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            As an immigrant at a young age, I came to the United States with no experience in any other language than Korean. In addition, my Korean skill wasn’t much developed as I immigrated at a young age. My verbal skills grew as I continuously communicated with my family. However, as I became more integrated with my new friends, I slowly gained my English skill. The results of both skills were exponential and having someone as a speaking partner always helped the most. Speaking Korean at home truly helped to retain my previous-learned knowledge. But without proper study of the language, my writing skill and vocabulary did not improve as much. As a result, I became more comfortable with English than Korean.

            Continuing on with my education life, I had to learn Spanish in middle school and high school as a language requirement. I took Spanish for six years and stopped once I enrolled in University of Richmond. Spanish was the second and most recent formal teaching of a language and I enjoyed it so much. I was most excited to put the skill in practice. At my summer part time job, I communicated with my Hispanic coworkers and was able to grow a stronger friendship with them. In addition, I would talk to my friend’s parents in Spanish and was pleased to see that I was able to hold a normal conversation with them. For me, putting the acquired language skill in to practice is the most enjoyable thing about learning a language. One thing that I disliked as a language learner is that without these outside-of-class interactions, it is very hard to improve beyond a certain point. I learned that putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation is hard, but it is necessary to reach out and try to practice your learned-language.

            After analyzing my learning skills, I have learned that I am a visual and a tactile learner. I learn by reading and seeing pictures and remember things by sight. I picture things that I learn and primarily use visual methods to learn. On top of that, I am also a tactile learner which means I learn the best by touching and doing things. I remember things by physical movements and physical activities. Some language learning activities that suit my learning style include making flashcards to learn new vocabulary, visualizing new words, and repetition of spelling practice. Furthermore, I am a logical and a mathematical thinker which means I enjoy exploring how things are related, how things work, and critically thinking. Looking for patterns in words and sorting, categorizing, and characterizing word lists will improve my language learning.

            In order to expand my learning activities, I should focus on involving visual and hands-on activities. Integrating pictures and games in to the learning exercises would exponentially help with the learning. In addition, auditory learning is something I lack the most and getting comfortable with auditory learning would help expand the range of activities that I can utilize. Finally, I find self-reflection as a great tool for any type of learning. Setting aside time to reflect on new ideas and information would further improve my language learning process.

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ReflectionPaper1.docx

I have been a language learner since I was 10. I was in my third year of primary school when I start to take an English course. The English book is designed to be engaging and interactive. There are four characters in the book and every chapter they have conversations in different scenarios to help students learn. At that time, English is my favorite subject. The learning process is fun, and the teacher encourages us to watch cartoons and listen to children's folk. However, when I was in middle school, the teacher begins to treat English course as an important component of the senior high school entrance examination. The course was not interactive anymore, the teacher emphasized grammar and sentence composition, and students were asked to finish a certain amount of sample tests every day. Since then, my interest in learning English has slacked, and English is no longer my favorite course.

My second language learning experience would be French. I registered in a French course in my last year of high school. At first, I am excited to learn French because of a saying that “French is the most beautiful language of all.” However, the class put too much emphasize on the grammar and the techniques to tackle the French a1exam. I found myself distracted in class often and lost track of the complicated grammar usage.

After taking the learning styles and multiple intelligence survey, I would categorize myself as a factual learner. I would appreciate the study process to be precise, which allows me to understand the process of learning and progress step by step. I expect detailed and precise course descriptions and grading policies, and I would benefit from the exam-oriented reviews. The learning style survey tells that I am a visual learner who learns by reading and seeing pictures. It says that I may have difficulty with spoken directions and may be easily distracted by sounds. Therefore, in my future learning activities, I would achieve efficiency by studying in a quiet environment and use a detailed schedule to track my study process. The multiple intelligence survey shows that I am an interpersonal person since I got 4.29 out of 5 in the social component. The result shows that I am able to develop ideas and learn from other people. Therefore, effective learning techniques would be using my social intelligence to participate in group discussions and one-to-one consulting. The result indicates that the self-directed language course would be a good fit for me since I would have a chance to learn from my language partner, and also observe valuable language learning skills from the weekly group meeting.

My future learning expectation for this course is that I should make detailed plans for each progress and communicate with my language partner to understand my weakness in the learning process. The learning process would be most efficient if I could develop an interest in the language, so I would consult my language partner to find out entertaining methods to get familiar with the language.

            Learning a new language comes in multitude of perspectives other than just characters or symbols making words and sentences. Language involves the cultural, historical, and religious influences and aspects as well.

My native language is Korean, and I started learning English as a secondary language in 6^th grade. Because Korean and English differ both fundamentally and structurally, learning English was extremely challenging. I can almost remember putting words together without any grammatical knowledge and trying to make sentences that only made sense in my head. Constantly talking with my classmates significantly increased the rate I was learning English. After just two short years, I was able to catch up with the rest of my grade and graduate out of ESL.

In high school, I took Spanish as a second language requirement; however, learning Spanish after learning English was much easier as they had similar letters and structures. I exceled in Spanish all throughout high school which made learning Spanish a rather enjoyable experience than a challenge.

To my experience, I learned the most during real world experience. When I traveled to Mexico, my Spanish skills were put to the test; however, I could barely understand the native pronunciation which led to a complete blank mind. As I talked with more and more native speakers, I was able to learn at a much more significant rate than in classroom environment.

With the experience of learning two languages by the time I graduates high school, I can definitely conclude that I enjoy learning a language with a native speaker. Native speakers keep the pace going by pushing me more than what books can teach me. Also, language was only enjoyable when I kept making progress and putting it to real life application.

To my experience, I disliked learning language in just a classroom setting with just books and packets that explain grammar, vocabulary, and rules. Language can get extremely slow when it is taught just like any other classes: lectures, homework, and handouts. Unlike any other classes, language requires you to go out and apply it to real life in order to enjoy it and learn faster. Especially speaking with native speakers as they have completely different pronunciations and the location of accents.

According to the Learning Styles analysis, it concluded that I was a visual learner. Because I’m a visual learner, seeing pictures or color-coding things would significantly assist me in learning as fast as possible. This is a significant analysis as it will influence the way I study new language. Now that I know the best learning style for me, using pictorial or visual aids will boost the rate of which I learn things.

According to the Multiple Intelligences Survey, it concluded that my top three intelligences were musical, body movement, and social. Knowing that musical is the strongest intelligences, I can use music to remember rules, words, or grammars by implementing them into the lyrics and singing along to get it in my head. As for body movement, I can write things over and over again to use muscle memory to remember how to spell words. With social intelligences, it will best for me to study with other people or native speakers to have social interaction.

With various perspectives to tackle learning experiences, I can implement new techniques and skills to ensure that I learn a new language at the most efficient pace.Reflection%20Paper%201.docx

SDLC Reflection paper #1

As I reflect on past experiences of language learning in a classroom setting, my attitude towards language learning has been influenced, I believe, to be very negative. This was first enforced by the social and academic environment of the class. The Spanish classes that I took in high school and even in University of Richmond were full of students who were only taking it because they had to. Due to this mentality, none of the students were motivated to become fluent in Spanish and thus would never practice speaking outside of class and engaging with someone of a different culture.

This reluctance to learn a language was also influenced by the fact that these students also had never been exposed to different languages as they grew up unlike me. As missionaries from South Korea, my parents had always talked to me in Korean as I grew up. I think because I was exposed to Korean I was genuinely more interested in learning another language like Spanish. I believe this was because I enjoyed the moments of recognition of something said in a different language. It intrigued me how I was able to translate a message so quickly. As I tried to learn a little Korean from my parents, I also learned a lot about Korean culture such as subtle social hierarchies and different dialects as well as differences between grammar structure and tone compared to English. The ability to speak in a different language doesn’t only allow you to speak different words but to also connect with a different world. However, my excitement was dampened by the attitude of fellow students as well as the way the language was taught.

Unlike in the way that I learned Korean which was through conversations with my parents and guessing through context clues, I learned Spanish in a very rigid structure. Although I like structured learning such as learning vocab and understanding grammar structure before speaking, it felt very purposeless as many of the phrases we were learning weren’t practical in social situations. This very detailed attention to grammar and vocab also made me afraid to speak and make mistakes as I would feverishly focus on putting together the perfect grammatically correct sentence. I also disliked speaking as I made a lot of mistakes and was out of my comfort zone. However, I hope through self-learning Korean with methods that work best for me and my own motivation I will be able to change this negative perspective and gain fluency in the end.

Academically, I’ve dominantly been a factual learner. I learn best when there is a clear structure and progression in learning concepts. I’ve seen this in the way that I like math and how most equations will lead to one definitive answer. I will often memorize key definitions and concepts and use repetitive worksheets or activities to build my understanding. These kinds of activities lend well to my visual side of learning as I learn best when I write stuff down, draw graphs, use flashcards, and visualize concepts in my head. I also am, by nature, very introspective so when I learn I often mull the concepts in my head to reflect on what I understand and to try and figure out that of which I didn’t understand.

In addition to memorization and worksheets, I could expand my learning activities by organizing my understanding of concepts out loud. This would greatly benefit me as it would be repetitive and allow me to reflect in a more organized and concrete way. I also should speak with native speakers like my parents and friends to put into practice the concepts and words I’ve been memorizing to build my understanding and fluency.

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When I learned my first language, Korean, I felt as if it came naturally to me. I spoke Korean with my family and friends in daily conversations, and then learned to write and understand new vocabularies through flash cards, worksheets and television shows. When we moved to the United States and had to learn english, it was a different and difficult experience. Although it took longer and took more effort due to the differences in those two languages, I used the same methods to learn and study english as I did Korean- through daily conversations, flashcards, and worksheets to improve my skills. Then in high school, I learned Japanese with the same methods which worked really well for me due to the fact that Korean and Japanese had the same roots, and that I used methods that worked on me.

The parts I enjoyed as I was learning a new language was learning through flashcards and worksheets. By learning with flashcards, I truly felt that I could memorize the vocab the most effectively through going over flashcards with somebody. Having the flashcard in front of me truly helped me expand my vocabulary by letting me understand and fix my mistakes right on the spot. The other part of learning I also enjoyed was working through worksheets, and I believe that it helped me with everything across the board- from vocabulary through grammar. While working through the worksheets, I had the time to actually process my thoughts before writing them down, and I believe this helped me improve in that certain language overall. I was comfortable with these methods because it required me to think internally, which was what I was familiar to.

The part I disliked was holding a conversation with a fluent speaker. I knew that this would be the most effective method to improve in speaking, but I just hated making mistakes in front of a fluent speaker. I did not embrace that fact until in high school, but by embracing it and constantly speaking with another person, I was able to improve in speaking, as well as my grammar and accents. Although I was not comfortable with this method, this was one of the most effective methods to improve my learning skills.  

According to the surveys I completed, it stated that I was a visual learner, which explained why I felt using flashcards  was effective for me. It also explained why worksheets worked for me, since I was able to visualize things I was reading, and was effective for me to write things down. According to the FIRE model, I seem to be a factual learner, which means that I like detailed methods such as worksheets, and this seems to describe myself well.

In order to expand my learning activities, I believe that I should go out of my comfort zone to receive the full experience of learning a new language, which would be holding a conversation with a native speaker. Since my preferred methods of learning involves thinking internally, speaking out loud, whether it be by myself or with someone else, would really help me take my learning experience to its full capacity. Also, maybe by helping out somebody else who is less experienced than I am, I would be able to review the concept and understand why that person is having a difficult time learning that certain concept. By learning through methods that I am not completely comfortable with, it could really benefit myself to become more experienced and eventually more comfortable with the new language.

                             Although I have been studying languages since my first Spanish class in junior high school, I did not become inspired by my studies until entering college. I spent five years studying Spanish, received perfect grades, and completed AP Spanish my senior year of high school, but I did not feel as if I could practically use the language or understand native speakers. Primarily, I remember practicing the language through reading comprehension and auditory recall multiple choice tests. I tend to understand topics in a broader sense and can demonstrate my knowledge better through practical application, rather than through detail-focused test taking. Although I was able to excellently read and write the language, I could not speak or understand Spanish in a verbal sense, which was disappointing.

                             After this experience with my first non-native language, I decided to try out something new in college. I enrolled in my first Italian class sophomore year and had a completely different experience with the language. Rather than seeking to memorize large sets of vocabulary or grammar rules, we practiced speaking the language and mainly focused on the key vocabulary that we needed to communicate. The language courses at the University of Richmond are unique in that multiple learning approaches and resources are used. I enjoy textbook memorization, but also appreciate listening to Italian music, studying classical European texts, and watching Italian films. In addition, I enjoy that we heavily practice our written skills and have flexibility in the topics we write about. The integrative approach to learning has made my experience in the Italian Studies department extremely successful, compared to my Spanish studies. In only two years, I feel extremely confident in my abilities.

                             The Learning Survey seemed to confirm all of my beliefs about my preferred learning style and explained the disparity between my two language experiences. My scores came out as follows: 50% tactile, 35% visual, and 15% auditory. The survey identified that my weaknesses may be difficulty remembering things I have seen/heard, learning by listening, and short attention span. I would agree with all of these traits. In regard to successfully learning a new language, the survey made a few key suggestions I would like to adopt: participating in hands-on activities, arranging flashcards to show relationships, and drawing/building to learn. For example, interactive online exercises for vocabulary may be something I take advantage of.

                             I found the Multiple Intelligences Survey to be extremely accurate too in measuring my learning strengths. My top two intelligence categories, Musical and Self, tied at 4.71. I would agree that I am extremely self-reflective and do my best work through personal trial and error, brainstorming alone, and completing independent projects. Also, I do enjoy studying alone, which this intelligence suggests. The Music score seems accurate, as well, considering I play six instruments, choreograph for my dance team, love classical music, and write my own poetry. In relation to my study of Maltese, I hope to incorporate the survey suggestions of journal keeping, small self-guided projects, poetry, and listening to contemporary music in the language.

                             The FIRE Model was interesting because I did not strongly identify with a specific category- I was somewhat tied between Factual and Evaluative which seem to contradict each other. On the other hand, I strongly disagreed with the Insightful and Rational categories. My study methods include completing worksheets, drills, and task-oriented activities. In addition, I need clear instructions and expectations to be able to succeed in a class. From the Evaluative category, I really enjoy problem-solving and sharing personal thoughts and opinions.

                             My key takeaway from this reflection is that although my larger learning plan should be structured and goal-oriented, my individual activity plans should be creative and take advantage of various media outlets. Being able to read the language is one of my primary goals for this semester, but I hope to find effective ways to enhance my auditory comprehension, ability to communicate basic phrases, and written skills.

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Jumping into a new language is quite a journey. Along with a language comes thousands of years of culture and ideas, from not only the region I am focusing in on but the regions that surround it and the regions it used to be a part of. Language is amazing and incredibly deep and complex. Getting to see into these things, though daunting, is what makes me love language. The only difficulty is trying to absorb all the knowledge so quickly, as it is a lot to take in and many times I do not know where to even start.

One of my favorite things in learning new language is learning new vocabulary. It is admittedly a bit boring and repetitive trying to learn new vocabulary words, but I cannot help but feel so enriched after I get a whole set of vocabulary down. I, of course, also love learning grammar too. Grammar and vocabulary just make me feel like I am getting the whole ‘language thing’ down correctly.

The thing I dislike the most about learning a new language is my pride. Many times I cannot just let down my pride and simply let myself speak in broken Spanish/Persian/Russian/Japanese/anything else I have tried learning because I am afraid of looking too embarrassing. I find myself unable to speak in any language I am trying to learn in front of one of those languages’ native speakers unless they are some sort of language professor. My boyfriend, for instance, is Japanese and I choke up even trying to say a simple sentence to him in Japanese. Even to this day he has barely heard me speak any Japanese at all despite me completing up to 202 in Japanese here at UR and us having been together the whole course of me taking Japanese here. Speaking a language is essential to memorizing and understanding it. I have undoubtedly forgot so many of the vocabulary words I was so excited to memorize simply because I did not utilize them in conversation.

According to the Multiple Intelligences Assessment, my top three intelligences are self (intrapersonal), social (interpersonal), and body movement (kinesthetic). I love self-studying so I was happy to see that I scored highest on the ‘self’ intelligence. At the same time, this reinforces that I do still need to speak to other people in the languages I am trying to speak in as I scored high on the social as well. Body movement is interesting and something that is very reinforced in the Learning Style Assessment as well. I also scored above 3 (though just 3 for musical) in the other intelligences so I should probably try to utilize them as well. I, for instance, enjoy involving math and logic in a lot of my studies.

The Learning Style Assessment states that I am a tactile learner. What this means is that I should be involved in the language, to utilize it and to deconstruct and understand the underlying principles of a language, its building blocks. I do shake my foot very often while I study as the Learning Style survey suggests I should do. Its suggestion that I should ‘do’ the language instead of just reading, seeing, or hearing the language hits home as well as I frequently only learn things after writing them down or saying the words by myself. My pencil and notebook are the only reason I have survived any sort of schooling my whole life; I only learn once I write things down.

Looking at the FIRE model, I definitely think I am a factual thinker, though maybe with a bit of insightful thinker mixed in. This might be why I like language so much because there is no ‘wrong’ answer, it is simply memorizing the facts of how people communicate and get their ideas across. Vocabulary and grammar are straightforward, and though there are exceptions, once you memorize them they are easy to keep in mind as well.

With my previous experience, the help of the surveys, and things I know I should be doing but have just been stubborn about, I know my learning plan should include the self-studying note taking I am so fond of as well as speaking in the language I am trying to learn. I really need to expand my learning style outside of my beloved notebook and pencil and try to adapt to the speaking world. I cannot just write to people in a certain language and call it a day – I need to speak to them as well!

            Over the past years of my adolescence, I had learned English gradually when my family and I immigrated to the United States when I was 9 years old. Then, during high school, we were required to take additional languages, at first I chose Spanish but quickly transferred to Latin. During my time studying English, I believe the most beneficial factor was being situated in an all-English speaking environment. It was very tough and disheartening at first because I only knew a couple of words and phrases and could barely communicate with anybody. Therefore, I have had to force myself to learn as quickly as I could by following the ESL curriculum at school and try to talk as much as possible with other classmates. I do believe that this is the most expedient method of learning a language, however, the most painful as well. When you are in a situation where you could talk to no one except your parents and sibling, it felt alone and separated.

            Entering into high school, the curriculum required a new foreign language for graduating students, I chose Spanish but the class quickly lost my interest. The main reason being the extensive vocabulary, a lot of grammar rules, and most importantly, the method that the teacher employed to teach. It was very paragraph/word – based teaching. After transferring to Latin, although it is also a vocabulary intensive language, the teacher made it more enjoyable by employing various graphics, comic strips, songs, to help us remember key concepts and grammar rules. Reflecting upon the surveys and self-assessment, I am indeed a more visual learner, learning by reading or seeing pictures, and also remember things by visualizing. This trait had definitely manifested while learning Latin and English. In addition, one of the other surveys suggests that social or interpersonal skill is ranked as one of my top three intelligences. While learning English or even many other subject, engaging in a dialogue or reading over equations with other people helps me to be more engaged with the subject and I learn better in this manner.

            After exploring the learning styles and reflecting those on my past language studies, I am leaning more towards visual, interpersonal, and also reflecting on new ideas and information alone. In the past, different language activities I have employed in the past such as reading from graphic novels, doing a lot of extra practices on vocabulary and grammar rules, and reading new sentences while marking any familiar trends. After knowing about the various styles that suit my personality better, applying that to new language acquisition, this could mean introducing more visual and auditory activities, such as drama series, songs, podcasts, etc. In addition, because of the language partner and many other Korean speaking friends, I can easily have a conversation in Korean with them and be able to locate my mistakes while talking. As for learning vocabulary and grammar rules in Korean, my learning style suggests that I do best by writing down key concepts and have visualizations during instruction, and have additional time ruminating and digesting new information on my own, while speaking them out loud reinforces the memory.

            Additionally, the different blog posts shared in the homework assignment by Tim Ferriss and Benny Lewis provides additional learning tips. The one I paid special, close attention to is the “interact in your language daily without traveling,” this to me could mean listening to songs, speaking in that language with other people, things I can do to practice the language every day. Also, creating realistic goals for myself and not rushing through the process, a big mistake I always make while learning is that I rush through things. For example, I could theoretically handle something in paper, but once I get to apply the concept, because I rush through learning it initially, the concept is not deeply ingrained and I haven’t spent the time to fully digest the information. I look forward to using these new learning activities to learn Korean in the upcoming semester.

I really really want to a Senegalese restaurant sometime soon, but Richmond doesn't have any. In the meantime, I'll be putting my own cooking skills to test! I found the recipe for Theiboudienne online. This may or may not work. I haven't tried to do yet but I'll add a link below to the recipe that I've found online.

https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/Senegal-Fish-Rice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eAoQIXVi6c

This song is called Birima, another by Youssou Ndour. I've learned the important of oral traditions and storytelling in Francophone Africa through my French classes. The storyteller is often called the griot. This video allowed me to see what a modern-day griot looks like. NDour is telling a story about the beloved Birima and his selflessness. He also uses traditional instruments and sounds to accommodate his lyrics.

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

Rama introduced me to Youssou N'Dour at the beginning of the semester. Though I cannot give direct translations of all of the lines YET, the message throughout the video and the song have become clear to me. Mbeugeul is All means loves and compassion for all. Both in a relationship sense and in a familial sense, the song traces this idea of love and what it can do for people.

Muusaa: Asalaa maalekum.

Lauren: Maalekum salaam Peace be upon you

M: Nanga def? How are you doing?

L: Maangi fi rekk I’m fine.

M: Naka waa kër gi? How is the family?

L: Nungi fii They are fine.

M: Noo tudd? What’s your name?

L: Lauren laa tudd, yow nag? My name is Lauren, and you?

M: Muusaa laa tudd, Noo sant? My name is Muusaa. What’s your last name?

L: Becker laa sant. My last name is Becker.

M: man, Jòop la. Foo jóge? Me, it is Diop. Where are you from?

L: Maryland laa jóge. I come from Maryland.

M: Foo dëkk léegi? Where do you live now?

L: Cees laa dëkk léegi. I live in Thies now.

M: Americain nga? Are you American?

L: Waaw, americain laa. Yes, I’m American

M: Looy liggéey? What is your profession?

L : Wolonteer u Corps de la Paix laa. I’m a PeaceCorps Volunteer.

M: Ci ban program ngay liggéey? In which program do you work?

L: Ci mbay laay liggeey. I work in agriculture

M: Am nga jëkkër? Do you have a husband? (Are you married?)

L: Déedéet, amuma jëkkër, Yow nag, am nga jabar? No, I don’t have a husband And you, do you have a wife? (Are you married?), .

M: man itam, amuma jabar. Me neither, I don’t have a wife.

L: Jërëjëf, kon ba benneen yoon Thank you, so see you next time.

M: waaw, ba benneen Yes, see you next.

This dialogue is from an open-source Wolof text. I can proudly say that I understood and can read mostly all of the wolof text! My language partner and I discussed the translations.

Conversaton with language partner

Reflect on your learning experiences this semester.  (a) What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer?  What did you find difficult?  What have you enjoyed?  How will you continue your learning? (b) Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful?  What

I’ve prided myself for being a language learner and cultural explorer for most of my academic career. Still, I continue to learn new things about myself every semester. After my semester’s pursuit of Wolof, I know for sure that I have very high expectations for myself. I’m constantly reaching to do my best but biting off more than I can handle. Crafting my own course –deciding the skills necessary to accomplish a goal and following through with the agenda– is something I want to carry with me (and use) in the future. My only problem was not narrowing down my agenda to a couple essential tasks. I can now say that I understand the struggle that professors go through when crafting a syllabus and the corresponding course. There are just so many interesting topics and inquiries that lead me to a plethora of potential course materials. Due to this excitement, I put a lot on myself and eventually got overwhelmed. I enjoyed being able to follow my own agenda and come out on the other side with some of the knowledge that I aimed for. The difficulty here, though, was overcommitting.

My intense curiosity is the foundation for another difficulty I’ve encountered this semester –staying on my agenda track. During the sessions with my language partner and in my own research, I easily get sidetracked due to my inquiries. The material in front of me usually leads to other questions that could perhaps get me off-topic and onto a different road of material. You may have witnessed this in SDLC 105 (: I do think my curiosity and critical thinking skills have propelled my academic career in many ways, I must find the balance. In the future, I’ll continue to allow my inquisitive nature to lurk, but I’ll proactively steer the conversation thread back to the original agenda.  

Related to this critical thinking and curiosity piece, I tend to connect ideas and concepts. A couple weeks ago I took the Clifton Strengths assessment to narrow my top five strengths. Two of them were Ideation and Connectedness. These themes became essential for me during SDLC 105 and SDLC 110 1) when I sought to understand and grapple with Senegalese culture and 2) when I sought to connect ideas from SCLC 105 to SDLC 110. The main thing that I enjoyed about SDLC 105 was learning about everyone’s target cultures. If we had a world map and pinned everyone’s corresponding locations, we’d find that everyone had their own nooks and crannies of the world to study. I found lots of connections to Senegalese culture by listening to my peers as they discovered ideals, morals, and traditions reflected in their target cultures.

One of my favorite readings/activities from SDLC 105 the discussion of Hofstede cultural dimensions. I wish we could’ve delved in other philosophical thought to have a more holistic view of this study, but I found in very useful grapple with Senegalese culture using the various dimensions. This discussion also hit on a very important point: cultures are never “this or that”. It’s much more complicated than the simplicity that most outsiders project onto other cultures and people. The reading challenged me to find the balance between learning more about the overarching culture but also realizing that there will be diversity. Overall, this unconventional course has stimulated my thinking in ways that I hadn’t been exposed to before. Thank you for this opportunity!

This cultural post will focus on social factors that affect one's use of formal and informal language register. More specifically, I focus here on the topic of discussion as an influence.

Topic of discussion:

Just like in an American context, the topic of discussion greatly influences one's use of either the formal or informal register. Unlike in the Indonesian context, Americans do not greatly shift in register when transitioning from, say, talking with friends to presenting at a conference. Of course, Americans would speak more coherently (or try to) when at a conference and refrain from incomplete sentences. They shun slouching and irregular intonation. 

In Indonesia, however, Indonesians more or less have two different ways of saying a single word -- one considered formal and the other informal. Thus, while gossiping (a mainstay in many circles in Bali, at least) friends or co-workers would generally use the informal register, which denotes a more personal connection. Some words one might hear in a conversation in which gossip is the topic are: Aduh, Kenapa sih, Iya dek, mekasih (oh my gosh, what!?, yeah sister, and thanks, respectively).

At a conference, one would hear a presenter speak in the formal register. Some words that might be used are Bagaimana, iya, terimahkasih, and memaikai (instead of pakai, which is the informal variant) (what/how come, yes (without the use of informal terms of address, like "dek"), thank you, and use (formal), respectively).

Most topics of discussion, however, require a mix of the formal and informal, especially if there is a difference in the social status of the speakers. If there is an extreme social status disparity, one would follow the cue of the person who is considered higher in the hierarchy and would not go off script. However, if it is a lesser disparity, common sense would play a part in determining the parameters of language register use. 

I shall be brief with this post as I believe that my learning progress has been documented systematically on Ning. 

My goal was simple: Complete Indonesian Grammar In Context (level 3). My learning activities and resources included the variety of activities within each chapter: Oral tasks, written tables and charts, and writing exercises.

This semester, I:

• Reviewed Active and Passive Verb Forms;
• Learned the yang clauses with active and passive verbs;
• Learned the locative function of the verbal suffix-i;
• Learned the prepositions pada, untuk, buat, atas, bagi, sebagi;
• Learned how to narrate from two points of reference;
• Learned the iterative function of the verbal suffix- i;
• Learned the Conjunction untuk and supaya
• The superlative adverb with the expression of quantity;
• The adverb se-asdjective + adjective-nya;
• And much, much more.

With each chapter, I documented my learning by completing most of the activities included in the chapter, some of which were documented on Ning for my artifacts. 

I met with my language partner for two hours per week to go over my oral, reading and writing skills and activities. 

Lastly, I believe that I documented my cultural and (language) learning in my presentation as well as throughout the semester in my cultural posts. More important, I believe that I learned a great deal about the Indonesian culture. This semester allowed me to better articulate my experience in Bali through my cultrual topic assignments.

I look forward to taking SDLC 113 next semester!

I have learned a great deal about the cultural topic I have been studying throughout the semester. A lot of the knowledge was drawn from my experience in Bali, Indonesia. For example, when I was in Bali, I observed that five social factors influence one's use of the infomal and formal language register. While I was researching in Bali, I had a lot of context with Hindu priests, whom people regard was a great deal of respect. I had noticed that some of the priests with whom I was in contact were a bit off-put when I attempted to speak to them in bahasa Indonesia. Of course, I am still learning Indonesian, and up until that point, most of my studies focused on the more practical side of the language, like survival vocabulary and informal slang. What's more, Hindu priests in Bali generally speak bahasa Bali so as to further insulate the culture and therefore preserve it. It is also a source of legitimacy among the local population, signaling a sense of respect for the culture. Of course, not all priests were jaded at my formal Indonesian. In fact, the majority were welcoming. But, Balinese culture is strong, and if one veers off its course or script, he or she can be ostracized.

The relationship between speakers is another factor that influences one's use of register type. For example, a professor at a university in Bali supervised my research last summer. Professors (and teachers in general) are treated with a great deal of respect. It is deeply ingrained in the Balinese culture. So, at first, I approached him with a reserve and respect commensurate with the cultural context. However, and it is a big "however" (as in all cultures, rules are meant to be broken), as time went one, he and I developed a close relationship, and the norms governing the social interaction were quickly relaxed. We would speak in English half the time, and we would go to the cafe to brainstorm and dinners with his family. 

I can go on and on about the social factors that influence one's use of the formal and informal language register type. As far as I can tell, there are three more contexts/factors that influence register type: Setting, the topic of conversation, and medium (email, texting, etc.). The use of formal and informal language register type is manifested in one's word choice (informal or formal verbs), the use of address terms, and sentence structure and length.

As you can tell, I learned a great deal not only about my cultural project but also about the Balinese culture more broadly this semester.

            This was my first experience teaching myself an entire course on my own.  I found the task difficult, but very rewarding.  It was a long journey to learning just a little bit of Bahasa Indonesian.  Besides learning the language, I also learned a lot about the culture. 

            I found the cultural aspects of Indonesia very interesting.  After doing the cultural presentations, I learned about the influence of different countries on the islands, the current political climate, and what living in Indonesia is like.  The history of the country is filled with occupation, invasion, and differing ideas.  Each island has its own culture that is completely unique.  Together, the islands make up the country of Indonesia, but it is false to equate that to a unity amongst the different islands.  Due to the history of the Dutch trading company and Chines migrants, the culture is unique.  It is a mixture of indigenous ideals and western and eastern philosophies.  In many ways, the country is a melting pot much like the United States.  Different groups have left different impacts on the country.  The Dutch have influenced cuisine, the Chines have advanced the economy, and the indigenous Indonesians have brought their history and culture.  This has led to a country that is very segmented and, at times, antagonistic toward different groups.  I think learning and understanding these differences is as important as learning the language.

            As far as learning the language, the class was extremely helpful in preparing me.  At first, the task seemed daunting.  Trying to learn an entire language is a difficult goal to achieve.  At times, I felt like I was learning the language quickly and easily.  At other times, I felt like I was going nowhere.  The most important aspect I realized was to keep trying.  Whether I was confident or not in a lesson, I reviewed it several times to try and learn a lesson backwards and forwards.  The most valuable characteristic of learning is devoting time.  With this class, I found that easy because I really enjoyed the language, the history, and the culture of Indonesia.  Even when I had nothing to do, I would pull up an Indonesian business newspaper online and try to see what I could understand.  This led me to vocabulary and grammar questions that I could discuss with Thalia.  Using professional, outside resources helped me to put my learning in perspective.  I was able to see what I know and how far I am from being able to function in the country.   

            Having Thalia as a resource as I was learning was extremely useful.  When learning a foreign language, it is difficult to know what is the “book way” to say something and what is the common “slang way” to say something.  There were countless times where Thalia was able to tell us to ignore some vocabulary or some grammar rules because they do not apply to how most people communicate in the country.  Having a native speaker is a huge advantage to SDLC students.  Their guidance, suggestions, and lessons, are all based on our individual learning plans, and it helps the students to focus on a few tasks that are important to them.  Their personal knowledge can only be gained from experience.  In language, this is very useful.

            Finally, it was great to have someone else learning the language with me.  Kevin and I helped each other with questions and worked together on one presentation.  We could learn differently on our own, but by coming together, we were able to solidify our knowledge of individual lessons.  We would meet up and test each other’s vocabulary, discuss previous grammar lessons over dinner, and we studied for the final together.  It was helpful to have a friend who was as dedicated as I was at learning the language.  I am sure I would have been able to learn the language without another student taking the same language, but it was very helpful to have him there.

            I greatly enjoyed my SDLC 105 and SDLC 110 classes.  Taking both classes together helped me bring different aspects to different classes.  105 made me dissect the language and look at it in its simplest form.  It also helped me to draw connections to other languages I know.  110 helped me learn the major points of the language so that I will one day be able to visit the country.  I am looking forward to my next semester with Thalia.  I hope that my basic understanding will grow each semester so that I will be close to fluent by the time I graduate in a year.  I hope to learn more about the specifics of the culture and as much vocabulary as I can in my future lessons.  One aspect I want to bring to Thalia next semester is to create a vocabulary list full of useful words and phrases.  Hopefully we can focus on a section every week so that I can learn the entire list by the end.  The only thing I would like to change is my lesson plan.  I think my lesson plan needs to be more realistic next semester.  After learning how difficult some tasks are, I think I will be better prepared next semester.  

This semester I learned about grammar, sentence structure, movies, slangs, song lyrics, history, politics, and landmarks. While 110 focused on conversational Korean, in 111 we went more in-depth with Korean culture. This was a semester full of new knowledge as I knew very little about Korea's history. From important democracy movements to major political events, I came to realize the milestones in Korean history.

A learning task of mine this semester was to learn more about Korea's culture in regard to its historical landmarks as well as politics. Listening to my classmates' presentations on topics such as Taekwondo, Kimchi, the June Struggle (democracy movement), and other national landmarks satisfied my curiosity.