These past two weeks were focused on environmental studies in Korean. This topic was particularly difficult because of the scientific language used in the articles. We first looked at an article about particulate matter. Reading this article, we learned about what particulate matter was in Korean and the many hazardous effects they can have. The Korean article had several graphics to illustrate its points but I had to ask about much of the text because I did not know the words. The next week, we were tasked to find a news article of our own about particulate matter. We had to read and annotate the text as best as possible so we can ask questions about it when we meet. Learning Korean in the context of science was particularly difficult because of the foreign language they used. Much of the words used in the English language did not translate directly to Korean in terms of phonology.
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These two weeks of Korean were focused on more casual speech such as slang. I was very surprised to find out that slang has dramatically changed in the Korean language. I had grown up in Korean and have many Korean friends so I thought I knew slang well enough to watch and understand reality shows. The first week was focused on learning the different types of slang used primarily by the youth. Next, we then applied what we learned and watched several clips of reality shows in Korean. Each instance of a slang term used, we paused the video to write down what it meant. Watching these shows were a lot easier than understanding some of the formal language used in the Bible because informal language is used more than formal language. However, I was surprised to see how much the language and culture changed around slang usage in Korea.
After two weeks of the Bible, we moved on to the topic of sports. This was a breath of fresh air from two weeks of rigorous Bible reading in Korean. We worked on watching clips of sports and the commentary in Korean. Commentators talked very quickly so it was hard to pick up on what they were saying for most of the time. From this task, I was hoping to accomplish being able to understand the language used in sports in addition to the culture of sports in Korea. To build on what I have learned about sports, I watched more clips of basketball, volleyball, and even baseball with and without subtitles. I would often watch the same clip more than once to get a better understanding of what was said and why.
In the last two weeks my language partner and I studied the Bible in Korean. One of my learning goals was to be more literate when reading the Bible in Korean. Growing up in a Korean church, I was already familiar with the Bible and the many stories. However, I never read the Bible in Korean. Learning the Bible in Korean was difficult because the texts were in very old fashioned Korean. A lot of words and names are very specific to the Bible so they were very unfamiliar. Because of the many differences from the casual Korean I was used to, this was a hard process. My strategy for studying the Bible in Korean was to use a Korean-English Bible that had both texts side by side. By doing this, I was able to read the English version first before the Korean version to better understand the context and the summary. Learning the Bible in Korean was a frustrating task because everything I knew about the Bible in English seemed new and foreign in Korean.
The first day of my SDLC meeting with my language partner was mostly planning out the rest of the semester. Not much has changed from my last time practicing Korean two semesters ago since I have not had much chance to practice Korean during the break. From this meeting, I had hoped to accomplish a few different goals. The first was that I wanted to make a road map for the rest of the semester so that I can stay organized in my studies. The other goal was to be more realistic about what I could accomplish in one semester. Last time I was taking SDLC, I had goals that were far too hard for me to reach in time. For example, I wanted to be able to watch the news in Korean without needing subtitles. This time, however, I was able to set a more realistic goal by reaching for fewer things but going in depth.
Dean and Crush have been some of my favorite Korean artists to listen as I try to learn more Korean. Both are R&B singers with unique vocals and catchy melodies. In particular, Dean creates a more futuristic, unconventional twist on his music. Below are links to playlists of their music that I listen to a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gja6xTWls44&list=LLBzZHVCqYkmw_Z21PKiUhCA&index=25&t=1521s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HufNkEVJ6s&list=LLBzZHVCqYkmw_Z21PKiUhCA&index=25
For Easter weekend, I had a meal with my family- rice(밥), side dishes(반찬) of kimchi(김치) and kim(김), and meat(고기). We made wraps(쌈) with lettuce and rice, meat, and soybean paste(된장) inside.
As I’ve been learning more Korean, I’ve been trying to use what I’ve learned by practicing when I’m talking with my parents including text. Texting is harder for me since I’m not as able to sound out the subtleties of words. In my conversation with my parents, my dad actually corrects my spelling. However, it has helped me to become more comfortable with phrases that I use more often and incorporate them more into my daily conversations.
In talking about my plans for the summer with my learning partner, I was reminded of my trip to Korea two years ago. I visited Korea for the first time since I was 5 years old. There, we visited my relatives in Gwang-ju(광주) where my parents are originally from. Since I was in Korea, everytime I greeted someone older than me I bowed. I got to experience a lot of the food culture there with the open grills and stoves where you can watch your food be made as well as the street food. In the picture below, we were at one of the beaches in Jeju Island(제주도). Jeju Island is one the most popular tourist places as a vacation place with its unique food and beautiful scenery.
I’ve been watching Healer(힐러) which is a Korean drama about a night time “errand boy” called Healer, a tabloid reporter, and a famous journalist from a major broadcast station who all come together to learn the truth about a past incident that connects them all. It is an action packed drama with its fast paced scenes revealing the secret corrupt doings of many politicians and influential people through the work of news reporters, Young-shin and Moon-ho, and Healer. Through this drama, I’ve been able to pick up common everyday phrases as well as slang that people use today by repeating what they say.
As I enjoy singing, I’ve been watching Korean singing contest shows like The Masked Singer, SuperStark, and I can see your Voice. The Masked Singer is a contest where eight disguised guest singers are judged solely on their singing skills. SuperStark is contest for upcoming young singers and who want to join some of the most popular singer companies such as JYP and SM. I can see your voice a contest that brings random upcoming singers as well as tone deaf people with celebrity guests who have to guess which are which. Korean variety and entertainment shows are a big part of Korean culture. I’ve come to enjoy watching these shows in listening to many amazing singers and learning popular Korean songs.
I’ve come to learn a lot of the many differences between Korean culture in talking with my parents and Seonghye(성헤 선생님). In Korea, people are very sensitive to how people think about them. For this reason, people, especially girls, make sure that they look their best when they go out. Last week, Seonghye was saying how she wouldn’t be able to go out without makeup in Korea because people would assume that something was wrong with her. Because of this, she says that she wakes up two hours earlier so that she can put on her makeup and get ready for the day. It is socially expected to always look your best while in America that is of less importance. Many American college students would be described casual in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Korea’s obsession with outward appearance I’ve been told is fed by the large amount of competition to get in the best schools and jobs. In order to get the best jobs, especially in a small country, there is a pressure to look your best all the time.
Recently, I’ve been watching a lot more Korean YouTubers to help me in my Korean especially in casual conversation as they use more informal speech. I’ve been watching Pony who is a Korean makeup artist and 영국 남자(Korean Englishman) where Josh, an Englishman who speaks Korean, introduces Korean culture to his fellow friends and family in England. I’ve been using english subtitles to help me understand but have been trying to look at them less to see if I am able to understand what they are saying. Watching these YouTubers have helped me a lot in understanding what context to use certain phrases and words in a casual conversation as well as my pronunciation as I practice saying certain phrases out loud. It has been easier to learn Korean through these channels as I’m more engaged with the content.
We learned the names of various foods like 불고기(beef) and 초밥(sushi). We then learned descriptive words of taste such as 맵다(spicy), 시다(sour), or 싱겁다(bland). We then learned how to say something is not (descriptive word) or are not doing something. We use the structure of a verb with an ending of -지 않아요 or we can use 안(not) with the verb or descriptive word. For example, 김치를 먹지 않아요/ 김치를 안 먹어요(I’m not eating the kimchi). Then, just as we learned earlier, we learned the honorific form of some irregular verbs, specifically “ㄹ” verbs, for basic sentences and suggestions. For example, informal 놉니다 versus formal 노십니다(to play). 노시다 is a suggestion to play. In our last class, we learned body parts such as forehead(이마), knee(무릎), and leg(다리). We also learned and practiced some common idioms that Korean use a lot. If your 눈이 높다, you have high expectations. If your 발이 넓다, you know a lot of people.
During week 11 and week 12, Jimin and I reviewed for the final exam and the main topics that would be covered. It allowed me to recap on all of the diverse material that I learned throughout the semester. I felt proud of how much material we had covered and how much more comfortable I was with different vocabulary words, as well as with conversational speaking and writing. This review session was helpful for me to prepare for the final exam and also to further engrain the material into my head for future use. We also discussed my potential learning goals for the fall semester, and how I would proceed with my language learning throughout summer break so that I would not have a huge gap in my Korean language learning. I hope to continue with the learning method that we used this semester in which we combined several different topics and materials into one session to diversify it because I thought that it was very efficient and entertaining. Finally, Jimin and I watched more Korean variety shows and had different types of casual conversations to wrap up the semester.
During week 9, I went with Jimin and her other students to New Grand Mart to experience Korean culture through Korean food and groceries. Although I had been there before many times, it felt like a new experience because I was actively trying to learn more about the Korean culture and language through conversations with my peers in Korean and also discussions on the food itself. I would not normally have done this if it were a more nonchalant, regular outing. It was also helpful that my peers had the same motive to learn more about Korean culture. Overall, I thought it was a more enjoyable way to learn about Korean culture, as the other sessions had mostly been on campus and through text or video.
During week 10, I wanted to focus especially on conversational speaking. Therefore, Jimin and I came up with different topics to discuss and had a casual yet informative conversations on each of them. I was able to incorporate some of the sayings and vocabulary that I had learned throughout the semester and thus was able to engrain them into my head. As the conversation was rather informal and flexible, my Korean speaking came very naturally and proved my progress even in this semester. I thought that reading different texts aloud during previous lessons helped with the conversation because my Korean speaking was more fluid and natural. As Jimin and I are also close friends, I was able to converse in Korean with her about personal topics and thus could use Korean to describe my emotions as well. Overall, it was a well-rounded conversation that involved many different aspects of Korean culture. It encouraged me to incorporate more vocabulary into my everyday speaking.
During week 7, Jimin and I viewed a recent Korean film called “Swing Kids” that beautifully blended Korean history, comedy, music, and romance all into one. It took place in a Geoje prison camp during the Korean war and unraveled the story about a North Korean soldier, an African American officer from Broadway, a Chinese soldier, an amateur dancer, a Korean prisoner who hopes to find his wife, and a young single mom. I was enthralled by the sheer diversity of the group of characters who came together to form a tap dance group in the midst of a war and also by how they used dance to make a political statement about the war itself. As I love modern Korean movies that incorporate historical events, this movie was one that I would definitely watch again. At times when it was difficult to understand what was happening either due to the vocabulary in the dialogue or the historical background itself, we would pause the movie to discuss it. I thought it was helpful that the movie began with a brief overview of the historical events at that time. The movie “Swing Kids” enhanced my understanding of the historical context of South Korea and thus improved my cultural and language learning with a modern twist. Discussing the movie after watching it also helped me to recap and fully understand the historical context of it.
During week 8, Jimin and I had our Korean lesson at the local juice bar called Ginger Juice. It was a nice change of scenery and made the lesson more enjoyable. By going through a packet that had passages, discussion questions, and multiple choice questions concerning the content, I was able to test my knowledge of the readings right after I read them. The content included history about one of Korea’s top colleges, Yeonse University, and its founder. It also included the significant meaning behind two famous paintings. By reading the passages aloud, I further enhanced my language learning because I had to pronounce some words that I was not familiar with. Also, it helped with my conversational speaking because I normally do not get to speak in Korean as often as I would like to. The passages concerned Korean traditions, Korean history, etc and thus encompassed a wide range of Korean culture. I thought it was a very practical way of learning because I could test my understanding of the passages through questions.
During week 5, because it was close to March 1st, we learned about the 100th year anniversary of March 1st, which the Korean Independence Day. It was one of the first public displays of Korean resistance towards the Japanese regime and involved many public demonstrations. It was also around the time when the 26th King Gojong passed away and had his funeral. I learned about the various famous protestors involved, as well as the intensity of the violence of the Japanese towards them. Although I had learned about it before during history class in Korea, it was a good reminder of the sacrifices of noble Korean citizens and how our independence was painfully achieved. This lesson fulfilled my interest in learning more about Korean history to connect with the past of Korean citizens. Jimin incorporated different methods of learning such as a comic that concisely detailed the events, and I thought that it was a refreshing way to learn history.
During week 6, Jimin and I discussed a Korean news article of my choice. I went onto Naver.com, which is one of the top websites in Korea that is similar to Google. It was titled “Why Trump Believes North Korea Will Become the 2nd South Korea” and had many different
vocabulary words that I was unfamiliar with. I purposefully chose a challenging article so that I would have more to learn. Before reading the article, we went over the vocabulary words I was most likely to not know of. This strategy greatly helped me to understand the article better while reading it through the first time. This article was educational because it concerned the connections between the US and Korea, and thus it is integral to my language and cultural learning as I am tying English to Korean. I hope to read more news articles on my own time to further enhance my learning about Korean culture and news updates. During this session, we continued learning more idioms, along with words that had opposite meanings to each other. This helped me to connect back to the previous session.
