This past week, I learned about basic color words: red, green, blue, yellow, purple, black, and white. In class, we used two activities to practice. At first, one would say a color, and the other person would find an object that matches the color. Through this process, the combination of vision and listening allowed me to memorize those words. Afterwards, one would point at a random object and ask “what is the color of this”. The other just responded to the questions. In this case, we know how to say those words besides just knowing them. From my learning experiences, it was kind of interesting to notice that the word “color” in Korean actually sounds like that in Chinese.
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There is a dearth of information about animal rights legislation on the Internet. Similarly, one cannot easily find information on animals' role in society and Indonesians' perception toward animals.
Nevertheless, I stumbled upon a controversial article about the relationship between consuming dog meat and ethnic groups. According to the non-profit Animal Welfare Organization located in Jakarta, Indonesia, there is a myth that certain ethnic groups scattered across Indonesia eat dogs regularly. For example, the Batak people, predominantly located in North Sumatra, and the Manado people, located in North Sulawesi, are believed to include dog meat in their diet. Why? A part of the reason for this myth's longevity is the lack of a nationwide effort to centralize data on the subject. That is, there is no authority on the subject. So, word spreads by mouth, and the myth becomes further entrenched into the general knowledge of the people.
There are implications for the prevailing stereotype. First, outsiders looking in towards these groups may view their culture as primitive, wild, cruel, and so on. And so, the logic goes, whoever is associated with these two ethnic groups bears a certain marker of sorts: less developed, etc.
Having said that, the Animal Welfare Organization does not imply that consuming dog meat does not happen in Indonesia. And dog meat consumption occurs in the two ethnic groups stated above. Yet, the majority of people in these groups do not take part in the "practice." The article mentions that dog consumption is increasingly less common now than it was a decade ago.
What's more, there is a bottom-up push to expel the practice from the disparate ethnic groups. Animal rights activists and other relevant organizations have sprung up in many of the nation's large cities, a trend that coincides with the expanding economy. There remains more to do, however, but grassroots organizations such as the Indonesian Society for Animal Welfare give us hope.
안녕하세요!
So at this point in the semester, we were about mid-way through the semester! I can't believe that! It's so crazy how fast time moves! I'm not ready to graduate! I am, but I'm also not!
Some of the key things Joora and I have been able to work on during this time of our Korean language learning was writing, reading, and comprehension. We've spent a lot of time improving my reading and writing, so I'm really thankful. With Suyeon unnie, my first language partner when I began self-directed Korean, Suyeon and I spent a lot of time learning the alphabet and speaking the most basic survival language. She was preparing me for my time abroad in Korea and I will attest that learning Korean with Suyeon was so beneficial to my study abroad experience!
Anyways, Joora and I focused for a bit on my reading skills. I severely lacked in that department! I was able to find a children's book online and I printed it out! We spent a week going through reading and comprehending the book and from time to time after that week, I would review the book with Joora! It was so cool to see how at the beginning it was so hard to even pronounce the words and then by the end be able to read smoothly without any hiccups! And even more worthwhile that I knew what I was saying! ㅋㅋㅋ
I would say that reading a book (even if it's just a children's book) was one of the most rewarding moments during my self-directed Korean learning this semester. It was really a task that resulted from my own intentionality. And evening with reading, it combines speaking too! So I know that this exercise definitely helped me overcome some of fear of speaking!
I've attached a copy of my printed storybook! It has all the notes and vocabulary on it too so you can see some of the processing I went through trying to understand and get down on reading the story well!
After reading the book, Joora and I spent some time learning a church song too! More information about that whole process can be seen with my Third Artifact post!
During this interim time, Joora and I had also gone through all the books of the Bible and we focused on the book of Luke as well! We went through scripture and vocabulary!
안녕하세요!!!
So during a weekend a while back, I was spending time with friends and thought I would try out this learning activity I hashed out the last time I posted about teaching someone how to order food in Korean!
Maybe it was because these friends were really close friends, it was a bit hard to stay super serious as I taught them different phrases in Korean. But one good thing from the situation was that I was super relaxed and because my language partner wasn't there, they looked to me for everything. So I remember being quite surprised that I knew a lot more than what I was giving myself credit for.
That's always a pleasant surprise!
I would say that my learning activity was effective.
At the end of the role-play, my friends were able to successfully order food in Korean, even if it was super basic. Survival language skills are so integral though, so I'm happy with what my pupils were able to get out of the learning activity!
In the Korean culture, there are significant differences to the Korean language when speaking to family versus strangers. In the Korean language, formality is not only suggested for people who you don't know, but it's a sign of respect. Especially in the sense of you speaking to those older than you- seniority is a thing. You speak formally to those older unless they choose to drop the language and allow for the both of you to speak informally with each other. In that same vein, speaking informally to others usually only happens with family, close friends, and young children. While living in Korea, I spoke formally with everyone but my friends. As a foreigner, I think Koreans give more lee-way if you mess up and don't speak formally on the first meeting with them. Koreans are pretty understanding to foreigners who are learning their language- understanding that you're still learning. So there's definitely a different standard to Koreans respecting the language system dynamic and an outsider learning Korean.
This is a picture of the cast of Abnormal Summit. I believe it is no longer airing, but when it was, it was a variety show of different foreign celebrities presently active in South Korea. Each week, they would speak about different issues and provide South Koreans with a broader knowledge of different perspectives from all around the world.
This show represents a lot of what I spoke about earlier. How even though their Korean is impeccable and fluent, Koreans still hold them to a different standard from a native speaker. It's really interesting to experience and witness.
I've always loved the Korean language and culture and having had the privilege to study abroad in South Korea in the Spring of 2016, I definitely have such a big heart for this country!
For this semester, my main interest lies in the church. I've learned how to pray in Korean, how to interact within a small group Bible study, have read a few scriptures of the New Testament, and have also learned how to sing a church song in Korean! It's been a really beautiful ride of being introduced to the Korean church culture!
I'm hoping that the basics I have learned so far this semester will help kindle a greater growth into navigating the Korean church language. It is my wish to work with Korean churches when I return back to South Korea!
Something I would like to teach to someone else in Korean is how to order food! Joora and I spent some time going over diction and we used food as a category! Because of that, we practiced as well how to order and ask questions in Korean!
The activity I have lined up to teach someone else would be role-play!
I specifically want to teach someone else how to order in Korean, so for a change I will be the host/waitress haha.
Before role-play though, we'll start with the basics. Learning how to say hello, please, portions, excuse me, and getting the attention of the staff. I will also teach them short food phrases, like "this is delicious!" or "it's hot!" or "I don't like this."
After going through vocabulary, I'll focus on putting together a small script where the person I'm teaching knows how to interact in a role-play situation.
When they're comfortable with the Korean, we'll dig right into the role-play!
Here are the artifacts I mentioned in my second bi-weekly post!
I'm really proud with these learning activities! I had so much fun learning some of the basic prayer language in Korean and even more fun constructing my own simple prayer with Joora! I was able to practice it everyday!
I think my pronunciation is done well and I think because I wasn't so much anxious about the recording, I didn't seem too nervous in it. I think also that it was a prayer and I practiced it a lot, I got really comfortable with speaking this particular dialogue.
Overall, I deem this a super success!
안녕하세요!
The first month of learning Korean was good! I think the hardest part at the beginning of the semester was learning how to balance all of my school work this semester with three jobs on campus. I definitely felt the gap of being abroad for a whole year and just returning to finish off my undergraduate career.
Joora and I were able to start this semester with learning how to pray in Korean! We did a regular prayer and a food prayer so you'll be able to hear it in my artifacts post.
As a spiritual person, it was nice to start learning Korean off with a prayer. It seemed really fitting to just cover my semester learning with thankfulness and admire for a language that isn't my own, but that I can hold an intimate moment with!
For now, I know basic Korean words, and I learned them in several steps. At first, I try to memorize them through writing and through various apps. Writing out the words helps me remember the spelling. Plus, word app has become a popular tool in language learning because it is more convenient to carry a phone instead of a dictionary and because the combination of pictures and words realize easier memorization. After memorizing the words, I always take quizzes or play games to deepen my memory. Then, I watch Korean drama and movies, trying to recognize from conversations those words I memorized. Next, I find chances to say those words so that I do not forget them. For instance, I can learn tongue twisters that include those words. In order to build my vocabulary, I try to make connections between new and acquired words. In the future, I hope to know around 2000 Korean words for daily communication.
안녕하세요!
정말 미안 해요 교수님!
I'm so sorry Dr. Scinicariello! I did not fully keep with the syllabus and did not arrange a meeting with you. But I hope you know that I have kept well with all of my work, it's just been a hard time remembering to post everything. As a senior too this semester has been quite difficult, so I hope you can extend some understanding!
Although we did not meet to speak about my progress, Joora and I have met for every week, twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. And we've kept to all the things I wanted to learn this semester as well, so that's a plus! We didn't always do it in order because sometimes I found my interest to lie in a different week's schedule. So that's the only thing that we really changed, just when we would go over certain things.
I've been able to be successful with all my learning tasks because Joora has been a great supporter of my learning and growth! She's so awesome! <3
And because what I'm learning (Korean church culture) is something I dearly want to continue learning, I've had a lot of fun taking initiative to learn it!
안녕하세요!!!
This was the first artifact I did for the semester! It's so bad! Re-listening to it, I could tell that I was so super nervous and I had probably tried my best to do a few takes, but I feel like frustration got the best of me! ㅋㅋㅋ ㅠㅠ
Speaking has always been my weak point with Korean. The funny thing is that with all the other languages I've learned (Arabic and Spanish) speaking was never a problem. I've reflected on it and I think it's because I have a more personal bond to Korean that makes messing up while speaking that much harder for me (?) maybe haha.
Anyways, I think for my very first artifact of the semester it was alright. Because I was super nervous, I know I misspoke about my family. But overall, I think my accent is not too bad.
Improvements would be nerves as I'm recording myself. Maybe there are tricks to fooling myself that I'm just speaking and not recording. The biggest way to improve would be to continue practice speaking each day so that hearing myself speak Korean doesn't sound so foreign to my own ears. I think allowing myself to hear myself speak Korean will help break down the wall I have with having a hard time to fully explore speaking Korean, without fear of mistakes. Because it's really only once you allow yourself to mess up from speaking that you really grow deeper in the language.
I'm excited for the day I can do that with the Korean language! It will have been a long-time in the making because of the self-directed language program! So this victory will be all the more sweeter!
안녕하세요!!!
It's been such a super busy semester for me! Thank you for being understanding, that while my posts are late, I've definitely been meeting with Joora and have had an awesome semester learning Korean!
잘 부탁드립니다.
I've posted my Learning Plan and having reviewed it, I'm always so amazed how flexible self-directed language learning is! This semester I focused on more Korean language and culture surrounding the Church. If this wasn't self-directed language learning, I don't think I would have been able to spend time learning this aspect of the Korean language that I'm personally invested in. So I'm really grateful for this flexibility! I love how even at my basic novice learning level, I can still learn about this, even if that means I have to stretch myself out of my comfort zone!
Most of my learning activities have been super engaging and it's been a really great time together with Joora! From taking time to read and dissect Scripture to learning a church song, I've had a fun semester with all the dynamic things we've been able to do together!
I remember at the beginning of the semester, I was really shy and hesitant with speaking Korean because it had been so long since I had spoken it with someone. I think I was also frustrated because my comprehension is better than my speaking ability. It's always annoying when you can understand well but you're stuck with not being able to express yourself properly. I also know that at the beginning of this semester, I had not gotten over my barrier of fear of messing up when it comes to speaking Korean. To be honest, I don't think I've fully been able to break that wall. Where I am right now is a lot better at just speaking, but it's so hard! I've always loved and admired the Korean language and I just want to be able to speak it perfectly. Making mistakes speaking Korean is so scary for me! But definitely re-looking at the progress I've made (even if it's not super significant) the progress makes me happy!
Hello!
It's been such an awesome final semester as a senior learning Korean as a novice beginner!
I've had a blast continuing to learn and explore more of this language and its rich history and culture with my super amazing language partner Joora!
Attached below is the learning plan I made from the start of the semester. Looking through it, we have been able to hit all of the things I was hoping to learn this semester! That's so encouraging and so cool!
Reflecting on this learning plan, I definitely feel more empowered with self-directed language learning! While progress may be slow and at my own pace, it's super cool that I can say I have learned how to do these specific tasks!
For our last class we reviewed parts of the face. I learned how to say eyes "guz" in Turkish as well as "dudak" for lips, "agiz" for mouth, "burun" for nose, "kulak" for ears, "yanak" for cheeks, and "kas" for eyebrows. And then we applied this vocabulary in a fun and interactive way by watching a music video by a famous Turkish pop star who reviewed some of these terms in his catchy song. We were then given a worksheet of his lyrics and had to fill in the missing vocabulary words by listening to his song. This was a great way to learn new vocabulary and also practice listening in Turkish to improve my comprehension of the language. I look forward to learning about the family next week, and I think it would also be great to learn vocabulary about the parts of the body to build on this lesson.
For our last class we reviewed parts of the face. I learned how to say eyes "guz" in Turkish as well as "dudak" for lips, "agiz" for mouth, "burun" for nose, "kulak" for ears, "yanak" for cheeks, and "kas" for eyebrows. And then we applied this vocabulary in a fun and interactive way by watching a music video by a famous Turkish pop star who reviewed some of these terms in his catchy song. We were then given a worksheet of his lyrics and had to fill in the missing vocabulary words by listening to his song. This was a great way to learn new vocabulary and also practice listening in Turkish to improve my comprehension of the language. I look forward to learning about the family next week, and I think it would also be great to learn vocabulary about the parts of the body to build on this lesson.
Following the other cultural post I decided to research more on hierarchy. i found that in Korea with age comes more respect. They have a lot of honorifics that the younger have to use when talking to an older person. In addition, this reminded me of some of the cultural presentations that people did in 105 last year. For example, the ones about drinking and how the young who pours the drink has to use two hands and when drinking look away. It is very interesting to see that even though I am from Taiwan we do not have that intense of a hierarchy in our country.
For me I find reading in Spanish to be much easier than writing, listening, or speaking in Spanish. You still have to know vocabulary and understand the structure of the language when reading, but you need to really have the rules down if you want to produce writing yourself. It is easy to forget little things like accents or vocabulary words in general, so I would say reading is the first step in language learning, with writing as the second. You also have more time to process the language when your are reading and writing versus listening and speaking. My reading and writing abilities in Spanish are solid, so I personally have been focusing on listening and speaking more.
Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language.
From my experience of learning Korean, I think that I am better at writing than my reading. The writing part is based on sending messages to my Korean friends. By sending messages to them in Korean, I will try my best to express what I want to say in simple Korean, and if I write something wrong, my friends will correct me immediately. So, most of my writing practices are by sending messages, and it really helps me improve a lot when someone can correct me immediately or teach me another way of expressing what I am trying to say. However, I am not really good at reading. I think most of the reasons come from watching the dramas. By watching dramas, I am used to listening Korean but not reading them. Also, there are no many chances that I will read Korean in daily lives. Although, when my Korean friends will also message me in Korean, yet, they know my Korean level and will send me in the easiest expressions, so my reading really does not have improved that much. Thus I think to be better at reading, I will push myself to read more in Korean in the future by trying to find some lyrics of songs or stories, and try to read and understand them as much as I can.
