Last class, Chris gave a presentation on the water of Iran and Rachel gave a presentation on the history of Korea during Korean War. It was interesting to learn about how Farsi-speaking population has used science from early days to get water from nature. Rachel's presentation on the history of Korea was particularly interesting to me because I'm learning Korean as well and the history of this country is just something that I'm very unfamiliar with and didn't have much chance to learn about. So to hear about an overview of how the war broke out and how it was fought was very interesting. One of my learning goals for next semester is to learn more about the history of this nation to better understand its foundations and culture. It is important to not only learn about the culture of your own target language but also other languages as well to have a holistic view of the world.
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Learning Journal #5: Reflect on the Culture Shock video and your own experiences and expectations of culture shock
Watching the Culture Shock video reminded me about a lot of things I’ve heard from international students and friends, and it’s made wonder if there’s more I could be doing to help these people feel more welcomed and integrated into our culture. When I talk with internationals, our conversation usually stays within the realm of academia, and I rarely hear about their critiques of American culture. They tend to talk about their native culture rather than American culture. I could initiate a critical and comparative conversation about different cultures, but I don’t want to ask silly questions or seem insensitive. In the film, for example, international students talked about questions they’ve gotten like “Do you have microwaveable popcorn in Mexico,” and it seemed to me that these students were slighted in a way by these questions. I can see how these questions would be annoying, but if these questions come from a place of genuine and pure curiosity, I think it’s good to appreciate that someone wanted to learn about a different culture through you.
Personally, I barely faced culture shock until I studied abroad in Japan. Before that trip, my travel experience had been buffered, meaning that I was surrounded by Americans, so I never felt completely trust into the culture. During my experience in Japan, I lived with a host family. Because of this, apart from the time I was with the other American student and not in class, I had no contact with familiar language, habits, banter, etc. Although this was a harsh adjustment, I think it lessened the adverse effects associated with culture shock. Like the internationals in the video said, with an engaging, patient, kind, and genuinely invested support group, it feels as though a strange or tough experience that happened abroad will turn out just fine as though you were at home. I’m sure I had specific moments when I felt the oddity and isolation of culture shock, but it’s impossible to dwell on them when you have already accepted those moments as a part of your experience with that culture.
My language partner and I are currently working on basic conversations when meeting new people in Portuguese. In our first lessons we started with the basics such as hello, and nice to meet you. We have now have moved on to more of a conversation. For example, asking how many people are in your family, or where your cousins live. The main strategy we have used to work on this task is just attempting to have conversations during our lessons, and trying to progress in each one of our conversations. I think our strategy has gone quite well as I have been able to have a better conversation after each lesson. I will build on what i have learned, and the strategies my language partner and I have tried to implement, by both continuing what I have been doing with my language partner, but also trying to explore other conversations on my own, and possibly starting the Portuguese conversation with my language partner. Such as maybe a soccer conversation.
My language partner and I are currently working on basic conversations when meeting new people in Portuguese. In our first lessons we started with the basics such as hello, and nice to meet you. We have now have moved on to more of a conversation. For example, asking how many people are in your family, or where your cousins live. The main strategy we have used to work on this task is just attempting to have conversations during our lessons, and trying to progress in each one of our conversations. I think our strategy has gone quite well as I have been able to have a better conversation after each lesson. I will build on what i have learned, and the strategies my language partner and I have tried to implement, by both continuing what I have been doing with my language partner, but also trying to explore other conversations on my own, and possibly starting the Portuguese conversation with my language partner. Such as maybe a soccer conversation.
My language partner and I have decided on what structure our meetings should have:
On one day, we practice conversational Korean by speaking about regular topics in Korean. We have spoken about our majors, where we are studying abroad, where we were born, and more. She shares first and sets the example from which I usually follow.
One our second day, we practice reading short stories, work on tasks I want to learn for myself, correct my Korean journal, and more. Last week, we practiced counting numbers and learned which nouns to use based on what we are counting. For example, counting people versus counting flowers versus counting animals all have different nouns that must be used.
I think it has definitely been difficult to structure my own learning calendar because I am not sure what I need to learn and what I am missing. However, it has definitely been helpful having a language partner.
I have gotten a Korean journal to practice my writing skills, and I think I will switch up the shows I watch and write about. I think I will start off with Boys over Flowers, a Korean drama I watched a few years ago. Due to being familiar with it, I think it will be easier to follow and understand.
I have been talking on the phone with my parents, and I still do have moments where I can't find the words to say what I want in Korean, resulting in me resorting back to English. However, I think it is a process that I will have to actively participate in.
I think I will ask my language partner to assign me ten vocabulary words to memorize and ask her to give me spelling tests each week to help shape up my vocabulary skills ans well as my spelling skills.
This week, I practiced how to count in Korean. There are two sets of numbers in Korean. One used to count money, say rank, and say dates, and another used to say age, count objects, and say the time.
I learned how to differentiate the two as well as count in both of them. I focused particularly on the second set because I do not know how to count after 29.
I wanted to share my knowledge in a reasonable setting, so I did so by sharing about the ages of myself and my two brothers. I shared all of our ages in both Korean and English.
Evaluation-wise, I think I still have a bit of an American accent. Furthermore, I did not use the proper vocabulary or syntax to state age. I think I have yet to improve in learning which phrases and words go with which conversational setting.
Since I am more familiar with counting numbers now, I think now I can practice how to greet someone and ask about as well as share my own age.
Fourth Cultural Post: Target Language's Writing System
The Korean writing system is called Hangul, an alphabet created in 1443 by King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty. The name ‘Hangul’ literally means ‘great’ (han) ‘script’ (geul). This writing system was created to replace the usage of Chinese characters, known as Hanja in Korean, with a simpler system that any person could easily learn and then become literate. Despite the invention of this stream lined writing system, Kanja was still commonly used even during the 1990s.
The alphabet consists of 19 consonants and 21 vowels, some of which are simple and other which are more complex but based off of the simple letters. The simple letters are designed to mimic the shape the mouth makes to make the sound of the letter. Interestingly, some letters are pronounced in a similar way to others, if not exactly the same way. This is due to an evolution in pronunciation which softened the difference in sound between some letters. Despite their redundancy in sound, these letters are kept for the sake of spelling and differentiating between words. There are a few more letters that used to exist, but are archaic and are no longer included in the modern writing system.
Each letter is built from tree basic strokes: — (representative of the earth), | (of a human), and ∙ (of the sun). Once an individual letter is made, it is then grouped into a sound block with other letters, and these blocks are then combined with other ones to form words. Each of these units has at least one vowel and one consonant, since neither can stand alone.
Post Learning Journal #4: Reflect on the presentations of your classmates.
My presentation group included Magic (Tana) and Nora (Ellie). In Nora’s presentation, I learned more about loans words in Korean, such as “ko-pi” which comes from the English word “coffee.” These loan words from English made me think about words shared between Japanese and Korea, such as “kaban” for “bag” or “yakusoku” for “promise.” This presentation has re-sparked my interest in the commonalities between Korean and Japanese and has given me a new tactic for learning vocabulary for Korean. I also thought it was cool how she connected what she’s learned about Korean to her studies of other European languages. That sort of thinking highlights the strong connections that can be found between languages regardless of region or people. So, kudos for you, Nora.
Magic’s presentation gave me some insight into military service in Israel. She said that every citizen is expected to serve at some point in their lives, and that most go through military training. Some people take alternative routes, like going to school for a degree first and then serving as a staffer afterwards, but for a longer period of time than those who go through the normal program. We compared that to the required service for men in Korea, which I think is less demanding than service requirements in Israel. It was interesting to compare two systems of mandatory service and think about how this service has affected and ingrained itself in to these cultures, especially since we have no such requirement in America.
My classmates did a great job on their presentations! I really liked how there were many varied of topics ranging from language itself to food to karaoke to cars. Each of their presentations reflected their personality and how they organize the presentation. It was very unique to each from the topics within their subject, to what kind knd of specific details they chose to include. I think this tells us alot about what they expect and want to learn from their targeted language and how they go about learning about it.
I don't think I ever experienced Culture shock as intense as those in the videos. I think part of the reason is due to my personality and my exposure from 2 different countries. First off, I try to be a laid back go with the flow type of person. So whatever comes, I won't try to question it to much and accept it. So when moving from one culture to another, I find that other people tend to compare it to their home culture or the culture they are used to then that either leads to them loving the new culture they are in or critizing it then building resentment in their new culture. Both are not good because if you keep comparing your new culture to your old culture and you love the new culture it brings you into a phrase similar to a honeymoon phrase and then one day youll wake up and see that it was not all honey and flowers. The other option of building resentment is also not ideal because then you'll end up most likely hating your new culture. Both of these outcomes is what I think the official term is cultural shock in a nutshell. Adapting is hard because you still have your old culture in you and you're analyzing it too much. I say this because it happened to me when I moved to Thailand when I was around 11 after living in the states for quite some time. I found myself experiecning culture shock and comparing everything to the US. I missed the US and after time I, I resented Thai culture. Now looking back I wished I analyzed less and just enjoy the culture because there's nothing I can do, especially the things that are instill in the culture for hundreds and thousands of years. Sometimes I don't think being passive is a good thing but in this case, passive will do you good.
- What do you need to know about the structure of your target language? How will you acquire the knowledge you need? Do you think a reference grammar can be useful? Why or why not?
It is extremely different from english. The basic structure of Modern Hebrew is generally SVO. (Subject verb object). When reading hebrew, it is oddly constructed compared to English languages. It is more on the same family as other semeitic languages since hebrew is a s emetic language. Some difference are as followed: Adjectives follow noun. The Hebrew text reads left to right. To make it more complicated, it is a romance language so that means like french wording is different for men and women. Another example is a verb can come before its subject unlike as in English.
When asking a question, it can be seen as easier than english. When you make a question, you don’t change the order of the words like in English. You can ask a question in many ways.The first is by simply taking a statement and putting a question mark in your voice then you raise your voice at the end of the sentence to make it sound questioning.
I have accomplished several learning goals this week. I managed to learn numbers, colors, several new introductions and questions. I have done several number and time exercises with my classmates and that helped me memorize the numbers better. I've also worked with my language partner using several resources. We are planning to review everything next week. We also learnt the colors using pictures and objects. We tried to describe colors of the objects in the classroom and I tried to do this with my Turkish friends later on. I have also learnt expressions of politeness, such as excuse me, thank you, please, ms/mr. etc. I learnt several new greetings, including good morning/evening/afternoon etc. I am able to ask questions such as how are you, how much does it cost, what time is it etc. I'm able to tell my name, ask for other person's name and say it was nice meeting them. I can also answer the questions how I am using several ways and I can say bye to people using several expressions. I used duolingo, mangolanguages, my notebook notes and my language partners help in accomplishing these goals. I feel pretty confident about this content, but I'm planning to give some time to revision later on.
I started to extensively learn the Turkish language using a wide range of resources and the guidance of my language partner and Turkish friends. I started to pursue the language by learning the alphabet, the pronunciations and some basic words. I also took a couple of classes on Byki, Duolingo, Mangolanguages and a couple of other resources to see which ones work most effectively for me. I also discovered some additional resources, such as websites, movies, dictionaries. I didn't find Diigo very useful and appealing for me, however I joined the NIng Turkish group and found several resources there too. These resources will help me visually and with pronunciations and will give some very useful vocabulary skills. Some of the resources have different chronicles, but I managed to outline my learning plan and figure out which resource may be useful at certain points. Duolingo has some great small classes that start with basics and move to advanced levels. Mangolanguages was especially useful in learning greetings and basic expressions. I have also met with my language partner and took a look at my and my classmates' learning goals. We discuss what will be useful for each class and learn new things along with certain cultural aspects of Turkey. I have also used lingust.ru and google dictionary as very helpful language learning tools. I'm planning to follow my language learning goals and work both individually and within a group in class to enrich my knowledge. I've also been lucky enough to have some close Turkish friends who I happen to practice words and expressions at times. I will be learning a lot of vocabulary and new expressions in upcoming week and I am very excited!
As I mentioned in my earlier posts and presentation, Turkish culture is a unique mixture of European and Asian features, therefore, there may be certain differences in linguistic aspects and body language in East and West. This difference is not too extreme, but there is still some more liberal attitudes in the West compared to the East. Turkish people use body language very commonly. Some instances include "thumbs up" gesture used for hitchhiking, shaking head sideways meaning "I don't understand." On another note, it is very rude to point point something with a finger. Interestingly, the gesture created when a circle is formed by touching the forefinger to the thumb means that a person is homosexual. This gesture is considered very offensive. Blowing your nose loudly in public is also considered a very bad manner. Using fingers to stroke your chin while starring at a woman reflects sexual intentions, so be careful. Hand kissing in Turkey, especially if you kiss a hand of older person and put it on your forehead is a sign of respect. Turkish people are also very touchy and tactile. They greet people by kissing both of their cheeks, they also often hold hands in public(even men) or touch hands or shoulders, and this is considered essential for warm interactions. That is completely okay. Turkish people also like to stare at people much longer than Western people, so do not be surprised! Additionally, waving hand up and down to somebody, with inside of your palm looking down means "come here.Shaking your head to the sides means "no" or "I don't understand", and shaking your head to the front means "yes." Turkey is not an exception when it comes to showing a middle finger. It is very offensive to do so.
Turkish people do not pay specific attention on how they ask questions or say things, because they are more open, more collective and understanding and do not consider being asked questions and things about themselves impolite. They do not mind being asked about their age or salary.
Last but not least, Turkish people are very polite in interactions and communications, especially when it comes to older people but they do not hold the same sense of time and queues as Western people do. You shouldn't pressure any deadlines on Turks, and you shouldn't expect them to be on time on anything, even social gatherings. They also don't like queues and would jump on a bus without considering that there is another person in front of them. This is not considered as disrespectful in Turkey as it might be in the US.
You may be surprised by many things that I mentioned, but Turkish culture is very old, and I do not think their attitudes, behaviors, and traditions will change. The only solution is getting used to this and be empathetic!
My goals for this week were to increase my vocabulary and to continue improving my verbal communication in Korean.
To increase my vocabulary, I constantly used the Korean app that I have on my phone to learn new words, and I am seeking to implement using these words in my talks in Korean with not only my Korean language partner and study group, but also with my parents and my Korean peers. This has helped, and I am definitely starting to see an increase in my vocabulary, albeit a small increase.
Having to dedicate a couple hours a week to speaking solely in Korean during my SDLC language meetings has really sharpened my Korean communication abilities. I get to exercise my language speaking capabilities in extended periods of time, and I have constantly stay focused to be able to understand it. Although this is only the first couple of weeks where I am in the SDLC 110 class, I definitely do feel that it is helping a lot.
To become more advanced in Korean, I believe it's essential for me to know about especially the vocabulary, grammar, syntax and semantic components. Without knowing them, I won't be able to use certain words in sentences correctly at the right time and I will also not be able to understand the true meaning of it in the context as Korean words have multiple meanings for the same word. To expand on Vocabulary, I will need to read and watch more advanced context so that I'm not just memorizing a list of words but truly understand how they are used in real life. In terms of grammar and syntax, I think referring to a grammar book would help because I'm not that familiar with the official rules of Korean grammar. Syntax part of this language will be acquired best if I keep exposing myself to resources that show how words are used differently in different contexts and how meanings change depending on the situations.
My main cultural learning goal for this semester is to learn more about current issues in Brazil, and learn more about Brazilian soccer. To explore these topics, I hope to try and read some new articles in Portuguese or maybe analyze some new segments in Portuguese. For soccer I hope to maybe watch some Brazilian soccer with Portuguese commentary. Through the exploration of these topics I hope to learn more about the current lives of Brazilians and what seems to be pressing issues for them. I also hope to learn more about the Brazilian soccer culture and how that affects how the Brazilian national team plays on the field, and how they interact with their fans.
1. Recording:
2. Translation:
Hello! My name is Angella. Last semester, I learned about majors and careers. My major is chemistry. I am a 3rd year student at the University of Richmond. When I grow up, I want to be a pharmacist.
This semester, I am learning about South Korea's geography and about Yonsei University in general. I will be an exchange student at Yonsei University. I have been learning about the different types of buildings at the university. Thank you!
3. Evaluation:
I think I did well in pronouncing and articulating the vocabulary, such as majors, careers, and geography. This allowed me to feel comfortable with speaking about the things that I learned. I don't think I had an accent because I am used to switching from speaking in English to Korean, and vice versa, without an accent. I think my overall accuracy was pretty good, but I could tell when I struggled with remembering and pronouncing some of the words, such as saying that I was a third-year student and remembering what exchange student was in Korean. This makes sense because I was working with saying numbers formally in Korean last semester (SDLC 110) and I just learned the new terms dealing with exchange programs, so I can see why I struggled with these types of vocabulary. I can make necessary improvements by continuing to practice and review over both my old and new learning materials. There is no harm in always reviewing because it will help me become more natural with speaking in Korean!
Korean’s language structure, for the majority, is SOV (subject-object-verb). This knowledge can be acquired through reading books on how Korean grammar works, as well as constnatly engaging in Korean to see in which phrases there are exceptions to the structure. For example, when writing “He sang the song”, in Korean, the object, the song, would be placed right after the word “he”. Then, the verb would be placed at the end, and the variation of the word would indicate whether it occurred in the past, present, or future.
Having a reference grammar could be useful, but it probably wouldn’t aid too much. Korean and Japanese have similar SOV structures, but since I don’t know much Japanese, comparing and contrasting for reference wouldn’t be helpful for me. It would be better to just focus on learning Korean, as adding in other languages could complicate the process of learning the language for me.
- Do some research about the culture of your target language and write about the 'linguistic aspects', e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc.
Using the Geer Hofstede measure of identifying cultural parameters of Korean, South Korean culture is extremely collectivist and has a high respect for hierarchy that is prevalent in its language. For example, the collectivist culture means that South Korea has high emphasis on the communities and within families. Korean has different words for different members of the family, ranging all the way from cousin-in-law, and different words for each family member based on which gender you identify with. It highlights the importance of each individual family member, a characteristic that does not occur in other languages, such as English.
Body language, in Korean culture, occurs a lot during introductions. Bowing is a common occurrence, and is expected to occur among nearly every member of society. During conversation, eye contact is considered rude, especially if the one initiating the eye contact is a junior or a lower member of the organization.
Korean, is a monochronic culture, as meetings and appointments are expected to be on time. There are usually no excuses to when the meeting begins, as one is expected to be on time. However, this rule isn't super strict, as a fair warning beforehand will suffice.
