Blogs

In this post, I will discuss what it is like to experience Christmas in Malta. The people of Malta are primarily Roman Catholic, therefore the holiday is widely celebrated on the islands and very important to the culture. Similar to cities in Italy, the islands are streamed with Christmas lights and decorated for the holiday. There is Christmas caroling, church festivities celebrating religious events leading up to the birth of Jesus, and extravagant displays. In addition, Christmas markets have become increasingly popular during December. Malta Artisan Markets, launched in 2011, puts together one of the largest Christmas-themes venues of all the market groups who offer seasonal products from local craftspeople, small business-owners, producers. Two of the most well-known Christmas displays are located in The Pjazza Tigne Market in Sliema and Mellieħ's Popeye Village, which are both converted into beautiful winter wonderlands for the holiday. Popeye Village is a center for celebrating many Maltese holidays but is particularly known for its annual pantomime comedy at the Manoel Theater during Christmas time. 

The many churches of Malta also play a critical role in celebrating Christmas in Malta. On Christmas Eve, most families choose to attend the Midnight Mass Service. Families often attend the Christmas markets and festivities together, then head over to church. Immediately following the midnight mass, it is also a tradition to enjoy an early Christmas breakfast together. The churches are decorated to honor the nativity story and strung with Christmas lights. Elaborate nativity cribs, called il-Presepju in Maltese, are featured at the church and a figure of baby Jesus is displayed at the altar during midnight mass. One of the largest ceremonies is held at St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. 

Christmas Day is a much more intimate event where families come together to enjoy a large Christmas lunch. Traditionally, Christmas lunch consisted of a casserole containing potatoes, vegetables, and a chicken. More recently, modern families have transitioned to consuming a roast, followed by many desserts. These desserts include a hot chestnut and cocoa soup [Imbuljuta tal-Qastan],date-filled pastries [imqaret], bread pudding, and Italian sweet loaf bread [panettone]. 

Sources: 

https://www.visitmalta.com/en/christmas 

https://www.maltauncovered.com/culture/christmas-new-year-malta/ 

Every syllable in Vietnamese is written separately. It is also mostly a monosyllabic language. There are words that are multisyllable as well where separate words are combined to make one word. For example, mắt (face) trời (sky) meaning sun. Sometimes though, a word can contain a syllable that isn't able to stand on its own. For example, the na in nết na (be well behaved) cannot occur alone. Nết on its own could mean trait. I would probably want to study these syllables with no meaning on its own to figure out its root origin and to see if these syllables actually have an obscure root meaning. I think I would probably start my research by looking up data on Sino-Vietnamese and the old writing script chữ nôm. My theory would be that the words that aren’t monosyllabic and have a syllable that isn't a word on its own are actually borrowed words. If this theory holds true than I would want to see whether the original Vietnamese words (words that weren't borrowed) are more similar to other Austroasiatic Mon-Khmer languages since there's been some debate on whether Vietnamese actually belongs in that group. Additionally, I would want to research from that whether there is one Vietnamese dialect that is closer to original Vietnamese. For example, if there's a dialect that uses less borrowed words and how that came to be. Family language would then obviously appear in my work. Other than that, disciplinary perspectives and phonetic inventory would also occur. Disciplinary perspectives in the sense that I would have to look at multiple disciplines to trace how original Vietnamese developed and phonetic inventory in how dialectal variation closely relates to original Vietnamese.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249988619_Linguistic_Research_on_the_Origins_of_the_Vietnamese_Language_An_Overview

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00437956.1963.11659787

Biweekly%20Jourbal%204.docx

I recently came across an interview of Miss International Hương Giang. After doing some research on her, I realized that she's actually Miss International for the transgender beauty pageant. She got her sex changed in Thailand before becoming a decently famous singer in Vietnam. It was fascinating for me to learn about a transgender singer who was able to make it onto the mainstream market, especially since she is known to actively promote LGBTQ rights. In her interview, she talked about her difficulties in coming out to her parents as the only son in the family since carrying on the family bloodline is traditionally very important. She also discussed how foreign the idea of homosexuality is to Vietnamese people; many people still think it's something that can be "cured" and that it is a negative product of contact with the Western world. It was fascinating to hear her take on where Vietnam, as a country, is at on the issue of LGBTQ rights.

I recently read a summary of some of the most famous Vietnamese fables. The one I found most amusing was Vietnam's creation myth. The myth states that Vietnamese people are descendants of a dragon (father) and a celestial being/goddess (mother). Since they are not of the same "species" they couldn't live together. Therefore, after giving birth, the mother took 50 of her children to live in the sky and the father took 50 children to live in the sea. This is used to explain why there are so many tribes in Vietnam (approximately 54) and how the tribes are able to live equally and peacefully until today. It was fun for me to read and compare to other creation myths I've read about. For example, Korea's is that they are descendants of a god and a bear and Japan's is that they are descendants of the sun goddess.

https://www.lalung.vn/giai-tri/cac-truyen-thuyet-hay-nhat-cua-viet-nam-1925

Before Spring break, my language partner and I agreed to continue dictation practice, but we did not discuss what else we will be doing so, my language partner and I spent a little bit of time discussing our trajectory for the rest of the semester during the first week back. We agreed to do situational practice. For example, talking to the doctor about an illness. Additionally, we decided to break the household good vocabulary into rooms. Lastly, we decided to continue with learning proverbs.

Before starting the situational practice, I expected it to be really difficult and useful. I figured that it would be good practice for changing my personal form of address, and learning vocabulary. I still find it awkward sometimes addressing myself to strangers. However, when we actually started, it was too easy and each situation only took about 2-3 minutes. I realized that this wasn't the right exercise for me. After trying 2-3 practice situations, we decided that it was best to spend the time doing something else.

Other than that, we also spent some time discussing marriage values in Vietnam and comparing it to the US. This was an interesting topic for me because during Spring break I had watched a Vietnamese talk show about marriage and found that some of the things that were said didn't match my conception of Vietnam. For example, one of the ladies said (in Vietnamese) she "decided to play a game…the single mom game." I thought this was a weird thing to say, since being a single mom is hard, especially in Asia. Divorce is still largely frowned upon and blamed on the women. Being single is also considered a bad thing for women as demonstrated by the term "leftover women." Discussing the topic with my language partner was really informative and gave me a better understanding of the thinking in Vietnam.

We haven’t started the dictation practice or learning proverbs yet. I am hoping to focus on those two things for the next two weeks. Additionally, I want to spend some time talking about my final presentation topic with my language partner.

IMG_4556.jpg

I attached a screenshot of a playful conversation with my mother after I learned about personality words in Korean. I said in a full sentence that my mother is a stubborn person, and my mom jokingly was shocked and said my father is more stubborn. I agreed with her, and she corrected my spelling afterwards. 

This week I wrote up a learning plan for the last four week of this semester. I used the ACTFL Can-Do statements to assess where I need the most work. I also reevaluated my practical goals for what I need to know to function in India. I wrote a 4-week schedule, with goals for each week in Duolingo, Mango, essential practical skills, vocabulary topics, and language partner meeting activities. 

I have been using Duolingo a lot, but it is getting tedious. All of the work is translating sentences to and from Hindi. While it was very helpful at first, it is now getting annoying to keep translating sentences like "Does she live in India or America?" and "Those men do not eat apples." over and over. I discovered that I could take the little tests to jump up levels, instead of slogging through every sentence. As long as I learn some new grammar and vocabulary, I still think it is helpful.

This week I also wrote a short writing assignment (160 words) introducing myself, my family, and my occupation. I did it in English script only because I don't know how to type in Hindi, but I know I should practice the Hindi script too. Because I use almost all online resources which have word banks, I am quite good at reading Hindi, but not at spelling and writing. If I want to test out of the beginner Hindi class in India, I will need to up my writing game.

I also need to start focusing on more vocabulary. Now I have a basic sense of how the language is put together (it's weird) so I really need more vocabulary to fill in the gaps. 

     As I was reading my book, there was a part where it mentioned that there were teenagers with dyed hair playing in the ocean. Initially, this did not mean much to me, but I learned a cultural aspect of this part of the book. Apparently, a person that had colored hair back in the days in Korea had the stereotype of being rebellious. Although I can slightly understand what this means, this is a little absurd because as someone who has had colored hair for a huge portion of their life, this stereotype doesn’t apply for me.

     Personally, I dyed my hair because I was interested in it and not because I was “trying to be rebellious.” However, it is still interesting to learn that it was perceived as the latter back in the days. In order to combat the “rebelliousness,” the people with dyed hair might be told to dye their hair back to their natural color. This is interesting because I definitely had many people who asked me what my natural hair color was and if I would ever go back to it. Currently, I don’t think that I will, but maybe in the future?

     Another aspect about this cultural topic is that it might also slightly relate to how people with long hair was also deemed “rebellious” and were told to cut their hair. This is also interesting because it seems to be more of a trend to have longer hair and you’re being rebellious if you have shorter hair nowadays. Overall, it was fascinating to learn about this cultural aspect because I am able to relate to it as I have colored hair! However, I don’t necessarily agree with the point it is making, but it is still interesting to learn about!

    It was fairly easy to teach the first word, “bo-leum,” because I was able to relate it to how “joong-soon” was a synonym for this word. This worked out well because most people already knew what “joong-soon” meant, so it was an easy connection to make. However, I had to teach them that “joong-soon” is more of a general term for middle of the month, while “bo-leum” is more for 15 days.

    The second part was a little more difficult because although they were familiar with what “hanja” was, it was a bit challenging to make the connections between “hanja” and the Korean word. This makes sense though because it was also hard for me to make the connections, so I tried my best to explain this concept with examples!

    I explained “hanja” by using the examples in my second cultural post about relating the days of the week to the solar system. I remember that I was fascinated by this connection when I first learned about it and I saw that the learners were also interested! Overall, it was a good experience to teach someone else what I learned!

    The learning activity that I want to teach someone is some of the vocabulary terms that I learned from reading my book! I wanted to teach them the following words: “bo-leum,” “yong ha-da,” and some of the grammar and culture words that I talked about in previous posts.

    The first word is another way to say “middle of the month/15 days,” which is a similar phrase to using fortnight to describe two weeks. It was interesting to learn this word because it is another way to describe the middle of the month, when I only learned that as “joong-soon.” Therefore, I think it is helpful to learn this word because it is a commonly used term!

    As for the second term, the first part of the word, “yong” describes a dragon in “hanja” terms, which we talked about before. As a result, I can use this connection to introduce how “hanja” works because it can be difficult to grasp how “hanja” is able to relate Korean and Chinese language, even if they have different definitions.

    This week, I learned about the type of vocabulary that you use in the business world. The first thing that I learned about is “eel-jeong,” which means schedule. This is important to learn because when you are in the workforce, you will most likely have to follow a schedule and learn how to adapt to different ones. Another word that I learned is “soo-jeong,” which is correction. This can relate to the first word, where you can make a correction to the schedule. It also applies to correcting other types of changes, such as reports.

    I also applied some of the vocabulary that I learned. For example, I learned the term, “hyeon-jang,” which can describe a place that is not directly related to the company, but still an important part of it. Examples of “hyeon-jangs” for Nike include “gong-jang” and “meh-jang,” which translates to factory and shop, respectively. I always knew the previous two words, but I never knew that it was under the category of the first word!

    It was interesting to learn about these new words and I’ll be looking forward to learning about more new business terms!

Bi-weekly Learning Report

We learned about money expression and how to describe the time period of the day. We also studied expression about different seasons and how to describe people and object by numbers.

새벽: dawn

아침: morning, breakfast

점심: noon, lunch

저녁: afternoon, dinner

밤: night

오전: AM

오후: PM

그제: day before yesterday

어제: yesterday

오늘: today

내일: tomorrow

모레: day after tomorrow

봄: spring

여름: summer

가을: fall

겨울: winter

날씨: weather

춥다: cold

덥다: hot

Money: 만오천원 (15,000 won), 십오만원 (150,000 won), 천오백원 (1,500 won), 백칠십원 (170 won)

Number of things: 영개, 한개, 두개, 세개, 네개…열개, 스무개, 서른개…

Age: 한 살, 두 살, 세 살, 열 살, 스무 살, 서른 살….아흔살

# of people: 한 명, 두 명, 세 명, 네 명, 다섯 명, 열 명, 스무 명, 서른 명…

Bi-weekly Learning Report

We continued to learn time expression and easy sentence to describe the time. We also learned how to ask and answer questions like “what day is your birthday?” and “what time it is now?” and “what date is today?”

Time expression:

Hour: 시

Minute: 분

Second: 초

For example:

(1)1:00 한 시

(2)3:10 세 시 십분

(3)4:30 네시 삼십분(네시 반)

(4)5:45 다섯 시 사십오 분/여섯 시 십오 분 전

(5)12:55 열두 시 오십오 분/한 시 오분 전

(6)9:15 아홉시 십오 분

Phrase:

What time it is?

지금은 몇시입니까?

What day is your birthday?

생일이 몇 월 며칠이에요?

Bi-weekly Learning Report

In the first two weeks, we learned about how to describe date and time in Korean. These phrases are commonly used in everyday life.

Month:

January／February／March／April／May／June／July／August／September／October／November／December

일월／이월／삼월／사월／오월／유월／칠월／팔월／구월／시월／십일월／십이월

Week:

Sunday／Monday／Tuesday／Wednesday／Thursday／Friday／Saturday

일요일／월요일／화요일／수요일／목요일／금요일／토요일

    My main accomplishment for this semester is finally finishing the book that my learning partner and I have been working on! I was warned that this book will have a somber ending, but I am rest assured because I heard that the second book of this series has a more cheerful ending! I might pursue reading this book during this semester or I might even just continue reading it after this semester and after I graduate to continue developing my reading skills!

    I also worked on reading comprehension because after I finished reading the book, I was given homework questions based on the book. This was a great way to apply what I learned because as mentioned in Bi-Weekly Report #3, I struggled with answering the initial questions because they were based on the beginning parts of the book, which I had trouble remembering. However, it got easier to answer the questions as I went along!

    Overall, I feel like my progress is going well as I am able to accomplish my goals and learn about new cultural ideas. For example, this semester, I have been learning a lot about “Hanja” as discussed in some cultural posts and I really enjoy learning about this because it helps make connections between the Korean language. As a result, I am happy with my progress so far and I’m looking forward to learning even more this semester!

In preparation for our next class, our language partner instructed us to find a news article on a topic of our choosing, read it, and come prepared to explain what it consisted of. I chose a news article on my favorite Korean actor, 하정우 (Ha Jung-Woo), which covered his preparation for an upcoming movie. The article discussed the challenge of having to learn English for his role, and how he practiced and learned English four months prior to starting production. It also provided details on his co-star 이선균 (Lee Sun-Gyun), who had the role of a North Korean. I was able to understand most of what the article talked about, and hope to start reading Korean articles on a more regular basis.

article: http://m.hankookilbo.com/news/read/201812191876042023?backAd=1

Staying on the topic of Korean history, our language partner provided us a section of a Korean learning textbook from the library. We read a section on Horace Grant Underwood, a missionary who helped develop Korean society and Christianity. Underwood founded the Chosun Christian College, which later became Yonsei University, a well-known top-3 educational institution in the country. We then looked at famous Korean paintings called the 일월 and 연화도. Each section was followed by a short quiz (fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, true or false). The activity required a dense amount of reading and analysis of the texts to answer the questions correctly. 

Writing Korean is like combine sounds into syllables, and since I have learned the vowels and consonants in Korean, I can already spell some easy words by listening to it without knowing the meaning. The way learning Korean and Chinese is so different because the Chinese words and pronunciation are two different systems which you cannot write the words by merely listening to its pronunciation without memorizing them before. So I prefer to type because there are still many words I forgot how to write them in my daily life, even I used a lot in everyday conversations. Smart computers can help me with that. By typing the Pinyin, hundreds of characters that pronounce the same will pop up, and I can easily find which I want.
In the previous classes, I learned how to say a simple sentence which means “I am…” in Korean. (eg. I am a student 나는 학생이다.)Last class, my teacher taught me how to say “I am not…” (eg. I am not a student나는 학생이 아니다.)and “Are you…”(eg. Are you a student? 학생 교사에게 있습니까). All of these sentences share a similar structure, so I believe that the complex sentences are combining simple sentences.

Moving on the the topic of Korean history, our language partner found a Korean comic book that covered the history of 3/1 절, the day that commemorates the March 1st Movement in 1919. The national holiday passed recently and I did not know of its significance or the historical context behind it, so as a Korean, it was definitely important for me to learn about it. On March 1 of this year, 33 Korean nationalists and students declared their nation's independence in Seoul from colonizing Japan. It started a nationwide civil protest and was a catalyst for the establishment of the Korean government. Although it was a comic book, the context and dialogue were factual statements on the history. As we went through the comic book, we asked questions on the meanings and events, simultaneously jotting down notes of the timeline, events, and notable people in preparation of the final exam.