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Reflecting on the presentations, I really enjoyed learning about different aspects of different cultures particularly from the non-Korean presentations. But I think there are some overlaps among the the different cultures and the Korean culture. As it was pointed out in the Pakistani myths presentations, they value eternal love through the mythical stories, Koreans value eternal love as well as portrayed in Korean dramas. Both Korean dramas and the Pakistani myths have sort of a fantasy component. The stories are not very realistic, but some aspects are, such as the girl having to obey her father's orders and marry who she is supposed to. Korean tradition values parents, and children should respect and obey them, perhaps not for marriage, but in general. 

I thought the German presentation was also interesting, particularly in regards to how they are giving the Syrian refugees some cultural education to help them adjust to life in Germany and deal with people during a festive time. I do not think that Koreans have much very many refugees from other countries coming in. But it makes me think of how South Koreans would handle the North Koreans who escape and try to live in South Korea. I do not know much about North and South Korean cultural differences, but I would assume there are some. I would think the North Koreans, coming from a very isolated society, they would not be as open as the South Koreans and may not be used to the whole Kpop, K-drama culture. Perhaps they would not even be able to understand aegyo. The North Koreans who see South Korean girls do aegyo might find it offensive and that girls should not show off and be so dramatic and that they should still be feminine but more conservative particularly when interacting with men. 

Applying Korean culture to the Kosher McDonalds presentation, I think that there are probably Korean McDonalds and I would think their menu offers different options than the American ones. I think the Korean McDonald's might offer burgers and fries with varying flavors and levels of spiciness. They would probably advertise McDonald's using Korean celebrities from different K-pop groups and dramas to encourage people to eat there. 

I thought the experiences of culture shock presented in the video were very similar to mine when I spent a year abroad. Culture shock is inevitable in that it will happen to anyone, no matter how extensive the preparation for cultural assimilation one may have received. My experience started from the very first minute I landed in Israel. The airport security and the taxi service were both a wake-up. The security itself differed from what I am accustomed to say at LGA or Kennedy in that upon exiting the plane I was questioned by an official. The taxi stand too was queued in every which way, not to mention the price jump the drivers levy on those they deem foreigners. I could go on and on about the micro-scenarios in which the culture shock got the best of me, but the macro-culture proved to be unwavering. I remember feeling isolated and perhaps a little frustrated about a month into my stay. I told myself that I would never be able to adopt their practices and therefore adapt into the society's pace. However, I heard an olim (those who made Aliyah) speak about the Israeli culture, and how bananas it could seem. He continued to say that the only way to enjoy Israel is to quit trying to proselytize your way of life and to assimilate to the Israeli way; to stop trying to compare every facet of their society to your own because you will always find some difference. His words had a great influence. I replaced my predisposition for that of Israel's and tried to live the way the Israelis do. This made a world of a difference, as I greatly enjoyed my time spent there.

Korean is a complex language that has many influences. The structure of Korean language is easier than what most people believe. The Korean language consists of 40 letters: 10 pure vowels, 11 compound vowels, 14 basic consonants and 5 double consonants. Linguistically, Korean is similar to Japanese and has is distantly relative to Mongolian, Finish, and Hungarian. As a native Korean learner, I found it easy to incorporate terminology. However, sometimes my slang Korean can confuse non-native speakers.  In addition, different regions in Korea use different dialects. My family is originally from Busan, so I speak more like that region. Any language is complex and provides cultural obstacles. Korean is no different, in that different regions and areas have different dialects.

I hope to continue to immerse myself by speaking to other native Korean speakers from different areas of Korea. Personally, I believe a reference grammar would greatly help me learn more about the structure of the Korean language. 

I would actually just like to become more involved in ASL culture this semester. I learned quite a lot about it last semester, but because my grasp of the language was not that great, I had a hard time interacting with deaf people without the help of a hearing person.

Culture for ASL can be slightly difficult because many aspects of the culture are similar to the U.S. However, there are a few differences, like how untrustworthy the deaf community is of the hearing community. The church I attend does have deaf people that also attend, but most of the people there are hearing people that have just learned ASL. This makes it slightly difficult to make friends with the deaf ones, because there are not that many.

However, I would like to learn more about how the deaf interact with the hearing and how the deaf interact with each other. I hopefully will be able to learn about this by interacting with the deaf and with the hearing that know ASL. 

(a) your goals and tasks for weeks 4 and 5

-week 4:

goals: document artifact on Greetings, farewells, introductions

task: I would need to learn how to say Hello and Goodbye (formal and informal). I also need to learn how to introduce myself by saying “my name is Rosemary and I am 21 years old.”

-week 5:

goals: evaluation of 1st artifact

task: assessment of how well you met your learning goals for weeks 4   

(b) the resources and activities you will use to achieve your goals

-week 4: I will use Vocaroo to record myself

-week 5: I will use Youtube videos to find the correct pronunciation of words or phrases I say 

(c) how you will evaluate your success

-week 4: make sure the recording is done correctly  

-week 5: Evaluate for accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy

MyLearningPlan

There are significant differences between Korean and English, particularly in sentence structure and morphology (word structure).In Korean the structure of sentence differ to English sentences, for example the phrase Chal Chinaessooyo literally means "Well have you been getting on?" which is the opposite from English. 

In general the structure of the Korean sentences is broken down as subject - object - verb

"Jon the ball kicked"

I think the reference grammar is useful because it helps understand the Korean sentence structure more clearly and easily. 

To learn this knowledge, I found a useful website: http://www.learn-korean.net/learn-korean-classes-viewarticle-10.html

The following is from part of the website:

"To Go" in order to do sentences

There are a few words that you may add to the end of verb stems at the end of sentences, these include -yo which makes sentences polite, and -ro which means "in order to".
In some cases the verb stems may in effect end in consonants in which case -uro is utilised.
The order of the sentences for an example sentence of "in order to buy bread I am goin to the shops" is restructured as "bread buy-in order-to the shops go"
In Korean unlike English, the subject of the sentences is optional like "I", then the "in order section" is next, which is then followed by "the place you are going".

(In English) I go to the shops in-order -to buy bread
(in Korean) I (optional) bread buy - in-order to shops to go
The Konglish for this sentence in Korean would be na-do ppang sa-ro kayo (I-do bread buy-in order-to go).

* The construction can only be used in verbs involving 'going' and 'coming' and cannot be used with other verbs at the end of sentences.

My goals and tasks for week 4 and 5 are to learn how to express feelings in Korean. I have found the Korean learning card for this topic:

In addition, I also found the Youtube video for this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVGh--R8t1Q

This is a interesting  which contains cartoon and words and pronunciation. I would recommend this series to all of you who are learning Korean. I am planning to practice my pronunciation after watching this video, hoping that I will be able to pronounce in a similar way.  The way that I evaluate my process on this topic is to see if I can speak out the correct emotion when someones ask how I am feeling today.

MyLearningPlan.docx

MyLearningPlan.docx.docx

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=12369798&height=267&width=200

First darft of Turkish Learning Plan

SDLC%20Learning%20Plan.docx

My goals for this week include, meeting with my Turkish tutor, practicing greetings, farewells, and numbers. For my artifact I will record myself speaking with my tutor. I will also begin to prepare to learn basic sentence structure.

Learning Plan

Learning%20Plan%20KOREAN.docx

          In my research about the South Korean culture, I learned a bit about Korean etiquette regarding body language, gestures and eye contact. South Korea have a strict hierarchy of respect which ties to the age of a person. As I noticed from most of my Korean friends, my younger Korean friends would have to address my older Korean friends in a respectable manner, by using proper and professional titles unless told otherwise by the host. For example, “Oppa, Unnie, Hyung, Noona” are terms used to address someone older than you. Other examples, partially bowing to your elders, serving the eldest first, and not making direct eye contact with your elders are all forms proper etiquette and body language in the Korean culture. Additionally, one cannot start eating unless the elder person first eats, as it’s a sign of respect in the Korean culture. Korean culture and society is definitely patriarchal as noted in certain gestures women must do or not do with a male. For instance, Korean women can’t shake hands with another man, just simply nod. It is interesting comparing the etiquette in the U.S to other parts of the world, such as South Korea because of the distinctions.

I need to know how to correctly format my sentences so that I can appropriately use the informal and formal endings. I also need to know which particles to use when structuring sentences. I will acquire the knowledge I need by using the HelloTalk app where I can consult native Korean speakers about formalities in sentences. I will also consult online resources and videos for grammar. I think a reference grammar would be helpful in the sense that it will provide a greater understanding of how language in general influences human communication.

My goals for weeks 4 and 5 are listed below:

-Learn the correct particles when making sentences

-Become more proficient in the number systems

I have decided to only focus on these two goals because my first goal on learning particles will definitely take time since there are so many and I have difficulty figuring out when to use which one when structuring sentences. I already know the number systems but I am less proficient in one of the two, so my goal is to become more proficient in both not only in terms of the numbers themselves but also when to use which number system based on the situation.

I will watch the YouTube videos I found online for grammar and numbers while also consulting online resources. I will also use the app called HelloTalk which will allow me to talk to fluent Korean speakers who can help me improve my sentence structures. I will evaluate my success by observing if I need less corrections when using HelloTalk for my grammar. I will evaluate my success with the number systems by continuing to test myself and see if I can remember the numbers more quickly and easily.

According to the article “How to investigate language structure” we have three main levels of inquiry: semantics, grammar, and medium of linguistics transmission. The questions is whether one should start learning a language having those three things in mind. The answer is probably yes, but then questions arise in terms of how and in what order. I believe that one first needs to identify the language itself. I am learning German, thus I need to know that German belongs to the Indo-European language family. That already reveals that the language has four or five noun cases, that verbs are marked for person, and that it uses articles. Furthermore, I need to investigate how the language is behaving in terms of regularity, whether it has a big vocabulary and if it uses idioms or not. It is important to know if the grammar matters a lot in order to be understood. Knowledge can be acquired from books, but an important aspect is also listening. This is especially important if we want to learn the informal phrases or slang, since informal phrases tend to be more used in conversations. Moreover, we need to know which alphabet the language is using and we need to make sure that we know how to pronounce every letter individually, but also when it appears in words and sentences. Using a reference grammar to study a language can be useful if we are interested in understanding how the language works. It gives us a universal understanding of languages in general. This can be useful for people who speak multiple languages, because they can compare and relate the language they are learning to those they already speak. Although, in my opinion pedagogical grammar is more useful for every learner, because one is more exposed to examples, which is more practical.

For the first artifact of Korean, I created a Voki character and recorded my introduction through her. 

Here is the link to it: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=12303091&height=267&width=200