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The most difficult part about this learning experience has definitely been learning how to write. I attempted to write in urdu several times but found that it was far too difficult. Due to this, I decided not to focus on this aspect of language. Urdu script is so different than any of the writing that I know (because I am used to roman characters). Urdu's script looks like a bunch of squiggles and foreign characters to me. At first, it was extremely difficult for me to write the shapes and lines of my name. I looked over the Urdu alphabet and tried to write down all of the characters as well. The most difficult part about this was differentiating between the different "t" sounds as well as the different "d" sounds. In most cases, they all sounded the same. This meant that when it came of learning how to write the alphabet, I had to simply try and remember that the different characters/shapes I was learning truly did produce different sounds-- even if I was not able to differentiate between them. 

As previously mentioned, I will be using my friends as direct resources as well as several online cites in order to help me with my learning journey. I will specifically use the urdu website as a general guideline for stating. Using the exercises, phrases, and memory games I will develop a foundation for the basic urdu topics and sections I want to focus on. From there, I will then go over these with my friends by directly speaking with them. This will help me practice but will also serve as a live and interactive exercise for practicing the phrases I learned from the online tool. This will making sure that I work on pronunciation, accent, tone, as well as listening and response skills. I feel as though the combination of these two resources will greatly help me because first I will focus on building foundational understanding through learning and self practice, and then I get to go out and be interactive and apply what I have learned with other human beings. 

February 3 2015

Our readings for today were very interesting and meaningful to me given that I myself grew up in a bilingual household. After discussing these readings in class further, we talked about the challenges that some people may have when encountering another language as well as keeping with their native tongues. I am not sure of whether or not bilinguals are actually "smarter" but I do believe that bilingualism allows an individual to think in two different perspectives when it comes to language. This allows a person to develop a skill that a person which is only able to communicate in one language will not have. The articles argue that bilinguals are able to function in a more holistic manner and perceive more specific things about their surroundings. The most interesting study they talked about in one of the articles had to do with how children that were bilingual were more easily able to differentiate between shapes/colors etc. That exercise showed how bilingual brains are able to capture more complex concepts in such fascinating ways. 

March 31 2015

1. Season, Time, Date

New Vocabularies:

Today - onul

Tomorrow - nae il

Yesterday - uh jae

The day before yesterday - ut geje

The day after tomorrow - mo le

4 Season - sa gyejul

Spring - bom

Summer - Yeo rum

Autumn - ga ul

Winter - gyo ool

Time - si gan

Clock - shi gae

How old - myutsal

How many - myut gae

na - me

nuh - you

ya - dude, you (friends)

na rang - with me

nuh rang - with you

halle - want to do (informal way); halleyo (polite way)

nolle - want to hang out (informal way); nolleyo (polite way)

nolda - play/hang out

nolja - let’s hang out

bappa - busy (informal way) bappayo (polite way)

Useful phrases:

What are you doing - mohae yo?

Nanen(I am) dokseo hamida (doing).

I’m busy - jeonun bappayo/na bappa (to friends)

Do you have time - Sigan it seoyo?

Tomorrow I have time - naeil sigan it seoyo.

Want to be my date today? - onul narang (with me) date halleyo (want to do?)?

Wanna play today? - onul narang nolle?

dude let’s hang out - ya nolja

What time is it right now?: Jigum (right now) [sigani] myut si ayo (what time is it)?

Right now it’s 10:45: Jigum yul si (hour) sasip o boon (minute)

2. Color

New Vocab:

Color - saek

Red - Bbalgang

Orange - juhwang

Yellow - nolang

Green - chorok

Blue - palang

Purple - bola

Black - kamang

White - hayan

Useful Phrase:

What color do you like? musen (what kind) saek joayo?

Here is my final project presentation Final%20Cultural%20Project%20Korean%20Drama.pptx

Sources:

학교 (hak-kyo) = school

I always like Korean writing characters, because Korean characters are easy to write and good-looking, just like drawing in some ways. Even though it looks similar to Chinese characters, it still has a lot of difference. For now, I don’t think about words or grammar or anything until I can read and pronounce Korean letters and syllables. In my opinion, without being able to read Korean, it is very difficult to continue studying other parts of the language. Korean alphabet is considered as Hangul in English. I use this chart to teach myself how to recognize the Korean alphabet, and try to be able to read and pronounce them.

110 Can-do Statements

My Can-Do Statement:

I can greet others, introduce myself, and ask others about themselves.

I can ask\introduce family.

I can ask\introduce hobbies.

I can say the days of the week, the month, the year, and count from 1 to 100.

I can ask\say seasons and time.

I can ask about ordering food and the price of things.

I can ask\say about colors.

Through the whole semester, we have spent more time in food and time-related topic, so that there are a few topics we have not yet explored, such as direction, weather and jobs.  But, I think we have learned some useful communication phrases and I am happy about my progress in learning Korean. I have met my goals of being able to talk with a stranger for three minutes and to write basic alphabet and words.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I love to watch Korean TV shows and one of the things that stood out to me about the lifestyle of people in South Korea is the life of office workers. Among the things I observed, I will talk about some of the more prominent ones.

First of all, Koreans have very long working hours. In addition to the regular eight hours, the employees are expected to work overtime almost everyday, sometimes as late as 10 pm. Moreover, the employees are usually not allowed to get off work till their boss has left. As a result, sometimes people stay overtime even when they are not working.

The working environment is very stressful. There is constant competition between employees and even between the different departments. Koreans put a lot of emphasis on what their boss think about them and will go out their way to be in their boss' good books as it often guarantees them promotions and bonuses.

I have also noticed that employees are treated differently by their boss inside and outside the office. Inside the office, the bosses tend to put a lot of pressure on the employees and tend not to show their friendly and considerate sides. However, office dinners are very common in Korea, where the employees will have dinner together with their boss and bond over drinks.

In fact drinks and evening entertainment play a very important in the lives of office workers in Korea. Other than bonding with fellow employees over drinks, a lot of business is also done over drinks. Employees are often required to entertain important clients and thus maintain good relationship with them.

Also, new employees tend to get bullied by the older employees are often made to do the menial tasks. They are also made to do most of the work and rarely get recognition for it. There is also discrimination against female employees in the office. They are often viewed as weak and incompetent, which is a result of the patriarchal Korean society.

Television shows tend to exaggerate facts most of the time, so I did some research about the working environment in Korea and I found similar reports from different websites.   

Over the course of the semester, I have learned that I really enjoy and appreciate structure in a language course. At the beginning of the semester I was lost, sort of floundering around as I tried to decide how I would like to go about learning Hindi. I had looked at the different resources available, but I realized that I could not simply jump into my coursework. When I tried to start with Mango, I was overwhelmed by unfamiliar characters, and realized that I was mimicking sounds that I heard and trying to memorize strands of syllables, rather than actually understanding what I was saying and why I was saying it. I encountered a different sort of problem when I evaluated which resources from the MRC I should use—one was a grammar book, but it was intermediate-level and I still needed to learn the alphabet (same with illustrated dictionaries).

Because of these obstacles and realizations, I began to understand that for me personally to succeed as a language learner, I needed more structure to my coursework. I bought a textbook and workbook, and used them to work through a lesson at a time. Having a set progression also facilitated my learning the alphabet, as the book introduced the different letters gradually, enabling me to better retain what I was learning and apply it to sentences and grammar.

In terms of cultural exploration, I think that watching different forms of media, particularly movies, helped to acclimate me to certain values and norms, as well as get me picking out phrases and grammatical structures I had learned. I think that seeing the places I’ll be travelling to, and seeing how people interact in them (even if the films are not nonfiction) was incredibly useful. Some things that I became more familiar with were formalities and titles, gender roles, foodways, travel etiquette, and stereotypes associated with certain cities. I think the most difficult part about learning from the movies was looking past their frequent use of English. It seems that English is becoming (or already was) a language associated with cultural capital in India—those who wish to sound sophisticated or cultured will use English over Hindi or more regional languages. Thus, Indian movies will sometimes use more English than Hindi in their scripts. Since I’m going to a rural part of India where “Hindi is the purest,” this has made it difficult for me as a language learner, since the films are giving me an automatic crutch to fall back on, rather than immersing me in the language I seek to learn.

Although I have faced setbacks, I have really enjoyed learning Hindi, especially learning to write the alphabet out. It is incredibly convenient that everything is phonetic in the language, and that there are few ambiguous spellings that do not match up with a word’s pronunciation (a sharp contrast to English!). I’ve actually found myself thinking in Hindi at times when I try to spell out words! I plan to continue in my workbook even though the course is over, as well as watching more films and listening to music in the language. One major outcome of my learning is that I have gained a new appreciation for Bollywood movies. This could be dangerous in terms of time management and expecting crowds to burst into song, but I think it will also give me great conversation starters for new acquaintances in India.  

To be honest, my focus on my target Language is speaking and listening. I can barely write Koreans but I was able to read a few. I read Korean because I read the books called Travel to Korean. I read the Korean Alphabets in order for me to quickly learn the words and pronounce it correctly. But I think when I move to the next stage of learning I must learn some basic words and know how to write it. 

Bilinguals are not necessarily smarter in the sense of intelligence, but are more adaptive to new environment, more open-minded to approach a problem, and in better shape in controlling an environment or solving problems. Different languages have different grammars and different usage of words can utilize more part of our brains, thus improving the “executive function” of the brain which is “a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks” (“Why Bilinguals Are Smarter”, New York Times). Learning a new language just as learning a new instrument or any other creative subjects can train different parts of the brain to allow us to be a better monitor.

I have learned around 250 words in Korean. I learn them by using them in dialogues, listening to new words, watching TVs, repeating them often, and eventually memorizing and recite them. I have also used  Mango app to help me acquire new words. Mango app forces users to repeat the new word multiple times in a lesson. I also used app called travel to Korean, this encouraged me to learn new words that I need when travel to Korea. My goal for vocabulary acquisition is to learn at least 15 new words each week and master basic words I need when I travel to Korea . By complimenting with study apps, I think my goal is realistic.

In the article "School was also once the enemy of tribal languages. Government boarding schools, where generations of Indian children were sent, aimed to stamp out native ways and tongues. Now, the language is taught through the sixth grade at the public charter school in Siletz, and the tribe aims to have a teaching program in place in the next few years to meet Oregon’s high school language requirements, allowing Siletz, in a place it originated, to be taught as a foreign language." When people are sent to school, you are more than encouraged to chat with people in the mainstream language. It is easily for a language to die out under that circumstances. So when a language extinct, the diversity extinct. It was a horrible thing at least for me because I can not imagine the whole word speaking the same language. 

Learning the History of Your language can help you to understand the root and change of your history and understand how it is different from other languages. Korean is one of the world's oldest living languages, and its origins are is as obscure as the origin of the Korean people. Nineteenth Century Western scholars proposed a number of theories that linked the Korean language with Ural-Altaic, Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan, Dravidian Ainu, Indo-European and other languages. Korean is most likely a distant relative of the Ural-Altaic family of languages which includes such diverse languages as Mongolian, Finnish, and Hungarian. Linguistically, Korean is unrelated to Chinese and is similar to, but distinct from Japanese. Early historical records indicate that at the dawn of the Christian era, two groups of languages were spoken in Manchuria and on the Korean Peninsula: the Northern or Puyo group and the southern or Han group. During the 7th Century, when the kingdom of Silla conquered the kingdoms of Paekche in southwest Korea and Koguryo in the north, the Silla dialect became the dominant language on the peninsula. I understand Korean language has a lot of similarity like Chinese so when I compare those languages I learn it quickly. 

I think generally everyone did a good job in the cultural presentation. I am mostly impressed by Melody's presentation because she picks up the presentation on the bath tradition which I did not notice before. One of the presentation is on the phone plan in  Pakistan. Pakistan is a collectivist country where Pakistanis like to be connected with everyone. I think another aspect might also contribute to the differences between a two-year contract cellular plan in the US and a pre-paid based cell phone service in Pakistan is how business environments differ in two countries.

The cultural shock is what happened to me at first. When I travel abroad this is something I also feel about especially went to western countries. I remembered when I first came to the US, I had to do the orientation thing. I was the only Chinese in my group. We played a game called the name game. You had to memorize the name of your group member and the adjectives in front of the name. My name is Yuki and it was so hard for me to come up with an adjective. Also I am set in the middle of the group so I was unable to memorize all the names. So when it was my turn, I was so embraced. 

It was also quite difficult for me to get what people are laughing at. They also don't know exactly my country was like. However, when I talk to more people, things get better. Cultural shock is still there and you have to accept the fact because that is something unique about you. 

understanding the basic structure of Korean sentences in order to be able to communicate and important words too. Korean sentence structure is different from that of English. Unlike English sentence structure that follows an order of subject, verb and object, Korean follows an order of subject, object, and verb that is in the end of a sentence. I will learn from a website called How to Study Korean which contains a lesson on sentence word order (http://www.howtostudykorean.com/unit1/unit-1-lessons-1-8/unit-1-les...), and from Hill’s Learning website (http://www.hillslearning.com/2011/09/01/learning-korean-nyc/). Also, I will learn korean from a lot of Korean dramas because that's how people talk in daily life and that is fun. I think a reference grammar book can be useful because I can quickly refer to and check with the grammar book if needed. But I think I should accumulate more words rather than study the grammar first because I have to lay a solid foundation at first. 

the language spoken in Korea is called Hanguk-mal, literally "Korean speech." Although the Korean language has adopted many words from the Chinese over the centuries and it seems to resemble Japanese grammatically, its phonetic system differs completely. Korean is not a tonal language like Chinese and Vietnamese, where tonal inflection can change the meaning of words. In Korean the form and meaning of root words remains essentially unchanged regardless of the tone of speech. There is little variation in accent and pitch. When speaking Korean, the general rule is to evenly stress phrases and sentences. When reading or speaking questions, the inflection is upward at end of the sentence just as in English. 

In the article, "How we mean". But vocabulary within sentences always. It is the interaction between words and sentences structure which conveys our "sense of sense". Only when they are used within a sentence do they make senses. Sentences exist to enable us to make sense of words. That is why sentence study is the foundation of words.

I find this particular important because It is really difficult for a beginner of certain language to memorize and understand a lot of vocabulary at one time. Even sometimes you remember the vocabulary you will easily forgot it after a period of time. But if you put everything in a context, maybe in a sentence, you will easily remember the word and hard to forget. So to help me learn more Korean words. I will come up with more conversation and put them into sentences so I know when to use those words properly. 

Artifact1-direction.mp3

My first artifact, the conversation about direction, was actually based on my work last semester. Last semester, I learned some vocabularies such as left(wenjok), right(orunjok), front(ap), behind(dwi). However, I found it very hard to use these words to construct complete sentences in real situation. Therefore, I designed my first artifact as a real life conversation with Azmain as follows:

Sam: Where is Hanyang university?

(Hanyang dae hak gyo eo ddeok ae ga na yo?)汉阳忒哈kyo 偶都开 卡纳哟

Azmain: Are you getting there by car? (차 타고 거기 가요? cha ta go geo gi ga yo?)

Sam: I will be walking there. (아니요, 걸어서 가요 a ni yo, gul eo［curl嗷］saw ka yo)

Azmain: Do you know how to get there? (어떻게 가는지 알아요? -eo ddek ae ga nen ji al a yo?)

Sam: No. I am lost.Can you tell me how to get there?

(아니요. 어떻게 가는지 알려주세요 a ni yo, eo ddek ae ga nen ji卡能及 al lie 儿撩 ju sae yo.

Azmain: From here take a right turn, go straight. Then at the intersection, take a left. (여기서 오른쪽으로 가시고, 직진 하세요. 그리고 사거리에서 왼쪽으로 가세요.(yeo gi seo Orunjjok eo lo ga si go, jik jin ha seo yo. ge li go, sa geo li ae seo, wenjjok eo lo ga sae yo.)

Sam: Can you draw a map for me? (ji do leul几多叻 ke lie 骨/哥料 ju sae yo)

Azmain: Yes. Here it is. (자 여기요, ja, yeo gi yo)

Sam: Is there anything around the University?

(대학교 주변에 뭐 있어요? -dae hak gyo(kiao)/ ju bien ae/ mo yit eo yo?) chubiangai mo yisaoyo

Azmain: Yes. There is a park.(예, 거기에 공원이 있어요.-yeah, ge gi ae/ gong won yi/ yit eo yo)

Sam: Thank you so much! (정말 감사 합니다-  jung mal 冲脉 gam sa 康擦hap ni da)

Azmain: You are welcome (네 잘 가세요-> nae, jal ga seo yo)