My learning goals for this week is to continue learning hangul and learn how to say the numbers and dates (i.e. months and days of the week) in Korean. I will accomplish this by using my Korean from Zero book, resources that I found online for vocabulary words, and just constant review.
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In the Culture Shock video, some of the student reflected on what it was like to first step on the university’s campus because it was an unfamiliar place. At times I could tell that it was perhaps difficult for them because they’re in a new environment with people they do not know, so it would take some time to get used to. Also, sometimes things that other students would say, especially the American students, they would not understand because it may be a joke that only Americans would understand or people who are more Westernized would. That is one thing about culture shock is that a lot of the language, including jokes or metaphors, a person may not understand, but also mannerisms. For me I do not recall experience culture shock prior to my class trip to Russia in January 2014. One thing that surprised me about the Russian culture is that they do not smile in their photos, which coming from America where it seems as though everyone smiles, this through me off guard. However, just as in America, people are quite proud to be Russian and they take great pride in their arts. One of the expectations that I have for those experience culture shock is that there would be other people who would be willing to help those dealing with culture shock get adjusted to the society better, by befriending them or providing resources for them.
To Koreans, the concept of time is closely related to human communication, especially having an influence on a society’s lifestyle. The time that we use to work and the time that we use to play has increased significantly over time. In the Western culture, we have certain hours of the day when we work, which is usually known as 9am-5pm or “working the 9-5”. However, in the Korean society, students and workers tend to work longer hours, especially high school students who sometimes stay in school from 8am until 10:45pm. Since Korea is presently Westernized, they are more aware about punctuality and the English phrase “The early bird catches the worm”. However, in the traditional Korea, there was no concept of punctuality, so due to the current Western influence, Koreans concept of time has changed. Koreans and those of Western society tend to be past-oriented people, meaning that they “place high regard on the past, the reliving of past events, and cherishing past happenings”.
Since I have a solid everyday vocabulary in German, I focused my studies on academic, historic, and scientific lexicon. I cannot tell in exact numbers, but I have learned on average twenty new words every week. I found several good websites that provide vocabulary on specific topics. I chose the topics randomly. I also did not learn the words in any order, because my level of German is high enough that I already know patterns in words. I would always create a quiz for myself and try to solve it before actually looking at the meaning of the particular words. After my first attempt I would check which words I got right, purely based on word roots, prefixes, suffixes and similar. Then I would go over the words and actually learn their meanings. I would check myself again. Then I would try to do the quiz, but now explaining the words in German and giving examples of their usage. I would do a quiz every week and after about three weeks, I would check myself on words that I have learned earlier and see if I still remember them. Besides, learning vocabulary on a “dry” basis, I have also unconsciously learned new words doing other learning activities, such as listening to German talks and watching shows. That way I also learned how to put words into context. I believe I have realistic goals for the acquisition of vocabulary, given that I already posses good German skills.
This week I am working on lesson 9 from Korean from zero, which is one asking for things and counters. It also goes into describing objects. Once I get through this, I plan on reviewing the past chapters and particularly the grammar and vocabulary, which I'm not sure is solidified in my head yet. I think in general I have a grasp of the past chapters and I can definitely say more complete sentences and describe things already, but at the same time, it's hard to know if I really have mastered everything. I will also continue to chapter 10, which goes into future, past, and present tenses, which I feel will take me the rest of the week to get a grasp on.
I think when a language dies out, a culture dies out along with it. In the article it discussed the native american languages that were dying out, there was even one where there is only 5 people left who speak it. So the issue they have is trying to preserve the language, for example establishing online resources where people can come to learn the language. It must be particularly difficult for people whose language is dying out because, it is a part of the culture they identify with, so it would be like losing your identity or a part of it. For me, since I also speak Thai, I know that there are certain feelings that I can express better in Thai than in English and vice versa. So when a language is dying out and there are not a lot of people left who can understand the words you express best in, it could also feel like you have lost a way to connect with others. With the native americans, they have such a rich and long cultural history that it seems if their languages die out all of those memories will too. New generations of children may not be able to connect with their ancestral cultures as previous generations did. It is shame that so many languages are dying out because other languages are taking a more globalized role and have therefore been deemed as more important and useful to learn. I think to everyone their specific language is important to them and having so many different languages and cultures is what makes the world unique. Even though it may be more useful and convenient if everyone started speaking English as their main language, we all lose the uniqueness. With Thai, there a lot of English words that have become common vocabulary that people use nowadays and my mom was explaining to me that modern Thai kids these days are less Thai. I think I am definitely one of them, being more American than Thai, but at the same time having the Thai culture really enriches my experiences and how I see things. If we just had one culture people would see things for the most part the same way and that makes for boring conversations. With all of the unique identities and languages, we have interesting conversations and our lives are richer.
For my second artifact, I created a dialogue (with myself), and took roles of both A and B, where A asked questions and B answered questions regarding identity.
Translation:
1) What is your name?
My Korean name is Juwon. My English name is Vivian.
2) How old are you this year?
I am 21 years old.
3) Where were you born?
I was born in Seoul, Korea.
4) Where do you live?
I live in Northern Virginia.
5) When is your birthday?
June 12
6) What are your hobbies?
Playing the violin, drawing/art, origami
7) What is your favorite color?
Light blue
8) Do you work?
No, I'm a college student. I'm currently a third year.
I've been using Berkeley's Intermediate College Korean lessons, but some of the lessons were getting way to difficult, especially those pertaining to Korean history. I plan to continue using it, but I wanted to find another source that was a better match for my level and practicality. I found howtostudykorean.com and looked through the site. There are 7 total units including Hanja. After looking through the website, I decided to skip to Unit 2, because I knew majority of the things in Unit 0 and 1. This site goes over a lot more vocabulary words and grammar in a step-by-step fashion, which is helpful for me. I'm hoping this site strengthens my grammar and vocabulary skills. I'm going to continue watching Korean language and culture related videos on Youtube because there are all so interesting and fun! It really makes learning fun!
One of my favorite things about ASL and deaf culture is that they have a whole set of sign specifically for children. Just as hearing children learn simple words (and sometimes even make up their own words for things), deaf children are shown simplified signs for the things that would need to say the most often, like “mom,” “dad,” “yes,” “no” and others.
Even babies who are not deaf can often understand sign language far before they begin talking and many parents recommend teaching babies ASL so they can communicate before they are able to use their voice. There are also some studies that show that children who learn how to sign as babies have a higher IQ and greater literacy as adults, but there hasn’t been a lot of research on the subject yet.
Even though all babies can learn ASL, it is especially important for deaf and hard-of-hearing children to learn ASL, so they do not run into any (or fewer) learning delays later in life.
It is a very sad thing when a language dies. Languages are an integral part of a culture, so it is a reflection of a culture fading from existence when people no longer speak the language. It is a sad byproduct of globalization that there will be less and less indigenous languages are time goes on, as more and more people speak major languages. With that being said, increased connectivity also gives indigenous groups a greater opportunity to spread their languages to people all over the world. As a result, less people will speak indigenous languages from birth, but potentially more people will learn them based on interest.
So far, learning Korean has been a very interesting process for me. It is completely unlike any of the languages I have learned before (Spanish, French, and German) not only in word-order, but also in the way that its alphabet functions. The Korean language is also very different than other languages in terms of its alphabet. You read the alphabet from left to right, as would in English, but it is unique in that characters are stacked on top of each other and grouped in numbers of two to five. It has 28 character, 17 of which are vowels and 11 of which are consonants. These letters can be combined to produce some sounds that do not exist in the English language, but there are also some sounds that the Korean language does not have (like ph).
Understanding the culture of the Korean language is helpful in understanding the language itself, because you begin to realize why certain words may sound different, or why there are two different numbering systems. For instance, the Han’ja Chinese words may sound very different than the Han’gul traditional Korean words. Understanding the culture of the language also helps, because you can understand why there are many endings for when you refer to people of different ages or social statuses. Understanding Korean culture is especially important when talking to others, because you want to be sure not to unknowingly offend anyone or say something that does not translate well into their culture. In a way, a language is a complete reflection of a given culture, because it tells you not only what they value, but also how they view each other. Each language has things that it communicates better and worse than other languages, which tells you if more or less importance was placed upon it. Korean has lots of different endings for different social situations, which tells you that they take social distinctions very seriously. As a result, it may be seen as a much larger blunder if you refer to someone in the improper form than it would in English.
In order to improve my communicative competence, the most important thing is to improve my vocabulary. It is impossible to communicate if you do not know the words of the language, so that is the best place to start. Also, it would be helpful to know more about Korean culture, because that will give me a better understanding of which social situations to use which words in. It would also help a lot if I could improve my ear by listening to Korean radio and TV.
Knowing a language’s history can help you immensely in learning a language. It teaches you not only how the language relates to other languages (which can give you cognates), but also teaches you how to apply the given language. For instance, if you know how important class and social distinctions were in ancient Korea, you can have a better appreciation for social distinctions in modern Korean culture. You also develop an understanding for why so many endings exist in Korean words, because you know how Confucianism affected the language. Knowing the history of a language can also help you learn which words and phrases have gone in and out of vernacular. In every language, there are certain phrases that would have been said a couple hundred years ago, but which would sound very strange now.
In this recording, I asked and answered questions about identity in Korean:
Translation:
1) What is your name?
My Korean name is Juwon. My English name is Vivian.
2) How old are you this year?
I am 21 years old.
3) Where were you born?
I was born in Seoul, Korea.
4) Where do you live?
I live in Northern Virginia.
5) When is your birthday?
June 12
6) What are your hobbies?
Playing the violin, drawing/art, origami
7) What is your favorite color?
Light blue
8) Do you work?
No, I'm a college student. I'm currently a third year.
Something I learned in Korean is how to introduce myself and how to ask and answer questions about my identity.
To teach someone both these things, I would:
- Make flash cards with the Korean pronunciation of Korean words that relate to ‘introduction’ and to ‘identity’ on one side of the flash cards.
- Then, on the back of the flash cards, I would write the definition of each of those words in English.
- The, make the student learn the Korean pronunciation of these words with its English definition
- Finally, I would mix up the cards and have the student try to form comprehensible sentences in Korean by using as many flash cards as possible.
I think this would be an effective way of learning the Korean language because it does not make students memorize sentences. This activity will allow students to understand better what each word means, so they can be able to form sentences on their own with other words instead of having to rely on memorization.
For example:
On the front of the flash card, I will write “jeonun”
On the back of the flash card, I will write “I am”
On the front of the flash card, I will write “miguk”
On the back of the flash card, I will write “American”
*****I would do this for many different words that pertain to “introduction and identity” and the student will be able to make sentences after learning the words and their English meaning.
Knowing a language’s history can help you learn the language because language influences culture, so learning a language helps you to understand how other people think, and it also helps you get a general understanding of our world and the many people and cultures that inhabit it. Language is probably the best window we have on the workings of the human mind. All of our thought processes are conducted in language, so really our entire existence, or essence, or soul, or however we phrase it, is inseparably bound to and with the languages we speak. In the Korean language history, words were developed that conveyed to people that they are honored and respected. In other words, in Korea, you cannot say ‘hello’ to everyone in the same way because some people (like the elderly people) are honored and respected more than others. Therefore, there are specific words in the Korean language that one must use towards these people who are highly honored or important because if you don’t then you would be considered disrespectful and insulting.
My learning goal for this week is to learn how to tell time and ask about time. I would need to know how to say “what time is it,” in Korean, and learn how to say the hours of day from 1- 12 o’ clock, and lean how to say AM and PM. I will use these sources below to accomplish this goal:
- YouTube videos
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0kC1Pf763s
- Practicing with my Korean friends
- Practicing with my language partner
- BYKI
- Mango Languages
I was able to ask and answer 6 questions on identity using Vocaroo. My language partner, Alvin, asked mE the questions in Korean and I answered them in Korean. then, I asked him the questions in Korean, and he answered my questions in Korean.
1. What's your name?....My name is Rosemary
2. What's your gender? ...I am a female
3. Where are you from?...I am American
4. How old are you? .... I am 21
5. What's your job?... I am a student
6. What's your major?... My major is Healthcare and Society
RECORDING IS ATTACHED BELOW:
The article discusses the revival of the Siletz language and culture over a period of time. I think that when a language and/or culture is lost then a part of a person’s identity is also lost because language and culture can tell us a lot about history. Just like many other American Indian tribes, the Siletz tribe has lost a piece of their identity as generations continue to follow and more children and adults start to assimilate into American culture and society. However, this started back when the US government started displacing American Indians and mixing tribes with one another though they did not speak the same language or have anything in common. The goal was to make them assimilate or become nonexistent, but the Siletz tribe prevail and eventually their language, songs, and dances were adopted by other tribes, whose traditions had started to fade out. Despite the Siletz tribe’s language being lost temporarily after the US government declared it nonexistent, they were able to gain it back and even create an online dictionary, which I think is cool, especially for languages that are not common such as English, French, Spanish, Chinese, etc.
For my first artifact, I recorded a short clip of introducing myself in Korean. I said (translated): Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is Vivian. I'm 21 years old. I was born in Seoul, South Korea, but moved to the U.S. when I was 8. I'm currently a third year at University of Richmond. I want to become a dentist in the future.
For evaluation for accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy, I sent my recording to my Korean friend who is a native speaker. I speak slower in Korean in English, but she said my introduction was culturally appropriate (used jondatmal) and had good flow and right choice of words. My friend said that I had a slight accent (probably an English accent) in some of the words, but overall, was pretty good.
I've also completed my goals for Weeks 4 and 5. I've learned how to converse casually with friends. I went over lesson 4 and 5 and they were both in banmal not jondaetmal so it was easier for me to follow along. The audio for the texts speak pretty fast so I had to replay it a couple of times to hear the correct pronounciation, but I mainly use the audio for listening to the flow of sentences (but I wish there was slower version).
