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My target culture is looking at francophone countries in the Caribbean and how they interact with other various indigenous and creole-related languages. My target countries are Martinique and Guadeloupe. Even though my language partner is Sara from Morocco, she made a comment about the fact that everyone there is bilingual. I want to know if this is the case for people living in Caribbean franco-countries. When do people choose to speak French? Are there certain parts of the country that primarily speak other languages? I think that a good way to strengthen my questions about Caribbean franco-countries is using a sociolinguistic framework. There are definitely some linguistic terms that I incorporate in some of the questions that I am asking as well as proving explanations to my questions. My questions specifically look at social contexts and how sociocultural rules play in the use of the French language. Do people speak French in formal settings like the workplace, rituals (parties, events), etc.? Are there languages that conflict with French in Guadeloupe and Martinique? 

These ideas are not currently included in my language learning plan. As of now I just specified that I wanted to work with someone of Caribbean or African descent. Because I identified Sara, I want to branch out of Morocco and look at another case. I can however draw some connections between Morocco and Guadeloupe/Martinique in terms of bilingualism. I can predict that there will be some parallels. I think that something I will add to my language learning plan is a piece about sociolinguistic competence. Cultural references and figures of speech are important in trying to breakdown where/when French is used in Guadeloupe and Martinique. My end goal with this research is to uncover how much I may potentially use French when traveling to these countries in the near future. They have always been on my bucket list as a place to visit. It would be interesting to see how I would play a role in picking up on these cultural references as an outsider. 

The most interesting thing about Korean culture is probably how widespread its became in such a short amount of time. This phenomenon is known as 한류 (hallyu), the Korean Wave. Essentially, this refers to the mind blowing growth in Korean culture including food, movies, shows, games, and of course music. 

The start of 한류 can be debated, but most sources agree that it started in the 1990s. The word 한류 comes from hanja, where 한 means ‘Korean’ and 류 means ‘wave/flow’. The 90s was when Korea began to “open up” more to the world, and thus the expansion of its influence began. However, from what I’ve seen and grown up with, it seems that the wave really began to pick up during the late 2010s. That was when Korean shows (K-dramas) began to become mainstream and movies such as Parasite began to receive global attention. And of course the music cannot be ignored. The large scale integration of K-pop in mainstream media became so massive that it overtook music that was produced in America. On a more minor scale, are some words that were directly taken from Korean and integrated into the English dictionary. These words include 재벌 (chaebol) and 갑질 (gabjil). Even though these may seem very minor, the mere fact that words are being directly incorporated into the English language is a testament to the influence of Korean culture.

Hangeul Day is on October 9th - a commemorative day to celebrate the introduction of hangeul(한글) in Korea, the language that Koreans use today. However, I wanted to shift focus onto a couple of cultural artifacts - “Hunminjeongeum Haerye” and "Hunminjeongeum Eonhae". When King Sejong developed hangeul, he, along with other scholars, published the “Hunminjeongeum Haerye” that went indepth to explain the principles of the Hangeul language system. This “Haerye” would further help other scholars to study the language and properly use it, boosting the linguistic application of Hangeul. One issue - it was in Hanja - chinese characters. Even though Korea had just gotten its own language, many scholars and nobles were acclimated to their original writing/language system - a system that was heavily dependent on Chinese. Eventually, it was translated into Hangeul as the “Eonhae” version.

These two documents are no doubt critical to Korea’s cultural history - and to linguists, these are as good as sacred texts. However, “Haerye” was lost throughout history, and the Japanese colonization destroyed a lot of the references to these documents. It was in 1940 when a wealthy art collector named Jeon Hyeong-pil would pay the price of numerous houses for “Haerye”, and for the first time in history, “Haerye” and “Eonhae” has been reprinted as a pair this past week. These reprints mimic the ancient documents - using the same materials and keeping the same look to the originals.

It was cool to learn about these Korean linguistic treasures - it gives me a better sense of appreciation for Hangeul and its history.

Not many people understand that there’s a difference between speaking/sound vs spelling. In English, the way you spell things is sometimes nowhere near the way it sounds when you speak it. A “word” we went over in class was “ghoti”, which with a bit of tweaking can be pronounced “fish”. Korean on the other hand is slightly more friendly. The language was designed and made based on the sounds that the characters would sound like. Because of this the way the word is spelled, is essentially the same as it sounds. However, there are many sounds/characters that are commonly very difficult to pronounce for people who didn’t grow up speaking the language. These are the “double consonants”: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ. They all sound similar to g, d, b, s, j/z but they have a much stronger cut off and stress. For example, ㄲ is more similar to a k, but the beginning of the letter sounds like a g. 

Hopefully there won’t be any difficulty learning Korean especially since I grew up listening to my parents speak it all the time. I think I will be able to reciprocate the same sounds for each character fairly easily. The only difficulty comes when incorporating them into writing, since there are so many characters that sound the same, such as ㅐ and ㅔ which both sound like ä. There are so double consonants not mentioned above that combine ㄹㅎ, which makes the ㅎ carry over to the next syllable. When speaking however, these differences are very minimal or even none.

At this point in the semester, I have a solid understanding of basic Indonesian grammar. I'm now in the place where I'm trying to rapidly expand my vocabulary. I've been creating picture-based vocabulary lists as part of my resource building and journaling on relevant topics. I've continued to find Duolingo helpful as well, and I've been testing into higher levels to keep it challenging.

My language partner and I have started speaking in about 80% Bahasa Indonesia, and this has been helpful for challenging me to thing on the fly in my target language. Her work packets have continued to be the most helpful textbook-like resource. The textbook I got for the class, Let's Speak Indonesian, has some helpful prompts, but it doesn't go as in depth as I would like it to. I've been using it a bit more selectively than I planned to.

In terms of my cultural studies, I'm still reading through Language Policy in Superdiverse Indonesia. Although it's in English, it has helped me to contextualize the relationship between Bahasa Indonesia, Malay dialects, Javanese, English, and other LFs and native languages. It's also helping me to connect to my studies in LLC 198, where we're preparing to do an English teaching practicum to students in Java. My professor for that class has offered to let me present on historic and sociolinguistics in Indonesia (something I've become quite nerdy about!) For cultural studies in Indonesian, I've started watching Whipped on Netflix with English subtitles.

So far I have learned how to recognize vowels, consonants and how to recognize them when they are put together. I have learned 2 apps to help me practice writing Korean syllables and have watched 2 episodes of the bilingual korean show Jadoo. I became interested in learning Korean since certain aspects of Korean culture like Kdrama and Kpop have grown so mainstream I was interested in the culture. Furthermore, I worked in a korean environment where I have caught some words in Korean. Being surrounded by it every weekend piqued my interest so that I could bring back some Korean and try to practice with them. I have not received much feedback on my Learning progress so far other than from my tutor, but I hope to keep improving.

I tried to create a study plan that resembles what a traditional language class would look like. If I don't have specific assignments to complete and deadlines to abide by, I know I will not follow through with the plan. Creating an Excel was the simplest method for me to organize my goals. I have a good foundation of Hangul so I started the plan by just jumping immediately into content. I knew Talktomeinkorean was a very useful resource to learn the language so I have purchased a subscription of that and am also using Memrise to learn vocab. I think grammar carries the country's culture so I made that one of the main components of my learning plan. By watching kdramas and speaking with my language partner, I will also be exploring more cultural topics that are outside of the language. I want to learn korean because I watch a lot of foreign tv shows and was planning on studying abroad at Yonsei University because their business school is really good. My classmates thought my plan was very well thought out and I was encouraged to keep a journal so I could get in more writing practice. I only created three weeks because I know it is subject to change depending on how i progress.

For this month I focused on watching Korean shows. The popular Korean show 무한도전 (Infinite Challenge in English), has the people, basically celebrities, on the show do various challenges centered around a theme. The episodes s are largely unscripted, meaning that essentially all the dialogue and talking is casual and on the spot. By watching episodes from this show, I aimed to not just learn Korean speech, but just casual everyday dialogue. Reading articles and books in Korean does help me improve vocabulary, but watching a group of people just casually doing fun challenges shows the actual dialogue in context.

While watching the show, I would come across lots of words that I wouldn’t understand. I would write these words down as I watched the episode, but wouldn’t pause to search up the term. Instead, I would finish the episode so that the flow and momentum wouldn’t be interrupted. And also in case that pausing would make me momentarily forget what was going on before. Once I looked up the terms, I would discuss these words in a real world scenario with my language partner and try to use them as much as possible (if relevant) in actual dialogue in Korean.

The benefits of this was that I learned a lot about Korean culture while watching a lot of these episodes. The topics they touch upon are traditional customs and practices from the Joseon dynasty to to contemporary, modern trends. I've gained more knowledge about the richness of Korean traditions, such as the significance of holidays like 추석 (Chuseok) and 설날 (Seollal) and the intricacies of 한복 (hanbok) attire. Additionally, the show's dialogue certainly helped me learn more vocabulary that’s used in everyday speech. Not only that, but idioms that are used commonly in Korea were also used a lot in the show. Learning these idioms and common phrases helps me learn the nuances of speech in causal dialogue.

However, although I tried to use these new words and phrases in regular dialogue, I found myself struggling to actually apply them in real life. The real life scenarios where I would actually use these words were very limited. The only things I would probably use were (unsurprisingly) the lighthearted insults they used to each other in the show. Despite, not being able to expand my vernacular using the show, what did help a lot was the constant use of actual Korean dialogue. Speaking in Korean with my language partner and other Korean speakers/learners helped me get more comfortable with day-to-day speaking in Korean. Words that I usually would not say in Korean (rather English), would come out naturally in dialogue.

So while the show itself did not help improve my language skills in Korean, it did help me learn a lot about Korean culture. Which influenced me to do more research and learn about Korean culture and history as well as the language itself. Speaking Korean helped me improve a lot so that’s something that I’ll continue doing without a doubt.

My semester goals are to stop relying on English as a crutch when speaking Korean, to improve basic casual conversational skills, develop reading and writing to an intermediate level, and learn more about everyday Korean culture for young Korean adults in their 20s.

We have been meeting weekly with my language partner to practice Korean. At the beginning of our conversations, we start by conversing in Korean. She then helps me practice my writing and to build my vocabulary. She will write out lists of words and phrases in English that I will first verbally translate, and then write down in hangul. These words and phrases have been common words that I would use daily if speaking in Korean.

Besides my language partner, I have tried practicing my Korean with my Korean friends in a more informal setting, for instance by playing Korean drinking games. This was a fun way for me to improve my language skills and learn about Korean culture for young adults my age.

I feel that in just several sessions my speaking, vocabulary, and writing has already improved. My partner corrected basic syntax and grammar mistakes that I now know to avoid. I believe that first speaking and then writing down vocabulary and phrases helps me retain what I learn.

I feel slightly more comfortable speaking in Korean, although I still feel like I can make the most progress in is area this semester. I still speak 90% in English when spoken to in Korean outside of formal meetings. During my Korean sessions with my language partner, I also still rely on English to ask questions.

My goal for the rest of the semester is to really focus on limiting my English usage. I believe that consciously attempting this while continuing to regularly speak Korean throughout every week for an entire semester will help me achieve this goal.

One aspect of my learning I would like to expand upon is my study of Korean culture and lifestyle. I will do this by consuming more media such as YouTube videos, shows, and movies that showcase life in Korea. When possible, I also hope to continue practically experiencing and learning more about culture with my Korean friends on campus.

What I genuinely enjoyed learning another language is being able to communicate in a different way with people outside of english. Most Americans do not know another language, so by being familiar with one I felt special since I could do what they could not. When I utilize my Spanish outside of the classroom, I get excited that I can practice with people and understand what they are saying. I gain a sense of pride in my ability to understand and speak with others. My biggest challenge is pronunciation and listening skills. I always thought it was a challenge trying to get the words to sound as if I was a native speaker communicating. It bothers me when I hear Americans speaking with a very thick American accent. When I detect a thick American accent like in Spanish or French class, it means to me that they were not putting in effort to better communicate themselves to new people. Listening skills was always a struggle in my opinion since the words were not broken up and spoken side by side without a pause. I have to distinguish the words from each other in the conversation. I was surprised from the surveys to learn that I am more of an auditory learner than a visual learner and that I enjoy nature. I always thought of myself as a visual learner since I preferred to see how things are done instead of being told how to complete tasks. The best activities that would improve my language learning significantly is having consistently and being able to practice it outside of my learning environment.  When learning Spanish, I always watched Spanish shows with subtitles either in Spanish or English so that I can get used to hearing what words sound like coming from a native speaker. I currently still watch Spanish shows today to keep up with my listening skills or my reading skills with Spanish subtitles if possible. To learn korean, I  found a show that  has English and Korean subtitles along with Korean dialogue which would benefit me a lot since I could learn what they mean in the moment and how they are written in Korean. Since the show already covers reading and listening skills, something I could expand on for my language learning activities is being able to practice the writing aspect a lot more often since I do not get much practice for that.

Using Korean literature, especially children’s fairytales, combined with sociology/psychology I could improve my Korean. Reading children’s fairy tales could seem very basic, however they show me the culture and history of Korea. And since the sentences are basic, learning the grammar of the language as well as the sentence structure could be very beneficial. Furthermore, because most of these stories are based in the past, there will be terms that I won’t know. Learning these terms in an interesting and fun way will help them stay in my memory for a long time. 

Understanding the sociological perspective of Korea will also allow me to learn the language better. Obviously, the language that’s used in literature and writing is not the same as the one used in speaking. Learning the sociology can help me learn words that are used in speaking (ex: slang terms) which will help me communicate in Korean better. Which is arguably a better skill for me.

For the first few meetings of the semester, my language partner and I have discussed what my goals for this semester were, and have gotten started on our curriculum. While in the previous semesters we focused more on improvement for speech and vocabulary, we've realized that improvement cannot always happen. Rather, I want to steadily practice dialogue in Korean, maintaining my speech proficiency at the minimum. This is the basis of our meetings - improving/maintaining/practicing speech/dialogue. However, my writing is also another goal for this semester. I improved my Korean writing quite a bit last semester, but it has a long way to go. While I don't expect to be writing essays in Korean easily, I'd like to try writing a coherent paper.

To get started on these goals, my partner and I discussed the optimal way to go about our plan. While we continue to talk in Korean and choose topics to talk about - for writing I started to write about a recent event from the news, or summarizing a Korean article. This forces me to use words that may be niche to that specific news, and if I am stuck, I can read the article again and use the vocab in the article. I tried not to do this too much - it felt like cheating, but I would always try to learn the words that I would take from the article.

Going forward, I'm excited to see how my writing improves - if it does, I'll probably stick to this plan, plus a few more ideas. If not, then I'd definitely have to switch things up.

In my ongoing effort to become proficient in Korean, I have devoted the past fortnight to a crucial facet of the language: the mastery of Korean vowels and consonants. This journal entry will delve into my experiences, the objectives I established, the tactics I employed, and my reflections on the efficacy of these approaches.

For the past two weeks, my primary focus has been on gaining expertise in Korean vowels and consonants. ​This represents a fundamental step in the acquisition of any language, as it underpins correct pronunciation and facilitates comprehension in reading. I begin by introducing myself to the Korean alphabet, which comprises 14 consonants and 10 vowels. During this period my principal object was to acquire proficiency in the recognition and correct pronunciation of Korean vowels and consonants. My aim was to discern them in written form, and to articulate them accurately in speech .In addition, I wish to commence a rudimentary vocabulary employing these characters.

​I achieved these goals using the following strategy:

Daily practice: I commit to daily practice sessions, along with a study of the Korean alphabet chart. Each day, I set aside a minimum of 30 minutes to acquaint myself with the characters in order to remember them.

Utilization of Flashcards: I devised flashcards in which I wrote characters on one side and their corresponding sounds on the reverse. Sometimes the pronunciation is expressed in Chinese or English. This method serves to reinforce both visual and auditory memories of each character, which is also very useful.

Listening and Oral Repetition: Online resources for native Korean speakers to pronounce these characters have become invaluable and so helpful .I improved my pronunciation by repeating the sounds aloud after them.

 Language Learning Apps: Using language learning apps that teach users Korean pronunciation and reading proficiency, I participated in interactive exercises.. All of them facilitate structured practice in reading and pronunciation.

Upon reflection on these strategies, they are shown to be highly effective. Consistent daily practice and the incorporation of flashcards significantly enhanced my ability to recognize and retain knowledge of Korean vowels and consonants.. In addition, the native speaker's articulation sharpened my articulation significantly. The amalgamation of these learning resources, including applications and online tutorials, enriches the learning process by making it both engaging and comprehensive.

In the future, probably within the next month, I intend to broaden my vocabulary by acquiring basic words and phrases that incorporate the vowels and consonants I have studied. I will undertake the practice of reading short sentences and paragraphs to further enhance my reading skills. I have been through so much during this period. As I observed the improvement in my Korean reading, a feeling of pride and accomplishment came over me. Still, there were instances of frustration, especially when grappling with the intricacies of pronunciation. Still, my desire to become proficient in the rudiments of Korean remains unwavering. The study of Korean vowels and consonants has shed light on the unique Korean script devised by Emperor Sejong. It's always fascinating to learn the vowels and consanants’ intricate connections to Korean culture and history.

All in all, the past two weeks have constituted a highly rewarding stride in my pursuit of Korean language acquisition. The mastery of vowels and consonants provided a firm foundation for further exploration of the language, and I eagerly anticipated the further development of my skills and cultural acumen in the weeks that followed.

For the past month, I have been planning the semester and started focusing on specific areas that I am currently lacking on. My language partner, Jason, has been very helpful in figuring out the areas I should focus on to improve my fluency. These areas include fluency during casual conversation, knowing business terms and attitude, cultural knowledge, and general reading and writing skills. 

The resources I am using for my Korean learning journey include business related articles, Korea trend focused articles, YouTube videos, and a Netflix show called “Moving.” Instead of having a specific day Jason and I meet, we have decided to meet whenever we are available throughout the week. We purposely did this to increase our times that we meet and to make it a welcoming experience. Another helpful resource is meeting up with my student, Henry. While preparing for his lessons, I also encounter a lot of new vocabulary terms and cultural factors. 

For this month specifically, I have been heavily focused on business related Korean. As a marketing and business analytics major, I am currently applying for multiple jobs. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of these jobs require Korean fluency in consulting customers in Korea. To fulfill this requirement, I realized that I should know a lot of the business terms in Korean to communicate with other departments located in Korea as well as Korean customers. I have been using Naver.com to find marketing related articles and highlighting key terms to memorize. One exemplary article is called “온라인 마켓팅 필요한 이유.” It talks about different types of online marketing and the importance of it. Some vocabulary terms I learned through this article are 

소비패턴 (spending pattern), 비중 (importance), 매출상승 (increase in sales), 파급력 (power of influence), 원고 (manuscript). Now I am able to write marketing ideas in Korean using these key terms, related to customer attraction.

Another reason why these business related articles are helpful is because I am able to see how and what platforms Korea uses to reach their audience. One interesting platform this article talks about is the usage of “Mom Cafes.” These mom cafes are a blogging platforms that usually, mothers get on to shared and receive information. I would have never thought that there was such a heavy community based platform that shares digital content. 

https://blog.naver.com/easy-company/223160266830

Jason has also helped me in finding these business articles for me to read and provide a summary (요약) before our meetings. 

For the next upcoming month, I am planning to start a show called “Mask Girl” alone during my free time. I will start off with keeping the Korean subtitles and slowly take them off so I can practice my listening skills.

Bahasa Indonesia Syllabus

For my syllabus, I tried to maximize the amount of language I was exposing myself to during the first half of the semester, while the second part of the semester will be more oriented to practicing composition and presentation. I've recently decided that one of my goals will b to create an online "Bahasa Indonesia Learning Lab" that will serve as a hub of resources for future SDLAP students. I've noticed this being a difficulty of mine-- not having many reliable resources.

So far, I'm noticing a few things:

- I'm testing into higher levels on Duolingo, so I'm moving through that faster than I expected to. Considering the relatively simple grammar structure of Indonesian, I've enjoyed using Duolingo as a resource and have found it quite helpful.

- My language partner (through Italki) has been a wonderful resource for providing worksheets. She has me bring them to sessions, and I've found them more helpful than the exercises in my textbook. She's begun to have a busier schedule (and canceled some of our sessions), so I'm unsure if I'll be able to keep working with her, but it's been wonderful for the time being.

- Creating vocabulary lists for the Lab has been wonderful for expanding my vocabulary. I've been trying to use images rather than English translations when relevant, and this is helping me to mentally retreive the words faster.

   I visited Budapest for the first time in 2017 during my summer tournament camp which was around 7 years ago. Now when I think about it does not seem to be a very long time ago, but 7 years is a long time indeed. I wish I started to learn Hungarian back then which means that by now I would be a fluent speaker. However, I have chosen a little bit more complicated path for myself - learning one of the toughest languages in the world during my senior year of college. If not now, then when? First, I downloaded Duolingo (by the way, I am on my 62nd day strike). In about a week I found myself the tutor on the Italki platform with whom I started to learn the basics of the language like the alphabet, vowels/consonants, grammar structure, types of verbs, etc. During the early beginning of my learning journey, I was struggling a lot with motivation because I simply forgot how tough, and time-consuming learning a new language can be. 

   My decision to get enrolled into both SDLC 105 and SDLC 110 gave me that extra motivation, and opportunity to include Hungarian learning into my schedule. I was lucky enough to find an exchange student from the UK who was born and raised in Hungary and, therefore, fluently speaks Hungarian. I meet with her every week at least twice a week, and sometimes we manage to schedule the third session depending on our schedules. As it says in my study plan/syllable, we use 2 MagyarOK books - one for grammar, and the second one for vocabulary and practice of communication skills with audio files. I have been working a lot on my own, doing homework, and finishing the rest of the assigned pages from the books for which we did not have time during our meetings. Before every class I text my community partner and let her know my progress on homework, share with her my questions, and the exercises I want to go through with her. I have been using a lot of flashcards and stickers with new vocabulary which I take with me and review on my way to classes. Also, my community partner suggested that I listen and translate to English some popular Hungarian songs that have a lot of new and useful vocabulary. I find these strategies very useful and effective in my learning experience. I feel that I already drastically expanded my vocabulary, and moved from zero level and not being able to say a word 2 months ago to some level of A1 and being able to participate in basic conversations. I am planning to maintain the same learning techniques, meet with my community partner, and do my homework, learning activities, and exercises from books with the same frequency. 

Link to my google slides presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pllulfDDb-1x-mTYYoBO1jXM5ReQf-aG2YaDxFROawY/edit?usp=sharing

-- I tried to be as realistic as possible with the organization of my self-directed learning plan. I wanted to make sure I crafted a plan that fit around my HECTIC schedule, as well as keeping it casual and informal for myself. I will not be using any textbooks and my primary resource will be the iTalki language learning platform. My study for the semester is conversational French, as this was something I struggled with when I first arrived in France summer 2023. I have only learned to speak high French in an academic setting, and I want to be able to speak more casually. This is why keeping my learning plan informal is important to me. 

My goal on iTalki is to spend a minimum of 30 minutes on the site per week. Thus far I have only completed one lesson, and 45 minutes felt a little too long. I am going to start with 30 minutes and make my way up. The great thing about iTalki is that I am able to practice my French with a native speaker from a Francophone country. I have aspirations to spend a semester in an African french-speaking country. My next lesson is with a native Moroccan, which is where I want to study.

My classmates gave me positive feedback on my learning plan because of how realistic it is. My learning plan is flexible, and my goal can be achieved around a busy schedule. It is not incredibly difficult to find 30 minutes out of my week to speak French. Hopefully I can keep this up throughout my time at university and into my life post-academia. 

            Military archery in Korea goes back to 1 BCE. Korean history has been marked with centuries of defensive wars against its larger and more powerful invading neighbors. Centuries of conflict contributed to the development of Korean archers into some of the most skills archers in the world. To this day, Korean archers are consistently the most successful in Olympic archery. Since 1984, Korea has been awarded 23 of 34 Olympic gold medals for archery.

One cannot discuss Korean archery without delving into its bow making. The Gak-gung (각궁) or Korean Bow is a composite reflex bow developed on the Korean peninsula. The Gak-gung being was officially standardized centuries ago by the Korean government as the national bow. In 1971, it was designated as an important intangible cultural property by the South Korean Cultural Administration.

Traditional Korean bows are one hundred percent handmade. It is a composite reflex bow, meaning a traditional bow made from animal products and wood, with the ends curved away from the archer. This style was also seen in Mongolia and Turkey. Manufacturing a single Korean bow is an arduous process that takes four months. The materials needed are bamboo, mulberry wood, oak, cow tendons, and buffalo horn. The materials are very similar to other Eurasian composite bows. Where Korean bows differ is in their geometry. They are smaller in size but have extreme reflex. This means that they allow for a much longer drawback. This leads to a longer effective range. For reference, Korean archery is practiced at a range of 145 meters. Olympic archery takes place with a target distance of 70 meters.

Making a Korean bow means first carefully cutting the materials into the desired size. There is then a lengthy process of molding the woods and horns into shape with a combination of exposure to fire, soaking in water, curing under sunlight, and using frames to mold the bow. Once the bow has been built and glued together, it must be unwound and shaped into its final shape by manually bending it. This is a physically difficult process.

I watched two videos of traditional Korean bowmakers during the bow making process. I was impressed by how much craftmanship, and hard work goes into the process. The Archery Historian video showcases the skills of Mr. Kwon, who had over four decades of bow making experience. He was the 13^th generation of a family that has been making bows for four hundred years. This was an incredible story to hear. It is amazing to think that this tradition could be passed down for so long, and that knowledge from centuries ago could be passed along this way. The Korean language video showcases another artisan at work is even more detailed and showcase the entire arduous process. It is no wonder to me that the Korean government chose to protect bow making and recognized it as an important element of Korean history and culture.

Today, archery of course is no longer a pillar of the Korean military, however it is considered the national sport and is practiced as a martial art. Knowing the incredible history and process of making these bows, I would love to have the opportunity to try it one day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gakgung

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIIxyHBRAgI&t=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjgtsGKdhMs

When people think of Korean dishes, often the first ones that come to mind are 불고기 (bulgogi), 떡볶이 (tteokbokki), 갈비 (galbi), and of course the well known 김치 (kimchi). However, there are many traditional dishes that most people outside of Korea won’t know. Some of these are 떡국 (tteok-guk) which is a soup with rice cakes. This dish is often served during the Korean New Year since it symbolizes rebirth or a new beginning. Another is 미역국 (miyeok-guk) which is essentially seaweed soup. Traditionally the soup is served with beef or dried fish, which was an extremely rare and expensive food item back in the day. And because of this, it was only served during one’s actual birthday for the mother, as it helped with the recovery process after giving birth. But now it’s consumed all the time.

One dish that is a bit more popular is 부대찌개. When romanized it turns into budae-jjigae which doesn’t really show much value. But the English translation is Army Base Stew. The stew is very simple, and can be created with a variety of ingredients, but what usually goes in nowadays is:

1. Spam (the ham thing)
2. Tofu
3. Kimchi
4. Instant ramen noodles
5. Cheese (althought I believe this is very controversial)

As you can see it’s mixed with a variety of things that someone would usually not mix in a stew (especially the cheese). But there’s actually a reason behind all this. Currently, it’s a beloved Korean dish that is might as well be eaten at least once a month by every Korean in Korea. In reality though, it actually has a very rich but sad history behind the dish:

The dish finds its origins back to the Korean War (1950-1953). During and after this major conflict, the war left the entire peninsula of Korea in a state of devastation. Homes were destroyed, farms were burned, and food was scarce. Because of this, people had to do whatever they could and make do with whatever they found for food. This led to the emergence of 부대찌개. In this scarce environment, the Korean people started to combine all the leftover food that was left behind in US military bases that were set up all throughout the land with Korean basics such as kimchi. The name first half of the word (부대) literally means “military” or “army base”, which reflects the origins of the dish. 

The dish, although made with leftovers, was a symbol of hope and comfort to the Korean war survivors and was a staple from that point onwards. Eventually, it reached a point in time where 부대찌개 has become a dish that everyone can now enjoy. 부대찌개 is not only a reminder of what something as basic as food can do to lift the spirits of the people in trying times, but the resilience of the Korean people. It remains a beloved comfort food, and variations of the dish can be found in Korean restaurants around the world, celebrating its rich history and the ingenuity of the people who created it during a time of need.

Different countries and regions all have different cultures. This is obvious but in what ways do they differ? Well according to Figuring Out Foreigners by Craig Storti, these differences can be seen in Individualist-Collectivist, nonverbal communication, monochronic-polychronic, internal-external, and direct vs. indirect communication. Some of his strongest arguments, in my opinion, are the differences in nonverbal communication and direct vs indirect communication. Regarding nonverbal communication, it can be broken down into 3 main categories. 1) Behaviors that exist within two different cultures. Both have the same meaning as well. 2) Behaviors that exist within both, however, they have differing meanings. 3) One behavior has completely no meaning in the other culture. The direct communication cultures tend to rely less on implications but rather on the explicit conveying of thoughts. Whereas indirect cultures rely more on intuitive understandings. 

I’ve spent a couple of summer vacations in Korea and of course I’ve lived my entire life in America. In my time in Korea, I’ve definitely seen a more indirect communication culture. People essentially know everyone throughout their respective apartment floors, People join each other in activities whether they know each other or not. Definitely a more collective environment among the people. A strong example I’ve seen in Korea is when I was at a restaurant, and my glass of water was nearly empty. The waiter, without asking, just refills it back up for me. Now this may seem very rude in American culture standards, but not filling it up and having to ask them to do it would be a burden in Korea.

I’ve lived in different regions in America. Athens, where I was born, was a “college town” because of its vicinity to UGA. In Toledo, Ohio, the place I lived was very rural. And in Maryland, it was a suburban area near a busy town center. Throughout these places, Maryland and Athens were direct in culture (mainly Athens). Whereas Toledo felt more like the indirect nature that was present in Korea. Everyone’s main goal in that area was to maintain a peaceful life without any conflicts.