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Learning Journal, Post 7, 105

When a language is lost, we lose the ability to talk about something in a particular way. Certain ideas only exist in certain languages and when a language is lost, that idea is lost as well and it may never be recovered. A culture is lost as well as a language. We always have the opportunity to learn from other cultures and it can become difficult to learn about a culture if the language is lost. There may also be people who are forced to learn another language in order to communicate, when they really only know how to communicate in the language they learned first.

This is slightly off topic, but I think it is really great that they're teaching Siletz as a foreign language in school. That is a great way to make sure a language doesn't die. 

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Learning Journal #6 SDLC 105

The knowledge of a language's history can be extremely helpful when trying to learn a new language. A language's history has many parts to it such as the language's roots, its origins, and its variations through time. The ability to learn these different aspects can be beneficial to language learning for a number of reasons.

Firstly if an individual learns the origins of a language, they may use this to better understand different roots of the vocabulary. Often times, the roots of a language appear in many different forms. Another reason knowing a language's history helps the language learning process is because of outdated vocabulary. It is possible that a word that used to be used is no longer applicable. The knowledge of a language's history will allow you to differentiate between the vocabulary that is still relevant. 

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Second Artifact

I learned the vocabularies of at least ten colors and different clothing.

I can tell others what color I like, and ask others what color they like.  

I can ask why color is their clothing. 

I can tell what clothing I am wearing and they are wearing. 

I can ask the price of a cloth. 

I can count the number from 1 to 100, tell others my phone number.

I can speak at least 10 country names and several city names, how to ask directions, understand how to say left and right and go straight.

I can speak the date and day of a week, as well as seasons and moths.

I can ask what they do, where they work at, how do they like their jobs. 

I can speak at least ten job names, what I would like to do and where I would like to work at. 

For Reading and Writing Part. 

I am learning the handguns, because I believe that it is the foundation of learning Korean. It will take a big part of time to remember each combination of different hangul. A summarizing report of learning hangul will be upload later. 

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Second Cultural Post

The first cultural project that I am going to explore is Korean movies culture and how Korean movies develop? Based on these Korean movies that I have watched, I think there are three main topics often involved in Korean movies, which are healing, family and social accusation and injustice. No matter what kind of Korean movies, audience will be easy to find one of these three topics.

1) Healing Topic,

Firm is closely associated with a contemporary context as a cultural content. My favorite Korean movie is “Miracle in Cell No.7,” which shocked the Asian filmdom. This movie narrates that a father and a little daughter overcome many challenges and make their life in prison happy warmed the hearts of other people. Actually, the story reveals the truth that this father who goes to jail because of a false accusation, but he still consoled people by giving faith again in the triumph of justice. Healing through a story of specific characters such as the story of the father and daughter has stronger effect than teaching in the textbook, and this is the way to govern people mind efficiently. In recent years, there are more and more heeling movies, because Korean is a rapid developing country and has been suffered by the Second War. Most Koreans feel stressful in their living and the gap between the rich and the poor. Under this situation, movies around healing topic could have big influence in society.

2) Family Topic,

The most frequently and importantly theme used in Korean drama and movie is family love. Among many kinds of love, family love is a resonant theme because it can touch people’s emotion universally. “Miracle in Cell No. 7” explain this cultural theme well. In my opinion, the main audiences of this film are children who watched together with their parents, so family culture is a high effective strategy. Collectivism and respecting to higher hierarchy is most important culture part in Korea. The Korean honorific is the grammar system in order to reflect the speaker’s relationship to the audience. Especially, when talking about someone superior in status, this person must indicate the subject’s superiority by suing special nouns or verb ending. The use of wrong speech level will be considered as insulting and unrespect. Therefore, the topic of “family” helps spread Korean etiquette.

3) Social accusation and injustice topic,

This topic is kind of controversial. The plots of some movies comes from the real stories. Among several Korean movies I have watched, social accusation has mentioned a lot. In addition, social injustice has become main topic among the world. The movie "Silenced" “Crucible” and “Broken Arrow,” it related with the issue of social accusation problems. People with higher hierarchy have the power to make decisions and commit crime. Unfortunately, people with low social status and hierarchy feel difficult to get their own justice and disclose the truth. The movie "Silences" tell a true story that "Gang In-ho, who is working to earn money for his daughter's surgery, is appointed to a school for hearing-impaired children in Gwangju. But what he discovers there is an ugly truth: the children are being physically and sexually abused by their teachers. When he decides to fight for the children's rights and expose the crimes being committed at the school, In-ho teams up with human rights activist Seo Yu-jin. But he and Yu-jin soon realize the school's principal and teachers, and even the police, prosecutors and churches in the community are actually trying to cover up the truth." In recent years, there are more and more crime movies that come from the true story; these movies are aiming to disclose truth. For the public. Korean movies are considered as a medium to spread various social phenomenon and movements, not simply as a fiction.

I will explore what kind of Korean factors and systems influenced society, and how people behave based on these cultural factors. 

Citation: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070649/ ;

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Week 8, 110

Katrina asked me to pick a scripture from the Bible and then memorize it in ASL. I originally thought this was a good idea, but I realized that I could memorize the words, but I didn’t actually know which signs were which words and I had no idea how to figure that out. I knew what I should have been saying, but I didn’t know the actual words involved, which was disconcerting.

Side note: on jw.org, there is a video version of the Bible in ASL and that is how I knew which signs to use, even if I wasn’t entirely sure what each sign meant. There is even an jw.org ASL app, which has been very helpful. 

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SDLC 110 Turkish #5

Nerelisin?

(Where are you from?)

add other questions about what nationality are you? what country are you from?

In order to say where you're from, you take the country and drop suffixes such as "ya", "istan", or "iye" and you get your nationality. There are exceptions, as there always is, and those require memorization or further knowledge of Turkish grammatical structures. 

When talking about the language of a country, there is a suffix that attaches to the end of the word using vowel harmony. For these vowels: ........... the suffix is ca while it is çe for these vowels: .............

Ülke (country)

Milliyet/uyruk (nationality)

Ülke                            Milliyet

Italya                           Italyanca

Türkiye                       Türkçe

Japonya                    Japonca

Rusya                        Rusça

Yunanistan                Yunonca
Suriye                        Suriyeli (Arapça)
Isponya                     Isponyolca
Amerika                     Amerikan/Amerikali
Bangladeş                 Bangladeşli
Fransa                       Fransizca
Ingiltere                     Ingilizce
Almanya                    Almanca
 
I also started learning about professions. There are a good chunk of words that are the same as English, French, and Arabic, so it should be easier to remember. For example, the word for pilot is pilot (but with Turkish pronunciations). 
 

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Learning Journal #6

The history of a language can help a lot in learning the language. This is true especially in the case of Siraiki. As the languages of Pakistan and North India developed together in a limited space, there was a lot of interaction between them. Languages picked up words, letters and sounds from each other. This is true in the case of my mother tongue, which is an amalgamation of Arabic, Hindi, Persian and Turkish. Knowing this fact was very important during late 19th and early 20th century. This was because greatest Urdu poets of the era, like Ghalib and Iqbal, were not trained in Urdu but were taught Arabic and Persian instead. This factor contributed heavily towards the quality of the material the poets produced and therefore, is a excellent example of how the history of a language can play such a major role in helping one learn the language.

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SDLC 105 Reflection Paper #2

Thus far, I have enjoyed learning about the culture and language of Italy. I have been able to use a few techniques which have allowed me to get a better understanding of Italian. Firstly, I have talked with a few of my friends who have taken Italian at Richmond. They have been able to offer me some guidance about how they most effectively learned the language. Also, I have been able to turn to them when I have needed help learning the language or if I was just curious about a particular aspect of Italian. Secondly, I have been able to watch some Italian television. This technique has proven most effective for me because I have always considered myself an oral learner. By listening to the programming, I have been able to pick-up common words and phrases of the language. Another reason why watching Italian television has been effective is because of repetition. The more and more I hear a particular phrase of Italian, the more likely this phrase is to register in my brain. 

One of the most interesting aspects of class has been looking at the culture of Italy. Through my research, I have found that Italians pride themselves on their families and their cuisine. During our first in-class presentation, I was amazed at how customary it is for Italians to have family-owned business. In America, corporations seem to only be considered with making a profit at all costs. While in Italy, even large corporations like Fiat are family-owned. This is attributed to the fact that Italians consider themselves extremely close with their families in all facets of life. The idea of "family time" and "family meals" is very common in their culture. Italians are also very well-known for their delicious foods. Through my own experience in Italy, I can understand why this is a main theme of Italian life. This research has allowed me to get a better grasp on the Italian language because it directs me to how I should tailor my studying. I want to focus on vocabulary of families and food because they are two central themes in Italian life.

Communicative competence is broken down into four parts: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic. In order to improve my communicative competence, I need to focus particularly on the linguistic and strategic aspects. For linguistic competence, I am focusing on the syntax and vocabulary of Italian. I am going to improve this dimension by working with my friends who speak Italian and also by continuing to watch Italian television programming. For strategic competence, I am focusing on the context of Italian and the background of Italian. I can improve this aspect by researching Italian culture and learning certain Italian mannerisms. 

Overall, I feel my language learning thus far has been going extremely well. While I can not effectively speak in Italian, I am beginning to pick up on some simple Italian phrases. Also, I have started to learn more about Italian culture. I have found this learning to be incredibly interesting because I rarely have had the ability to look at another culture during my studies here at Richmond. 

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I decided to teach someone how to tell someone their name using ASL. Signing your name is fairly easy and it is always one of the first things you are asked whenever you meet someone new. Even if you don't know any other signs, at least you can tell someone your name. All you need to do is point to your self, use your first two fingers on each hand and touch them on top of each other (the sign for "name"), and then spell out your name in letters. 

I asked my friend Noraya if could teach her and she willingly obliged. I think it went pretty well. She was able to sign the sentence, "My name is Noraya" without my help at all after watching and practicing with me only twice. Of course, if she signed this to a deaf person and they responded with their name, she would not know what they were spelling, unless their name somehow only had the same letters as hers. However, I think for the intended activity, it went very well. 

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Learning Journal, Post 6, 105

It can be incredibly helpful to understand the root of words and where they came from to help you learn a language. If you understand why a word is spelled the way it is, it is often easier to remember. This helped me a lot when I was learning Spanish, because there are many cognates, so the Spanish word looks very similar to the English word.

This principle does not always apply in ASL, though. ASL speakers use English words, so you still imagine the English word in your head as you are moving your hands to show the sign. It can be helpful, however, to think of why the people who originally created ASL decided to use a certain sign for a certain word. ASL is constantly being updated, so maybe the way a word was signed in the past is no longer applicable to the present day. In this instance, it can be helpful to know the history of the word and why it needed to be changed. 

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SDLAP 110 Learning Journal Week 8

After Fall Break ended, Alvin and I discussed what I had done over the weekend. Since I dyed my hair, I learned how to say that I dyed my hair in Korean, and also refined describing the benefits of going to a salon over using drugstore/convenience store dye. Something very useful that I covered, while basic, was which noun ending to use when I say that I got my hair dyed. One noun ending implies that I dyed my hair by myself, and stresses that I am the subject in the sentence, while the other noun ending is more neutral, and I use it to say that I got my hair dyed or I could use it to say that I dyed my hair myself. While I am familiar with saying numbers, I did not know how to say prices, so I then learned how to talk about how much something approximately costs in talking about dyeing my hair.

Lastly, I talked about how I am considering dyeing my hair a different color at a later point in time. Here I learned a lot about connecting two verbs together. For example, to say that I think a fact and to say that I am thinking about doing something, while the verb for "to think" is the same, you use two different verb endings before the verb "to think." I was not previously aware of this, and learning the difference also helped when I wanted to know how to use the verb "to consider" instead. I also used this opportunity to ask and clarify how to connect verbs to other similar verbs. Having a strong knowledge in vocabulary but not how words connect, this part of the lesson was very useful for me.

I also learned how to discuss time, such as when and event starts and when it ends, and the proper sentence structure for saying that I would leave an event early. Especially since in English, we can say that we leave an event, in Korean, the noun ending must reflect that you are leaving from an event, which Alvin then clarified for me, putting it more in my memory. 

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SDLAP 110 Learning Journal Week 7

The main topic of conversation during week 7 was plans for Fall Break. I described how my brother and dad were visiting me that week, and how we had been eating meals together every day. I then talked about how my friend texted me asking me to drive him to the train station, which was something I expected. Because that was a more abstract concept to describe, I really struggled with being able to articulately state it. How my and Alvin's lessons usually work is that I try to describe something, and if I say it wrong or if I am too wordy in trying to effectively describe it, he uses my vocabulary and gives me a more effective sentence. I then keep that sentence in my phone to learn the structure of the revised sentence, what makes it so effective (in my case, it is usually linking multiple verbs together that I find so difficult, which Alvin then helps me with so I can make my sentences more economical), and try to understand it so that I can use similar sentences in the future.

In trying to make sentences more economical, I also use subjects multiple times, and have to re-familiarize myself with the correct endings to add onto nouns in the sentence. Because I learned Korean so informally, you do not always need to put endings onto nouns, so I would drop them as I did not fully understand which noun ending is correct. By practicing speaking, I am able to learn what the right endings are.

I use an app called Memrise to learn vocabulary. It is a flashcard-based app through which you learn vocabulary and are then tested periodically on it. Learning Korean on my own before this class, I learned at least 1500 unique words through multiple vocabulary sets, and am slowly working my way through reviewing all of them to realize the full extent of my vocabulary to further vary the sentences I can use in casual conversation. 

I also sometimes use a website called Talk to Me in Korean, which provides free vocabulary lessons, including usage of verbs, example sentences, and podcasts during which they say these example sentences out loud. I know a lot of their beginner lessons, so it has taken me a while to find a point to start at where I never learned a particular grammar structure, but I find the podcasts to be particularly helpful, as my spoken comprehension skills are weak and they provide the written sentences that are used in the podcast.

For my purposes, I do not think BYKI will be useful. Because I have progressed very far in my knowledge of vocabulary words, and because my pronunciation is already very good for the level I am at, I would not learn anything new from BYKI. It sounds like it is more suited toward beginners, which I am not. The same applies to Mango languages, as I already used a different source to learn basic vocabulary and I plan on sticking with that source.

The service that the University subscribes to that I think will be particularly helpful is one for learning basic conversation scripts, that includes both a recording and a transcript of the conversation. I forgot the name of the service, but as I need to improve my spoken comprehension, this is very relevant to my goals.

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SDLAP 105 Reflection Paper 2

As I had a late start into practicing Korean with a language partner this semester, I still have not learned much new in Korean. On my own, I practice vocabulary to catch up to my past knowledge and to re-familiarize myself with verb endings and other grammar structures. With Alvin, I then practice that vocabulary in a casual conversation.

 

Being able to practice Korean in this setting, with someone Korean who can correct my grammar as I speak to him, I have learned a lot about forming sentences. My goal is not necessarily to learn new vocabulary but to connect the vocabulary I already know with their respective verbs, connect verbs with verb endings correctly, and understand the nuances between similar verb endings. This is practiced as I work toward my goal of also being able to hold basic conversations, e.g., starting with “What did you do today?” or “What are your plans for Fall Break?” and saying whatever is on my mind that I can mostly articulate in Korean.

 

Culturally, my biggest problem is that it is hard for me to speak formally. In teaching myself Korean, I can recognize formal structures, but not reproduce them when speaking myself. Also, at the higher levels (such as when addressing groups and when addressing unfamiliar people who are much older than you), there are many similar verb endings that denote formality, and some basic nouns and verbs have a formal version. This all can be very hard to keep track of, and as a foreigner it is difficult to understand why speaking formally is so important and why failing to is seen as so disrespectful, so it can be especially hard to become accustomed to changing how formally you speak in different situations. This will be something that I will need to familiarize myself with in the future, especially if I plan to go back to Korea and make an effort to communicate with people.

 

With Alvin, I speak to him only slightly formally. This involves adding the ending -yo to verbs at the end of each sentence, and using formal versions of the words I/me. Sometimes even the latter aspect is hard for me to keep track of. As I become better at forming sentences and speaking in Korean, I would like to spend some lessons speaking more formally. Even though it would not make sense culturally as Alvin is only slightly older than I, it would be beneficial for situations in the future in which I would have to deal with older people.

 

Another cultural aspect that I am starting to be more exposed to is the types of sentences that Koreans ask as they get to know you. For example, it is very common to ask what one’s ideal type is, which is something I had seen in variety shows and already knew the word for. While asking about ideal types is not seen as something serious in Korea--it is more along the lines of fantasizing about what type of person you are interested in--it is very odd in America. In fact, when Alvin initially asked me what my ideal type was, I became flustered and did not answer the question. Just as foreigners here often have to be told how to answer the question “How are you?” I need to familiarize myself with answering common Korean questions, even if they are culturally considered to be weird in America.

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Week 7, 110

Katrina, Jo, and I walked around Target and Katrina just pointed out things to me and asked me to guess the sign. Most of them were common sense, but a few of them I had to think about a little longer. This is how I learned most of my vocabulary, like food, clothing, and other household items. I really enjoyed doing this and I think it was a great way to learn. The words stuck in my mind because I had to work to figure them out, instead of just having them told to me. It's really nice having Jo with us because she grew up speaking ASL and often knows things that Katrina doesn't, even though she is fluent. 

Side note: I am only writing about one of the two meetings I have each week, because one of the meetings is when I go to church on Saturday morning, so I basically only learn religious vocabulary at those meetings, instead of a variety of things. 

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First Artifact

A: Where is Gottwald-> Gottwald oe di yae yo?

How do I get to Gottwald?-> Gottwald oe duk kae ga yo?

B: To go straight and then left turn ->Jik jin ha sae yo, ge da eum ae, wen jjok eo lo ga sae yo.

A: Should I take bus? beoseuleul tago?

B: You can walk there. -> dangsin i geol-eul su(ta si ni ke lu su)

A: Thank you ->Gomabseubnida

B:You are welcome -> cheonman-eyo

 artifact.m4a

How to read Hangul. 

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Learning Journal, Post 5, 110

I think my progress to date has been pretty good. I've learned a lot of basic words recently and one of my favorite activities is just walking around campus and trying to figure out if I know the sign for the things I'm seeing. Learning about religion is probably the hardest part so far, mostly because most of the words are ones I would typically not use in everyday life. I have been watching religious videos where there is an ASL interpreter, so that has helped me pick up a few signs. So far, I think my learning plan is going well and as of right now, I do not plan on making any changes to my learning plan. 

Whenever I meet with my language partner, she always brings her roommate along, who is hard of hearing, so watching them have conversations is really helpful and I am occasionally able to pick up what they are saying just by guessing what the signs mean and watching their facial expressions. I am also getting comfortable with signing in public, even though I normally get a few strange stares. 

I wish there was a website where I could sign something and have it tell me what the sign meant. There are a few signs that I can recognize, but I am still unsure exactly what they mean and I typically forget to ask my partner when I see her. This is one instance where ASL can be harder than learning a spoken language, because I cannot just text my language partner and ask her what a word means. 

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First bi-weekly report--SDLC 111

Directions

Country Name:

US: miguk

England:young guk

Japan: yil Bon

Thailand: tae guk

China: jueng guk

Korea: han guk

Switzerland: se wis

France: pe rang se

Canda: kae na da

Australia: o-se-te-lae-li-a

City Name:

Chicago: shi ka go

New York: nue yok

Washington DC: wo shing ton dc

Seoul: seo ul

Tokyo: do kyo

Beijing: bei jing

Hong Kong: hong kong

Paris: pa li:

 

How to ask direction:

 

 

Oe-di: where

Where is Gottwald-> Gottwald oe di yae yo?

How do I get to Gottwald?-> Gottwald oe duk kae ga yo?

Oe duk kae: how, ga yo: to go.

 

To go straight: Jik jin ha sae yo.

Left turn: when jjok eo lo ga sae yo.

When jjok: left, ga sae yo: to go (for other person).

Right turn: O len jjok eo lo ga sae yo.

O len jjok: right

Eo lo: towards

 

Transportation:

Bus: beo se

Ta da: to take something, to ride on something

 

Subway: ji ha cheol

Airplane: bi hang gi

Bike: bike: ja jen geo:

Taxi: tak xi:

 

 

Useful Conjunction:

And: ge li go,

And then: ge da eum ae.

 

 

Cloth/shopping

Color

Blue: pa lang saek

Red: Bbal gan saek

Orange: ju hwuang saek

Black: gum jung saek

White: ha yan saek

Grey: huae saek

Green: cho lok saek

Yellow: no lang saek

Purple: bo la saek

Clothing

Cloth: ot

t-shirt: t she te.

Hoodie: hoo de

Skirt: se keo te

Shoes: shin bal

Dress shoses: gu du

Jeans: chung ba ji

Pants: ba ji

Hat: mo ja

Jacket: jam ba

Bag: ga bang

Umbrella: wu san

Scarf: mok do ri

Socks: yang mal

 

 

I learned several country names and city names. I can ask how to ask directions, how to guide the directions to others. In addition, I learned the vocabularies of colors and different clothing. Starting learning actual grammar, phrases and words that I can apply to daily conversation. Combined talking with Alvin Yang and learning materials on website, I learned that the sequence of Korean grammar is different than English or Chinese grammar. For example, if I want to say take taxi, I would say ‘taxi take’ in Korean. Usually, the noun will put in front of verb. Therefore, Korean can be easy to read because there are special markers that indicate what is the subject and object, and most of the time the verb is at the end of the sentence. Berbs almost always appear at the end of a sentence.

Example: Jinsoo eats rice. -> Jinsoo rice eats.

        Mi Kyong watched a movie. ->Mi kyong movie watched.

        I am Xiaoting->  I Xiaoting am.

        I am a Chinese->  I Chinese am.

To be a successful self-directed learned, my strategy is that I learned vocabularies and sentences (mostly pronunciation part) from Alvin Yang, and for grammar and Korean character I found a lot of resources online for self-learning. If I have any confusion, I will ask for help from Alvin. I really like independent study, such as finding my interesting part and learning from this. It really works on me. I can learn what I learned effectively, and this learning strategy motivates me. The really interesting part when I met with Alvin Yang is that when he talked some vocabularies, and these vocabularies are similar to me because of watching Korean drama and listening music. I will keep on listening audio resources to get familiar with some pronunciation and vocabularies. For next meeting, I will improve conversation skills with Alvin. Now I can only speak by myself. If I talked with others in Korean, the reflection time to respond is long. I try to review all materials that I learned from last semester, and structure these topics to make a big organized chart in order to find each topic relationships.

 

 

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Reflection Paper #2

Because it took some time to get situated with a learning partner, I haven't had the chance to meet with mine very much yet. However, by speaking to him a little, I was able to get a different understanding of the Korean culture I was not aware of. For example, when I visited Korea a year and a half ago, I got the impression that while Koreans are very friendly towards people they know, they can seem kind of cold to strangers. Because Koreans don't seem to engage in small talk with strangers, that's the impression that I got. However, my language partner insisted that this isn't true, and since he actually lived in Korea for years, I am sure I was not able to get the right impression by only staying there for a week. It seems that there are a lot of parts of Korean culture I am not fully familiar with, and I hope to talk more with my language partner and learn more .

As for the language, I have been able to work a little on my writing and speaking skills. I feel that it has improved a little, and with more practice with my language partner over the semester, I should be able to reach my goal of writing a letter by the end of the semester. I have also had the opportunity to speak more Korean recently, and am becoming more comfortable with it. Now, I hope to further that knowledge into being able to understand more difficult language such as what is spoken on the news or in documentaries. I have watched a few clips of the Korean news to see how much I can understand. While there is still a lot of vocabulary I still struggle with, I think with a little more practice and studying this semester, I will be able to work towards understanding more difficult phrases. I also plan on continuing to practice speaking about not only everyday aspects, but also things like current events. 

I think particularly for Korean, understanding the culture is an integral part of speaking the language. Because there is such a high value in respect dependent on age, this flows straight into how the language is spoken. Unlike English, all sentences are grammatically changed when speaking to an elder versus a friend your age. You must also know that even if someone looks your age, you must verify that they are exactly your age and younger before you can speak "banmal" with them. Even if they are younger, it may also be appropriate to use more formal language until you are comfortable with each other. Because I have a background in Korean, I was already familiar with this concept. However, I do believe that understanding the culture is an integral part of learning any language.  

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Learning Journal #5

It was very interesting to watch the culture shock video because I had never thought of it from the perspective of an international student. While I did move here from Korea, I was young and didn't really encounter most of the things mentioned in the video. I can definitely see how it may be confusing for an international student when they're responding to phrases like "what's up," where only a simple response is expected in our culture. While I'm used to this, small things like this can definitely make it difficult for someone in a new country.

I've never traveled to anywhere else besides within the US and Korea, so I've never encountered much of a culture shock. However, when I go back to Korea, I do experience somewhat of a reverse culture shock. For example, while I am aware of the importance of respect for the elders, I was surprised at the severity of it as I was often pushed out of the way by many elder people while riding public transportation. In addition, Koreans don't really engage in small talk with strangers which is vastly different from the US. Things like this took a little time to get used to, however I wouldn't really refer to them as a "shock," like many of the things mentioned by students in the video.

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SDLC 110 Turkish #4

Arzu and I practice introductions every time we meet. We do different variations of things we can say to each other (according to the very limited vocabulary I have). Today I found out that she is an English teacher in Turkey! This explains a lot about her style of teaching- she's very aware of teaching/learning methods that would be useful to me. She gives me a lot of worksheets to work with at the start of class to review concepts/words we talked about in our previous meeting. A lot of them are matching, which I like because sometimes I won't always remember a word or a phrase, but seeing it in front of me helps me put them together. This in turn helps me recognize it next time while simultanouesly improving my memory of it. Arzu suggested I text her in Turkish with what I know in order to keep the knowledge I have going, so I might start doing that. I don't feel like I need to go any faster than I am right now in terms of pace because it's not a classroom setting. I do want to get started on more grammar though to understand the foundation of the language. It helps me put perspective to what I'm saying and the words that I encounter if I know the grammatical makeup/structure of it. 

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