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The way I have organized my learning plan for Korean is by sectioning the areas I want to become proficient and fluent in. I have first identified the areas I am lacking. Although I would say I am pretty proficient with my basic Korean skills, I currently struggle with reading long paragraphs, professional vocabulary and phrases, casual words (such as slang), and a lack of knowledge of Korean culture. So, I have sectioned my learning into culture, speaking, reading, and writing. I have also identified the learning tools and resources based on what I normally enjoy using in my daily life to arouse my interest in learning. For my cultural learning experience, I have decided to meet up with my partner to explore new Korean foods and watch Korean films and dramas to identify cultural differences. An example is by watching the Netflix show “The Glory” where the show portrays the lives in high schools as well as how the hierarchy affects people in Korea. For my speaking skills, I want to learn how to have business professional and casual conversations. I will pursue better casual conversations by having conversations with my partner and watching Korean entertainment shows on YouTube to learn the slang and common phrases used in daily life that are not portrayed in the books. For my professional aspect, I will watch Korean television news and events from Korean broadcasting platforms such as KBS and SBS (also provided on YouTube). Watching these news talking about the topics of the economy, politics, and the market will definitely highlight the formal structures of Korean speaking. For reading (the area I lack the most), I want to improve my speed and understanding. I will be using the platform Naver, a Korean search engine that I often used in Korea, to read Korean entertainment news, general news coverages, and novel books of my choice. I will be reading at least one of these choices every day to become familiar with and expand my vocabulary. Finally, for writing, I will be highlighting unfamiliar vocabulary from the previous activities and practicing writing sentences and paragraphs with the vocabulary terms. I will return to my partner weekly to go over the writing I have done. I will be focusing on the spacing and grammar of the writing. 

I have noticed that incorporating the apps and resources that I normally enjoy using is helping me stay motivated to learn every day. I have also noticed that I am already surrounded by a lot of resources to increase my Korean skills. 

I believe that I also have a good balance of becoming proficient and fluent by practicing both casual and professional Korean skills. 

I created a PowerPoint presentation to organize my learning plan because I think that's the best way for me to stay on track and consolidate the information I wanted to be a part of my learning plan. I will try my best to transfer that information onto a blog post. Firstly, as any language learner first learns when they set out on their journey to learn a language on their own, especially, but also in the context of an externally-designed class is that setting a goal for yourself is extremely important. My main goal that I hope to work towards throughout this semester in regard to my self-directed Afaan Oromo journey is to 1) speak with a native at a conversational level and 2) understand/listen to the language at a higher level (so improve my comprehension skills). However, merely setting a goal is not enough. It's valuable to understand for yourself why the goal you set is important to you and your life, finding your "why" essentially. My "why" is to connect with my Oromo roots, foster stronger connections to my Afaan Oromo-speaking family, learn the mother tongue of my father, and become a better asset for my future career prospects (because as an International Affairs student that hopes to do a lot of work in Ethiopia knowing both the national language and the most widely spoken language of the country will increase my value and impact). In terms of technicalities, there are 12 weeks starting now in the semester~as required I will spend 2 hours/week speaking with my native partner and 3-4 hours/week engaging in other language learning activities/tasks. Additionally, outside of the two main goals I set initially, to better orient my studying, I will set bi-weekly goals that are narrower and will allow me to orient the activities/tasks I do in that week to fulfill these smaller goals. An example of these smaller goals is learning 30 new vocabulary words or being able to speak everyday pleasantries without hesitations. Thirdly onto my task-based plan. There are four language learning fields-speaking, listening, writing, and reading. For my personal learning, I have prioritized each field based on which I want to focus and improve the most by the end of the semester (1. Listening 2. Speaking 3. Reading 4. Writing). So what this essentially means is that I am not going to be overly concerned with my Afaan Oromo writing skills and thus will dedicate less time working on that skill and more time working on listening and speaking. This then allows me to delegate/identify which activities/tasks I will be doing for each respective area/field. For Listening, I have identified 4 tasks that will allow me to investigate Afaan Oromo through an 'input' lense: children's books (YouTube 'Oromo Fairytales' Channel), Oromo music (w/ lyrics), Edpuzzle, and simple movies on YouTube. For speaking, my native language partner will be my biggest source. As well as an Oromo textbook that I have purchased which will hone my grammar skills and expose me to different phrases and vocabulary for speaking. For reading, I have found a BBC News website in Afaan Oromo. This is great because I am already invested in Ethiopian politics and such, and so this will allow me to do something I am already interested in in my target language. And lastly, for writing, I can hone these skills through text messages to my family in Afaan Oromo and answering short simple writing prompts (and increasing how much I write and the complexity of the prompt as time goes on). 

Learning plan-Caro Bisese

For my learning plan I have tried to organize my exercises so that they correspond to my strengths and I made sure my plan takes into account what has worked for me in the past, and keeps in mind what has not worked in the past. As reflected in my personality quizzes I took the first week in this class, it reaffirmed my knowledge that I am primarily an auditory learner, then a hands-on learner. I focused my future studies on listening exercises like watching children's TV shows that are geared towards education. I remember that watching similar education based grammar teaching shows helped me acquire Spanish phrases and vocabulary. The interactive aspect of these shows also help me understand sentences and phrases first hand. Other listening activities include listening to SlowNews, printing out lyrics and listening to songs to hear the grammar in action, and finding both educational and cultural (more advanced, more for exposure than comprehension). 

Then, I also have purchased a grammar workbook/textbook that goes over the systems and has exercises that follow units. This structure, especially being able to follow it at my own pace, has always been one of the ways I best gained comprehension. Also, simply rewriting the grammar structures and tenses in a repetitive pattern helps drill it into my memory. Other daily activities include reading/labeling objects in my room to help with conversational vocabulary. Also writing about my day in the diary to help with describing everyday activities. I think that these sorts of exercises help to identify conversational terms and phrases. 

Ultimately, I think that the route of my learning plan is patience with myself and learning at my own pace. I know that in the past sometimes the pace of the course and the direction that the course takes makes it so that I loose the effort to truly learn the information that I am studying.

My%20Learning%20Plan%20-%20David%20Kim.docx

My Learning Plan

Where are you now?  What can you do?  What do you know?

Use the Levels of Competence document and the LinguaFolio® checklists to assess your current abilities in your language.  For more information, see the SDLAP Wiki.

Interpersonal Communication

I can do free talking, informal communication, and formal communication.

Interpretive Listening

I can understand almost everything someone says, except difficult terms.

Interpretive Reading

I can easily read informal writings. I need plenty of time to read academic or advanced writings.

Presentational Speaking

I am confident in presentational speaking.

Presentational Writing

I need to revise for better quality of writing, more attempts and time than presentational writing in English.

What is your ultimate goal?  What is your goal for this semester?
What do you want to be able to do with this language at the end of this semester and in the future?

I want to be able to do presentational writing and formal writing similar to my writing in English. At the end of this semester and in the future, I want to be better in academic reading and writing.

What tasks will you complete and what activities will you do this semester to meet your goals?  How will you document and evaluate your progress?

Novice learners should consult the ‘Language Tasks’ page of the SDLAP Wiki and incorporate the required tasks in their learning.  Be as specific as possible when planning activities, e.g., “I will watch YouTube videos to learn how to talk about the family.” or “I will consult a grammar text to learn about possessives.”  Make sure you include some tasks that are relevant to your interests, e.g., “I will learn to understand soccer commentary.” or “I will learn to talk about the stock market.”  Culture and language are, of course, inseparable.  It is expected that all your language will be culturally appropriate and that every task will contribute to your cultural competence.

As the semester just started, my partner and I have done less language exchange and rather more structuring of our course/plan for the semester. After my first SDLC semester with my partner, I could feel my Korean conversational skills improved, or at least I felt more comfortable and at ease using it. However, after going to Korea, I realized I was far from fluency. So for this semester, I wanted to focus on 2 things: more strenuous/technical/niche/faster/complicated conversations, and writing skills. With writing, however, I will allocate more time outside of our sessions

So for the past 2ish weeks, my partner and I have been engaging in lengthy conversations in Korean, as planned. As with most conversational activity, it is much, much easier to select a topic and converse about it. Luckily, since I had the same partner as last time, we mostly talked about how each other's semester has been and caught up. I had told her beforehand that I wanted her to speak naturally, and that she didn't have to dumb down any words, and encouraged her to use harder/complicated terminology if possible. Immediately I could tell she had been slowing down her words for my sake, and our conversations became a lot faster paced. 

As with writing, it is harder to meaningfully practice with a partner once past a certain level. So, my partner has decided to rather give out tasks/topics to write about, in which I complete for the next session. I have gotten used to typing in Korean, which often has suggestions and autocorrect, and therefore am a bit helpless when it comes to paper and pencil writing. I hope to improve a lot more in that regard.

A trivial yet interesting difference between Korean and American universities is the cheering squad. Most of us are probably familiar with American cheerleading, which is usually formed to support sports teams and present different dances, formations, chants, etc. And while there are male cheerleaders and/or separate male cheering squads, they are quite uncommon. In Korea, however, the cheer squads in universities are composed of a lot more males than in America, and the gender connotation is a lot weaker. The outfits are completely different in their cheering squads, perhaps an interpretation of aristocratic fashion, with many frills and of various colors. Just like American cheerleading, they actively perform at sporting events and have different dances, but whereas American cheer squads focus more on gymnastics, Korean cheer squads focus much more on dancing. 

Korean cheer squads have their own special events, and in Korea many students actively attend these events. For example, Yonsei University and Korea University, two of the biggest schools in Korea, have an “합동응원전”, or a collaborated cheering match. Thousands of students attend, with students dressing in their school color, clothing, and accessories. Each school has their list of themes/anthems/songs that all the students somehow seem to know, as well as a dance that accompanies it. In the cheering match, a school would perform, and the other school would perform in response, and so forth, all whilst taunting each other. Whilst this may sound lackluster on paper, in real time it is quite overwhelming. Students wrap arms around each other in long lines, creating a giant wave. Cheering squads dance or perform flexibility abnormalities, and the whole event lasts for hours.

There has even been a recent Korean show centered around cheering squads, called “Cheer Up”. They actually filmed numerous scenes on the campus of Yonsei, and I saw many of the filming equipment/crew around, albeit no actors. But it was interesting to see how the cheering culture in Korea varied from America’s. In Korea, it really builds onto school spirit and love for the school, and after such events, students from both schools go out to drink in the nearby areas, either getting to know each other better, or start fighting.

Here is a video of a recent 합동응원전, if interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKalHGAhN4U

My learning plan

The first step in my learning plan is learning vocab words. In order to understand a language you need the basic building block of vocabulary, and I lack a lot of vocabulary in my speech. Then, I will test my vocabulary and write a sentence or two describing my day.  After this, I will test my language skills by watching a Korean kid's video and seeing if I can understand it. Then I will read a Korean kid's story and do the same. After, if my skill is proficient enough I will also start an audio journal and transcribe what I say and see if I can recognize and correct my mistakes. This will make the learning process a lot more personal and enjoyable. Enjoyment is key to learning that is why I will not approach learning Korean like any other academic class. After, I will expose myself to more Korean media such as reading a Korean news article, listening to Korean music, translating it all, and watching a Korean show without subtitles. Finally, to see how fluent I've become I will record a short conversation between and native speaker and me and transcribe our conversation. I will see if I can recognize and correct my mistakes and also compare how the native speaker and I speak and try to see what I can do to sound more fluent.

I chose music and tv shows because those are forms of media I consume daily so including them in my daily life would be hopefully less stressful for me as I wouldn't have to add something new that I possibly might not enjoy as much into my life. Also, I picked journaling because first I already journal normally and second journaling allows a lot of self-learning to happen because I am doing all the work myself and I also use the words I would use most frequently because I am speaking. The practice is coming from myself not a textbook that might have words in it that I possibly would never use. 

Figuring Foreigners Out, as well as Hofstede’s findings on cultural markers of difference were quite enjoyable to learn about. Viewing major categories as a spectrum seemed to be a good approach, such as the individualist-collectivist spectrum with which I was already familiar. This seems to be a pretty well-known differentiation between western and eastern cultures, and though I think cross-cultural interactions are beginning to blur the lines, it is still a palpable difference. I feel this mainly within families, as my parents often tell me, “Isaac, you’re our retirement plan”. Not necessarily purely in a monetary sense, but in the sense that their sacrifices for me will be reciprocated once I am able to offer such sacrifices. However, in the text, the examples given were very straightforward and overly simplified. I admittedly was not the biggest fan of having a quiz-like structure to determine which end of the spectrum a culture is since it presents culture as being something that is meant to be textually examined. Of course, being able to express how one culture views, say, time (moly/polychronic), is an exceedingly difficult task without being able to experience differences first hand. Though Hofstede’s visualizations of the globe and each country’s respective score on each measure were very enjoyable, I would like to use this information as a generalization, not an unchanging fundamental to each society. As I stated earlier, this knowledge is better understood when experienced in person, but for those who have not been able to travel to their target country, then I do think overarching perspectives are as valuable to know as specifics, such as the currency.

My learning plan will follow a more, "day in the life" format. Meaning, I will plan activities to do in the morning until night in chronological order. 

In the mornings I hope to incorporate podcasts, with a specific podcast from TalktomeinKorean being helpful in the past. I hope the podcast will allow me to focus on the words themselves to a degree greater than music or watching content since visual or sonic elements can easily distract me. Following weekends, I intend to have a conversation with my parents for about an hour or so strictly in Korean. If I do not know a word, I will use circumlocutions until my parents tell me the specific word, and from there I can restate said word to add it to my repertoire. This will occur on the weekends mainly, as well as once during the week. Additionally, I work at the global studio, which houses an impressive collection of Korean textbooks and resources to aid my learning. Using Yonsei textbooks and Korean-to-English dictionaries will be a concrete resource at my disposal during my week. Apps are also a tremendous aid, and one app in particular, StoryKorean, has children's stories along with comprehension quizzes at the end to not only improve reading speed but also comprehension. 

As for the reasoning behind these methods, I strongly believe in immersion. For instance, I have changed my phone settings to Korean, to add an additional layer of immersion throughout quotidian interactions. Speaking with my parents who are native speakers is a major bonus since I have already found native speakers to converse within a comfortable environment. Resources such as the TalktomeinKorean podcast serve a similar role in hearing common conversations beyond a textbook. Auditory elements are crucial in hearing intonation and prosody, which are particular to each language, and will help me sound more native, which consequently gives me the confidence to speak in the first place. Motivations regarding my interest in learning Korean relate back to my heritage, visiting Korea never ceases to put me in a state of awe and reverence for my ancestors and culture which has shaped some of the most important people in my life. Knowing there is a barrier between me, and some of these loved ones is a motivator rather than a deterrent. 

“B-I-S-E-S-E, Bisese” I say as I try to articulate my last name. It has never been an easy one for people to pronounce. I remember as I was growing up as a figure skater I would be standing on the side of the ice in my little sparkly outfit, shivering because of the cold and shaking because of the nerves. Then as if on cue, they would mispronounce my name and I would skate out with a plastered smile. 

My last name is Italian, and although I could correct people on the mispronunciation of my last name, there was so little that I knew about Italian culture and the language itself. I never knew my grandmother, and my grandfather passed away when I was six. My father never picked up the Italian that was sometimes thrown around the household, he was self-proclaimed “unable to speak a language, not even English sometimes”. I never felt this though. I always dreamed of travel and excitement, to see people and places but experience them closely without the barrier of my comfortable, but limiting native English. Growing up I took Spanish and I excelled on the quizzes and tests, but it lost its beauty for me. The classes that were offered never offered a look into Spanish culture beyond the occasional worksheet on “Día de los Muertos”. It became boring and the dreams I had to travel to spanish speaking countries dwindled down to dreaming that the class period would finish. 

Then I came to college and everything changed for me. I felt like I had an actual choice. One that went beyond “French or Spanish” and one that said, “where do you want language to take you?”. I remember distinctively thinking, “home”. I wanted to connect with my dad’s family, see the roots of my family tree where I get my thick dark brown brows and curly dark hair. So I enrolled in Italian and it became a part of me. I loved the grammar exercises being intertwined with the culture. I loved the discussions I had one on one with my professors, where they would recommend me news articles to read and tv shows to watch. I loved that throughout getting my COM2 requirement, I was planning an entire year abroad that would entirely change my life path and direction. The quiz I took reaffirmed that I am both an auditory and tactile learner. I have never been one to be able to memorize charts or models. Living in Italy I believe ultimately is what helped me become C1 level. Living in and being surrounded by the language really changed what the language was in my head. As time went on there was less translation and more simple action, I could use the language without thinking about using the language so much. 

Moving forward, I hope to continue this sort of learning where I focus on immersing myself in the language. I think that looking at media, be it news, movies, tv, podcast, etc, is most helpful in helping me obtain the spoken language. Listening to pronunciation is important to me because one thing I know I have trouble with is gaining the confidence to speak. I believe that taking the time to listen and practice, it will make me less averse to speaking. Being creative is also very important to me, I love writing and journaling. I think that it is important for me to incorporate this into my future language-learning endeavors. Especially keeping some sort of daily journal in the language, I think that it is important to know the everyday vocabulary and being able to recount my day would help to acquire words and grammar structures. I hope to apply the knowledge I have acquired for how I best learn languages to French, using cultural media at the forefront, especially as someone who is hoping to use a diverse array of languages throughout a career based in global media and communication.

I agree with most of the first passage as it lists so many facts about how human brain functions linguistic processes. It clarifies how each part of our brain can take certain responsibilities for effective communication. The second passage talks a lot about semantics in languages by illustrating how words express meanings and relationship between words. Language cannot be confined to a purely biological phenomenon. Everyone uses language in a different way. For example, illiterate people would sometimes neglect grammar rules. While others may employ intensive grammar usages which requires learning instead of simple brain processing. According to the first passage, information is sent from auditory cortex to Wernicke’s area which later allows Broca’s area for comprehension. For me, most of the English I learnt is through repetitive recitation which is time-consuming and inefficient. The second passage notices me the importance of incorporating words into phrases for better understanding of senses instead of references. I believe it would be helpful if I can require that kind of sense through daily communication.

The readings were very interesting and provided great insight on the parts I never knew about learning a language. Although I knew that right-handed people had their left hemisphere of the brain to be dominant, I did not know that it was for certain activities. I believe that language is influenced by a biological phenomenon to a point after reading about localization. Since our brain has parts that are significantly built and dedicated for certain abilities, I believe that some people are born with better speaking, listening, reading and writing skills than others. For instance, we are able to take the quizzes that allow us to know what ways help us learn the best. However, language is more heavily influenced by our surroundings and the culture we live in as we adapt to what we see and hear. Especially with speaking, we are influenced by specific areas of the brain such as the Wernicke’s area, Broca’s area, and frontal lobe. 

When it comes to processing meaning, it is important to structure the words into sentences. Although the reference is important in learning a language it is important to make
“sense” with words. Words can have multiple meanings to them whether it is in different tenses, meanings, or usages. It is important to specify those words through context. 

The readings inspired me to focus more on the day to day casual phrases and sentences, apart from the vocabulary shown in dictionaries or formal grammar books. Having real life practices and experiences will increase my ability to make sense with Korean. Activities such as watching Korean shows, casual conversations with my language partner, and reading Korean stories would help advance my language skills.

Lunar New Year is just right around the corner, and this year, the first day of the lunar year begins on January 22, 2023. Each year, the beginning of the lunar year is different, and starts later than the Gregorian calendar, which is what most parts of the world including the United States uses. Lunar New Year is sometimes also known as “Chinese New Year”, but many other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan celebrate this holiday as well. Lunar New Year in China and some other countries treat this holiday similar to how the United States celebrates Christmas. This popular holiday is celebrated for 15 days in China, and is quite highly celebrated because Chinese people wish to bring in good luck for the new year. There are many festivities that occur during this time such as lion dances, musical performances, prepping for the new year, and meaning of certain dishes. There are a tremendous amount of activities in the Lunar New Year that would be difficult to cover, but some of the most important and interesting ones are highlighted in this post. 

The first day of the Lunar New Year celebrations (also called “Spring Festival” 春节) are the most highly anticipated and requires the most prepping. On this day, many people don’t hold knives or brooms because it would be a sign of bad luck. Brooms are not used for cleaning because it was known in the olden days that using the broom would sweep away all the good fortune that would or have already made its way into the home. Using knives on the first day is taboo, so most of the cooking is done the few days leading to the first day. Additionally, to get rid of the bad spirits that may be lingering from the previous year, there would be lion dances, firecrackers, and lightening bamboo sticks to ward off bad spirits.  

Probably one of the most anticipated aspects of the Lunar New Year is the giving and receiving of red pocket envelopes also known as hong bao 红包。These red pocket envelopes are filled with cash given to children and the elderly. The cash amount would be in multiples of eight because “eight” in mandarin and cantonese is phonetically similar to the word “prosperous”. On the other hand, people usually never give cash amounts that end in the number “four” because it is phonetically similar to the word “die” in both mandarin and cantonese. Therefore, people do not want to wish death to the receiver at the beginning of the year. Red pocket envelopes are not the only items that are given as gifts during this time. Other gifts would be assorted nuts and fruits, especially tangerines, pomelos, and oranges because their Chinese characters are related to the character “luck” in Chinese. Gifts that are not acceptable to give during this time are clocks or watches because they are phonetically similar to the process of funerals. 

Day 2 of the Lunar Year is called 开年 (kai nian), and the main focus is to worship the God of Wealth 财神(cai shen). Most red pocket envelopes are given out, and interestingly, only married men and women are allowed to give and receive red envelopes while unmarried, single individuals can only receive. There is a popular song sung in cantonese called “财神到”, and it is used to celebrate and welcome the God of Wealth into the living space. This day is dedicated to maximizing the chances that the household/personels will be prosperous in the new year. 

Usually after the 3rd day of celebrations, businesses almost return back to normal while people continue to celebrate the new year. School-aged children get this time off, but the length varies depending on the region. The official holiday is seven days long while some children depending on the area get the full 15 days off. 

This is a brief overview of what the festivities look like for the first two days of the Lunar New Year in China along with traditions and customs that Chinese people follow during this time. The types of dishes and festivities may vary region to region, but one thing that can be said for certain is that the main theme of the celebrations is the importance of family gathering.

Resources:

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/chinese-new-year

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

During the meeting, Vivian and I watched a youtube video about teaching British high school students to read Korean in a day. Through the video I got to know the origin of the Korean alphabet and some interesting tricks in memorizing the Korean alphabet. I also searched for more information after the meeting. 

King Sejong the Great devised the Korean alphabet, typically referred to as Hangul, as a distinctive writing system in the 15th century. Hangul is a phonetic writing system with 24 letters that communicate sounds, in contrast to other Asian writing systems like Chinese or Japanese, which rely on complicated symbols. Other Asian writing systems include Chinese and Japanese. Because of this, it is much easier to learn and apply, which is one of the reasons why it is still used as Korea's official writing system today. The development of Hangul, which made it possible for the general population to become more literate, is considered to be one of Korea's most significant cultural achievements. Only scholars and nobles could grasp the difficult Chinese characters employed at the time, hence they were the only ones who could read and write before Hangul. On the other hand, the Korean writing system known as Hangul was designed to be straightforward in both its acquisition and its use in order to promote increased education and literacy across the country.

But there was significant controversy concerning the creation of Hangul. At the time, Chinese characters were viewed as a signal of great culture, and many academics resisted the introduction of a new, inferior writing system. Some even went so far as to set fire to newly printed books featuring Hangul printing. King Sejong and his adherents persevered in the face of these challenges, and ultimately, Hangul was generally accepted as the country of Korea's official writing system.

Hangul is currently a crucial component of Korean society, being taught in schools and used often. It appears in sources like newspapers, novels, television series, and even Korean fashion and design. In actuality, a number of Korean fashion designers incorporate Hangul in their designs, integrating it into patterns, logos, and even clothes. The visual attraction of Hangul is one of its special traits. The letters are created to be easily recognizable and visually stunning, and they are usually compared to little works of art. The simple and beautiful letterforms are supposed to have drawn inspiration from the human body's curves and lines.

The method that Hangul represents Korean language and culture is another unique element of the alphabet. For instance, the letter forms are patterned by the lip and tongue motions needed to enunciate the sounds they stand for. This underlines the relationship between language and identity and reflects the centrality of speech and communication in Korean culture.

I think our biology is the only reason why we are able to have language. We are naturally born with feelings and as we grow older we learn how to express these feelings through language. The ability to learn a language is based on our biological structure. That is why some people are better at public speaking, some are better at writing, and some are better at conversational speaking because those are the areas that people most likely had the most training in when they were young. 

In the reading, it says that right-handed people’s left brain deals with the most physical functions and the right side of the brain deals with analyzing patterns. I think the right part of the brain allows us to understand parts of language such as semantics and the left side allows us to properly execute our reaction and response to what that meaning means to us.

I think is process language very similar to what the textbook says. I use context and other related words to help me understand the meaning of a new word I don’t know and I also use previous experience to help me understand the “actual” meaning of a word or whatever the other person is trying to say. 

This reading made me realize that our physical body has a large effect on our learning. Now it makes me want to try physical methods to try and learn a language and then maybe my brain will be able to learn a language much more efficiently. Also, it made me realize to learn a language I need a lot of “real world” practice, so conversations from textbooks and only reading stories in a different language will most likely not be as effective towards my learning especially because I want to be conversationally fluent in Korean; therefore, I should have conversations with other native speakers and read and watch modern media in Korea so that my language skills can improve. Also, this reading made me think about my English skills, even though English is my first language. It made me think about those “what does this word mean used in this context” questions on the SAT. I would have to use other words and the context of the passage to help determine the meaning of a certain word.

Discussion Post #1

David Kim

30262888

david.kim123@richmond.edu

           I think some aspects of language is a purely biological phenomenon, especially speaking. Speaking can only be processed through listening, which is a natural phenomenon. For example, you can speak other languages by only watching tv programs in that language even though you have no knowledge about words or grammar. However, I also think that some aspects of language are not purely biological phenomena. For Instance, reading and writing is not natural outcome. They need continuous practice to actually learn and get better. Eventually, I partly agree that language is a purely biological phenomenon.

           The left hemisphere is dominant for language for me since I am a right-handed person. Speech production takes place in the utterance, sent to be processed in Wernicke’s area, and to Broca’s area for encoding. The signal for speech comprehension is sent to the auditory cortex from the ear and interpreted in Wernicke’s area.

          Meaning can vary through different words, sentences, and grammar patterns. Because words by themselves are not clear, only vocabulary within a sentence has meaning. Through these readings, I got to think again about how I learned foreign languages and formed a new language. Since I learned that isolated words may convey too many meanings, I will try to use full sentences to express what I truly mean.

Being a Cognitive Science major, the selected readings were nothing short of fascinating to me. The chapter regarding anatomical structures presented biology as a building block for understanding language acquisition. Though not necessary, understanding structures such as Broca’s and Wernicke’s area helps to relate language back to its original roots: the brain. The brain’s ability to maintain a symphony of visual stimuli in both recognition and production is incredible, and the ability to eventually communicate complex thoughts was something I came to understand. Though the, “left” vs. “right” brain discussion is certainly vital, I believe that, in actuality, people shouldn't focus too much on biological differences when learning a language. Rather than getting caught up on the fact that one does not possess strong “left” abilities, everyone also has a corpus callosum and is more than capable of learning language– biology should not be a deterrent.

As for the philosophical debates, I was quite interested in the Plato and Socrates illustrations, due to some courses in rhetoric which I am taking now. Plato’s polemical views on rhetoric stem from an idea that one’s sense trumps all, which is in opposition to the Socratic paradigm. This reminds me of a quote from Dostoevsky and his thoughts on thought itself, using language to communicate said thoughts could be seen as an inherently impossible task, and I conjecture language will never be a perfect 1:1 expression of consciousness. Perhaps this is why I’m ambivalent about Plato and Socrates since both sense and reference are needed, and why I enjoyed this reading so much as it positioned biological principles as a step to understanding varying philosophical premises.

I have learned two languages, other than English, throughout my life including Korean and Spanish. Coming from a Korean family, I have always learned basic Korean vocabulary and phrases from my parents. It was not difficult to learn Korean as it happened naturally, being in an environment that encouraged Korean in the household. But since I only used the basic phrases, it was hard to increase my Korean skills, especially with writing, as I never got the chance to practice and broaden my proficiency. 

Learning Spanish in high school was very difficult. The class offered a load of vocabulary and conjugations, split into categories. For instance, we would have a week of learning past tense in the setting of family. We would learn vocabularies such as mom, dad, family, and siblings and put them in short sentences. It was difficult because I would memorize them in my short-term memory and forget about them once the quizzes and tests were over. My favorite language learning activities offered in the class were watching storylines spoken in Spanish and summarizing what is happening in the videos. Watching, listening, and reading the subtitles increased my ability to actually learn real-life conversational skills.

After taking the surveys I have figured that I am a visual and spatial learner. Reading and looking at pictures helps me the most in learning something new. I think making flashcards, keeping my environment clean, and watching visual videos and imagery would help me learn the language. For Korean, imageries such as K-dramas or K-entertainments would help me advance my conversation skills as well as my reading skill with the available subtitles. For my writing, practicing by creating charts or graphics will help me organize my grammar and fluency skills. 

I've had a number of experiences with different languages and cultures. I am originally from Ethiopia, a country in the horn of Africa where more than 100 languages are spoken. That is where I had my very first experience with language-my mother tongue of Amharic (the national language of Ethiopia). Until I was about four years old that is all I knew how to speak. Soon after my family and I moved to Russia where I began to acquire the Russian language, at least to the extent that a four-year-old attending an Indian preschool can acquire the Russian language. When I was around six years old I moved to the United States and had my fourth experience with language, the English one at that. This was the hardest language experience I've experienced, mostly because of the insane pressure put on a six-year-old to learn such a complex language in a matter of months. Additionally, American culture was also one that tolled with my perception of my identity the most, perhaps because it was the most different from all my other experiences. Lastly, starting from third grade to my junior year in high school I have been learning Spanish in the classroom; my fifth experience with language and culture. Weirdly enough, even after all those years of instruction, I still don’t know how to actually speak Spanish and most of what I do know of the language is through my Spanish-speaking friends that I’ve had for just as long, This, I believe, is a testament to the point made in the How to Successfully Learn a Language This Year blog post about the detriment of viewing language learning as an academic pursuit. My sixth experience as a language learner began here at the University of Richmond where I spent all four of my years as an undergraduate student learning the French language. I made the decision to start fresh rather than continuing my pursuit of Spanish because French is the “language of diplomacy” and as an International Affairs student, I believed learning it would serve me well in the future. It doesn’t end there. Ironically, instead of studying abroad in France during my junior year, I decided to spend three months abroad in Italy where I had my final experience as a language learner. Though the program required us to learn Italian in the context of a classroom, it was so refreshing to be able to take what we learned in the classroom and use it as soon as we stepped outside the school building. I realized there that, for me at least, that is the best way to truly acquire a language rather than merely having small unproductive encounters with multiple languages. That is how I enjoy learning a language-using it outside the context of academics, seeing the language through the people that speak it everywhere I turn. This is in alignment with the learning style that best matches me according to the survey-visual and auditory. It extracts the pressure that is associated with academics and the desire to be motivated by grades rather than learning the language even if it means failing at times. Academics doesn't provide me the comfort of failing. 

I often find myself perplexed by the fact that I was able to learn English because right now I can’t imagine speaking another language at an advanced level. When I was in Ethiopia this past summer, I almost lost hope in my pursuit to learn Afaan Oromo because it felt like it could never happen without living amongst people that only spoke that for a year or more (a situation that isn’t realistic for me right now). But through this class, I think my hope will be restored. I need to speak and practice. I need to let go of the idea that I will only speak when I’m “perfect”. I will use what I know about myself as a learner to foster a language-learning environment that will best serve me. For instance, some learning activities I hope to use is listening to music in Afaan Oromo and using both the context of the music video and the words/lyrics being said to discern what story the music is telling. 

I began to admire polyglot since a very young age when I consorted a foreigner speaking fluent Mandarin. We conversated a lot about his travelling experience in several countries. He kept modest even when he pointed out that he can speak more than three languages which allows his travel unimpeded. From then on, I have been dreaming about packing my stuffs and stepping around the world with my talented language skills. However, the reality is so tough that I start to adverse the toughness of remembering all the vocabularies and grammar rules in English, my second language.

After finishing survey and looking carefully through the FIRE model, I found myself a visual learner and body person in most cases. According to the websites, visuals learners are recommended to use flashcards to learn new words and draw pictures to illustrate new concepts. Another important advice is that visual learners should attempt to see things, not just hear things, in order to learn well. In the meanwhile, learners with “Body Movement” traits should use magnetic letters, or letters on index cards to spell words. In addition to that, constantly changing place for writing and tools to write is also note-worthy. There are similarities between suggestions given by the two websites based on the analysis of what kind of learner I am. I need to make my study movable, which means that the medium I use for no matter remembering vocabulary or taking notes should be portable and easily accessible. I also fall into the category of “Insightful” within respect to the Fire Model. I find role playing, case studies, and opportunities for debate suits my initial study plan. All these descriptions and accompanied suggestions help me find the frame that fits me the most.

Therefore, I can expand my primitive study activities based on all this information. I need to first set up my goals. This goal should not be too broad for a single semester’s study, so daily communication scenarios such as shopping and greeting are practical objectives. I need to find an instructor who is willing to help me and point out mistakes I would make while studying. In addition, I should also utilize online resources for picking up both vocabulary and sentences. I would love to attend cultural events about Korean since I found it beneficial when immersed in the atmosphere considering my previous English learning experience. According to the visual learner advice, combing concepts and pictures can be a good choice for both learning and remembering. I plan to integrate daily conversations into videos that I can take out and review for so many times thanks to modern technologies. In short, the short term goal for me is daily communication which does not require sophisticated languages which renders more flexible study plans. Moreover, I should combine visual resources into my study and have someone to point out my mistakes whenever possible. At last, find a native speaker of Korean and keep in touch with he or she would improve my accent and courage of using the language.