I am going to introduce a Korean fashion website that sells Korean designer brands. It provides free shipping to United States for orders over $150. The overall price is pretty expensive but the design and quality is good.
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This past week I mostly followed my learning plan. I completed my goals for Duolingo and Mango lessons, and I wrote two essays totalling about 280 words. I also learned the construction for "I want/do you want?" and I can use it to ask for basic needs.
Originally I had planned to study both household/hospitality and transportation last week, but Abhi and I decided to study home vocabulary both meetings. After we reviewed pronunciation of the words, we practiced using them by role-playing a hotel guest scene. Home vocabulary (rooms, household items, kitchen items, cleaning supplies, etc.) is very important for me because I will be managing a household in India.
This coming week I plan to solidify the household vocabulary and practice them by writing another essay and a written dialogue. I plan to practice with both Abhi and Ashish (my fiance).
This coming week I also plan to complete another 3 topics in Duolingo and another chapter of Mango. I also plan to ask Abhi to write a short dictation exercise using the home vocabulary, to help me practice writing. For specific topic goals, I want to be able to do the following at the end of next week:
1. Ask for transportation (ie rickshaw)
2. Give/ask for directions
3. Clarify what time and place an event is
These goals are very relevant because I will need to travel places in India (like to my language school in New Delhi) and Hindi is helpful to speak with rickshaw drivers.
If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Turkish language and culture, I would start with the analysis of remaining influences of Arabic and Persian vocabulary on Modern Turkish I am curious to analyze how much of Turkish culture is actually Turkish, since there had to have been many empirical influences from the Ottoman Empire and other outside influences such as language development. My reasoning for this research is that Ottoman Turkish vocabulary included many Arabic and Persian words along with traces of grammatical influence. Since Modern Turkish is still being "developed" and still growing in vocabulary and concepts, studying the linguistic growth of Modern Turkish would be extremely interesting to analyze. English is becoming a growing influence on Turkish language, which might also make cultural influences on Turkish culture. I would like to analyze the remaining Arabic and Persian influences on Modern Turkish and how these linguistic influences have affected the development of Turkish cultural practices. The main tasks of the language reform in 1932 was to replace the Arabic and Persian loanwords with newly derived words from Turkic roots or with Old Turkish words, that have not been used in centuries.
Although I have zero knowledge of Arabic and Persian, I think it would be very interesting to analyze their morphemes and how their morphology might have contributed and adapted into Ottoman Turkish, even possibly Modern Turkish. Also I would like to analyze how the Turkish Language Association (TDK) decided on the "Turkish equivalents" for replacements of Arabic and Persian loanwords. Being able to identify words of Arabic/Persian origin that still are being used today would be very interesting to analyze, along with the newly derived TDK words words that are being used alongside with them.
If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would investigate the relationship between Korean history and the Korean language. To begin, I would research Korean history: when it became a country, the nations that invaded it, and how it progressed. Next, I would analyze the Korean language: when it was created, who created it, and how it changed over time. Then, I would compare my findings and see if there are any correlations between the history and language of Korea. I would be looking for any grammatical structures or vocabularies that were seemingly influenced by parts of history. For example, there are very similar overlaps between some Korean and Japanese words, as well as one Korean and Chinese counting system.
I want to investigate this topic because I’ve heard that learning Korean history greatly helps one’s ability to speak the language. This relates to what we learned about in week 2: how the brain handles language. Perhaps learning the history of a language would help language learners. Overall, my linguistic study relates to what we studied in week 7: linguistic change and periods of contact with other cultures, and how these factors enhance one’s understanding of the language and culture.
Must-Know Korean Words from CHUNG HA - Gotta Go (청하 12시)
- 말투 it’s a way of speaking 저 사람 말투가 건방져 that person’s way of speaking is arrogant
- 아쉬워 It’s a shame 아쉽다 such a shame; such a bummer
- 어떡해 what should I do?
- 벌써 already 벌써 왔어? You came already?
- 솔직히 honestly 솔직히 나 개 싫어 Honestly I don’t like him
I went to a Korean Resturant called "Zaam" today. It's like the Korean Chipotle and it has Bibimbap, ramen and bubble tea. I really like the place because the price is reasonable and the taste is really good.
Recently, BLACKPINK released a new song called "Kill this love".
I studied the lyrics and tried to learn the song.
[Verse 1: Jennie]
천사 같은 "hi" 끝엔 악마 같은 "bye"
매번 미칠듯한 high 뒤엔 뱉어야 하는 price
이건 답이 없는 test
매번 속더라도 yes
딱한 감정의 노예
얼어 죽을 사랑해
[Verse 2: Lisa]
Here I come kickin' the door, uh
가장 독한 걸로 줘, uh
뻔하디 뻔한 그 love
더 내놔봐 give me some more
알아서 매달려 벼랑 끝에
한마디면 또 like 헤벌레 해
그 따뜻한 떨림이 새빨간 설렘이
마치 heaven 같겠지만
You might not get in it
[Pre-Chorus: Jisoo & Rosé]
Look at me, look at you
누가 더 아플까
You smart 누가 you are
두 눈에 피눈물 흐르게 된다면
So sorry 누가 you are
나 어떡해 나약한 날 견딜 수 없어
애써 두 눈을 가린 채
사랑의 숨통을 끊어야겠어
[Chorus: All, Lisa, Jennie]
Let's kill this love!
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Rum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum
Let's kill this love!
Rum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum
Given a research grant to conduct of linguistic study of Turkish, I would focus upon the (relatively) recent transition from New Ottoman Turkish into what is known as Modern Turkish. This occurred around 1928, with the President of Turkey, Atatürk, promoting a nationalistic agenda advocating a separation from traditional Arabic culture. While this change did not have an impact upon the phonetics of Turkish (with the exception that the Latin alphabet characters showed more clearly what was already being pronounced), it did have a large impact upon word choice and vocabulary. Indeed, the Turkish Language Society (founded 1932) was responsible for replacing many words of Persian or Arabic origin with those of other Turkish dialects. In some instances, new words entirely were created from old stems and roots. Investigating how these old morphemes were combined in such a way as to create new words would be an interesting aspect of my linguistic study.
Another part of my analysis may be the origin of Turkish, particularly its relationship with Arabic and Persian, especially in regard to the language reforms of the 1930’s. During this time, Atatürk and his associates advocated for the Sun-Language Theory, a historically inaccurate theory asserting that Turkish is the mother of all languages. This theory was used as an excuse to retain some of the words and phrases in Turkish (like “Merhaba”) for which it might be difficult to find a non-Arabic replacement. While the Sun-Theory is inaccurate, it will still be worthwhile to investigate the similarities in morphemes between Turkish and other languages, as well as how these shared morphemes have changed phonetically over time.
Post your first bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities
In the first two weeks of Korean, I learned vocabulary words for various personality traits and how to use them in a sentence when describing my "ideal type". I thought this activity was very fun because it not only required me to learn the vocab words, but it also challenged me to use those new words when describing people.
In one activity, we went around the room describing some people in our lives and what personality trait we associate with them. For me, I shared that my sister is extroverted (활발한), my mom as optimistic (낙천적인), and myself as creative (창의적인). We also learned that, based on the way we say the characteristic, the conjugation at the end changes. For example:
When I say that my sister is extroverted, there are two ways of saying the sentence:
1. Joy is extroverted (조이는 활발해요)
2. Joy is an extroverted person (조이는 활발한 사람이에요)
The adjective could either be accompanied with 해 if it ends in 한, or it could be accompanied with 인 if it ends in 이.
I found that it was difficult for me to go from this step to describing my ideal type. It was challenging to keep up with these changes, but also having to then form sentences was a struggle. However, I enjoyed learning about how to use many of the vocab words. It was a good problem to have.
- First Cultural Post: What are your cultural learning goals for this semester?
- Which one or two topics will you explore during the course of the semester?
- How do you expect to explore these topics?
- What do you hope to learn through your exploration of these topics?
My cultural learning goals for this semester are to grow my vocabulary and speaking knowledge.
I think it is one thing to know what a word means or how to say a phrase in Korean. However, it is another to learn how to actually use the word. The word can be conjugated to fit the sentence, and learning more of these vocab words/ phrases and how to use it naturally is one of my cultural goals. I think by knowing how to correctly use a word in a normal conversation, I will be more confident in using them regularly.
I hope to explore this topic by practicing with my learning partner: both learning the new words as well as using them in sentences. I think that it is nice that I have other students in my class because I get to also practice with them. I think that the first thing for advancing in a new language is using the language in more settings with different people. I believe that it helps build confidence and assurance that you are able to grasp the language enough to have conversations with others. In general, I am comfortable using Korean with my family and Korean elders, but I am not fully comfortable using it with people who are the same age as me/ are not Korean speakers.
I grew up always associating Korean with hierarchy, and this has led me to only use Korean when I am in Korean hierarchical settings. However, I think it will also be fun to branch out and learn more casual Korean that I could use with a friend my age.
I think that through learning more vocabulary and phrases and how to correctly use them, I will change my perception on Korean. I think that my perspective currently is that Korean is only a "sometimes" language to use based on the setting. However, I want to be more open with my language use. I want to say a Korean word and explain what it means to my non-Korean speaking friends. I want to be able to comfortably speak in Korean with other Korean speakers my age. I want to learn how to be more willing to speak the language in a larger variety of settings.
I would like to investigate the history of Korean. Most languages have very similar sister languages and clear parent languages, but Korean seems to be a language isolate. I am very interested in learning more about the way the language came about and was formed. Furthermore, I would like to learn more about the origin of imnida (입니다). Even though I am able to speak three other languages, German, English, and Spanish, I have never seen a sentence component that is used in almost every single sentence. Every language has recurring themes and words need to be conjugated which might lead to similar sentence structures, but none of the ones I have seen so far are recurring as often and are as easily spottable as imnida (입니다). Lastly, I would investigate morphemes in Korean. There have been multiple occurences of me asking my tutor whether two similar word endings were related, but they were not. Being able to spot recurring partials would help me to better understand the meaning of some words, therefore, I would like to learn more about recurring partials, especially in comparison to insignificant recurrence.
I would go about investigating all of these interesting aspects of Korean by becoming more fluent in the language. This would help me to increase my understanding of the language and the culture. I would then study old Korean artifacts that hopefully shed some light on the origin of the language and even some patterns, like imnida (입니다). Lastly, I would like to conduct in-person research by living in a Korean town, interviewing people, and learning more about the language from them.
The song ‘IDOL’ by the K-Pop band BTS was released on August 24, 2018. It features different traditional Korean instruments and is inspired by the Korean genre pansori as well as John Woo’s move Face/Off. According to Rolling Stone India, the song combines the Korean instrument “gakgung, with African rhythms, trap rap and electronica.” This leads to the global sound that is culturally rich and diverse. A lot is going in the music video, with different bright colors, animations and dancing. The official music video broke multiple records on YouTube, including the most viewed music video during the first 24 hours and the fastest music video to have 100 million views in 2018.
In this cultural post, I will discuss a bit about the Maltese National Anthem: L-Innu Malti [The Hymn of Malta]. The national anthem dates back to 1923 when it was first performed and the song was declared the Maltese national anthem in 1945. The national anthem is strongly religious, referencing the Catholic God. In a sense, it serves as a prayer uniting the people of Malta under a common faith. In English, the poem translates to:
Guard her, O Lord, as ever Thou has guarded,
This Motherland so dear whose name we bear:
Keep her in mind, whom Thou hast made so fair.
May he rules, for wisdom be regarded,
In master mercy, strength in man increase:
Confirm us all, in unity and peace.
The lyrics are written by Dun Karm Psalia, a well-known figure in Malta for a number of accomplishments. Psalia held positions as a priest, assistant director of the National Library, lexicographer for the official English-Maltese dictionary, and Commander of Order of the British Empire. Additionally, he was a distinguished writer in Italian culture. Psalia resided in Valletta, Malta from 1910 to 1936 and is also famously known for helping to establish Maltese as an official language of Malta in 1934. As I have discussed in previous reflections, Italian and English are both widely spoken on the islands, but the Maltese language represents the unique cultural blend that exists in Maltese society.
Sound Link [left column]: http://www.nationalanthems.info/mt.htm
During this period of my Maltese study, I chose to work on my ability to read full sentences and phrases with my language partner, Karen. The pronunciation of full sentences continues to be a challenge for me, but I am getting better at eliminating my English and Italian-bias in pronunciation. I am still a bit slow to recall some of the sounds, but my accuracy seems to be increasing. In order to work on this skill, I asked Karen if we could practice saying the famous poem that I previously analyzed in Cultural Post #3: Il Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro. Karen and I both looked at the text, then line by line I would repeat after her. The task was more difficult than I had anticipated because the language was written in Medieval Maltese. She told me that it is important to recognize that this text would not be an entirely good example of Maltese grammar because a lot of the style is outdated. She compared the reading of this text to a foreigner reading Shakesphere.
Although the task was really challenging, I enjoyed the practice of spending 50 full minutes reading Maltese writing. I have repeatedly mentioned that poetry has been very useful for me to pick up vocabulary and I have started to notice many central poetry themes in Maltese literature. For example, it seems as if geography and the sea play important roles in many famous pieces. Malta has a rich history of being built up by various conquerors over time and its place as an island in the Mediterranean sea has significantly shaped the development of the society. Studying poetry has been a valuable tool for understanding the perspectives of native Maltese people and accumulating vocabulary sets on relevant topics.
In addition to reading the poem, Karen and I continued to work through a chapter in my Maltese textbook. Each chapter is formatted as a new grammar topic, so we discussed some of the concepts and read through the example phrases together. Moving forward, I would like to shift my focus on practicing writing sentences in Maltese.
This cultural post focuses on Malta's role as a top film-making destination for many Hollywood movies. The historic style of the architecture and beautiful, aquamarine waters serve as an ideal backdrop to a number of famous scenes. The website Visit Malta posted a mini-podcast series highlighting landmarks and geographic features filmmakers capitalize on when traveling to the country. In this post, I will recap some of the most interesting facts I learned!
Beginning with the Island of Camino, there are three primary features that have been captured in a number of movies: The Blue Lagoon, St. Mary's Tower, and the Santa Maria cave system. During my time in Malta, I recall going on a boat tour in which I actually got to see many of these features. The Blue Lagoon, my personal favorite spot in Malta, was most notably featured in Troy (starring Brad Pitt) and Swept Away (featuring Madonna). The crystal waters and delicate, sandy beach was used to create a sense of luxury and seclusion in Swept Away and the rocky entrance to the island was used as a backdrop in Troy. Additionally, St. Mary's Tower and elaborate cave system play an important role in the 2002 film Count of Monte Cristo.
Next, the origin of Popeye Village is an extremely interesting story. In 1980, Popeye Village was constructed entirely from scratch for the film Popeye the Sailor Man featuring Robin Williams. A construction crew spent 7 months building the fictional village that included a church, tavern, post office, school, and more. The village is located in Anchor Bay, Malta, which was also perfect for shooting nautical scenes. After the filming ended, the village was preserved and redeveloped as a theme park for kids and families. Activities have been added to the village and a boat departs every hour for tourists to visit. For both domestic people and tourists, the village is an extremely popular place to go.
The third movie destination worth mentioning is Fort Ricasoli, which has been preserved incredibly well since its historic origins. Originally, the fort was built by the Knights of Malta, in order to protect the harbor against foreign naval attacks. The fort is not open to the public but is repeatedly used to build historical Greco-Roman styled movie sets. The location is ideal because it is secluded, very large, and historically-intact. In addition to utilizing The Blue Lagoon of Camino, the production of Troy primarily took place in Fort Ricasoli. The entire space served as a foundation for the 10-acre city that was built for the production. Maltese locals worked with the producers and director throughout the process to accommodate the needs of the movie. In the final scene of the movie, Troy is burnt down in a series of explosions, so Fort Ricasoli was a perfectly-contained space to carry out these effects. Similarly, the producers of Gladiator used the Fort for filming. Most notably, the Fort space was used to construct the Roman Coliseum featured in the final scene. The coliseum constructed was approximately 1/3 the size of the real one and digital animation was used to enhance the structure during editing. Two other famous movies that were shot at Fort Ricasoli include Agora, a historical drama depicting the Roman Empire's Alexandria, and Cut Throat Island which utilized the baroque-style entryway to the fort.
The podcast series details the history of 9 major film locations in Malta, although this post only highlights 3 of my favorite from the series. For anyone considering visiting Malta, I highly recommend listening to this mini-series on the Visit Malta website so that you can appreciate the attractions when you get there! Without researching the role of the film-making industry in Malta ahead of time, there is a lot that one might miss out on. Below are a couple of pictures I took of famous film locations when I traveled to Camino Island.
Podcast Link: https://www.visitmalta.com/en/podcast-movie-locations
This cultural post is dedicated to exploring the impact of global climate change on Malta. I was inspired to research the challenges Maltese locals are facing, as a result of global climate change, after reading a poem entitled Tal-ġelati. The poem was written by a well-known literature professor at the University of Malta, Adrian Grima, and published in an edition of Euro Abstracts. His poem is inspired by this central topic of the journal edition: The heat is on: the race to find innovative solutions to climate change. Some of the most critical implications of climate change in the Mediterranean include intense, frequent heat waves, coastal flooding, water scarcity, extreme weather events, and changes in biodiversity. This poem utilizes repetition of il-baħar [the sea] to emphasize the changes it is experiencing. Considering Malta is made up of islands, warming and rising sea conditions could have a devastating impact on society. Grima also creates a list of things Maltese children can no longer do because of the extreme heat. He says, mhux jgħoddsu [no diving], mhux jibnu l-kastelli u jħaffru l-passaġġi [no building castles and digging paths], and m’hawnx tal-ġelati [there is no ice cream]. Malta is most admired for its beautiful geography and Mediterranean warmth, but climate change poses an extreme threat to this critical aspect of the culture. I found the end of the poem very meaningful because it seemed to suggest to me the way in which we blame climate change on nature. The sea is described as bla ndiema [without repentance] and blah ħniena [ruthless] as if there is an outside force controlling these changes, rather than ourselves.
TAL-ĠELATI
Il-baħar qed jogħla, qed jibla’ r-ramliet,
fejn bejtu minn dejjem il-fkieren
li jieklu mill-bram bil-mijiet.
Il-baħar qed jisħon, qed jikber, u miegħu
il-bram qed jiżdied;
ifekren bla sabar fejn qabel kont tara kif folla
tinvadi bla ħniena l-bajjiet.
It-tfal mhux qed jgħumu,
mhux jgħoddsu bil-flippers,
mhux jibnu l-kastelli u jħaffru l-passaġġi
li jċedu bħas-silġ taħt in-nar;
mhux jiġu t-turisti, bil-ġilda ġa roża,
bl-umbrella tal-kiri, bit-tifel jippoża,
bis-sunblock jiddewweb
taħt xemx tarmi r-raġġ’ ultra vjola.
U m’hawnx tal-ġelati.
Qed jarma, qed jgħidu,
faċċata tal-bieb ta’ l-iskola,
Il-baħar bla ndiema,
bla ħniena,
qed jogħla.
I continued my research of the subject on the Times of Malta website. I found an article entitled Malta needs to prepare for climate change, experts say, written by Philip Leone Ganado in October 2018. The problems associated with climate change could be detrimental to Malta for a number of reasons. First, degradation to the Mediterranean ecosystem would have severe impacts on the Maltese economy, which relies heavily upon tourism and aquaculture. Decreased biodiversity in native species would have a considerable impact on Malta. Next, the domestic people of Malta face the risk of extreme heat and weather patterns. Positioned in the Mediterranean, Malta is already prone to high temperatures, so the small .5-degree movements can be devastating. Advocates for addressing the problem insist that cleaner energy (reduction in carbon emissions) is the most valuable solution.
A climatologist from the University of Malta states, "“Even if statistically our size means our impact is small, we could have a major impact in terms of influence,” he said. “If we make the changes we need, the impact is not just the emissions we release, but the image we give to the world.” Although Malta's contribution alone is not enough to alter global climate change, acknowledgement and support towards the cause can inspire larger changes in the EU, resulting in a global movement. On a local level, techniques such as green infrastructure, coastal defenses, more efficient buildings, and secured water supplies have all been considered by governmental strategists. In reality, though, Malta has missed its EU emission targets and struggled to impose change.
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