Blogs

Primary Materials:

1. Books: “Shnoo the Hell is Going On?” and the Moroccan Arabic textbook published by the Peace Corps
2. Media: YouTube teaching videos, YouTube videos in Moroccan, and clips from Moroccan TV shows/movies
3. Websites: TalkingTagine (Dictionary, auditory alphabet for pronunciation, and grammar)

I will begin by examining the Moroccan Arabic alphabet, learning any new letters and/or changes in pronunciation from MSA. Next, I will familiarize myself with the modified Latin alphabet of Moroccan Arabic which is used more often than the traditional Arabic alphabet.

Then, I will begin learning and practicing Moroccan Arabic pronunciation. Unlike MSA, Moroccan Arabic is infamous for its consonant clusters and employs few vowels, making pronunciation very difficult for new learners. Therefore, I will practice saying words to myself and listening to Moroccans on YouTube speaking the language. After this stage, I will begin studying Moroccan vocab weekly.

Next, I will study basic Moroccan grammar such as pronouns, gender distinctions, and uniquely Moroccan grammatical structures such as “dyal.”

Having established a good basis for myself, I will begin learning Moroccan verbs and how they are conjugated to be able to express actions and create sentences using the nouns I have already learned through studying the vocab.

I will continue studying Moroccan grammar and vocabulary, progressing through the textbook, and practicing my pronunciation and writing of Moroccan Arabic in the process. At this point, I will begin watching Moroccan YouTube videos / short clips of Moroccan TV programs or movies to evaluate what I understand and what I need to spend more time on (i.e. the pronunciation, the vocabulary, the grammar, the conjugations, etc.).

Through watching Moroccan YouTube videos and TV shows, I will gain a better understanding of Moroccan culture and how Moroccans view different topics. I will further explore this information and continue practicing my Moroccan Arabic through talking with my Italki partner and also a Moroccan friend on campus.

First, I plan on starting to learn Dutch through speaking and listening. I want to first learn to speak the most common phrases of the language. I plan on cementing 1 to 2 phrases per day into memory. At the same time, I want to get into the habit of putting phrases and key words onto flashcards and studying them for a few minutes per day. These flashcards will have pictures on them instead of translations. As far as listening goes, I mainly want to focus on consuming Dutch media with Dutch captions to help me follow if I can recognize any phrases. The media will consist of soccer games, Youtube videos relating to topics that I already enjoy, and movies. I will also use listening tools that I can find online. I want to put a lot of time into speaking with basic phrases and pronouncing sounds properly. I have a cousin from the Netherlands that I plan on asking for recommendations for movies and media outlets, and I can practice speaking to him once I am comfortable. I also want to try online speaking tools to practice primarily iTalkie and speech to text tools like voice notebook. Finally, I want to try to read and write a little bit. I will read Dutch news articles which will help me learn the language in context since I already have some understanding of current events. I also want to write practice emails and short prompts and use grammar checkers. My main goals for my learning plan would be to understand Dutch and be able to have beginner to intermediate level conversation. I also want to try to read Benny Lewis' book about language hacking to see if I can implement any of his strategies.

On my journey to learning portuguese, I plan on using a textbook, online tutoring, and a Brazilian language partner. The textbook that I have selected is "Pois Nao" which is a textbook that teaches portuguese for spanish speakers. For online tutoring, I plan on using the website iTalki to help with speech acquisition. In addition to that, I plan on practicing speech with my Brazilian language partner in order to master the speech aspect of learning a language. In a few weeks I plan on setting all of my electronic devices in to portuguese, so that I am constantly in contact with the language everyday. For me, this journey will be a lot more speech-based than writing-based because we tend to talk a lot more than we write. It seems to be the most common form of communication.

My%20Learning%20Plan%20Revised.docx

I just recently added this course to my schedule, so I feel a bit lost and behind in terms of structuring my language learning, but I am still very excited to continue practicing my Portuguese. 

This summer I received a critical language scholarship to study Portuguese and got to be immersed in Brazilian culture for about 8 weeks through an online format. Although the program was supposed to be in person, I still greatly enjoyed my time learning Portuguese virtually and met a ton of professors and friends who were eager to assist my language learning journey. In a couple weeks I will be receiving my pre-program and post-program OPI test results and I am excited to see where I stand in terms of my speaking ability. Throughout the program I also improved my reading and writing abilities. Along those 8 weeks I wrote short essays, read academic texts and even gave presentations strictly in Portuguese. I definitely would not be as comfortable as I am with the language right now if it weren’t for my scholarship this summer, so I am very grateful for the opportunity. 

With this course my objective is to have someone with whom I can continue practicing my Portuguese with as I prepare to study abroad in Brazil next semester. The University of Richmond only offers one Portuguese course, which I already completed, so the SDLAP is a wonderful option in terms of not letting all that I learned this summer go to waste. I hope to use this course as an opportunity to build on my speaking abilities and become comfortable with talking about more specific or specialized topics like education. I also think it will be beneficial to document my progress through my language journal, since I will be able to reflect on the learning strategies that are most effective for me. In addition, I am really looking forward to finding more academic resources in Brazilian Portuguese and discussing all the options I find with my language partner or professors from this summer. 

This semester, another important goal of mine is to make more connections with the language and Brazilian culture while experimenting with different learning styles. This summer I was able to learn a lot about how to use Portuguese, but I did not make as much progress in connecting the language to the culture. Beyond that, I really just want to be as prepared as possible for my study abroad experience so I can better take advantage of my time in Brazil and actively contribute in class while I am there. All the elements of this course will allow me to do so, as I will have to update my language journal, create cultural posts and have multiple conversations about varying topics with my language partner. This will also be my first time speaking Portuguese with a native speaker outside of Zoom, so perhaps I will be able to pick up on specific hand gestures or certain facial expressions that are more difficult to notice through a screen. After a very busy summer learning a language in my room, I am eager to apply my language skills into to the real world and make the best use of all the resources that are available to me.

One of the best ways to learn a new culture is by looking at their art, the way that society expresses in literature, visual arts, cuisine, and so on. Thinking about this, I decided to bring Heo Nanseolheon (허난설헌). She is a poetess who lived during the mid-Joseon dynasty in Korea. During the Joseon Era, Confucianism was the main religion and the predominant way of thinking. Confucianism preaches a clear division of the roles of women and men. For this reason, during the Joseon Era, it was not common to see women dedicated to reading and writing. Heo Nanseolheon appeared, then, as an exception to the rule. At the age of eight, she wrote a poem that impressed her elders and came to be called a prodigy. She is also the sister of Heo Gyun, the alleged author of one of the great classics of Korean literature: Hong Gildong. Her brother started to market her poems in China. These poems became popular in both China and Japan. Despite this, due to Confucian beliefs, their poems did not gain notoriety in Korea. She only began to be recognized as an artist after the Joseon period.

At the same time, Shin Saimdang was the role model woman, exalted by Korean society. She was seen as an artist, but mainly as a good mother, able to raise a male child with dexterity. A woman considered ideal by the standards of Korean society at the time was a woman who never left home, just caring for the home and children. Women always had to obey a man, being first their father, then their husband, and lastly their male child. Heo Nanseolheon, for breaking all these patterns, has been frowned upon throughout her life. She was married when she was 15 years old and she died at the age of 26. None of her children survived and she has never got along with her husband and her in-laws. After her death, all her drawings were burned, leaving only one. Many of her poems were kept due to her brother's zeal and their commercialization in China. I recommend to my colleagues to watch the video below, where I got a lot of the information. It contains interesting reflections on the life of Heo Nanseolheon and also tells a little bit about Shin Saimdang. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=G29uPDxFcus&feature=youtu.be

I would like to present one of her poems: Poor Woman Chants (빈녀음)

"Though my countenance is as good as those of others,

Also are knitting and weaving skills,

As I grew up in a poor family,

No matchmakers come to me.

Though cold and hungry, I never appear to be so

But weave next to the window all day.

Only my parents think of me with sympathy,

So what neighbors will sympathize with my feeling?

Though the night is deep, the weaving hand does not stop,

The sound of loom tinkers lone.

This one garment weaved from the loom.

Of which bride would this be?

As I cut the garment with a pair of scissors,

The fingertips are breathed on in a cold night.

Though the wedding garment takes day and night,

This body of mine sleeps curled every year."

- Link: https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?isHttpsRedirect=true&blogId=globalkorea7&logNo=90143529631

It is really interesting to learn more about Korean history and also about Korean women. In a predominantly male story, it's important to look carefully at people who appear and who don't appear in the history books and why. We know a society better by knowing the kind of exalted people and the kind of people who were disowned. While researching the subject, I found that a ballet group created a creative performance inspired by the story of Heo Nan Seol Heon and another important figure in Korean history. The performances were from the 7th to the 9th of May and unfortunately, I wasn't in the US at that time. (Link: https://washingtondc.korean-culture.org/en/1134/board/897/read/108303)

I will continue looking for more information on the subject. This week, I combined art and history to learn a little more about Korean culture.

        Food is unarguably part of a culture that is unique in its taste, presentation, and experience. There are different variations of one dish across cultures such as 炸酱面 (zhazhangmian) in Chinese cuisine is a version of the Korean dish 자장면 (jajangmyeon). They both contain thick meat sauce tossed with noodles, but it’s the combinations of certain ingredients that is unique to that culture. Many people know that kimchi 김치 is at the heart of Korean cuisine because kimchi is a staple fermented side dish that pairs wonderfully with many meals consumed in Korean cuisine. There are numerous kimchi recipes, but the one common ingredient they have is napa cabbage. Napa cabbage has fluffy, crinkly, green leaves with a white base or head. It is native to eastern Asia and usually harvested during the mid-summer. According to “Why Kwang Hee ‘Mama’ Park is the Queen of Kimchi” video, Ms. Park has been making and recreating kimchi dishes for around twenty years. Ms. Park was awarded the title “Master of Kimchi” in a kimchi making contest in the early 2000s, and her kimchi career started from there. She believes the best kimchi is made by hand and not using machines. She grows her own napa cabbages in the mountains and picks chili peppers from the mountains as well.

        The kimchi process can be broken down into three processes: growing the napa cabbage/other vegetables, preparing the seasoning, and fermentation. Gimjang 김장 is the process Ms. Park referred to as preparing kimchi before fermentation. Salt is used religiously to pickle the napa cabbage and extract the water out of the leaves. Ms. Park prepares a broth that contain ingredients such as onions, anchovies, and kelp. This broth is later used to mix in with the big bowl of seasoning. The seasoning mixture consists of bean powder, salted shrimp, anchovy sauce, sugar, garlic, chili pepper, cabbage, and daikon radish. After the seasoning mixture is prepared, Ms. Park marinates each leaf of the salted napa cabbage well, and the kimchi is store in cool temperatures to allow fermentation to take place.

        After watching this video, I learned that making kimchi is a long process and requires many ingredients to create its delicious and irresistible taste. My diet mainly consists of Cantonese cuisine, which is flavorful, yet, bland, so there are not many spicy and pickled dishes that I consume on a regular basis. I have tried store bought kimchi once, and the taste was very sour. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but after watching Ms. Park showing the kimchi making process, I feel compelled to try it again. One interesting kimchi that Ms. Park created was called “Dandelion kimchi”. Just like the name of the dish, she scavenged for dandelion stems in the mountains and marinated them in her seasoning to create this popular kimchi in her area. I found it interesting because dandelions are common weeds in America, but Ms. Park utilizes the dandelion’s abundance to create a delicious new kimchi dish.

        Kimchi makers each curated their own recipes to produce a tasteful side dish that pairs well with meals, but the process itself is quite time consuming. However, I believe its long process is what makes people appreciative of this dish because the scrumptious flavor stands out due to the quality fermentation and seasoning. Kimchi is delicious dish savored by many Koreans, and the wonderful taste of kimchi is being shared to other parts of the world as well. A sample of kimchi is a sample of Korean culture.

Manto, F. [Eater]. (2021, January 16). Why Kwang Hee “Mama” Park is the Queen of Kimchi – First Person. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI949vGM4JM&t=45s

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kYKBbiubuENKsmtm0e7Rrl094D57o40VYwDDJyfkxRg/edit?usp=sharing

In Korean food culture, kimchi (김치) is one of the most crucial side dishes because it is included in almost every single meal Koreans eat. Kimchi is created from salted, fermented vegetables (generally cabbage or radishes) with a paste made from chili powder, garlic, sugar, fish sauce, and more (can depend on who makes the kimchi). There are many hundreds of varieties of kimchi, however, there are ten main types of kimchi that almost Korean knows about: 배추김치 (napa cabbage kimchi), 백김치 (white kimchi), 깍두기 (cubed radish kimchi), 총각김치 (ponytail radish kimchi), 오이김치 (cucumber kimchi), 나박김치 (red water kimchi), 동치미 (radish water kimchi), 갓김치 (mustard leaf kimchi), 파김치 (green onion kimchi), and 보쌈김치 (wrapped kimchi). 

The history of kimchi starts from the period of the Three Kingdoms. When Koreans first utilized agriculture, they faced problems with the weather because of the extremely cold weather in the winter. Because of this, they preserved all different kinds of food using salt. When the cabbage and chili pepper arrived in Korea, families prepared and fermented them to preserve them for the winter. This was when the kimchi recipe came to be. Finally, in the Joseon Dynasty, the kimchi recipe continued to get more diverse. As one can see, the need to preserve food to survive in the winter started such an important traditional food in Korea. 

When Koreans made kimchi in the winter, they stored it in a 옹기 (oongi),  which is an earthenware fermentation storage container. The 옹기 (oongi) would be stored in the ground, which would help prevent it from freezing during the winter months. It also helped keep the kimchi cool to slow down the fermentation process in the summer. If the kimchi is not stored underground, there is another option called 장독대 (jangdokdae). 장독대 (jangdokdae) is an outside space that is used to store and ferment food as well. The most frequent space people use would be a terrace. 장독대 (jangdokdae) would be filled with rows of 옹기 (oongi) which is shown in the picture below. Now, since times have changed and became more modern, Koreans store their kimchi in kimchi refrigerators, as they have a more consistent temperature, more humidity, and less moving air. It is crucial to properly store the kimchi because it could cause food poisoning from the fermentation process if it is not properly stored. However, it is also important to point out that kimchi has so many health benefits, such as heart protection, improvement in digestive health, nutrition, and support in the immune system.

Koreans even have a word for describing the collective practice of making kimchi: 김장 (kimjang). 김장 (kimjang) reaffirms the Korean identity because this tradition of making kimchi brings together many people to turn cabbage heads into food and nutrition. UNESCO even added this tradition to the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity because of how crucial it is to Korea’s identity.  

Kimchi is so essential to Korea's culture that 1.5 million tons of it is consumed each year, and even the Korean stock market reflects the kimchi obsession. They call it the “Kimchi Index,” which tracks Napa cabbage and other ingredients such as chili, carrots, radishes, anchovies, and more when they are at the best prices. To Koreans, kimchi is not just a normal side dish. It embodies and identifies the nation as it has become one of the most important symbolic resources for the Korean people.  For more information and pictures on kimchi, I have provided some resources and pictures below!

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/22/489805398/how-south-korea-uses-kimchi-to-connect-to-the-world-and-beyond

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/kimjang-making-and-sharing-kimchi-in-the-republic-of-korea-00881

This past Thursday, I met up with Rachel, my language partner, to discuss our lesson plan for this semester. I told her that I mainly wanted to focus on improving my reading and writing skills. I felt like I did not do enough reading assignments last semester and mainly focused on just writing diary entries and improving my speaking and listening skills. I also got assessed on vocabulary words, but I felt like this is not the best method for me in the long run because I tend to forget words that I do not use very often in my daily life. When I talked to my mom, I told her about my Korean language learning journey, and she complimented me on how my speaking skills in Korean improved. However, she still hopes for me to improve my writing skills, so she suggested that I should do more reading in Korean. So, instead of trying to improve every skill all at the same time, I am going to mainly focus on reading and writing since they tend to go hand-in-hand. After this conversation, I told Rachel during our session that I want to focus on reading and writing this semester, but I was not sure how I could focus on this. Rachel suggested that I should read Korean webtoons and write a summary about what I have read. I was very happy with her suggestion because I feel like reading webtoons fits my reading level. I was also thankful for her suggestion because webtoons would help me stay excited and interested during my Korean language journey. For writing, I will practice my writing skills by summarizing what happened in the story and my thoughts and reflection on the plot and characters. This will challenge my writing skills more than last semester since I won’t be talking about my daily life anymore. Rachel will also provide me with a couple of webtoon stories for me to read, and I am going to choose my favorite one and stick to it until I finish and continue this process. To challenge myself a little more with reading, I am going to read some newspaper articles in Korean. I will most likely find these articles on the Korean search engine called Naver. Although the news articles may be at a more difficult level than I am used to, I hope this will challenge me to advance my reading skills. Reading the news will not only help me learn the Korean language, but it will also learn about the culture and what is happening around Korea.  Additionally, because of the less strict COVID-19 restrictions on campus, Rachel and I have planned to go out to different Korean restaurants in Richmond. We plan on trying different foods that we may have never eaten before, talk and order in Korean, and speak in Konglish (Korean and English) as we eat. I am excited about this because I have not been able to explore Richmond because of COVID-19 restrictions. Although my main goal is to improve my writing and reading skills, I don’t want to completely ignore improving my listening and speaking skills. When we meet up for our sessions every week, I hope that we can continue talking in Konglish and get more comfortable speaking in only Korean. When Rachel and I watch Korean shows and movies, I will continue to watch them without subtitles to improve my listening skills. I am very excited about this semester and my Korean language learning journey. I feel like I was able to set a more specific goal this semester, which makes me feel more confident and excited to see how my journey goes. 

DISCLAIMER: SQUID GAME PLOT SPOILER 

I was quite skeptical about this new Netflix show since I felt that it was going to be just another over-hyped production, however after I watched the first episode, I knew this was going to be a worldwide hit. This new Netflix show I am mentioning is the one and only Korean TV show called “Squid Game.” 

The tv show starts off by following a lazy man called “성기훈" or Seong Gi-Hun. He lives under his old-aged mother and is immature as to steal money from his mother’s hard-earned savings and use it to gamble it all away. He ends up getting into some deep trouble and they make him sign a contract to sell his organ away if he does not pull through with the payment he owes them. While on his way home, he ends up meeting a gentleman in a suit who offers him money if he wins a very simple children’s game called “딱지” that involves flipping your opponent’s card with your own card by hitting it on the ground. Gi Hun wins the game and wins $100. He gets a small taste of victory and the gentleman makes an offer by asking him “would you like to play a game” in which he can win millions of dollars just by playing simple games like he just did. 

After he agreed to participate, he later wakes up in a room full of beds with 455 other people who are wearing the same tracksuit as him. Suddenly, a group of men in red tracksuits enter the room and tells them that they will get the opportunity to play 6 games and if they are able to win all of them, they can get millions of dollars. The men also remind them that this is probably their best bet for survival since all of the participants are in heavy amounts of debt- impossible to pay off no matter how much they work. All of the participants are eagerly waiting to play the game now. 

The first game is called “무궁화 꽃이 피였습니다" which is “Red Light Green Light,” a classic children’s game that I also used to play when I was little. All they had to do was to get to the finish line without getting caught by this giant girl robot. At first, it seemed very light and easy. However, when one person got too greedy and started to run for the finish line without being careful, he got caught by the robot and was shot on the scene. This caused entire chaos and panic which got even more people killed because their movements were being detected by the robot. It was only the people who stayed calm and absolutely still that were not eliminated. By the end of the game, almost half of the entire participants have been killed and the rest are in utter shock of what they have signed up for. 

After watching the first episode, I was also in complete shock, but I was also completely hooked on the storyline and the motifs that were touched in this show. It reminded me so much of the oscar-winning movie “Parasite” in a sense that it also covered the subject of the socioeconomic divide in the world. Overall, the first episode was a killer opening which is why I think it got everyone addicted and wanting for more. 

I am an exchange student from Brazil and I will be here for just one semester. I started learning more about Korean culture at the end of 2017 when I watched my first Korean drama and also became an "Army" (BTS fan). Since then, I have joined in several Writing Contests related to Korean politics, literature, and entertainment. I have already worked as a waitress in a Korean restaurant. All of those things helped me to learn more about Korean culture and increase my interest in the country. My favorite Korean foods are Jaeyook Bokkum and Haemul Pajeon. I have already been in a K-Pop concert in 2019. I am always trying to find new things related to Korea in my own country.  At the moment, I work in a Brazilian-Korean magazine, which focuses on bringing news about K-Pop, K-Drama and K-Sports to its audience. I am majoring in Film Studies and planning on working on a mass cultural series, maybe as a screenwriter.

I have been studying Korean since 2018 when I decided that I would try to get a scholarship to get a Master's degree in South Korea. The most difficult issue about studying Korean in my home country is that I did not know any Koreans with whom I could practice. Also, I had to focus on my studies from university and on my work. Because of that, I did not dedicate too much time to practicing what I had learned. I hope that having Korean as a current class here will help me to focus on strengthening my speaking skills. I will focus on reviewing the main grammar points using the "Grammar in Use" book trilogy. Korean dramas will also be an important tool for my learning. I will watch some series` episodes, write down some words and expressions that I do not understand, and also rewatch the same episode how many times I think it is needed. With my Korean partner Vivian and my Korean friend Yujin, I am going to try to speak casually in Korean about everyday topics.

The most difficult thing in the Korean language for me is the sentence order. Portuguese sentence order is "subject+verb+object", while the Korean one is "subject+object+verb". It can seem easy at first sight, but in a long sentence, it is really difficult to reformulate the order's sentence. The various ways to end a sentence are also something that makes me confused when speaking. We have to use some specific types of words depending on the formality of the speech. So when I am speaking to my friend, I need to say 나 instead of 저 if I am not being formal. I must also use the 아/어요 ending. Because of that, I sometimes say 나 and use the ending 아/어요 and vice-versa. It is really difficult to speak to an older person because I do not know any Korean who is older than 30 years and wants to speak Korean with me. For this reason, I will try to reach out to some of the Korean-American friends I have met here to see if they know a place I can practice speaking formal Korean 높임말. 

This week, I had my first meeting with my learning partner, Vivian. This semester I will be having one on one lessons with her. We were able to meet and discuss around eleven to twelve learning topics and initial ideas we had to put together a general syllabus for this semester. These goals and ideas consisted of Korean slangs, memorizing the korean keyboard/improving my writing, reading korean articles, learning some vocabulary related to physical therapy, learning more about korean culture via youtube videos and korean dramas, the mukbang product placement controversy, texting in Korean practice, as well as practicing speaking scenarios in Korean while always increasing my Korean vocabulary and competency. We decided to move forward with these goals for now and have our lessons in complete Korean to make sure we stay engaged with Korean since we normally do not speak it on campus due to instruction and everything else being in English on our campus. We aspire to achieve all of these objectives because we feel that by being exposed to Korean in a variety of methods, we will all progress as learners. We agreed to adapt my learning plan on a week-by-week basis because this semester's plan is a little more ambitious than previous semesters. Our meeting times are on Tuesdays from 3-4 and sometimes even 4:30 depending on how in depth we go on our discussions. I learned from the  strategies freshman year in the SDLC class that I am an active learner so I will interact with books, practice with my learning partner and outside of classes either alone or with some friends, and will make the activities engaging by tailoring them to include hands-on activities and writing as well. That was my initial meeting with Vivian and in my next class we ended up starting with an introduction of how our weeks were in Korean and if there was anything interesting we had done that week. Then we went to some scenario practice by talking about the dining options in the dining hall as well as some fun introduction questions to get to better acquaint ourselves with one another and just get some basic Korean practice in as well. We also watched some Korean variety show clips during the lesson with the intention of practicing speaking comprehension which was useful as it made sure you immersed yourself in the language and actively translated what was going on during the class. Afterwards, we discussed what homework would be, which was to begin a Korean drama or movie and write a reflection on what we thought about it during the time. I ended up choosing a Korean drama called Hometown Cha Cha and shortly after ended up starting another drama called Squid Game which happened to be some of the most fun Korean shows I have watched in a while due to how uniquely they set up the scene and messages from the characters, to the plot, and artistic direction under the directors/producers’ visions of the show.

       During this spring semester, I went to study abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea for 5 months. I have always been bilingual in both English and Korean, with Korean being my first language. However, I moved to the U.S. when I was only 6 years old, so I always carried this imposter syndrome in which I felt like I was neither Korean nor American. Fortunately, this kind of mindset only lasted until the end of elementary school where I really adapted to American culture and also the English language. I was beyond elated that my English speaking abilities drastically improved and I felt like I finally belonged in the States as a valid American citizen. On the other hand, I now felt like I knew nothing about my motherland’s culture. And since I came to the U.S. when I was so young, I never got to attend school there or make any Korean friends. As a result, this is mainly why I decided to go study in South Korea (even during a pandemic), and I have absolutely no regrets. Following my experience at Yonsei, I have decided to not only be a Korean language partner for this semester, but to also take SDLC Korean II myself. Even with a very hectic academic semester, I have decided to make this work because I wanted to almost force myself to speak Korean at Richmond. In Richmond, there is an extremely limited number of Korean American students, so I end up not using Korean for a very long time. However, by teaching and also learning Korean at the same time, I hope that I can retain the Korean vocabulary and phrases I used back at Yonsei. Somyung, my language partner, and I held our first meeting last Saturday over brunch at her dorm. We first went over what my objectives were for this semester. I informed her that I would like to work mostly on conversing and putting my Korean to use as much as possible. Additionally, I informed her that I would also like to read some real-time news articles since improving my reading skills is another one of my goals this semester. I have always been an adequate reader, however, I was never good at reading very technical news articles or understanding complicated television broadcasts. This semester, I hope to be able to read and interpret many different news articles pertaining to social and political issues. For the next hour, Somyung and I competed on who can speak the least amount of Konglish (which is when someone uses English and Korean simultaneously in a sentence). As Korean Americans, code-switching is such a natural phenomenon that I do not even recognize that I do it so often. Therefore, it was great to practice with Somyung next to me since she could always inform me when I used Konglish. After that, we looked up some potential Korean dramas on Netflix that we both could watch without subtitles for the next class. All in all, I am very excited about where my Korean skills will be at by the end of the semester. 

           Before fall semester began, I have already started to learn the Hangul alphabet over the summer and found the alphabet to be very useful in phonetically sounding out a Korean character. Mandarin, on the other hand, lack an alphabet system which explains part of the reason why learning Mandarin has an additional degree of difficulty. The week prior to the start of classes, I met with my Mandarin teacher, and coincidentally, she also speaks Korean. She lived in Busan, South Korea for four years, and teaches both Mandarin and Korean on iTalki. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to learn Korean simultaneously practicing Mandarin.

          Yesterday, we had our first official Korean one-on-one lesson, and we went over consonants and vowels that are the simplest and phonetically distinguishable. For an example, we practiced these vowels 아, 이, 오, and 요 , and their individual sounds. Then, we combined those characters with consonants such as ㅁ, ㄴ, ㄹ, andㅎ together to connect the sounds between the vowels and consonants. An example that we did was ㅁ + ㅏ = ma. My tutor tried to associate that character with Korean words, and I found that to be very helpful. Through yesterday’s tutoring session, my strengths and weakness were clear.  I struggled with some of the vowel pronunciation especially when two vowels look very similar but only differ by one line or stroke. For an example, 아 has a long “a” sound while어  sounds like “ohhh”. However, I believe these differences can be distinguished if I practice and read more Korean characters that contain those vowels. As of right now, I am planning to meet with my tutor once a week for one hour on Saturdays. Eventually, I would like to be tutored two times a week that way I know my pronunciation and my performance won’t fall behind. One of the benefits of SDLAP is how flexible the schedule can be since it is based on my own schedule. However, this flexibility can also be a disadvantage because I can easily fall behind in my language learning journey without a structured schedule. I may revise my syllabus and put in a structured schedule to ensure that I won’t fall behind in learning Korean.

          In my first language partner session with Somyung, we set up our meeting times and what our plan for the semester will look like. I was able to learn a few words such as how to say “teacher” and the popular children’s TV show “Pororo”. Additionally, we explored activities that I can do to expose myself to Korean such as watching children’s TV shows, listening to Korean language podcasts, and watch Korean TV shows. Somyung, a native Korean speaker, offer her insights into how her previous student studied Korean and reveal that he learned the language quicker when reading materials in Korean. While that seems like a far goal and ability to do as of right now with my Korean level, this goal is attainable once I have a strong foundation of the Hangul alphabet. 

Nile Harris

Reflection #1

            So far, I have only had a couple of experiences as a language learner. English is my first language, which I have been learning ever since I was born. In this reflection, I will talk about my experiences learning Spanish and Portuguese. To share a little bit about myself, I was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. I have two siblings (an older brother and younger sister) and was raised by both of my parents and my maternal grandparents. When I started school in kindergarten, my parents sent me to Jones Elementary School which is known for its Spanish immersion program. My siblings also enrolled in this program in kindergarten, though I was the only one to complete the duration of the program upon graduating high school. My siblings both ended up stopping the program in middle school in order to pursue other endeavors. The structure of the program included complete immersion from kindergarten through fifth grade. Every subject (math, social studies, science, history, etc…) was taught in Spanish. Then once we got to middle school, we took three out of seven courses in Spanish per year (Spanish literature, science, and social studies). Upon the completion of middle school, in high school we only took one course per year in Spanish (Spanish for Heritage Speakers, Spanish IV, AP Spanish Culture, and IB Spanish HL). In my opinion, I learned Spanish in a similar way to the way I learned English. Because I was immersed in it, there was never a huge emphasis on “the correct grammar” in Spanish similar to the way I learned English. This very different from the way Spanish is taught when you are not being immersed in it which is why I struggle to help teach Spanish to my peers. For example: when one of my peers asks me for help with their past participle homework, I have no idea what they are referring to because I did not learn Spanish in that manner. It would be the same if someone asked me to speak in the past participle in English. I just know that the way I speak is the correct way of speaking. Also, in the Spanish immersion program, my instructors were native speakers from different Latin American countries. I am very happy that my parents enrolled me into that Spanish immersion program. It really helped me develop into the person I am today. Once I arrived to college, I decided that I wanted to attempt to pick up a new language. The language I decided to pursue was Portuguese. I enrolled in a Portuguese for Spanish speakers class which I found to be very useful. The way my instructor made a connection between Spanish and Portuguese really helped me pick the language up a lot easier. Before the class even began, he told us that if we were fluent in Spanish then we already know about 65% of Portuguese. The thing that was most challenging about learning basic Portuguese was learning the new grammar rules. This s the reason why I want to continue to learn Brazilian Portuguese.

I loved the initial involvement with a language, the first couple of weeks learning the alphabet, numbers, and basic phrases, because every day I greatly increased my knowledge of the subject matter. I went from not knowing how to read or write Arabic to being able to do both at a basic level after only two weeks of study. However, after the first year of Arabic, came the part of language learning I hate: trudging through the “middle period.” I would describe the middle period as the second and third years of learning a language when it is difficult for one to see any real progress – progress is absolutely being made during this period, but I think it is difficult to recognize that fact. Yes, I learned some new vocabulary words and more grammar rules, but I still was not able to truly read any articles or watch any videos and understand them. Also, I could not effectively communicate in the language, taking too many pauses to think and not possessing a sufficient vocabulary to converse well. This period was a time of building on the foundation; but, by then, the initial passion for learning the language had dissipated for many people. To get through this period it was necessary for me to sit down, reflect on why I was learning the language, and look forward to a future when I would be able to effectively communicate and understand others in Arabic.

I am primarily a “Visual” and “Insightful” learner according to the surveys. I enjoy having structure and a neat learning environment. I am more comfortable with written words, thus I always take notes with pen & paper in class to transcribe my professors’ lectures half-literally and half-figuratively in my own understanding of the subject matter. I enjoy creative ways of learning such as skits and role-playing and use pictures and videos as visual aids. Overall, I like the challenge of learning and dealing with large theoretical concepts that lack a clear answer. Generally, I’m a “classic” learner in that I read books, take notes, and practice/struggle with the information contained in them. However, with all the new technology and free resources available today, I should expand my learning activities to include other media. Being a visual learner, I could use other visual media besides books – like movies, videos, websites, etc. – to expand my understanding. I also love maps and charts, so I want to find ways to integrate them into my language learning. However, truthfully, I need to challenge myself to engage in non-visual ways of learning as well. In terms of language, I have generally excelled at reading, writing, and grammar because of my focus on visual learning. But, I have struggled with speaking and listening to a language because I cannot visualize spoken language well. Therefore, I want to integrate more activities into my learning that allow me to practice visualizing spoken language and associating spoken language with written words, symbols, or pictures. Finally, in order to avoid feeling “stuck” in a language, I want to set specific, realistic goals that allow me to see my progress and assess my linguistic improvement.

It’s been two weeks since the class started, during when I spoke in English, read in English, and wrote in English. Whenever I deliver my opinions, or share my thoughts with the whole class, I am certain that words coming out of my mouth mostly matches what I think should be coming out of my mouth. Now, if I look back on my journey of learning English, I would say that It is a tough journey that I had been through. As all Chinese students, I began English study in kindergarten. English letters such as A, B, C, and D are pretty much similar with Chinese syllables in terms of handwriting and pronunciation. Although we were learning two languages (Chinese and English)together at young age, we were not mentally loaded because we were only asked to memorize how 26 letters are written and pronounced. At that time, I enjoyed nothing more than being praised in front of the whole class for matching all letters with their pronunciation correctly. Clearly I am not speaking bombast, but I am retentive. Therefore, the study of letters did not really seem to be a big deal to me. I started being interested in English simply because it seemed easy. Even now, I still appreciate that period, a period which equipped me with strong language basis.

Things really changed after I stepped into a middle school classroom. We began enlarging our Vocab and learning grammars. Due to the difference in the way Chinese and Americans talk, it took me a while to understand those grammars. For example, in Chinese, verbs do not transform based on pass tense or future tense. Unfortunately, “I have dinner last night” is unacceptable to English. I was totally mixed up. The way our teachers taught us is to get used to this specific arrangement of words and phrases by reading tons of English-based materials. So, reading English passages in the morning became a routine. We had done that for three years. Gradually, I started thinking in English. In my senior year of middle school, I was able to read and write proficiently. Those reading techniques and writing skills really helped me succeed on final exams.

English is a language, and languages need to be spoken. Once, we were granted with the opportunity to share experiences with students from American schools. We were all silent, not because we didn’t want to share, but we didn’t know how. We read and write English all day long, and when we open our mouths, we became idiots. Maybe in China, English is a subject, but English is a tool for communication. If we cannot even communicate in English, why should we learn it? For exams? Later, I came to an international high school where everyone speaks English. As a traditional Chinese boy who has strong accent when speaking English, I was really afraid of speaking English in front of a lot of people. There were always those strange ideas swirling on my mind. “What would they think of me if I do not speak well?” “Are they going to make fun of me?” “Will they take me down as someone who is too stupid to befriend with?” A feeling of diffidence took over my body. It is really important that you make the first move. I applied for a speech contest. Surely everyone except me performed well. I did not so well, but I was happy because I had made my first step. Another interesting thing I found out during the contest is that one is not judged on English. Participants were encouraging, helping and making friends with each other. Hence, speech contests became my major source of friends. With a bunch of English learners, my verbal ability is improved in an amazing speed, and I turned out to be a person who is much more confident than I used to be. The joy I took from that is incomparable, far exceeding the sense of achievement when I was commended by teachers in kindergarten. English learning made me an outgoing person who loves helping and making friends. When it comes to language learning, challenges and obstacles are inevitable. Your response is the key, and the way you respond it can be applied to any aspect in your daily life. Albeit English is what it is, a type of language, the way I see English learning is that English is a medium from which we are discovering ourselves.

           I took CHIN 201 during the fall semester of my sophomore year, and the experience revealed how much I enjoyed learning Mandarin and how much I already know about the language. Most of the beginner students in the room were filled with confusion or frustration, but I felt at ease. Although I felt empathy towards them since Mandarin is one of the most difficult languages to learn and master, I felt lucky to be able to comprehend a sufficient chunk of vocabulary and grammar to converse with a native. Unlike the students in my CHIN 201 class, most of them probably enrolled in the class to fulfill the COM2 requirement while I enrolled because I wanted to further challenge myself and improve my fluency. Even though I only speak Cantonese at home with family, most of the TV shows we watch speak Mandarin, which is why I can read, hear, and speak conversational Mandarin adequately. I believe this different mindset and strategy is what motivated me to continue my pursuit of learning Mandarin. My goal wasn’t solely on fulfilling the COM2 requirement; instead, it was simply to learn the language and be more informed. In fact, this will be the same mindset that I will apply to learning Korean.

           Korean culture has trickled into the United States in the last decade, and I find that there is a thirst for Korean music, Korean dramas, Korean food among my friends and around the globe. Therefore, finding services to learn Korean is as accessible as going to the nearest McDonald. Even though learning Korean from watching TV shows or listening to music is a great way to learn the language, only doing these two activities is not sufficient to learn the language itself. Fortunately, I am a studious human.

          Often when I hear Korean phrases, I find similarities in both Mandarin and Cantonese. For an example, the word for man in Korean is nam ja and in Mandarin it is nan ren. In Cantonese, it is nam zai. Even though it is difficult to showcase the phonetic similarities through writing, the written portion is quite similar as well. Languages such as Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin all share a similar writing component where characters, which are like pictures, are used instead of spelled out words such as in English. Even with Japanese, I can read some of the characters because they look the exact same or like Mandarin characters. For an example, Japan’s capital, Tokyo, is written as 東京 in kanji (Japanese character system) and for a Mandarin speaker, they would be able to read what that means. The difference would be the pronunciation of those two characters in Mandarin compared to Japanese.

           According to the surveys, I am classified as a visual learner, and I find that to be correct because graphics, videos, drawings, etc. help me comprehend the information better. For an example, when I struggle with complex biological processes or difficult organic chemistry mechanisms, my immediate urge is to head over to YouTube or Khan Academy. Those learning platforms contain useful information and explanations that some professors are not able to provide. With there being a high interest in Korean culture, I am positive that I will have no problem locating resources that will aid in my language learning journey.