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One of the topic based conversations my partner and I had recently was regarding an important day in Korea. In about a week or so, it will be 삼일절 in Korea, or Independence Movement Day. This important day commemorates the protests and demonstrations that occurred on March 1st, 1919, by Koreans against Japanese colonization/occupation. Many lives were lost in valiant effort, and so many look upon this day with respect and gratitude, similar to our 9/11. Occupation began in 1910, when Korea was annexed by Japan. Thereafter, many Koreans were subjugated to many forms of suffering, and many historical documents/artifacts/buildings were lost. There isn’t much need to go into detail, but in retrospect, many holidays and figures now exist to remind us of our freedom, which was possible thanks to many factors. 

삼일절 translates directly to 삼 - 3, 일 - 1, 절 - day, referring to the date, March 1st. As part of their demonstrations, many Koreans would proclaim “대한 독립 만세”, which means “Long Live Korean Independence”, or just the latter part, “만세”. Nowadays, people are more inclined to say “대한 민국 만세”, or “Long Live the Republic of Korea”, which shows how far the country has come.

There is still political/social strife between Korea and Japan, many hold bitter outlooks against Japan. However, I believe resentment has drastically reduced over time, with newer generations who aim for amends and peace. Although formal conflict may remain politically, hopefully social/cultural relations will continue to improve between the countries. These holidays are more to remind us of the valiant efforts of the Koreans of the past, and less of an admonishment against Japan.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZLH29mqL75uyloeBjgOk8NE7ZhUvP5zRjyKCeYUgy3I/edit?usp=sharing

For this week’s cultural post, I decided to watch “놀면뭐하니" which is a highly popular Korean variety show hosted by Korea’s most famous M.C. named Yoo Jae Suk. This show arose after the termination of the most popular Korean variety show of all time called “Infinite Challenge.” Many people did not expect “놀면뭐하니" to be very good since the pressure and expectations were so high, however, this show shocked the Korean viewers when it hit #1 on streaming. I chose to watch one of the episodes that had 2 of the most iconic 90s singers, Lee Hyo-ri and Uhm Jung Hwa pair up with this year's hottest singers named Hwasa and Jesse. Together, they formed a band called “Refund Sisters.” Before, it was unthinkable to see such old icons come together with the recent pop stars. In equivalence, it would almost be seeing Beyonce banding up with Fifth Harmony and performing together as one unit. When I was young, I remember seeing Lee Hyo Ri and absolutely fangirling over her and her dancing skills. She was the greatest icon in Korea’s girl group history and her humor just put her on another level. I didn’t know Uhm Jung Hwa too much since she was more popular before my time, but I remember listening to her song “DISCO” and jamming out to it during karaoke nights with my family. It was not only very cool, but nostalgic to see them come back out on variety shows and dance once again. Just watching these nearly 50-year old women dance to very demanding music and choreography made me grow a lot of respect for both of them. Another reason why I liked Hyo Ri is that she defied Korea’s beauty standards of having to look white and pale and she was always tan and careless. Even on “놀면뭐하니" she once again came out on the show looking very tan, and it made me feel more confident seeing an icon defy traditional Korean beauty standards. After their performance, they actually won #1 in the music charts, and it just once again proved how much of an influence they still have on the Korean public and the viewers. I really enjoyed seeing my old nostalgic performers pair up with some of my new favorite performers and this is something I hope to see often in the future, even outside of variety shows. 

     Winter Olympics 2022 has been ongoing for a few weeks now, and I’ve always admired the skills and bravery these participants have to compete against the best of the best. My favorite events to watch are figure skating, speed skating, and a new favorite, free-style skiing.

     What captivated me to figure skating was the amount of grace, technique, and artistry the skaters must put in to impress the judges in order to gain a high score. Yuna Kim, a South Korean figure skater, won gold in the winter olympics in Vancouver of 2010 due to her magnificent short and long programs. A short program lasts two minutes and forty seconds and a long program or free skate lasts 4 minutes long including various tricks such as jumping and spinning. It is not enough to just deliver the jumps and the spins, but incorporating them into an artistic fashion enhanced by the music selection. Yuna Kim’s jaw-dropping performance in the Vancouver Olympics won her a gold medal because she delivered beautiful jumps and spins and incorporated artistry. Yuna Kim tried again for the gold medal in the Sochi 2014 olympics but her performance resulted in a silver medal and that was the end of her skating career. In addition to figure skating, this young athlete also does modeling and is in various advertisements.

     Another sport that South Koreans do well in is short track speed skating. I discovered speed skating this year from scrolling through the Chinese social media app called Weixin or known as Wechat. Figure skating is beautiful to watch and with music in the background makes the sport even better. On the other hand, watching speed skating is like watching the climax of a horror movie. The moments towards the end of the race are nail-biting and my eyes are glued onto the screen. Like most races, whoever crosses the finish line will claim gold, so on the laps closer towards the end, the skaters move faster and quicker to try to grab the gold title. The best chance a speed skater has to be the fastest is to optimize their position by bending their knees and maneuvering sharp corners carefully. The roundings on the ice tracks are so sharp that the skaters have to put their hands on the ground when turning the corners to keep balance because they are going at high speeds during the straight parts of the ice track. Crashes and falls are very common as well if the athlete doesn’t control their speed well when turning corners since many of the skaters are back to back to each other.

     In this winter olympics, athlete Hwang Dae-heon won gold in the men’s 1500 meter and olympic athlete Choi Min-jeong won the gold in the women’s 1500 meter. Impressively, Choi Min-jeong won the gold in the 1500 meter and 3000 meter relay in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. Not only in these past two winter olympics, South Korea is the nation that dominates this sport in the olympics racking up 24 gold medals throughout winter olympic history.

https://olympics.com/en/news/south-korea-women-short-track-speed-skating-beijing-2022

Regarding language learning, sociolinguistics is probably the most effective and appropriate approach for me. Because I want to especially improve my conversational skills, my speaking and listening/comprehension proficiency are what I focus on. Focus on sociolinguistics allows me to improve on these, because of how each culture implements their language in a social setting - like formality, proper addressment, and overall lingo. By connecting the culture and the language, I can get a better understanding of what I am learning, like implied meaning, passive/aggressive delivery, etc. I think this is especially important with the Korean language, as I think Koreans are generally more cautious with their social surroundings, to the point where they even have their own word - “nunchi”. 

I think this also ties into psycholinguistics, as it is important to understand how the language connects with the mind. Sometimes, I think a certain phrase sounds much more casual when spoken in Korean rather than English, and vice versa. This probably also ties into sociolinguistics, but by understanding how language affects perspective, I can hopefully gain a better understanding of the language itself.

Moving forward with this knowledge, I think it will greatly benefit my learning by looking into the social/psychological influences of my target language. By looking into these social/psychological differences between English and Korean, I can also gain a deeper comprehension of English, which may help me in the future with other languages. I’m not completely sure on how to look further into the sociolinguistics/psycholinguistics of Korean, but I can continue to integrate myself into the culture, which has and probably will help with this.

Hebrew%20Learning%20Plan.docx

Where are you now? What can you do? What do you know?

Interpersonal Communication: Intermediate-Mid
Interpretive Listening: Advanced-Mid
Interpretive Reading: Intermediate-High
Presentational Speaking: Intermediate-Low
Presentational Writing: Intermediate-Low

What is your ultimate goal? What is your goal for this semester?
What do you want to be able to do with this language at the end of this semester and in the future?

I want to be able to achieve a level of fluency where I can conversate with ease and not have to think so much before speaking. Confidence is also another aspect I really want to improve on. A lot of the time my American accent comes out when speaking Korean as I think too much about what I am going to say and as a result lose confidence while I am speaking. Vocabulary on specific topics that relate to my everyday lifestyle would also be something I'm looking to pick up. Along with vocabulary, I do want to become more natural by learning slang and jargon especially for my everyday life like the gym or playing videogames. Korean culture and history are also other aspects I want to learn this semester. I also want to be able to text/type in Korean as fast as I text in English.

Learning Objectives:
- Vocabulary, Writing (Texting/Typing), Culture, History
- Tools: Games, Youtube Channels, Kdramas/movies, Quizlet

Week 1:
- Review and access language capabilities

Week 2:
- Form vocabulary picked out from Youtube channels on topics such as dating culture, daily life, and the gym

- Learn new phrases (slang + jargon and common phrases)

Week 3:
- Watch and review historical Kdrama/movie

- +new vocab

So far I have learned most, if not all, conversational aspects. I went to Korea to study abroad and was able to pick up on writing and reading fairly easily. Having a language partner is really useful because I am able to conversate with them comfortably for extended periods of time. Although I was forced to speak Korean during my time abroad it was very basic and limited to short conversational language. The covid restrictions really prevented us from associating with the native students there. Being Korean-American definitely prompted my learning journey, along with the nagging of my Grandmother.

My language partner (Jannette) started off with some basic assessments to sort of gauge my level of Korean along with finding out some of my interests. We spent a bit of time abroad in Korea together, so this was relatively quick. After catching up we decided on a layout of how we were going to meet. We would have two meetings a week. One as a group with Grace to focus on more of a cultural aspect towards language. The other meeting was a one on one with my language partner in order to focus on personal objectives.

We established a learning plan with my objective to achieve a level of fluency where I’m able to get rid of my American accent. Confidence was a key aspect I really wanted to work on as it helps get rid of the American accent that comes out from time to time. Vocabulary on specific topics that relate to my everyday lifestyle was another focus for me. Things like learning slang and jargon especially in regards to the gym or playing videogames. Korea has a huge video game culture. Texting and typing was also another focus I had in mind.

To achieve these learning objectives we planned to use tools such as games, YouTube, K-drama shows and movies, and Quizlet. For Youtube, we decided to follow a very popular influence in Korea known as Kim Jong-Kook. He is in the entertainment industry but works out heavily and created his Youtube account to post his gym exercises.

As a group we decided to go to local Korean restaurant to kick start our SDLC class. We restricted our interactions to as much Korean as possible, from reading the menu to reflecting on our study abroad experience. Thankfully, the waitress and other employees were actually Korean. Having Korean dishes here with my group made me miss my time in Korea. Although the food was a bit disappointing considering they were Korean.

Overall, I’m excited to continue my language learning journey with a great learning partner and group.

For this first learning journal, I wanted to reflect on what I’ve accomplished so far and my goals in the future. I have now finally got set up with my language partner Marco, and we have met twice now. We got going a little late with the process, but the meetings have already been super helpful. However, skipping out on 105 was really a hard decision for me and has left me searching a little as I never got the full time to craft a language plan. This is where I’ve been leaning heavily on my language partner who’s gone through the process. We talked about a real good foundational plan for me to meet my goals of being conversational by the end of the semester. To start, we have been discussing the different pieces of Portuguese I’ll be learning. Portuguese is a very diverse language as I’ve learned, and there are different accents and forms depending on the speaker or part of the world. In order to learn more about the distinctions in the language, my partner assigned me a few chapters in the book titled Portuguese for Dummies. This was an amazing introduction to the language, and although basic, really gave me a background to dialects, types, culture, amongst other things. One of the recurring themes of my learning so far has been the difference between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese and that was featured prominently again. Moreover, in Brazil, there’s actually numerous dialects within the country alone. Therefore, it’s been decided that I will be learning most akin to the São Paulo accent because it is the most neutral form of the language. In addition to this, I learned that the language is 89% lexically similar to Spanish. This means it’s been much easier for me to read so far, as I saw sort of within my cultural artifact post, than it will be for me to understand phonetically. One of the more interesting cultural things I learned from my reading is that in Brazil it’s very common and acceptable to just show up to people’s homes at any time. In the US, that really is not common practice at all, and a lot of times you must get permission before going to someone’s house.

Next, my learning shifted to actually focusing on the language. For the first parts of my learning, my partner wants me to focus on very basic things. I have been learning the alphabet, numbers, and other basic phrases from the language. These are my building blocks to hopefully move further along. The alphabet will obviously take some getting used to and real work, but the most interesting pronunciation for me so far has been the “g”. It is pronounced almost as “a’ga”. As for the phrases, it was interesting to me how the language was like Spanish but very different. Take the phrase “Bom dia” for example, it is like it’s half Spanish and half Portuguese, like my partner was trying to explain. This translates to good morning, and these types of typical phrases are what we focused on. My assignment for the first meeting of next week iis to be much more comfortable w these simple phrases we went over and the alphabet. We will still be dealing w similar topics but for now just getting a grasp on meaning and how to use the words is very important for me. So far what’s been working best for me is hearing the online version of the pronunciations and then the meaning after. I go from a visual aspect and then an auditory component, and it seems to be helping make it stick. My partner has emailed me these components with conversations, pronunciations, and other forms of practice. 

Overall, I’m very excited to finally get started with my language partner. I know it will be a lot of work and I have a long way to go, but finally diving into the language and testing the waters has been great. In the coming month I hope to really have a good basic understanding of common phrases, numbers, familial terms, and things of that nature. As for my plan, I will continue to lean on my partner, but so far, we’ve set up a very logical progression that will move at the perfect pace for me. Practice and repetition are the keys moving forward.

Since it has only been two weeks since learning sessions with our language partners have started, most of my activities so far have been conversational to get a feel of where my speaking proficiency is at. So far, my partner and I have had topic-focused conversations, allowing our conversation to flow with ease. This has been helpful not only because of the overall practice, but also because there are some grammatical/pronunciation confusions that I end up encountering. Many times, when I speak a sentence, some parts end up sounding awkward or just wrong. But I can’t always distinguish whether it is because of my lack of knowledge or because it is my non-Korean accent. Thankfully, my partner is able to correct these mistakes and also offer alternative words/sentences. I can then take mental notes, and by reviewing these, I hope to continually improve. Overall, this learning experience has been positive, and I haven’t encountered any frustrations yet.

Now that my language partner and I have a better understanding of where my speaking proficiency is at, I can better accommodate my needs. As noted on my learning plan, I plan to improve my comprehension/conversational skills outside of the sessions. By interacting with more official/formal korean, such as listening to podcasts or the news, I can better understand korean in a more complex context. Hopefully then, I can also raise the complexity levels of the topic based conversations between my language partner and I. The sessions so far have also taught me some ways I could improve my learning experiences. I realized instead of taking mental notes, I should also start taking physical notes of what I’ve learned, so that I can refer back and not forget. I also wish to utilize online resources, as the ones we have gone over in class seemed very helpful. I also plan to write down any confusing moments of Korean speech I encounter in my daily life, so that I can ask my language partner during our sessions. If my comprehension gets better, I hope to also improve my other skills, such as reading. Reading itself is not hard at all, since as with many other languages, as long as you know the alphabet, you can pronounce words/sentences. It is understanding what the words/sentences mean that is the hard part, and by improving my speaking/comprehension skills, I hope to at least be able to read articles with ease.

Figuring Foreigners Out was an interesting read. Regarding the idea of collectivism vs individualism, whether it is due to the influence of Confucianism or eastern philosophy, many Asian countries are more collectivist than individualistic, as seen in familial traditions. At least in Korea, it is much more common for children to live with their parents even whilst reaching later adulthood. Although there are many extenuating circumstances, in the states there is some level of bias against adults who reside in their parent’s home past a certain age - there is a certain level of expectation of self achievement and independence. Children are “sent off”, whether it is to a new career or to a higher education, so that they may be able to self-sustain. There are similar expectations in Korea as well, but they are mitigated. A much higher proportion of parents wish their children to dwell with them, even whilst reaching later adulthood. The differences between eastern and western countries are also seen in the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture. The section about nonverbal communication made sense, there are various different cultural contexts for each action and ideals, it is only right that this is taken into account. This is why culture shock exists, and why many tourists may seem rude, especially in more conservative countries. The monochronic-polychronic opposition is very interesting, but besides culture, it seems to also be reliant on the country’s overall status. In capitalist countries, I can imagine time being much more quantified due to concepts of opportunity costs, and overall relationship between money and time. The internal-external opposition seems to be heavily reliant on the culture’s historical roots, such as religion and philosophy. I think the idea of internal locus of control is heavily more prominent in western countries, and it is definitely so in the states.

These oppositions are all very interesting to learn about, and personally, I think I am more connected to the western cultures’ opposition than my native cultures’. That is probably because I was born and raised in the states, and western culture has been more predominant in my upbringing. Going forward, this will allow me to learn more about the culture and history behind my target language, and will let me have a better comprehension of what I am learning.

During the past two weeks I met with my direct language partner, Vivian. In our first meeting we discussed what we did over the winter break in the language of Korean. She told me how she spent time with her family in Chicago and I told her my experience of going back to South Korea to visit my family. We decided to meet on Tuesday and Thursday right after our Accounting class. 

This semester I want to focus on improving my reading and writing skills for Korean. My end goal of college is to be able to test and certify for the Korean language. I believe that having the language certification will be beneficial for me in the future. In order to accomplish my goal, I want to be able to read Korean articles and short stories and be able to reflect on them. Instead of writing Korean from the everyday conversation and text scenario, I want to be able to write it in a more structured way. The texts/conversations and essays written in Korean are very different. 

It was interesting how I am also assisting as a language partner and Vivian became my student. She told me how she wanted to improve her vocabulary skills. I think through helping her learn new vocabulary I will be able to use those in my essay and writings. I am so excited to be able to see how we can help each other improve in the language. 

Recently, I read a book called “Magic” which was translated in the language of Korean. My mother has strongly recommended that I read this book. At first I was very hesitant because I preferred reading English books more than Korean books. However, I tried to take time to read it and noticed how important it was for me to practice reading various books in order to improve my Korean reading skills. I was frustrated at how slow it took me to read the first chapter and how the language built in the sentences sounded so deep with different meanings. 

After reading the first chapter, I wrote a short reflection on what I read. The book actually talked about the power and strength of gratitude. There were different stories of how being thankful changed a lot of people’s lives. How if one is not grateful for the things they have there will be more negative situations that occur. The power of gratitude is very important for success and a change in the way people view life. I thought these stories were very interesting so I decided to try some of their exercises. 

The book contains a 30 day of gratitude challenge where each day there is a different way to be thankful. On the first day, it instructed me to write down ten things that I was thankful for and the reason behind them. As I was writing the list of things I was thankful for I could see a slight change in my mind where a spark of positivity occurred. I was astonished by this moment and decided I would do each challenge and reflect about it by writing my reflections in Korean. 

For the first week of class, Rachel and I met up over Zoom and went over the syllabus together. I was very excited to have her as my new language partner since I felt like Rachel spoke more formal Korean while I was more experienced in conversational Korean. Since we have both taken Korean and have taught Korean over the past few years, we were both pretty familiar with the content and requirements of SDLC. This is my 3rd time taking Korean and for this semester, I took on a pretty heavy academic workload, so I wanted to simply use these class times to read and watch as much cultural content as possible. In Korean I and Korean II, I mostly focused on practicing and speaking Korean and having basic conversations with my language partner, but for this semester, I wanted to listen and observe more of the diction, vocabulary, storyline, and visual aspects used in Korean films and dramas. The main reason is that I’ve always been interested in videography and film my entire life. I still visibly remember when the film “괴물" first premiered in Korea back in 2006 and it was a revolutionary moment for Korean film history because of its use of CGI and digital graphics. I was only 6 years old back then and “괴물" means monster in Korean, so I was way too afraid to properly enjoy the show, but I hope to rewatch it this semester and enjoy it with a fresh perspective. Previously, Korea was not as well known for its movies, but they have truly progressed into a country known for its arts and culture. I’ve always enjoyed Korean TV shows in the past, but I never got too deep into the storyline, motifs, symbolism, e.t.c. I mostly watched it because my favorite actor was in the show, or because my sister always asked me to watch it with her. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed how much Korean filmmaking has progressed. From being a worldwide sensation to becoming internationally recognized even by the Oscars, it made me want to really study and analyze this phenomenon. Therefore, for Spring 2022, my goal is to observe as many Korean artworks (such as films, music videos, poetry) and take a deep dive into how this reflects back onto Korean culture and society as a whole. I will continue to practice my Korean speaking and reading skills with Rachel but make sure to have an emphasis on the Korean Arts when doing so. For the next few weeks, I hope to watch and unpack some famous films and dramas such as “The Uncanny Counter,” “25/21,” “Our Beloved Summer,” “Business Proposal,” and e.t.c. If I have additional time to explore, I would also like to dip my toes into Korean sports as well, more specifically, get to know more about Kim Yeon Kyung, an infamous female volleyball player in South Korea. All in all, I am very thrilled to start this semester and I’m excited to see what I learn. 

January Language Learning Journal 

Since this semester started mid-way through January, I was not able to get started on as many tasks as I had wanted to. Nevertheless, meeting up with my language partner did allow me to start practicing my interpersonal communication in Korean; a task that I had hoped to start in January. Although I have not yet used any outside language-learning tools, my language partner has become a great resource for me to verbally communicate in Korean. 

Last week, Ben Lee, Jannette You (my language partner), and I went to grab dinner at a Korean restaurant to start off our SDLC and practice speaking Korean. We read the menus in Korean, ordered our dishes in Korean, and reflected on our experience studying abroad in Korea last fall. When I ordered my food in Korean, I was glad to see that the waitress (an older Korean woman) did not have any difficulty understanding my order, despite my English accent. Seeing that we all spoke Korean, she spoke in Korean to us, as well. This small interaction was an encouraging success for me. 

Having Korean dishes and being immersed in a Korean environment was also a good way for me to re-experience Korean culture while learning. As we ate, we had a conversation in Korean about how eating in a restaurant in Korea was much more affordable than eating in a restaurant in Virginia. We also discussed how the food in Korea was much tastier than the Korean food in Richmond; an observation we all shared. Having a light conversation surrounding a topic like food was an enjoyable and effective strategy for me because it allowed me to retrieve and use words that I hadn’t used in a while. It was also a good way for me to practice my pronunciation and listening skills. 

I plan to speak in Korean to my language partner as much as possible during our meetings and I plan to build my interpersonal communication skills as I learn new words and start integrating these into my conversations. As of right now, I do not have any revisions to make in my learning plan and my goals are the same. I plan to accomplish eight tasks that will help me improve all four aspects of my Korean language ability. Overall, I am feeling enthusiastic about my language learning journey. I know that I may be frustrated as I come across obstacles in my more challenging tasks later on, but I am excited to see how much I will have accomplished by the end of the semester.

The main idea behind Figuring Foreigners Out is that different cultures have different notions of identity and various ways of communicating. Cultures lean either toward individualist or collectivist. Non-verbal communication can either have no meaning, have the same meaning, or have different meanings in two different cultures. The concept of time is handled differently according to one’s culture. Some cultures regard time as monochronic, while others view time as polychronic. Finally, cultures can differ in the directness/indirectness of communication. High-context cultures rely on the context of situations and non-verbal communication while low-context/direct cultures need to be more explicit with what they are trying to convey. The Hofstede Dimensions of Culture is similar in that it attempts to define a country’s culture according to six dimensions: power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence. 

I predominantly agree with these assessments because from my personal experience, it is very accurate. For example, I can definitely see the United States as an individualistic country since we are encouraged to become independent achievers starting at a young age. South Korea, however, is definitely more collectivistic and people associate success with the well-being and accomplishment of the group as a whole. I noticed that Koreans feel a strong emotional bond with in-group members but are less connected to out-groups. It is important to point out, however, that there may be multiple cultures within a country. Therefore, it may not be accurate to make broad-sweeping generalizations.

Where are you now? What can you do? What do you know?

Interpersonal Communication: Low
Interpretive Listening: Low
Interpretive Reading: Low
Presentational Speaking: Low
Presentational Writing: Low

What is your ultimate goal? What is your goal for this semester?
What do you want to be able to do with this language at the end of this semester and in the future?
I want to be able to speak everyday conversation in Korean with people. Although there may be some words I may still not understand or know by the end of this semester, I want to gain enough vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension to be able to piece together conversations and speak to others.

Learning Objectives:
- Vocabulary, reading, writing
- Tools: workbooks, Quizlet, flashcards

Week 1:
- Review alphabet, pronunciation, and vocabulary
- Worksheets created by Vivian and Quizlet

Week 2:
- Review and learn new grammar structures
- Workbooks

Week 3:
- Read passages from workbooks and everything in Korean (signs, books, menus, etc.). Test reading skills every week to see if reading speed and comprehension increases

I reviewed the alphabet and the sounds/pronunciations. I also reviewed and learned some new vocabulary words

I will continue using the textbook I used for learning Korean 1 when I was at Yonsei.

I want to learn a language with honorifics, which will allow me to understand how language works with expressing high status, politeness, or respect. Also, I want to go back to Korea and be able to talk to more locals and Korean people.

Study abroad, Korean friends, and Korean pop culture.

Language Plan

Overall Structure of Course:

• Reading, Writing, and Listening, each week (Speaking comes later)
• Each week I will watch a movie or documentary in Hebrew and write a written summary pointing out things I notice about how characters speak Hebrew. (To encompass Listening and Culture)
• Utilize Tools Online (Italkie, etc.)

Learning plan will be tentative and only out to week 3 to give the possibility of revision:

Week 1 (basics):

• Alphabet
• Learn each letter, how it sounds, how to write, Spelling of words in English, etc.
• Basic Verb structure

Week 2:

• Alphabet continued (practice writing and speaking *Repetition*)
• Aleph Bet song memorization
• More verb Structure
• Watch movie in Hebrew (One Day in September)

Week 3:

• Recite Aleph Bet Het Song
• Be able to write alphabet
• Begin researching prayers to learn
• Basic Words and phrases
• Watch Movie in Hebrew related to Jewish culture (Possibly the Pianist)

Organization of self directed learning plan and exchanges with community partners:

Each week I look to have goals and tasks in the four categories of learning Hebrew: Writing, Reading, Listening, and Speaking. Consequently, I will practice those skills in each category with a language partner. I will focus on repetition and hands on learning to try and solidify those skills and help with memorization. Each week I will also attempt to assess the skills I learned prior with my Language Learning Partner.

Individuals and organizations who could advance from my endeavors in learning Hebrew:

-Interfaith center, congregation beth ahabah, I Will eventually reach out to these synagogues and maybe even attend a service to try and conversate and use Hebrew in real time with people that speak it.

How I have been learning so far:

So far I have been trying to learn the Hebrew alphabet, which is harder than I had imagined. I have been doing this using repetition and the four components that I had mentioned earlier.

I have been Writing the letters over and over, practicing the differences in writing the letters like He and chet. Some of the differences are very minute so it is has been taking me awhile to learn.

I have been Speaking the letters, making the sounds of them over and over, reciting the aleph bet het song, and listening to them being said over and being able to read and identify which letter is which.

I attempted to learn verb structure because I had been told it was confusing and quickly saw it was really confusing. The structure is different than every language other than arameyic. I am putting verb structure on hold temporarily.

How I will investigate Hebrew and jewish culture more deeply:

I want to be able to understand prayers that I heard growing up. I also want to be able to conversate with people in Hebrew while at synagogue if I want to. I even hope to go to Israel one day because that is something I have always wanted to do. Overall, I want to have the option to be more involved in Judaism.

What first prompted me:

I Grew up going to Sunday school mainly learning about history and always wanted to learn more about the language. I have family ties to Hebrew through being jewish on my dad’s side. My great grandpa was also a Jewish composer.

Learning Plan:

Approx. 12 Weeks remaining

Focus: Improvement of vocabulary, comprehension, and overall conversational ease.

Sessions: 

1. Topic based conversations
   1. Just conversations to improve my speaking proficiency, revolving around some topic. 
2. Review of proper grammatical structures.
   1. Because I’ve learned Korean at home, I never properly learned it. Lots of times when I speak I realize what I said didn’t make perfect sense, or I don’t know how to say a certain phrase due to unfamiliarity with the grammar structure - hoping to learn/improve

Independent Focus: 

1. Podcasts/Radio Shows
   1. Because I can already understand Korean fairly well, I’m hoping that listening to these more official/formal forms of media will not only improve my comprehension, but also expand my knowledge of current Korean events/culture.
2. Switching to Korean
   1. I watch a lot of Korean Dramas, and read a lot of webtoon. If I’m going to waste time on these, perhaps getting rid of subtitles or reading webtoons in Korean will help my progress? I can generally understand without subtitles, but it would definitely make me think a bit at times when I hear an unfamiliar phrase/word.
3. Talking more in Korean
   1. Although I will converse with the SDLC native speaker, I will also make more effort to speak Korean with my friends. Besides the few Korean friends on campus, I also often talk a lot with my hometown friends via facetime/discord. Most of them are very Korean and converse in Korean anyways, and I often use konglish - will try to use pure Korean.

This learning plan was organized to optimize my learning both in and outside the classroom, while not putting too much strain on my time. So far, I have been able to practice my conversational skills, but I plan to review more formal/official material, like grammatical structure and special grammatical circumstances. I think a great way for me and the teacher to connect and have a conversation is to focus on a topic, and so far I am thinking of using Kdramas as a start. Hopefully, with the increase in speaking proficiency, I will be better able to converse with people from the Korean community. Many older generational Korean Americans prefer to speak korean, making it hard to communicate sometimes. I am also hoping to study abroad in Korea, which means improving my speaking proficiency would be very beneficial.

Although I have yet to receive direct feedback from my classmates. reading their ning blogs allows me to get a sense of where I'm at, and what I can improve on.

     SDLAP 110 was an interesting experience for me because the structure of the course provided me with a lot of flexibility that I wasn’t used to in past courses. Therefore because of this, sometimes my schedule was inconsistent with studying Korean. This was also due to the fact that I did not have a detailed syllabus that planned a week by week schedule. It mainly consisted of goals and what tasks I wanted to accomplish. This semester, I created my syllabus on google docs, and there was a feature where the bullet points could be used as check boxes. I enjoy checking boxes off once I complete my tasks, so my syllabus for this semester consists of a week by week schedule of what I am going to do. I only want to plan out two weeks at a time since I don’t know how far I am going to go with the textbooks.

     I have identified some new resources that I am going to use to learn Korean this semester. I mentioned about a podcast called Talk to Me in Korean last semester, and I found their Youtube channel as well! The teachers on the channels are clear and helpful with their bite-size lessons, so I hope to utilize this channel more. The Yonsei University textbook was a great resource that mimicked traditional language textbooks with lots of colorful illustrations, but one thing it lacked was how to pronounce the characters. The Talk to Me in Korean book (from the Global Studios) has the phonetic pronunciations written alongside the characters so it helped me make sure I was saying the characters correctly. I don’t think I will be using the Yonsei University textbook this semester, but rather the Talk to Me in Korean textbooks. Another resource I used last semester was iTalki, and I think it is a wonderful service to use for beginner learners! Unfortunately, it has been suspended for use due to some limits on business account users, but once this problem is resolved, I will be continuing to use this amazing resource. 

     The past two weeks I have been constructing my syllabus, listening to Korean conversations on Talk to Me in Korean (TTMIK), and solidifying/reviewing what I have learned in SDLAP 110. I listened to the Level 1 conservation on TTMIK and I was able to understand 90% of the conversation without looking at the transcript! Additionally, I worked on a workbook that I purchased last summer, and I reviewed subject, topic, and object particles which are unique to Korean and a select few other languages. The concept of these particles makes sense because it can emphasize which is a subject or object, but I am not comfortable with applying them when forming my own sentences. However, I think once I get more practice with the particles, they will make more sense to me. In addition to reviewing, I learned a few phrases such as “Please give me _____”, “I will eat well”, “Do you have ____”, and “This is ___”. These are common phrases to use in day to day conversations so learning them now will help me better recognize them when I hear it in the future.

Link to my Learning Plan: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xOBpX0ZcPLKCpxXdWtWxpiQQ59TvgdvmgH9VxVUm8k0/edit?usp=sharing

I organized my self-directed learning plan by breaking my goals down into eight smaller tasks that I can feasibly accomplish. All of these tasks will help me improve the four aspects of my language skills. So far, I learned that learning a language is may not be as hard as I thought, especially with all the resources that are available to us on the internet. I also realized that language learning does not have to be boring. I do not plan to read any textbooks about Korean because I think I learn better from active engagement and fun activities. The ‘curriculum’ that I set for myself will allow me to investigate my target language and culture more deeply because the majority of my learning activities include interaction with some form of Korean material, whether it be Korean movies, dramas, music, or news article. Using these as tools for my language learning will allow me to learn more deeply about Korean culture. 

I became interested in furthering my Korean language skills because as a Korean-American, I am heavily engaged with my Korean community at home. I want to be able to confidently speak Korean to other Koreans, especially native Korean speakers. For Korean-Americans, it can be considered impolite to speak in English to an older Korean adult who is talking to you in Korean. This is because no formality exists in the English language. I want to avoid these types of awkward situations and have everyday conversations with other Koreans with ease. Studying abroad in South Korea last semester also motivated me to gain a deeper understanding of Korean culture and my heritage.