline. To me, this alludes to Indonesia’s polychronic understanding of time. Stories do not have to build to a final moment and climatic conclusion. Rather, the immersive experience of watching these meandering stories is spiritually enriching in the moment. Ultimately, Wayang kulit shows how Indonesians address life's big questions through the art of shadow puppets and use this tradition to support their goals of national unity. 

Sources

“Introduction to Puppet Theater (Wayang) of Indonesia (Article).” Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/southeast-asia/maritime-se-asia/a/introduction-to-puppet-theater-wayang-of-indonesia. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020.

“The History of Indonesian Puppet Theater (Wayang) | Education | Asian Art Museum.” Education, https://education.asianart.org/resources/the-history-of-indonesian-puppet-theater-wayang/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020.

UNESCO - Wayang Puppet Theatre. https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020.

---. https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020.

Weiss, Sarah. Transcending Boundaries: Javanese Wayang Kulit without the Shadows. Oxford University Press. oxford.universitypressscholarship.com, https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737642.001.0001/acprof-9780199737642-chapter-3. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020.

Learning plan

So far I have been listening to Korean music and watching Korean shows/movies throughout the week. I can slowly start to feel that I am able to listen and understand Korean words with less effort. I have also been practicing speaking Korean with my roommate and my language partners. I have bought a Korean-US keyboard cover so I can practice typing Korean sometimes. I have also discovered free websites that allow me to type random sentences in Korean. My studies will help me achieve the goal of being able to write a Korean song and understand my culture better. I was motivated to improve my Korean because my mother only speaks Korean. Somyung, my Korean teacher has helped me correct some of my incorrect sentence phrasings and taught me new vocabulary.

Over the past week, I met with Reba once on Monday for an hour. We were planning on meeting on Thursday too, but there were some technical complications that made meeting that day difficult. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my first meeting with Reba so much! Eli was also there to help interpret for me. Although he said that he was still learning, it was so encouraging to see how quickly he was able to sign with Reba. The first thing I learned was signing the alphabet. We went through each letter and said it out loud. I remember seeing some ASL alphabet posters around my elementary school, so I knew the signs for some of the letters such as c,e,l,m,n,o,y, but had forgotten most of them. The most difficult letter for me was k because I was unsure on how to orient my fingers at first. Afterwards, we introduced ourselves and whenever Reba asked a question, I would reply by fingerspelling what I wanted to say. I definitely made some errors such as signing h instead of g but as we kept spelling, I was able to catch my mistakes quicker. Next she told me the sign for cat and for each variation of the sign, she told me to guess which animal she was referring to. In you don’t count my first attempts, I did pretty well! She asked me what I wanted to learn so I thought a good introduction would be greetings and telling someone about the weather, so I’ll be learning those signs in the next meeting.

As we were going over yes and no, Reba told me the importance of facial expressions in ASL. When I talk, others can use the tone of my voice to determine how I’m saying something. For those in the Deaf community, facial expressions are sort of like their “tone”. If I am telling a funny story but my face is serious, my signs and expressions contradict one another and make it more difficult for people to understand me. I have a tendency to just smile all the time, so I was saying “no” with a smile on my face, but now I know that I need my expressions to match my signs.

Since I am just beginning to learn ASL, I was trying to catch some signs as Reba and Eli were communicating. It was much faster than I was used to, but I caught the sign for “slow down” and “see” for when Reba was going too fast or when her hands were out of the camera frame. I also learned that the sign for “student” was actually a combination of the sign “to learn” and “person”. I’m also very curious about how the grammatical structure is for ASL because so far, it seems exactly like the structure for English.

In the future, I want to use Zoom instead of FaceTime so that I can record our lessons. I found it a little difficult to recall particular signs because I couldn’t necessarily draw each sign I learned. I did however pass Eli this week and we greeted each other, and he helped me remember some signs!

For my first cultural post, I will talk about the South Korean variety show, I Live Alone or 나 혼자 산다. This television program revolves around a group of rotating entertainers who present their personal lives to the viewer and each other. Each host and guest shares one common attribute, they live alone. The show delves into the experience of being independent in South Korea and how people make the most of their single lives. Currently, there are over 360 episodes that span the course of the last 7 years. Many celebrity guests have joined the program and showed the public how they lived their lives and some became full-time members of the Rainbow Club, the group that hosts the show. 

I Live Alone provides a unique perspective into the lives of others and makes you feel a deep sonder. For the South Korean people, many celebrities are like untouchable idols and pieces of art. This relationship feels distant and disconnected. I Live Alone tells a story every week that shows how everyone is just living their lives to the fullest that they can. No one is really perfect despite how the television screen portrays them to be. There are silly moments, monotonous moments, defeated moments, and genuinely touching moments for everyone no matter where they are in their life. Sometimes, when people come home from a rough day, it is simply fun to have people to relate to. 

Aside from the relatable moments, I Live Alone is a genuinely funny show. I can’t help but laugh every time I see the members’ antics and reactions. The cast of hosts are just like the viewer, reacting to the lives of their friends and of the guests if there are any that episode. They voice the thoughts and reactions that you have and the viewing process feels reciprocal and engaging. 

In the latest episode, we watched how friends spent time together during the aftermath of a global pandemic. Since they couldn’t go on vacation anywhere, they set up an inflatable pool, played games and enjoyed themselves. The hosts shared their troubles of how a recent typhoon disrupted many of their work plans and finally took time off from their extreme schedules. Sometimes it is healthy and rejuvenating to just loosen up and act a bit childish. 

One of my favorite members is Kian84, a full-time cartoonist and artist. Originally Kian84 struggled to fit into the limelight of public television. As a person who spent most of their time working alone on art, he stood out as someone who lacked the common sense of showbiz. However, that fact is what drew many viewers to like his style. He represents how most viewers are and his imperfections help to enhance that effect.

I highly recommend I Live Alone to anyone who is looking for a funny and relatable show to watch every week. The show may be several hundred episodes long but it is a fantastic experience to delve into at any time.

For the second class, we continued our discussion with numbers and had a little verbal test with respect to them. The test basically included all the concepts I learned with numbers (time, month, date, age, height, weight) and I was able to consolidate my knowledge. Then, we started to talk about the Korean Alphabet to consolidate the foundation for future study. The Korean alphabet consists of 14 letters for basic consonants and 10 letters for basic vowels. In addition, there are compound letters, each made up of two basic letters.

Indicated in the above table, the left column is the 14 consonants in Korean, and the top row includes the 10 vowels in Korean. It wasn't hard to memorize them as there are certain patterns that exist to help memorization. After that, we also talked about the structure and pronunciation of Korean syllables.

Syllables are always constructed beginning with a consonant, and then a vowel follows. The syllable could stop here, or there could be another vowel, or consonant, or both. The syllable begins with the initial consonant on the left or top, and the vowel(s) and other consonants follow to the right or bottom. For example:

가 where ㄱ "k" is the consonant, and ㅏ "ah" is the vowel. It is pronounced "Kah".

고 where ㄱ "k" is the consonant, and ㅗ "oh" is the vowel. It is pronounced "Koh".

When constructing syllables, always move from left to right and top to bottom. This is the same for reading. Sound out the initial consonant and then the following vowel(s), making it flow into the other ending consonant(s) if any. It's just like reading in English. Read left to right, sounding out each letter. Then move on to the next syllable. Words are separated by spaces, and syllables are right next to each other. Again, just like in English.

달 where ㄷ "t" is the consonant, and ㅏ "ah" is the vowel, followed by another consonant, ㄹ "l". It is pronounced "Tahl".

돌 where ㄷ "t" is the consonant, and ㅗ "oh" is the vowel, followed by another consonant, ㄹ "l". It is pronounced "Tohl".

Also, we had our group meeting on Monday that was about watching a Korean drama called "Reply 1994". This television series follows the historically and culturally significant events that happened in the country between 1994 and the years that follow, including the emergence of seminal K-pop group Seo Taiji and Boys, the Sampoong Department Store collapse and the birth of the Korean Basketball League. This television series is very entertaining while containing deep meanings. It tells a lot about the historical events and cultural events from a very unique perspective: Set in 1994, six university students from various provincial areas of South Korea live together at a boarding house in Seoul, which is run by a couple with a daughter. I was able to see how people from the countryside were able to get used to the life in a big city like Seoul at that time. 

During our second SDLP group meeting, we talked mostly in Korean. It was kind of weird at first just talking to people in Korean at the University of Richmond. I’m only used to talking to my brother or mother in Korean, so it was interesting. In Korean, we discussed how our week went. I told Somyoung and Tommy that I was very tired and not in a very good mood. I had to wake up in the morning to go to a Psychology Lab and my stomach started to hurt a lot when I was walking back to my dorm. I told them how I had hernia surgery over the summer and I still feed chronic pain from time to time. However, venting out my situation to them did make me feel better. We then talked about where each of us lived on campus. I told them that although I live in Jeter Hall, my ideal location to live would be Lora Robins because it is close to the dining hall, booker hall, and the post office. I also told them I was thinking about becoming an R.A next year for Loro for I knew Somyung is an R.A for Lora Robins.

Somyung and Tommy shared their career aspirations. Tommy told us that after college, he plans to go to dental school to become a dentist. Last year, Tommy interned at a non-profit healthcare organization called Crossover Ministry and served as an assistant to the dentist. Somyung also strives to have a career in healthcare. She wants to go to medical school after graduation to become an eye surgeon. So she asked Tommy if Crossover ministry had vision care and Tommy told her that they did. He advised her to email them for more information. Somyung currently volunteers at a non-profit organization called Special Olympics. I chipped in my two cents and told them how in high school I wanted to become a physical therapist. We also talked more about mundane stuff. We talked about how humid it was yesterday and how hot the weather has been.

After practicing conversing in Korean, we analyzed a Korean song called 여러분(“Everyone”). We translated the lyrics line by line and Somyug explained some of the Korean metaphors. We then watched a live performance of the song sung by an extremely talented Korean woman. I liked that exercise a lot. I got to understand every word and the main message of the song. 

This weekend, I went out to get a haircut with my Koren friend. We went to a Korean hair salon in Richmond called Park Joon’s Salon. It was my first time in years going to a Korean salon, but it was really good practice for using my Korean in a real-life scenario. I managed to ask the hairstylist to give me a fade on the sides in Korean. I also was able to understand most of the things she was saying to me in Korean. She told me how my hair needed to grow more before I can start to style it. After the haircut, I went to New Grand Mart and ate some Korean food. I am glad I am experiencing more of my culture than I did last year!

Some of the main ideas behind Figuring Foreigners out are that there are several pairs of extremes that can be used to represent any given culture and pretty much every culture lies somewhere on each property’s spectrum but is unlikely to fall into an extreme. Everything may differ from situation to situation. This difference in culture may lead to some misunderstandings since things can be interpreted differently from person to person. Some examples of these properties and dualities are individualism and collectivism, non-verbal communication, monochronic and polychronic, internal and external, and direct and indirect. The author attempts to contrast each property against its polar opposite and does so by providing some situations in which the reader can determine where the situation lies. I generally agree with this assessment of culture because as I was reading through the article, I felt myself creating associations in cultures that I was familiar with and the properties of the writing. Although I do see some comparisons that make sense, I feel as though the author could have given clear examples of cultures that had these misunderstandings and how they played out. In other words, were there any languages that had an easier time resolving these misunderstandings and is the process quantifiable? These generalizations could have been given more substance with these types of comparisons rather than some high-level scenarios. In my native culture, East Asians generally fall into the collectivist, non-verbal communication, monochronic, internal, and indirect mappings. Though I do agree with the author that these are debatable. A conclusive response to the paper would be that if everything is dependent on the situation, a final classification of culture in these parameters is impossible.  

In the case of Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture, the amount of input data is substantial so the mapping of countries on his parameters looks to have some significance. The quantifiable nature of the index pleases me greatly and provides a level of complexity that the Figuring Foreigners Out article did not have. Additionally, properties like gender and wealth were also taken into account. These properties are essential to understanding the circumstances of any culture and are major parameters that were ignored in the previous article. One problem that I did notice is that if there were 40 countries being surveyed and only 100,000 individuals then the average for each country would be only 2500. And if there was a major difference in clusters (of data points), then some countries would not be as well represented as the mappings suggest. This is a possible area that could be expanded upon to really dive into the properties that can quantify a culture. The mappings did however agree with the mappings that I had in my mind of cultures that I was familiar with. This demonstrates that there is some substance if the reader can relate to the data with their own experiences. Though if presented with a contrary data set, personal biases may play a role in the opinion of the mappings’ accuracy because of selective memory.

The task that I am currently working on is to finish mastering the Korean alphabet. I have managed to memorize the stroke order of each character as well as being able to recognize the characters themselves. My main focus after learning the most basic vowels and consonants was to master the more complex characters that are frequently used in the phrases and words that I learned during the last session. In addition to learning the Korean alphabet, I was also assigned to memorize some simple expressions such as 안녕하세요, which is hello in formal language. This is an interesting property of Hangul; there are different expressions that one would use to converse with someone older than them. We do not really have this situation in English for most expressions. Rather, we just avoid using obtuse slang when speaking professionally. While learning some new expressions in Korean, I struggled with the pronunciation of some characters. Although Korean does not have tones like Mandarin Chinese, some characters in their alphabet do sound particularly similar. One example of this is the letter ㅈ(pronounced j) and the letter ㅊ(pronounced ch). In English, these are pretty different to pronounce, but in Korean, these sounds are nearly identical, at least to me. For example, 잘가, or goodbye, is difficult to pronounce but 자동차 is easy to pronounce since both characters are present. 

Since I am learning these phrases, I have to learn to apply them as well. Since it was my roommate's birthday last week, I learned the phrase 생일 축하해, which is Happy Birthday! Since it was applicable, I learned it much quicker than the other phrases. Another phrase that I learned was 감사합니다, or Thank you. These simple phrases that can be used at any time so I will not forget them as easily. Frequent practice of Korean will ensure that my memory of it stays fresh. This leads into my strategy of deliberate practice of the language. By spending more time on the things that I struggle with, I can learn very more efficiently. Since i struggle with pronunciation, I frequently practice it. Each time I learn something, I will write it down constantly and also voice it aloud as I practice. So far this strategy has worked pretty well with learning the basics of the Korean alphabet so I believe with sufficient practice and dedication, I will be able to learn these Korean phrases as well. I do believe that I can spend more time practicing these phrases once I have finished mastering the alphabet. I am really enjoying this learning process and I am now starting to get back into watching Korean entertainment. I had taken a slight break and jumped into Japanese culture and American media during summer and the start of the semester but now I have more time to watch some Korean variety shows and Korean music. There has been a drought of entertainment at least for me since the virus took over everyone's idle minds.