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Bowing is a big part of Korean culture and is a common method of showing respect. It is also used when saying hello, thank you, goodbye, etc. In order to show more respect, it is common to bow lower and holding that position. The longer one maintains a bowing position, the more respect it shows. However, when simply greeting a friend, a slight head bow/tilt is enough to show your fondness and respect for that person. Slightly deeper bows (작은절 jakeunjeol) are appropriate when meeting someone for the first time or when greeting your boss. Furthermore, the bow that demonstrates the greatest amount of respect is the "big bow" 큰절 (keunjeol). The 큰절 is used only for special occasions that require the most respect, such as on Lunar New Years and the Harvest Festival. Lastly, a "big bow" is typically used by a man when asking his fiance's parents for her hand in marriage. 

https://seoulistic.com/korean-culture/when-and-how-to-bow-in-korea/ ;

The two main sources that I found to be useful for my Korean language learning are Talk to Me in Korean Youtube lessons and KoreanUnnie Youtube lessons. Furthermore, I also use various websites that answer the specific questions that I ask in order to fulfill the tasks in my learning plan. I have also found my lessons with my Korean tutor to be extremely helpful. I was able to easily learn the alphabet with her help, and it is nice to have someone there to be able to correctly pronounce the words that you are trying to learn. 

In order to tackle my learning tasks, I found online websites that showed me how to write greetings and introductions and how they sound phonetically. In order to memorize and practice them, I wrote them down on flashcards and periodically studied them. Furthermore, in order to learn classroom vocabulary, I did the same procedure as when I was learning the introduction phrases. 

Korean has 6 formal speech forms that show different levels of respect in the language, but there are three levels of politeness that are most frequently used. When deciding which level of politeness to use, you must consider the person's age, social status, and how close you are to them. The first and more polite level is Honorific Speech. Honorific speech is used when speaking to superiors, to customers, or to strangers. The second level is Polite Speech. Polite speech (common polite) is used when at work or when speaking to someone that you don't know very well. The third level is Informal Speech and it is used when talking to close friends, someone younger than you, or with children. 

Example" Sit Down" 

1. Honorific: 앉으십시오

2. Polite: 앉으세요

3. Informal: 앉아

https://blogs.transparent.com/korean/formal-or-informal/ ;

Kevin's Learning Plan

Youngmin and I discussed different sayings in Korean and English and it was really interesting to see the similarities and  differences in sayings that shared common meaning. It was very interesting to learn about the culture of lending and borrowing money in Korea. I was really surprised by one saying she told me, which roughly translates to "if you have good enough words you don't need to pay your debts." I couldn't figure out what that meant at first because there is no english version of that saying, but in Korea it is apparently common for people to lend money to their family and friends, and then if they say the right things, like for example "I will always be there for your family," then apparently there is cultural pressure for the lender to forgive their debts. This apparently happens to the point that many people go bankrupt from lending money and then having to forgive the debt. 

I talked to my girlfriend about it and she said that from her perspective its not that people are pressured into forgiving debt, its that when people lend their friends and family money they do that prepared to not get the money back. She said this was because Koreans are just good people, but I think she might be a little biased.  

I organized my learning plan in terms of the specific goals I hoped to accomplish such as learning the alphabet, certain sets of vocabulary knowledge (food, weather, greetings, etc.), enough writing ability to have a simple text conversation with my mom, the reading ability to read a children's book in Korean, etc. Then I laid out the tasks I needed to do in order to accomplish these goals. That consists mostly of splitting up the different vocabulary sets into their own tasks. For example, "Learn how to talk about myself: introducing myself, saying where I'm from, how old I am, what I do for a living, etc.," which also implies that I learn the verbs and grammatical structure that come with this task. Then I wrote down some tools I had at my disposable that I thought would be most effective for me, knowing what kind of learner I am. Some of these include Korean television and music to get used to hearing the language spoken, my mom, a native speaker who will always be willing to text or call to work on my writing and speaking skills, and online tools such as Mango and Duolingo, which I know work for me because I like their structure and the technology engages me more than trying to study a textbook. Then I laid out a calendar for myself to follow, which includes a set number of hours spent using my various online resources, meeting with my language partner, keeping up with SDLC 105/110 assignments, and more. I included a specific focus for each week such as vocab about family, greetings and farewells, asking for directions, etc. Having this checklist will help me keep track of how much time I'm working on Korean and making sure I accomplish the goals I set out for myself.

            These studies will allow me to investigate my target language because I will be engaging in it for at least 10 hours a week. As for the culture, I will learn specifically about parts of Korean culture with my final project for the class. In addition, I've already began learning things about the culture just learning about the language, for example, that it is customary to bow slightly during greetings and farewells, or that there are specific formal and informal ways to say most things, because respect to elders is a large part of Korean culture. Korean dramas and music are huge elements of its culture, so spending time listening to those will also help me engage further in the culture.

            My interest in learning the language stemmed from my mom being from Korea. She taught me and my sisters a couple phrases when we were younger, but always regretted not forcing us to learn the language. Her immediate family is in the U.S. and has been for decades, but when we have family gatherings with her side, they still always speak Korean. I would love to be able to participate in those conversations. In addition, my grandmother barely speaks any English even though she's lived here for the past 35 years, so I've never had a real conversation with her without my mom as a translator. Lastly, I would love to go visit Korea with my mom soon and having some language knowledge would help me appreciate the trip and the country even more.  

Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don't exist in English? Provide several phonetic transcriptions of important words. 

          Though many sounds in Wolof are pronounced as they are written, some sounds in the language diverge greatly from the way they are pronounced. For instance, the ‘x’ is pronounced as a ‘h’ sound and written phonetically as [x~_X]. Many sounds in Wolof do not exist in English, but the different sounds are produced by the same mechanisms of manipulation. See five transcriptions here: dafa [dafa], mbeugel [mboegɛl], seed [sɛd:], ngelow [ɳgoelɔw], ndox [ndox~_X].

What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need?  Have you identified resources and textbooks to promote your task-based objectives? Why or why not?

          As far as structure goes, it would be appropriate to understand some basic elements of Wolof’s syntax. I’ll need to understand how to manipulate some grammar, especially the differences between “I am,” “We are,” and “They are.” Because I am still finalizing my learning plan, I haven’t solidly identified all the resources I’ll need. However, I’m beginning to find YouTube very beneficial (I’m listening to a Senegalese artist on YouTube as I type). I’ve also identified a Senegalese filmmaker who’s produced many films and set the precedence for filmmaking in Senegal: Ousmane Sembène. I’ll definitely be utilizing his work. I’ve also run across an Intro to Dakar Wolof book published by the Peace Corps that I may make use of.

Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. To what family does your language belong? What sounds, words, or structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures?

Catalan is in the Indo-European family, more specifically in the Romance languages family – So it is right there with Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Latin, etc…

Many words in Catalan are similar to words Spanish and/or French, and then not…

For example:

Most of the time, I perceive Catalan as a hybridization of Spanish and French + a “sprinkle of unknown” which makes it what it is.

While knowing Catalan’s “common denominators” with other languages is definitely helpful, I have to be careful to keep myself on check, so I remember which language I am dealing with!

For these two weeks, we have focused on writing, reading and speaking. Youngmin has provided us with a textbook that is designed for English speakers to learn Korean. This is a perfect level for me and the right amount of difficulty. We have started by talking about performances in Korean. We started off with a simple speaking exercise to make us phrase sentences. This was helpful in gauging my level on how well I am able to speak Korean. We moved onto a writing exercise that was forming sentences with a given grammar structure.

The week after we focused on the same topic and did other activities like sending text messages to each other and using that as an exercise. We also did another writing and grammar exercise to help us be more comfortable with speaking. Since the class is more focused on group activity and more speaking based, I believe that it is effective in helping me to increase my proficiency in Korean. As opposed to last year where we focused more on culture, this semester is more focused on grammar. I believe that this will be very useful to me because I always spoke in broken Korean.

The writing system in Amharic is called Ge’ez, also known as Ethiopic. Ge’ez was the original language spoken in Ethiopia, but now it is only used for speech in Ethiopian and Eritrean churches. This Ge’ez script has been adapted to write Amharic and Tigrinya. Ge’ez was first an abjad, or a consonant only alphabet. Now there are 33 basic letters and each letter have seven different forms based on the vowel that is pronounced. In total, there are 231 characters used to represent of all the sounds in Amharic. Since the alphabet is so extensive, I do not plan to learn how to write anything other than my name but I would like to be able to read a few common words or phrases.

My first artifact conversation was ok but I need to work on my accent more. I think it shows that I am not a native speaker so I need to improve on the pronunciation of specific words. My artifact included basic phrases that would be said in order to greet someone, introduce oneself, and say goodbye. The specific phrases I said were what would be said to a man since I set it up like I was speaking to my language partner. In Amharic, things as simple as good morning have different versions for a man, woman, multiple people, and elders. I also think that I can improve on my speed of speaking. Native Amharic speakers speak extremely fast so even though I was trying to speak fast, I’m not quite there yet.

As for my learning goals, I have mostly completed them because I learned how to talk about my family including how to say their titles (mom, dad, brother), their names, and their ages. I still need to practice these so that I can make sentences more fluently. I also still need to learn different personality traits so that I can describe people with more than just superficial information.

JoyceZhangLearningPlan.docx

• Summarize your goals for this semester and evaluate your first artifact

This semester I would like to work on developing my practical Korean knowledge and vocabulary, focusing on my listening and speaking skills while also working on my reading. I would like to be able to have a simple conversation with my girlfriends parents in Korean, discuss and order food at a restaurant, and talk about locations/use transportation. 

In my first artifact I read the Korean alphabet out loud and then counted from 1 to 10 in the sino-korean number system. I had trouble pronouncing the numbers accurately, and often was closer to the chinese numbers that I am familiar with and which sound very similar. 

SDLAP_learningplan213-1%20Adam%20Duan%20.docx

So far my weekly meetings have been good. In my first weekly meeting I worked on a Portuguese email which I sent to my friend in Brazil. I worked on my sentence structure and verb conjugation. I also went to dhall with my language partner and learned new vocabulary about food and the surroundings. During my second weekly meeting I watched 3% with my language partner. 3% is a Portuguese TV show which I watched in English with Portuguese subtitles. I found out that my reading skills have improved a lot. After watching the show I gave my language partner a summary of what I just watched. I feel as though I have improved a lot in sentence structure and vocabulary, but I struggle to conjugate the verbs correctly so that is what my language partner and I will work on.

Korean Learning Plan for Spring 2018

• Week 4: Common Phrases

• Make flashcards for greetings, farewells, and introductions
• Make flashcards for phrases like please, thank you, no thank you, etc.
• GOAL: Memorize at 15-20 phrases & know how to spell them/read them   

• Week 5 Pronouns

• Make flashcards for commonly used pronouns and family nouns
• Ex: Mother, father, teacher, sister, daughter, etc.
• Ex: You, me, she he, they, them, etc.
• GOAL: Memorize at least 10 of each and be able to read and write them
• *Resource: online korean dictionary

• Week 6: Conversation Starter Questions

• Make flashcards, practice writing, and say aloud questions
• Ex: “Where are you from?” “What are you studying?” “What is your name?” “How are you?”
• GOAL: Memorize at least 15 different phrases and we able to read and write  

• Week 7: Continuation from week 6, Solidify Information

• Keep working on introductory phrases from week 6!

• Week 8: Telling Time

• Make flashcards for numbers  
• Make flashcards for am/pm or the equivalent
• Learn how to tell time and practice looking at clock and writing it down

• Week 9: Dates

• Make flashcards for days of the week
• Make flashcards for months
• Make flashcards for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.
• GOAL: Be able to say/write/read a sentence like: “I have a meeting on December 15th, 2018 at 5:20pm”   

• Week 10: FOOD!

• Make flashcards for at least 20 different foods
• Learn phrases commonly used when ordering food
• Ex: Can I please have a small order of kimchi?
• GOAL: At least 3 phrases

• Week 11: Animals

• Make flashcards for at least 15 animals  

• Week 12: Weather  

• Learn weather conditions (raining, snowing, fog, heat wave, etc.)
• Learn beginning phrases about weather
• Ex: “It will rain” “It snowed yesterday” “It will rain tonight”
• GOAL: Learn at least 5 phrases

• Week 13-15: Paragraph & Finish up remaining work for Ning

• Be able to write a paragraph about my home life
• Evaluate my work over the semester

According to Hofstede, South Korean has a rating of 60 in power distance, 18 in individualism, 39 in masculinity, 85 in uncertainty avoidance, 100 in long term orientation, and 29 in indulgence.

These ratings hold true compared to my own personal experience. Being born in South Korea, my parents were very much more Korean than American in culture. They put heavy emphasis on family time and order in the household. Power distance rating of 60 is very true because as a child, I was told to never question adults and authority. A high rating in uncertainty avoidance is also true since my childhood was very structured. In addition, I witnessed a lot of long term orientation in my life as well. A lot of family reunions centered around tradition. Whether it was the New Years or a different traditional holiday, many traditional games and activities were done for all of my life.

Growing up, I was very sheltered in my Korean household. Coming to college was somewhat of a culture shock because of how different the social setting was compared to what it was back home. The idea of having so much freedom without a curfew was mind boggling to me. Although I was expecting some parts of college life, I did not expect all of it to be so real.

Artifact.mp3

"Hello. Good morning. How are you?. My name is Berhaun. I'm 21 years old and I am a student. Have a good day. Goodbye."

SDLAP_Leaning%20Plan.docx

• How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc. Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.

Using the American culture as a basis of comparison, I will discuss the Korean culture in terms of collectivism/individualism, being direct/indirect, and non-verbal communication.  Firstly, South Korea is more collectivist, which is defined by an individual's identity coming from the function of a group, usually immediate family.  For example, if someone has a very successful son, the society will compliment how the parents raised the child.  In contrast, the individualist U.S society will compliment the son on his own hard work and determination.  Additionally, Koreans are very aware of how they phrase things.  From what I've observed, they are more indirect in their requests.  They leave hints instead of directly asking or demanding what they want because the latter is considered rude.  In terms of non-verbal communication, Korea is more conservative than the U.S. and much of Europe.  Couples will rarely hold hands or show much contact in public, whereas in the U.S. it is very common.  Koreans also bow to superiors and avoid eye contact to be polite.  Hand shakes are only initiated by someone older than you and they are typically light.  

I experienced a bit of a culture shock when I traveled to Europe over the summer.  I visited England, Scotland, and Malta.  London is very similar to the U.S. but with several tiny things that seem off, such as driving on the left side of the road, paying for water in restaurants, lower tipping, etc.  Both England and Scotland were very accepting of the tourists and offered help to us many times without us asking. On the other hand, Malta was a bit different.  People are more laid back in terms of time, so the transportation systems were considerably late or early, hardly ever close to the scheduled time.  The native people were also fairly rude to us because we carry bad stigmas in their culture being both American and tourists.  Near the end of our trip, I was ready to go home mostly because I couldn't handle the public transportation anymore.  However, the way that the Maltese perceive time got into my head, which I really appreciate.  There was a moment when we were eating at a restaurant and the staff was taking a long time.  We were all calculating the time and how much was allotted to us if we were going to be able to do everything we had planned for the day.  My family was getting pretty stressed about it and I just interrupted everything.  I said that we shouldn't be worrying about this, we are on vacation and we're enjoying this wonderful food in this lovely restaurant.  I suggested we just go at our own pace and that will determine what we will do later on.  Everyone agreed with me and it made the evening much more enjoyable.