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Over this past semester, I definitely enjoyed actively trying to reconnect with my language of heritage/culture. My objective was to increase my communication proficiency, something I feel like was able to accomplish via multiple topic based conversations and external resources, like podcasts. I also tried to improve my Korean knowledge in general, such as strengthening knowledge of grammatical structures, application of certain affixes, and expanding my vocabulary. While I definitely enjoyed my time improving Korean, I was also very much interested by the concurrent class I took, SDLC 105. I never had much interaction with the actual structures of language, I had only tried to learn different ones. The closest I got to analyzing language at all was probably in highschool English class, and we never really delved into the structure of a sentence. I was pleasantly surprised with the class, and I learned that I enjoy learning about linguistics. The things I found difficult pertained more to self learning than classes/sessions, such as not remembering to correct errors in enunciation or grammar. I would attempt to solve this by writing notes and reviewing such notes occasionally. Thankfully my language partner was accommodating, and I never felt like I lacked practice. I plan to continue my learning via study abroad in Korea next semester, but with constant practice when I come back. I can also probably keep continuing to listen to communicatory audios, like podcasts and radios.

I think the reading which introduced us to the opposition of aspects between languages, like collectivism vs individualism, etc. was really interesting. I also enjoyed reading about extinct languages, and all the processes taken place to revive a dead language. Although I don’t know exactly what I would like to learn more about, I think less technical articles and those of more interest suit me the best. When articles had too much terminology or were complex, I definitely had a harder time comprehending them. Overall, though, all the articles were interesting and it was great learning about the various aspects of language.

For this finally bi-weekly report, I decided to write about the time that Rachel, Aliya, and I decided to go to a local Korean bbq restaurant to get an authentic Korean food experience to close our semester. When I first came to Richmond, I was shocked to find out that there were not many Korean dining scenes available. For instance, they only had a Korean fusion restaurant called “J-Kogi” that I was not really fond of. Back where I live (in Chicago), my suburb is booming with Korean bbq restaurants, so I was very excited to hear from Aliya when she said that she found a new restaurant called “Korean Garden” that we could go experience. For this meeting, we decided to focus on the Korean bbq experience in particular and how this is such a huge part of Korea’s dining culture. When Rachel and I researched the background of kbbq, we found out that this originated in Korean all the way back in 37 B.C. when “맥젹" or fire-roasted skewers can be offered to the king. This was later known as “bulgogi” as well. When we first entered the restaurant, an old female server started to talk to us in Korean as she suspected that we knew how to speak fluently. We referred to her as “아줌마" which vaguely translates to an old lady and we were able to share an authentic conversation about her about my study abroad experience in Korea two semesters ago and if she had any food she recommended from the menu. She recommended us “갈비" which translates to marinated beef and we also had traditional “삼겹살" which means pork belly. We portrayed some Korean culture by having the youngest “막내" aka “maknae” do the cooking because traditionally in Korea, the youngest person on the team would do all the grilling of the meat. It stems from a hierarchy of “hoobae” and “sunbae” and usually the hoobaes/maknaes have do the cooking. Therefore, Rachel being the youngest out of the three, started to grill the meats and we simply had a lot of fun taking turns cooking afterward. We also got to experience a lot of the different “반찬,” otherwise known as side dishes that came with the meat. The lady offered us “계란찜,” “떡볶이,” “된장찌개,” and more. Eating kbbq with Rachel and Aliya brought back a lot of good memories and nostalgia about Korea and it was such a great time being able to eat good food and share a great conversation with them and the restaurant staff. I don’t cook too much Korean food at home, but I hope to change that and cook more authentic dishes this summer. 

Podcast

In Korea, busking (“버스킹”) is a popular form of artistic expression, where performers sing/dance on the streets of busy streets. This isn’t unfamiliar to us, since street performances happen all around the world, but in Korea, dance performances are more common, which is something that is less common around the world. In areas like Hongdae, the way the streets are designed allow for open performances, whether it be stairs surrounding an open area, or wide pedestrian walkways. It is important to keep in mind that like many metropolitan areas, many people in Korea walk around rather than drive, which is also because of the public transportation infrastructure and the size of Korea itself. If you go to certain areas of Seoul, you can see many vocal/instrumental performers, and in some instances there are dedicated youtube/streaming channels, where performers/strangers perform and people can view in real time. One youtube channel, for example, called “거리노래방” (Literal translation: street karaoke), features random/spontaneous performers/contestants singing to a song, an you can see both a real crowd and a bunch of real time comments. Many channels also host dance performances/competitions, where they either perform dances or invite people to dance. All this happens in the streets/walkways of busy cities, and it can be seen as a part of Korean culture.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HC04yeSsZOKclQ7v7D6n3Z8h5Mbh3FXwDI74I83M6EQ/edit?usp=sharing ;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14IHcaSqSHErfdfU8D1rwZyYmM_yYt4JV/view?usp=sharing

One cultural aspect that is embedded into nearly every Korean is the "pali pali" culture. Directly translating to "hurry", the pali pali culture is seen all throughout Korea and its people. Essentially this is Korea's face-paced lifestyle with their constant desire to do everything quickly in order to achieve the greatest success. This desire for swiftness stems all the back to the Miracle of the Han River. This was a period of rapid economic growth for South Korea, where they went from poverty to an emerging country, and finally developed. Speared by Park Chung-hee and his Five-Year plans was this tiger economy that pushed for export-oriented industrialization. President Park would often reward projects and constructions that finished before they were scheduled.

The pali pali culture can even be seen through the infrastructure of Korea. This includes transportation where there are intricate and efficient subway and metro systems with very tight time schedules. Waste management allows for efficiency and cleanliness. And, of course, one of the fastest internet speeds in the world. Another aspect that the pali paliculture influences is delivery. You have food delivery systems through motorcycles and will often see a motorcycle zip through traffic and sidewalks to reach its customers as fast as possible. All these delivery systems are also connected by apps like Kakao or Naver that allow for quick checkout. Even the people themselves are affected by this culture. With faster paced walking and escalator etiquette. Many also prefer to eat very quickly and prefer a quick take-out over dine-in. Quick service is expected even though they receive no tip. Convenience stores have boilers and microwaves along with tables to eat for those looking for a quick bite.

Korea is also known for its quick-changing trends from clothes and even people. One moment a fashion style will be in trend and then the next a whole new look comes in place. There are basically kings of the 'cancel' culture where media has such a huge impact on celebrities and companies. Once word gets out of a scandal of some sort, the people will quickly turn on even the most well-respected celebrities or companies.

For my last cultural post, I have decided to explore and analyze BIGBANG’s new comeback single, “Still Life.” “Still Life'' is BIGBANG's first song as a band since 2018's “Flower Road.” This is a huge moment for the boy band since they have been on a 4-year hiatus due to controversial scandals, military enlistments, and marriage. Before, BIGBANG was a 5 member group, however, this is not the case as they have made their comeback as a quartet team. The reason is that Seung Ri was kicked out of the group due to his scandal regarding aiding in prostitution and embezzlement which led him to be get sentenced to three years of jail. To be honest, I thought BIGBANG would never be able to make a comeback because all 5 members were highly problematic and were involved in many ugly controversies. For instance, TOP was accused of smoking weed in the military. For context, I learned that weed is a huge crime in Korea and even the possession of it can get you in very serious trouble. In addition, one of the other members Daesung was accused of driving under the influence which led to him accidentally killing someone. Lastly, G Dragon, the leader of the group, was also accused of doing drugs and tested positive for the drug test. All of these circumstances combined led many of the Korean fans and viewers to assume that it would be almost impossible for BIGBANG to ever come back into the spotlight again, however, they were all proven wrong as they came out with a new single 2 weeks ago. The public opinion has been pretty positive as many fans longed to hear music from this infamous group once again. When I heard the song, I was deeply saddened as it was about “seasons passing” and it greatly reflected the members’ somber days as it seemed like they were ready to walk away forever from their flamboyant lives. Although I was really ecstatic about their new single, it seems that the new single is their formal goodbye to the music industry as the members are all seen walking away from their place in the music video. In addition, the music video does not show a shot with all four members in the same location. They are all scattered throughout the scenes and singing separately. They are all separated from each other which netizens are assuming that it means they are all going on a different path and thus disbanding in the near future. I am unsure if this was their intention behind the video, but I really hope to see more of their presence in Korea’s music industry. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18S8napVtXWr46pElKXpiZnqkcGHqgyJVeuxJLE7U-TI/edit?usp=sharing

One ceremony that foreigners could quickly learn about another culture is the elements to a wedding. In modern day, many Korean weddings have a mix of Western and Korean elements to allow the couple to connect with their Korean heritage and bring a modern aesthetic to the wedding. There are quite a few interesting things involving a traditional Korean wedding and the first aspect would be the type of clothing.

One iconic piece of clothing in Korean culture is the hanbok. The hanbok was worn daily in the past, but in modern times, the traditional clothing is reserved for special holidays or ceremonies. The hanbok is made out of silk and consists of many different garments depending on the style that the wearer is going for. For example, in a traditional Korean wedding, a bride could wear a basic hanbok consisting of a chima (a long skirt) and a wonsam (intricate long sleeved upper garment). On the other hand, the groom would wear a samogwandae that is similar to court attire in the chosun dynasty. In addition to these beautiful garments, the colors that the bride and groom wear can have significant meaning. The colors red and blue in Korean culture symbolize the confucius ideas of yin and yang, a balance between the two forces. Therefore, the hanbok colors that some couples may wear are red and blue to signal unity and balance in their relationship. The mother of the bride would wear warm, light tones such as pink or purple while the groom’s mother would wear cool tones such as blue or gray. 

One important traditional element in a Korean wedding is the paebaek. The paebaek is a traditional tea ceremony that is part of a Korean wedding itinerary. In the paebaek ceremony, the groom and bride wear the traditional hanbok and they are seated in front of both sets of parents. The couple conduct some bows to signal respect and give warm tea to the parents. Both the bride and the groom hold a piece of white cloth to symbolize unity and catch dates and chestnuts thrown to them from the parents. The dates and chestnuts supposedly represent the number of children the couple will have. The chestnuts represent daughters and dates represent sons. Additionally, there are quite a few foods placed on the table in front of the parents including beef jerky, little appetizers, and a tower of chestnuts and dates. Those three platters of food were found traditionally, but in modern day, the low table would be filled with food. One of the interesting things that the groom does towards the end of the ceremony is the groom piggy back the bride two times around the table. 

From this research, it gives me a sense that in modern weddings, some elements of a traditional Korean wedding may be left out or modified based on the resources available. This demonstrates that the traditional aspects such as wearing a hanbok and the paebaek ceremony is used to honor the bride and/or groom’s Korean heritage and to celebrate the couple’s now established unity and status. Therefore, not all the small details that were once in a traditional Korean ceremony must be applied, but instead, do as the couple wishes.

https://www.brides.com/traditional-korean-wedding-5087200

The highlights of this month include learning about iconic places in South Korea as part of my cultural presentation, freshen up on previous language topics, continuing with TTMIK textbook and notebook, listening to a weekly podcast, and creating a podcast with Somyung and Peace about the activities that we did over this semester. 

South Korea has numerous tourist places that capture their fast paced culture and their traditional side. The traditional sites are attractive to tourists because the building architecture is unique and reveals South Korea’s history along with it. For example, one of my favorite places that I researched about was the Jeonju Hanok Village. This village was situated behind a busy city, but the village itself was quiet and with traditional architecture. One of the most noticeable parts of this village was the type of roofing the shops have. The roofs are made with thin rectangular cement bricks laid over top of each other and the corners of the roof are curved up. This type of roofing style gave a traditional aesthetic and was depicted across many historical buildings including Gyeonbukgung palace. 

I reviewed Sino and Native Korean numbers, present/past/future tense, and days of the week. Sino-Korean numbers were easier for me to understand because they sound similar to Cantonese/Mandarin characters and forming numbers higher than 100 is a similar format in Chinese. On the other hand, native Korean numbers are still the system that I am still having trouble with remembering the pronunciation for the higher numbers such as 7, 8 and 9. One, two and three are easier to understand because I hear them in Korean reality shows. For example, when the actors are taking a photo, they often say, “One, two, three!” or when they are starting a game. Therefore, I believe I need to hear the number system being used in order to remember it better. The tenses and days of the week were topics that I learned a few weeks ago, so I didn’t have a hard time recalling them from my memory. However, I still get somewhat nervous when conjugating the verbs to match the tense because there are some verbs that don’t follow the structure sometimes for easier pronunciation. 

These past couple of weeks, I learned Korean counting units, how to do self-introductions, and months of the year. One of the grammar topics that I think makes learning Mandarin hard for beginners is the concept of counting units because it feels unnatural when coming from an English background. Therefore, I was surprised when learning that Korean had counting units as well. This topic adds an additional layer of complexity to learning Korean. “Ja lu” or “gae” can be used to count objects such as pencils, pens, and knives. For self-introductions, there weren't many new topics to learn, rather, the TTMIK book organized the list of topics to talk about when introducing yourself. The months of the year weren’t difficult to understand either because they follow the Sino-Korean system. The names of the month correspond to their order in the year. For example, January is the first month of the year so it is “i-rwol” because “i” (pronounced “ee”) is one in Sino-Korean. 

This has been a very productive semester because I had a structured syllabus that guided me week-by-week on what to focus on and identified valuable resources to help me learn Korean. Thank you Dr. Soloway for this opportunity!

Korean Class Podcast - Peace Anna Somyung

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GaVWEDTGdmumj_zGnUK5AuhRCrPTaP9/view?usp=sharing

During the last month of my Korean class I was able to continue with my reading of the book “Magic”. I continued writing my daily gratitude journal in Korean and tried to use different phrases or vocabulary to write my sentences. I find it very interesting how the way English is phrased and used is different from the way the language Korean is phrased. There is a side to the Korean language where it could be more poetic and have deeper meanings to the words and how it is positioned in the sentence. I feel like reading the book in Korean gave me more motivation and really touched me inside. 

Also my language partner Vivian and I and also one of her other students, Aliya went to have a cultural experience this month. We went to a Korean restaurant for Yewon Korean Barbeque. We all read the menu in Korean and ordered our meal in the language. I also started a conversation with one of the workers when they came to serve other food. It was a really great experience to meet someone who speaks the language fluently and talk to them about various topics. I had a conversation about the current situation in Korea. South Korea has recently removed the quarantine policy so that it would be a lot easier for people to travel. The worker is planning to visit Korea over the summer because of this change of regulation. But this also means the airplane price is increasing really fast. I am worried that I will not be able to visit my family that often in the future because of the high prices. The men worker who cooked our meat was very kind and started talking about his experience from Busan in his Busan accent. It was really cool to hear different dialects and how people from different locations have different accents. 

As my last assignment, I wrote an essay about my plans and goals for the future. In other words, I wrote paragraphs about what I wanted to achieve after I graduate from College and one of those goals is to get a Korean language certificate. I also wrote about the near future of what I will be doing in the summer. I am planning on traveling back to Korea for my brother’s graduation and spending more time with my family there. I think writing my goals in Korean was a lot harder than if I were to write them in english. It took me some time to make sure that I am phrasing my thoughts correctly and spelling all the words correctly. 

I would like to thank my language partner Vivian for spending time with me this semester to try to really grow in utilizing the language. I think having support and encouragement from her was very helpful. Looking back I think doing the assignments such as writing research papers and other writing assignments were very challenging. But as I overcame each challenge I was able to grow more as a student.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Q1o0ZFP4dPrPLLtUv-9PJcpebkqpk77NUGFVaV0IbY/edit?usp=sharing

https://urcapture.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=0c65a4fb-70ef-4b6c-a60e-ae790021f535

In South Korea, May 5th (5/5) is recognized as Children's Day. Children's Day or 어린이날 (eorininal) is a public holiday that celebrates children. 어린이날 consists of the word for children (어린이 | eorini) and the word for day (날 | nal). Although Children's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, it is an important holiday in South Korea where salaried workers get a day off work and children get a day off from school. Parents often give presents to their children and spend quality time with them. The children go to zoos, museums, and various venues of children-oriented entertainment. Children's Day events are becoming more commercial, becoming important events to increase sales of children's products.  

Children's Day was first created by progressive ethnic Korean students, with Korean Independence movement leaders against Japanese colonialism. People from Jinju gathered to promote and improve the social status of children and encourage adults to teach awareness of their deprived sovereignty. The celebration of Children's Day in Korea has taught people about children's fundamental human rights.

Three days after Children’s Day, on May 8th, is Parent's Day. The Korean word for Parent’s Day is 어버이날 (eobeoinal). Like the U.S., this day was originally for Mother’s Day, but since there wasn’t a designated Father’s Day, the two days were combined to make Parent’s Day. However, this is not a national holiday. Traditionally, children give their parents carnations on parent’s day and many convenience stores and shops will have special displays so that children can easily buy flowers or other small gifts for their parents. 

Source: https://www.90daykorean.com/childrens-day-in-korea/

There seem to be many variables that cause a language to go extinct, but there seems to also be a common pattern. Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction and When Languages Die by David Harrison both show how the primary cause of language extinction is the decrease of the population which speaks it. With modernization, many populations have converged into common languages, like English, as it has become more effective in terms of communication and overall literature/academics. Many smaller/traditional populations will slowly start assimilating into larger populations, and switch their primary language in the act. Over several generations, a language may be completely lost. We can also see that there are other complications in keeping a language “alive”, such as the fact that many dying languages are only spoken by the older generation. In situations like this, it can be difficulty in hearing, speech, or comprehension that cause complications in keeping a language alive. A linguist can keep a language alive by listing/documenting all the aspects of the language, such that someone can self learn the language without assistance - but this in itself causes its own issues. This would need extensive resources/knowledge to preserve a dying language, and there is already limited knowledge. Also, preserving a language for the sake of relearning is impractical, as at the end of the day it is common practice and immersing in an environment that allows someone to improve upon a language. So even if a language is “alive” - it is not necessarily thriving. In my opinion, when a language is learnt for the sake of reviving it, or generally learnt out of interest rather than culture (secondary vs primary), it is not alive. I think a dead language can revive, but it is almost impossible for it to do so. The language would need a growing population of its speakers, and a consistent interest/culture around it. But if there were such interest/culture revolving around a language, it probably wouldn’t be dead in the first place.

My partner and I have continued to incorporate topic based conversations into my learning plans, some of these being: summer plans, the Korean election, and our favorite genres of music. These have continued to be effective in creating a casual atmosphere whilst pushing me to speak about topics I usually wouldn’t in my target language. But besides the topic based conversations, I have also begun to go over lyrics to multiple songs with my partner every week. This wasn’t initially in my learning plan, but I realized that many English artists incorporate word play or have a selection of words that enhance the music. The same must go for Korean artists, and it's interesting to actually read the lyrics, since for Korean songs I’m usually less focused on the lyrics unless it's a ballad/romance song. But especially for rap, which is sometimes incoherent, reading the lyrics allows me to see what the artist slipped in a verse here and there, or the wordplay in general. Reading these lyrics aren’t going to make me instantaneously better at Korean, but they definitely help with comprehension and pronunciation.

I don’t plan on adding anything substantial to my current learning plan as we are nearing the end of the semester, but I think it's important to continue to practice my Korean both with and without my partner. I continue to listen to Korean radio shows using KBS Kong, and watch numerous Korean youtubers in my free time. Kind of off topic, but one channel I’m watching right now is Korean Zombie’s channel, a MMA fighter, who is going through different cities in Korea to find challengers, many of whom end up being street fighters and therefore no match. But they thoroughly interview the people that show up on the show, and it’s always interesting to listen and try to completely comprehend what they are saying.

For this month’s language learning we didn’t move as fast as other months because communication was a little harder over spring break. However, I felt like we made good progress for my standards especially with increasing my vocabulary more and just getting a better understanding of how some grammatical things work with certain verbs. I think that currently my biggest challenge is forming grammatically sound sentences and conjugating certain verbs in which I don’t have any recognition of, so that’s something my partner and I really wanted to try and focus on this month. Which is why I’ve been doing assigned practice HW (some) from the resource PracticePortuguese, but I should be doing more to really cement my learning between meetings.

To start, one of the main themes of vocabulary my partner and I worked with was around the house vocabulary. I had really wanted some more knowledge for everyday reference, and we thought that common household items and things which are used every day would be helpful. We started by simply learning some words and studying from a PowerPoint. Some common words included: concha, jarra, chaleira, peneira, vassoura, and avental. We worked with these words just in a basic sense and then did some picture association exercises where I’d fill in the blank of words based on their pictures. My favorite word by far was vassoura, or broom in English, because I have begun to use that word within my own kitchen now. The hardest word was escumadeira, or skimmer in English, because I was just unfamiliar with that in general. All in all these exercise just helped me to expand upon my knowledge of the language by getting exposed to new words, and helped to expand my vocabulary which I can further reinforce hopefully in daily activities.

The second component of this month’s learning was focusing on the main verbs of the language estar, ser, and ficar. This involved differentiating the differences between estar, ser, ficar in Portuguese and how to conjugate each of them in different scenarios. The key thing that stood out to me from the start because of my Spanish background is that I was familiar with ser and estar, but ficar was completely foreign to me. As it turns out, it’s actually extremely common to the Portuguese language. It can be used a lot informally to basically say anything from “staying”, “continuing”,“renting”,“combined, and more. For example, I could say “Fica conmigo”. This means Stay with me. Or, I could say “Onde fica a tua casa”. Which means where IS your house? The same word can be used to mean multiple things like keep, to be, become, stay, etc. This is very different from Spanish as ficar doesn’t really exist. Now, all three of these verbs are very similar and can take on overlap in meaning, but it’s important to try and distinguish when to use which. From my understanding, one uses ficar when it’s associated with change, and estar when talking about temporary traits or qualities. As for ser, you use it for describing inherent qualities, but ficar actually can’t be used for that and can only signify “becoming”. This still kind of confuses me, but I’m aiming to work more on it in the coming months. These 3 verbs are central to the language and forming conversations, so it will be more of a focus to come.

Overall, this month was the slowest of the months due to logistical issues, but I still feel my partner and I made great progress. I definitely learned a lot and continue to progress which is always a good thing. In the coming month I hope to become more conversational as my number one goal.