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The Korean language did not evolve from a single language. In the past, many different groups populated the Korean peninsula. They merged into homogenous people with a single language during their unifications during the 6th to 14th century. In the 15th century, the Korean language developed into the language we know of now. 

There are different theories about which language family Korean belongs to. The Altaic theory states that Korean belongs to the Altaic family, and this theory talks about how Koreans came from the north. The other theory is that Korean belongs to the Austronesian language family and that Koreans came from the south. 

Before the current writing system, Hangul, Koreans used Chinese characters to represent the sounds of Korean. However, Chinese characters could not denote Korean speech as well. Additionally, only the elite people could afford the time and money to study the Chinese characters, which meant that not many common people knew how to read. As a result, King Sejeong created hangul, consisting of 24 letters (14 consonants and 10 vowels). 

Korean today reflects China’s significant influence because a lot of Korean vocabulary was derived from Chinese. Despite the word borrowing, modern Korean is distinct from Chinese in sound and sentence structures. Understanding the history of anything allows us to understand the present better. Therefore, learning about Korea's language history helps me understand how the language came to be and Korea's past culture.

Language changes are affected by technology and new inventions as words and phrases are created to describe things that have never existed before. An example of this change would be texting. Texting has created many new different words with meanings that we have never seen before. Language could also change when the meaning of old words changes into a new meaning. It could also change when we meet people from different locations. If we spend a lot of time with someone who may not be from the same area as you, we tend to pick up words and phrases that the other person frequently uses, and the chain continues. Linguistics could track and predict these changes through the use of technology. Many digital analysis researchers can pick up many subtle patterns in language changes.

Slovak is one of many Indo-European languages; more specifically, it developed out of proto-Slavic and is categorized as a West Slavic language like Czech, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and Sorbian. It is closely related to Czech, and speakers of both languages can generally understand each other. Polish and Lower/Upper Sorbian (languages of eastern Germany) are also related to Slovak. The language has an Eastern, a Western, a Central, and a Lowland Dialect. There are few examples of Slovak written language before the 17^th and 18^th centuries. It was not considered a literary language until the early 19^th century. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Slovak has been more conservative phonetically… Slovak has retained long syllabic l and r and a series of diphthongs”.

The relationship between the Czech and Slovak languages exemplifies their close cultural and historical roots but each country’s desire to establish their own identity. Though these countries may have many similarities, current-day Czech and Slovaks do not want to continually share their national or cultural identities. In regard to the status as a literary language, the Slovak languages short history as a literary language creates a challenge for tracking the linguistic origins and changes experienced during centuries pre-dating the 19^th century. However, one of the benefits in the similarities in Czech and Slovak is that the Czech language can offer some insight into the development of Slovak.

https://academic-eb-com.newman.richmond.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Slovak-language/68226

https://effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/slovak-language/

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language

The Evolution of K-Pop 

K-Pop is a popular music genre that has become a worldwide phenomenon that transformed the music industry. K-Pop refers to popular music from South Korea, as pop music was mainly a genre from American and British cultures (koreanculture.org). The term “hallyu'' describes this phenomenon as “the Korean wave” -- the surge of South Korean popular culture that has grown and is becoming a major driver of global culture (koreanculture.org). Hallyu refers to many aspects of Korean culture that are popular today in the U.S., such as Korean dramas, cosmetic products, and Korean cuisine among others (vox.com).` While the Korean wave emerged worldwide around the 1980s, K-Pop began in 1992 with the band Seo Taiji and Boys, who were popularized on a broadcasted Korean talent T.V. show (vox.com). This emergence in pop music was possible due to reformation of South Korea’s democratic government in 1987 with the establishment of the Sixth Republic (vox.com). Before 1987, there were only two broadcasting networks in the country and the government had tight control over what Koreans could listen to (vox.com). This liberalization of Korean media in 1987 allowed for the expansion of radio broadcasting networks in the country, and South Koreans “became more regularly exposed to more varieties of music from outside the country, including contemporary American music” (vox.com). However, television remained the dominant centralized form of media; in 1992 99% of Korean households viewed national TV networks, with weekend talent shows gaining the highest amount of views (vox.com). Although Seo Taiji and Boys did not win and actually received the lowest score on the talent show, their debut of the song “I Know” became so popular that for over 15 years it held the longest No.1 song streak in South Korea’s history (vox.com).

The song “I Know” represented the first time that modern American pop music was fused with South Korean culture (vox.com). Seo Taiji and Boys became so popular as they were “innovators who challenged norms around music styles, song topics, fashion, and censorship” and even sang about teen angst and the social pressure to succeed within the rigorous education system in South Korea (vox.com). What makes K-Pop a unique style of music is the performance aspect: these groups have great dancing skills, a polished aesthetic and fashion style, and very catchy songwriting (vox.com). K-Pop began to influence music styles all throughout Asia, particularly in China, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, as idol bands such as TVXQ, Kara, Big Bang, Girls’ Generation, and 2NE1 gained popularity in the mid-2000s (koreanculture.org). In the United States and many other parts of the world, Psy’s hit “Gangnam Style” garnered millions of views on YouTube and ranked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts and the popular K-Pop boy band BTS followed suit and has gained a global following of dedicated fans (koreanculture.org). Today, there are more than 150 idol groups active in South Korea, the most notable ones being BTS, BLACKPINK, TWICE, EXO, Red Velvet, SF9, NCT, ITZY, MONSTA X, among others (koreanculture.org). It’s also interesting to note that co-ed groups don’t really exist within K-Pop as boy and girl bands have very distinct styles and discuss different topics in their songs (vox.com). For example, girl groups tend to represent traditional femininity in South Korean culture by their adorable, school girl image and songs centered around love and relationships, while boy bands focus on exquisite choreography and song topics range from teen social pressures and other narrative concepts (vox.com). Overall, K-Pop has revolutionized the global entertainment industry and continues to diffuse South Korean culture throughout the world.

Sources:

http://www.koreanculture.org/korea-information-culture-and-the-arts

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/16/16915672/what-is-kpop-history-explained

Due to their close proximity, Vietnamese culture and values have been heavily influenced by Chinese culture for centuries. However, that does not mean their cultures and values are at all identical. Growing up, I was exposed to both cultures and values due to the differences in my parents’ heritage. I want to share some similarities that are present in both cultures as well as highlight the differences that exist between them. I just want to place a disclaimer that China and Vietnam are independent countries and their cultures and values are likely to be much deeper and more complex than I know. Also China’s large geographical area most definitely means that not everyone living in the country will uphold the same values.

The most obvious difference between the two cultures is their writing system. The Chinese language uses a logographic writing system that is arguably one of the world’s largest writing systems today. Unlike most languages, the Chinese language does not utilize a fixed alphabet system, instead they use unique characters or a combination of characters to describe concepts and objects. Vietnamese used to have a system of writing that consisted entirely of Chinese characters alongside its reading and meaning. This writing system was later replaced by Chữ Nôm which is a combination of Chinese characters infused with Vietnamese readings and meanings as well as a number of uniquely Vietnamese characters. However, due to the French colonization of Vietnam, it quickly fell out of practice in favor of the Latin alphabet. 

A startling similarity between the cultures is that they are both highly collectivist cultures where people often act in the interests of the entire group and not of themselves. Both Chinese and Vietnamese are heavily family oriented and nationalistic. Loyalty to the state and filial piety are central and desirable natures of both cultures. Additionally, both countries have very high levels of power distance – that is, society for both are plagued by inequalities but it is deemed acceptable. High levels of power distance also implies that power struggles are not typical because subordinate-superior relationships are polarized without any defense against corruption or abuse. 

Another difference between the cultures is their ‘masculinity’. The Chinese have a highly masculine culture while the Vietnamese’s culture is much more feminine. Higher masculinity scores in a culture is an indication that it’s society is driven by competition, achievement, and success measured by accomplishments and recognition. This system of value is deeply rooted in the culture and its people from a young age, and people are highly encouraged to continuously compete against one another while leisure remains heavily frowned upon; in other words, the people in this culture tend to live to work. On the other hand, a feminine culture is more centric on the idea success is measured by quality of life rather than hard work, although that is not discouraged. These people prefer flexibility and inclusivity, and while accomplishments are celebrated, standing out from the crowd is often frowned upon. To sum up, feminine cultures emphasize the importance of working to live instead of viceversa. 

My artifact this month was a video about the largest shopping malls in Indonesia. The video showcased various malls in different parts of Indonesia, through most of them were in the larger cities. All of the malls were grand and unlike the malls I am used to in the US. They all had multiple floors and basements and many big stores that are unique to Indonesia (or Asia in general). While malls mainly reflect the lives in big Indonesian cities, I do believe they are a large part of life there, which is interesting because that might not be the image that someone who is not familiar with Indonesia might think of.

When I visit Indonesia, I always go to Jakarta because that is where most of my family live. In Jakarta, I think it is safe to say that shopping malls are the one of the centers of life. They make up a large part of city life and it is impossible not to pass one when in the city. My language partner, Farida (who is from Surabaya), and I often joke about malls being the only place to go when visiting Jakarta. When I go to Jakarta, we would go to the mall almost everyday to eat, shop, or just walk around. The malls I have been to that were included in the video are: AEON Mall, Grand Indonesia, and Gandaria City. Similar to many malls in Asia (though unlike in the US), these malls usually include larger department stores or even grocery stores that make up a large portion of the space. Back then, my favorite thing to do in the mall was browse the food court. The food courts are so much larger than I am used to and included so many options I was not familiar with. My favorite places were the ones that sold boba and cute desserts. Especially during my first trip there, I was not used to seeing so many types of cuisine in a single food court. Back then, where I lived in the US, most food courts had American food and typical chain restaurants, so there was never a large selection of Asian food. As a result, every time we went to the food courts or a restaurant in the mall in Indonesia, I always wanted to try somewhere different.

On the other hand, I think it is important to also realize the inequalities present in Indonesia, especially Jakarta. Because despite the abundance of these grand shopping malls, there is a very prominent socioeconomic gap in Indonesia. It is very common to pass by people living in undesirable conditions on the street and in impoverished neighborhoods even in Jakarta. The extravagant lifestyles reflected by these shopping malls are in no way reflective of the actual living conditions and lifestyles in Indonesia. Indonesia is a large country made up of thousands of islands, so the lavish picture portrayed by Jakarta does not apply to the majority of Indonesian life and culture.

I’m interested in learning more about traditional Korean art forms because every culture has their own unique style of artistic expression. Through a culture’s art, you can learn so much about their history and way of life. I also think art is so beautiful as it can connect with people of all cultures and communicates a story in a way that is universal -- you don’t have to know how to speak the language to appreciate their diverse culture. What I appreciate most about Korean art is the beautiful visuals from paintings, murals, and drawings. There are so many bright colors and themes of natural landscapes, animals, and people are present throughout traditional folk art. The Korean word that describes these folk art paintings is minhwa (민화), which means “painting of the people” or “popular painting”. I find minhwa particularly interesting as it has an early history dating back as early as the late 14th century and has evolved throughout history which is seen today in contemporary Korean art. There are also many different aspects of traditional Korean art, such as calligraphy, pottery and sculpture, music and performing arts, and literature such as poetry. In terms of linguistic knowledge, learning to read Hangul would be helpful as some of the paintings and calligraphy include characters and I’m interested to learn more about the meaning behind these artworks. I believe my learning tasks to learn the alphabet is a good start to learn how to read Hangul. I will also need to incorporate learning vocabulary related to art in my lessons with my language partner. In the weeks to come, I plan to incorporate learning the Korean words to describe these various art forms, as well as learning words to describe colors, landscapes, animals, and the materials used for these artworks to learn more about traditional Korean art.

Though I never had much exposure to Slovak culture, I did grow up in an area with a large Polish population. Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw. In March, we would have a day off of school in honor of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born Revolutionary war hero. One of my favorite Polish traditions was when my mom would buy paczki (filled doughnuts) for Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). We do not closely observe Lent or other Christian traditions, but my family and I love to eat paczki each year. With the beginning of Lent and the passing of Fat Tuesday, I decided to further investigate Lent and Fat Tuesday in Slovakia.

As of 2017, 63% of Slovakia identified as Roman Catholic and were far more likely to regularly attend church than their largely non-religious, Czech counterparts. With their close adherence to Roman Catholic traditions, Slovaks observe Fašiangy (Winter Carnival), marking the season of celebrations and traditions performed after Traja králi (Three Kings Day) and before Popolcová streda (Ash Wednesday), the beginning of Lent. The term “Fašiangy” originates from ‘vast-shancc’, an old Germanic word, translated to “pouring of the fasting drink” (“Carnival, or Fašiangy, “Vilikovská). Slovaks refer to Lent as pôst or mjasopust (“letting go of a lot of meat”). Fašiangy represents a time of great celebrations, balls, parades, and folkdance events. Due to the dormancy of farming and the exuberance of the season, many young people get married, feasting and celebrating with their village and families for days on end. During Pôst, couples could not get married, feasts could not be hosted, and parties were strictly forbidden.

The final day of Fašiangy, called Tučný utorok, is the equivalent of Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, a day of great gluttony before a long period of piety and fasting. This time of year allowed pagan and early-Christian Slovaks to eat luxury foods as opposed to their typically high-calorie, average meals. To this day, Slovaks eat fánky (pastries filled with curd, jam, or walnuts), šišky (filled donuts), záviny (strudels) and other sweet treats. They drink whiskey, slivovica (liquor made from plums), wine, and beer. However, older generations also enjoyed medovina, alcohol made of fermented honey. Additionally, during Fašiangy, early Christian Slovaks would parade around in animal, ghost-like masks in order to rid their village of evil spirits. Other typical costumes are slameník (strawman), kurina baba (old lady), kostra (skeleton),turoň (ox), koza (goat) or vlk (wolf). The creation of a turoň is especially important as one young man sits on the shoulders of another covered with sheets and an ox head. With a procession of other people, the turoň would carry manure around to each house in order manifest a good harvest for each family. Pochovávanie Basy (burial of the double bass) marks the true end of the celebratory season as “…people dressed as priest, organ-player, gravedigger, the instrument on a hearse, and granny-weepers”. This procession functions as a transition from the jubilee of Fašiangy to the solemn nature of Pôst. 

Overall, Fašiangy represents a culturally rich season and a culmination of pagan, Christian, Slovak, German and other influences. Modern-day Fašiangy is only made possible by the centuries of Christian and Pagan celebration in Slovakia. The detailed nature of this celebration and its long history truly communicates the complexity of Slovak culture, something often overlooked during the observation of Lent by Western Europeans and Americans.

The Slovak version of paczki

A turoň and his entourage

Pochovávanie Basy (burial of the double bass)

https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20092675/carnival-or-fasiangy-symbolises-time-of-merriment-and-feasts.html

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/02/once-the-same-nation-the-czech-republic-and-slovakia-look-very-different-religiously/  

https://www.fcsu.com/fasiangy-shrovetide-prelenten-carnival-time/ ;

During my trip to Bratislava, I remember turning on the television in my Airbnb and flipping through the channels. A program with a lush, mountainous background and dancing people in embroidered dress truly stuck out to me; it was a group of folk performers dancing and singing in the High Tatras. Throughout my short stay in Bratislava, folk culture was continually emphasized with gift shops boasting traditional folk wear and advertisements for different folk performances. Though folk culture is a defining part of Slovak identity and life, this part of Slovak culture was lost over the years of Communist rule. Dance houses (tanečny dom) represent one of the important establishments in the reclamation of Slovak folk culture. Scholar Joseph Feinberg explains that dance houses invite anyone and everyone to learn folk dance with no regard to skill level or ability: “there are only participants and instructors, the latter half whom are there to guide the participants, enabling them to learn the principles of traditional folk dance and to enjoy themselves just as the inhabitants of every Slovak village once did: dancing “for the pleasure of it” (pre vlastné potešenie, to use a phrase common in Slovak folkoloristics)”. Folk culture translates to language through its emphasis on informality and the avoidance of formal institutional structures. The desire to make folk culture available to all and avoid formal institutions indicates a potential for more casual style conversation. Focusing on folk culture calls for the ability to produce imaginative, interactional, and personal functions of language. As folk culture also focuses on personal pleasure and feeling, a person’s ability to command attention and autonomy becomes vital in order to experience folk culture on an individual level. If I want to learn more about Slovak folk culture, I will have to watch videos of performances, read the lyrics of folk songs (in English and in Slovak), read common folktales (also in English and in Slovak), further research the history of folk culture, and acquire vocabulary needed to engage in this type of culture. This type of vocabulary includes names for traditional folk wear, common phrases derived from folk stories, and different terms for learning dance and song.

One topic that interested me about my target culture was the different South Korean dialects. Dialects are known as 사투리 (saturi) in Korean. I do need special vocabulary and linguistic knowledge to engage in this topic because dialects have a different pronunciation, grammar, and a set of vocabulary that is different from the common language. I have not included objectives in my learning plan to engage in the dialect topic, but I will add them in my learning plan now. I hope to research the Gangwon and Gyeongsang dialect because that’s where my dad grew up, and a majority of my family is in that area. There are six main dialects in South Korea: Gyeonggi dialect, Gangwon dialect, Chungcheong dialect, Gyeongsang dialect, Jeolla dialect, and Jeju dialect. 

Gyeonggi dialect is mainly concentrated in Seoul and Incheon, and it’s the standard language you learn when learning Korean. Everyone in Korea understands the Gyeonggi dialect because of how common it is in the media. A unique feature of the Gyeonggi dialect is they change the ㅗ sound to ㅜ. For example, 가고 싶다 (gago sipda) or “I want to go” would be pronounced as 가구 싶다 (gagu sipda). 

Gangwon dialect is spoken in Gangwon which is in the Northeast area of South Korea. One main characteristic of this dialect is the use of various words such as, -나, -노, -고, -가 at the end of a question. For example, when someone with a Gangwon dialect would say 어데 가노 (eode gano) or “where are you going” rather than 어디가 (eodiga). My dad was born in Gangwon-do, so I hope to learn more about this dialect, out of the six. 

Chungcheong dialect is used in many different areas, especially near Seoul. One common way to end a sentence is to end it with 야 (ya). However, in Chungcheong dialect, you change the ending from  야 (ya) to 여 (yeo). 이름이 뭐야 (yileumyi mowya) or “what’s your name” is changed to 이름이 뭐여 (yileumyi mowyeo). 

Gyeongsang dialect is commonly used in the southern region of South Korea. One well-known city who uses this dialect is Busan. One common characteristic is changing interrogative sentences that generally end with -니 change to -나, -냐, -노, -고, or -가.  They also change the ending of interrogative sentences. My dad always texts us “뭐묵냐" which means “what did you eat” when people generally say it as “뭐 먹었니?”

Jeolla dialect is generally spoken in the Southwestern region of Korean. They are known to put more emphasis on vowel sounds than standard Korean. They pronounce the “ㅣ” (yi) as “ㅡ" (eu) and “ㅔ” (e) as “ㅣ" (i). An example would be 아닌데 (anindae) is changed to 아닌디 (anindi) 

Lastly, the Jeju dialect is spoken only on Jeju Island, and it’s one of the hardest dialects to understand because they have their own language. In standard Korean, you welcome someone by saying “어서 오십시오.” However, in Jeju Island, you would say 혼저 옵서 (honjeo opseo).There are different formal and informal endings to a question in Jeju dialect, and there are different names to call your family members as well.  

For this cultural post, I will be writing all about kimbap (김밥)! Kimbap has been one of my favorite foods since I was a child. As I was doing research for this post, I learned so much about kimbap that I had never known before. According to one source, kimbap was created between 1910-1945 during the Japanese occupation in Korea. During this time, Koreans began to eat more Western and Japanese food. Kimbap is a variation of Japanese futomaki, which is a kind of sushi roll with steamed rice and sesame oil. Since sushi is so popular around the world, I often refer to kimbap as “Korean sushi.” I did not previously know that it was actually inspired by a type of sushi. However, one main difference between kimbap and sushi is that most sushi has raw fish, whereas kimbap consists of cooked or preserved ingredients. Ultimately, I hope more people become more familiar with Korean culture and cuisine so that we can stop referring to kimbap as “Korean sushi.” Another belief is that kimbap is a modernized version of bokssam (복쌈), which refers to cooked rice and filling rolled with seaweed.

On their blog, Dom and Hyo have an incredibly informative infographic illustrating the 12 popular styles of kimbap. There were so many varieties of kimbap that I had never known about. The styles of kimbap that I grew up eating include yachae kimbap (야채 김밥), chungmu kimbap (충무김밥), and samgak kimbap (삼각 김밥) (my favorite is spicy tuna, which I consider a luxury!). Gyeran kimbap (계란김밥) is what I make when there is leftover kimbap that I want to eat the next day. Kimbap is meant to be eaten at room temperature, and it should not be left out overnight. In that case, I refrigerate the kimbap and reheat it by dipping it in egg and frying it. The egg acts as a coating and makes the inside of the kimbap soft and edible again.

When I was at home during quarantine, I got to make lots of kimbap (photos included). For anyone interested in making their own kimbap, I encourage you to try it because it is a lot of fun! One tip I have is to season your rice perfectly. The rice should have enough flavor for you to enjoy by itself. If the rice tastes good, every other ingredient will taste good. I have made rolls in which the rice was under-seasoned, and it makes the rest of the roll taste bland. Another thing to note is that making homemade kimbap takes a lot of time and energy, but that is part of the rewarding process. You have to make every component of the kimbap individually, and then roll it all together. The most time-consuming part for me was washing and chopping all of the vegetables. If you include egg in your kimbap, that also has to be cooked in a certain way so that you are able to cut it into long, thin strips. It is also very helpful to have a bamboo mat to use to roll the kimbap or sushi.

Writing this post has made me hungry for kimbap. I hope you will be able to try some soon!

Sources:

https://behgopa.com/2018/08/1.html

https://firstwefeast.com/drink/2015/03/the-surprising-world-of-wartime-food

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbap

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wVQZC0K1GnoQjJLH4h4LHS1Qj4oE_pVMuJrPP_hX5gs/edit?usp=sharing

Over this past weekend, I received a call from my mother at around 11:00 at night. Due to the unusual lateness of the call, I immediately answered the phone in preparation for unfortunate news. To my surprise, the call was not negative in any manner, but rather, my mom had just finished a 2-hour  movie, “The Sound of Metal”, and she needed to provide me with a raving review as the movie involved American Sign Language (ASL).

After watching a short trailer for the movie, I decided to watch it the following day, and it was one of the best movies I have watched for a very long time. The following description will be a discussion of the movie’s summary to show the complexity of production however, as a disclaimer, there will be some “spoilers” in this synopsis.

The movie follows a  male ex-addict, drummer named Ruben (played by Riz Ahmed) who plays in a rock band with his girlfriend, Lou (played by Olivia Cooke). As the movie begins, you see the love the couple has for their music and lifestyle together and the passion Ruben has for playing the drums. However, Ruben's hearing begins to quickly deteriorate during the film, sending him into a mental spiral that urges him to become a drug user again, despite being four years clean. To prevent that from happening, Lou finds and sends Ruben to a support group in a deaf community specifically for deaf addicts. Throughout the movie, you see Rubin’s struggle to adjust to a non-hearing world as he learns to communicate through a different modality. You see the pain he feels from the loss of his hearing, but you also begin to see the joy Ruben finds in the deaf community, and more importantly, in the silence of it all. Ruben eventually earns enough money to receive cochlear implants; however, it is apparent he is disappointed in the results of the procedure as his hearing is not the same as it was before. Eventually, Rubin learns to find peace with the silence and even comes to treasure it.

The reason why Ruben losses his hearing isn't fully determined, but his hearing becomes almost entirely lost, and the producers of the movie exhibit such a loss by diminishing the movie's sound, thus stimulating the auditory experience of losing one’s hearing. Additionally, in an interview with Ahmed, it was revealed that the actor had a device placed in his ear that would imitate white noise to prevent his own hearing from working. I thought this component of the film was so exquisite as it makes the audience question their own hearing and forces the audience to let go of this seemingly indestructible sense.

When Ruben moves into the support house, ASL is seemingly introduced into the film. As he adapts to his new lifestyle, ASL surrounds him at the dinner table, addiction meetings, ASL classes, and as he develops new friendships throughout the community. What I believe to be even more spectacular is that script for these sections was written by members of the deaf community.  The producer claimed that ASL was not a language he knew, so he had no right to impersonate the language, thus giving free design to those writers in the deaf community.

I also loved that the movie portrayed deaf users, not as handicapped individuals, but rather fully autonomous individuals. The audience gains a sense of the connectedness of a deaf community and the audience sees how a deaf community actually is.  Before this movie, I had only heard of deaf communities, but I had trouble envisioning what they actually looked like. How do people interact? What are the schools like? Is there a deaf grocery store? This movie provides insight into how deaf people go about their lives.

The movie makes me think of my journey with sound and how much I use on my ability to perceive vibrations. I do not just use hearing though, I rely on it. From my class lectures to the music I dance to, the audiobooks that keep me grounded, I rely on my hearing for so much. This movie makes me question how my life would change if I lost this incredible sense.

As you might be able to tell, I thought the movie was incredibly well done both from an acting and producing side, and would highly recommend it.

For this semester, I have been studying Korean with the help of my language partner, Rachel Kim. We did not know each other very well when we first started. However, that has changed a lot through the conversations we have been having in Korean during our language partner meeting sessions. We have had great conversations about our previous lives before coming to the University of Richmond. It’s actually very pleasant to talk to someone who is of similar age as me in Korea because I am able to talk casually which is something I find myself not doing too frequently as the only people I talk in Korean with is my family in which I am the youngest. It turns out Rachel has a younger sibling who likes to play basketball. During one of our sessions, we actually shared photos of our friends and family and talked about all of the sentiments behind the memories that are attached to them. In fact, I showed pictures that were from ancient times… Before 2010! These photos were from back when I was in Korea and I was a little young fella. I am glad I have a community language partner that I am comfortable with sharing my background! Anyways also during our meetings, we have watched several modern Korean entertainment television shows together, of course virtually. We have seen this TV show called Crash Landing on you which is about a wealthy female CEO from South Korea who somehow landed in North Korea through a paragliding accident caused by a weather storm. The tv show, although saturated with cheesy romance just most K-Dramas, highlights the poverty and the income inequality that is a reality in North Korea. It definitely forced me to question and reflect on my own privilege. It not only showcased the lack of wealth in North Korea but Crash Landing on You also brought attention to the lack of human rights North Korean citizens have. I always did wonder what my life would have been like if I was born in the other Korea… Life would definitely be harsh. In fact, I could not be able to watch Crash Landing on You in North Korea since watching a South Korean could give me several years working in a prison labor camp.  Yet oddly enough, there were no mentions of Kim Jung Un in all of the episodes of Crash Landing on You. My guess is that the writers did not want North Korea to believe that South Korea was somehow mocking their leader or using his name to spread anti-North Korean propaganda. But maybe not including his name suggests that he is irrelevant??? Anyways I enjoyed watching Crash Landing on You as it was the first Korean Drama I have seen in a while. I shall give it a 7.5/10 as a rating. Here are some goals I will set for myself to achieve until the next language learning journal: I want to start listening to Korean music throughout my day. I also want to find new Korean artists to listen to since my playlist is getting kind of stale. Hopefully, I’m able to find some Korean Rock artists. Until then.

Today is ironically March 1^st and signifies the March 1^st Movement. Last week, Jenna and I learned about the political system in Korea. The Korean political system is based on a liberal democratic political system currently. The president is considered the chief executive. In America, the term for the president lasts four years up to one reelection, but in Korea, you are only allowed one five-year term without any additional terms for reelection. Currently, the president is Moon Jae In, and she is a part of the democratic party. In Korean, the democratic party is called 더불어민주당. The other political parties in Korea include the centrist, liberal party and the merging of the democratic party and the new political vision party. The previous president before Moon Jae In was Park Geun Hye. He was part of the conservative party or the liberty Korea Party. In Korean it is 자유한국당. The Conservative party is also known as the Saenuri party or the 새누리당. It was previously known as the Hannara Party or 한나라당. Conservatism was shown through militaristic government leaders like Park Jung Hee and Jeon Doo Hwan. Conservatism is shown through economic freedom, but some older generations of Koreans are in favor of economic interventionism from Park Jun Hee’s Presidency era. Jenna and I also talked about Sung Man Rhee, the first ever president of the Republic of South Korea and was part of the Conservative party. The constitution amendment allowed him to have unlimited terms. Protests were forced upon him to resign and he was then exiled to Hawaii. The third president of the Republic of South Korea was Park Jung Hee. He stressed on industrialization and economic growth. He was the De Facto Dictator. He rose to power through military coup. He also created the Yushin Constitution or the imperial role. In 1979, Park Jung Hee was assassinated by the director of KCIA, Kim Jae Gyu, who was one of Park’s best friends. Kim jae Gyu also killed Cha Ji Chul, the chief bodyguard. Jenna and I also talked about the three national intelligence service. The central intelligence agency, the presidential security service, and the defense security command. The three national intelligence services in Korean are translated to 중앙정보부- 김재규 (central intelligence agency), 대통령경호실- 차지철 (presidential security service), 보안사령부- 전두환 (defense security command). Jenna and I also talked about Jeon Doo Hwan. He was the investigator and prosecutor of Park’s assassination case. He was already the military leader. He became more powerful after internal militaristic attacks. He became the leader of both defense security command the the central intelligence agency. There was a lot of college protests all across the country and this pressured the president for martial law command. Next week, we will also talk more about the political system in Korea and other historical events.

I’ve been really happy with the progress I’ve made so far in my language learning! I believe that I nearly have the basics down for the Korean alphabet (also known as Hangul). I started with learning the consonants, then the vowels, and then finally the double consonants and double vowels. Learning the consonants was a lot easier for me as many of the sounds are similar to the sounds of certain letters in English. However, learning the vowels was trickier as I had to make sounds that I am not familiar with in English, particularly the “eu” and “eo” vowel sounds since it’s kinda like having to use the “e” and “u/o” sounds in English combined together in one cohesive form. The best way I can explain it is that I can make the “e” and “u” sounds separately perfectly fine in English, but it creates a new sound having to combine both of those sounds into one. I also thought the double consonants were confusing at first, but then I realized it has a sharper articulation compared to the other consonants. I always feel weird trying to pronounce them because I feel like I’m sounding very aggressive or like shouting as I attempt to really articulate the sounds. For example, when pronouncing the character giyeok (ㄱ) which has a “g” sound, I would pronounce it as “gaaa…” vs the double consonant as “ga!”. After getting these foundations down, my language partner and I have worked on putting together these phonemes to learn how to pronounce them when they are combined together. For example, when I first learned the characters for the consonants, I didn’t know that in Korean you wouldn’t say the alphabet by pronouncing the name of the character, so I wouldn’t say giyeok (ㄱ) to say the “g” sound of the alphabet, but you would combine it with one of the vowel endings. So when saying the alphabet to a native speaker, I would use a vowel ending such as a (ㅏ)  for each consonant sound like this: 가 to make the sound “gah”.

 I still have some work to do with combining phonemes to make different sounds, so after I am proficient in this I will work on making words and then learning to construct sentences! It has honestly been so exciting and fun seeing my progress, and I’m surprised at how much I really know when my language partner assesses me. I tried to use Duolingo at first to accomplish my learning goals, but then I realized that the beginning of the lessons didn’t really have a structure that really made sense. For example, in the alphabet section it incorporated basic random vocabulary words like “girl” and “this”, and that really threw me off as I mainly wanted to just review the vowels and consonants. I’ve found the resources that my language learning partner has shared with me to be most helpful; Jannette sends me websites, videos, and visual diagrams that are relevant to the topic we are learning so I spend most of my time outside lessons utilizing those, along with KoreanClass101.com. I also hope to incorporate other resources such as Mango and to watch YouTube videos more often to help train my ears more to better recognize distinct sounds in Korean. In addition, I hope to integrate more learning about Korean culture in my lessons with my language partner so I can learn something new each week and to apply what I’m learning to make connections between language and culture.

On Friday, I had a less than competent moment in my tutoring session. Adriana introduced a list of questions that I had to answer on the spot. Some of the questions included “Hovoríš po Slovensky?” (Do you speak Slovak) or “Kde je Bratislava?” (Where is Bratislava), relatively simple questions. The question that really tripped me up was “Kto je Zuzana Čaputová?” (Who is Zuzana Čaputová). We went over some professions our last lesson like “učitelka” (teacher) and “doktor” (doctor). So, when I saw the name, “Zuzana Čaputová”, I immediately thought that I needed to focus on some of the new professional vocabulary from our last lesson. With that thought, I said “Zuzana Čaputová je farmár” (Zuzana Čaputová is a farmer). I knew that the response was completely wrong the moment I finished the sentence. Unfortunately, I had mistaken the first female (and the current) President of Slovakia for a farmer. Adriana was very kind about correcting me, but I was so embarrassed to completely mislabel President Čaputová. Despite listening to Slovak current events podcasts and reading about the President, my brain majorly lapsed as I confused one of the most accomplished Slovaks for a farmer. I am just glad that I made that mistake in front of Adriana and not among strangers.

Despite this unfortunate incident, I really enjoy my Slovak lessons and study sessions. The fast-paced, one-on-one style of my tutoring lessons helps keep me engaged and actively challenges me. Most of these lessons are based around on-the-spot verbal language production as Adriana continually asks me to form sentences and answer questions. This language production allows me to practice my accent with Adriana offering adjustments for any mispronunciation. I really enjoy that these lessons are so engaging and not too focused on lengthy lectures. One of the biggest detriments to my past language experiences was long theory or grammar lectures with the teacher talking the majority of the time. These types of lectures kept me from actually understanding the material and applying it to my language production. I hope to continue to focus on lessons with constant verbal language production and avoid any lessons with too much grammar or theory. 

One of my major tasks at the moment is learning numbers in Slovak. It is pretty humbling to dedicate my time to learning how to count, a task that I consider to be basic, almost child-like. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that I am starting from the very beginning with Slovak; I am currently operating at the approximate level of a toddler. Despite the intuitive nature of language, some skills and knowledge come with time and practice such as the ability to properly pronounce “ch” or understanding the complicated declension table. Even though these tasks can feel a little childlike, they are essential to properly speaking Slovak. Additionally, I have the advantage of identifying cognates between English and Slovak numbers while also understanding the relatively abstract concept of numbers, likely a challenging concept for toddlers to grasp.

In my previous language learning post, my goal was to focus on consuming Slovak media. I have mostly listened to two podcasts: “Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio” and “Comprehensible Slovak”. “Slovakia Today” helps me stay informed with the current state of Slovakia (fulfilling my cultural competency goal) and gives me an opportunity to hear citizens speak Slovak with an immediate English translation. Additionally, “Comprehensible Slovak” helps me practice my listening comprehension with the podcast host speaking slowly and clearly. The podcast also comes with a transcript of the episode which helps in better deciphering the words. Listening comprehension is something that I have struggled with throughout my language learning experiences in Spanish, Danish, and Slovak. Due to my struggles with listening comprehension, my goal is to watch or listen to a program (15-30 minutes in length) twice a week in order to practice listening, focus on pronunciation and hopefully, pick up a few familiar words.

President Zuzana Čaputová (and not a farmer)

Sound and spelling are different as sound refers to the pronunciation of a word, and spelling refers to the written form that we assign for that sound, which can vary for sounds that are the same depending on the context (Hudson 39). For example, in English the words “read” and “reed” have the same pronunciation although they are spelled differently and have different meanings. The opposite is also true as words that are spelled the same can have different pronunciations and meanings, such as “bass” which can be pronounced as “/beɪs/” for an instrument and “/bæs/” for a type of fish (Macmillan Dictionary). This is very important to keep in mind when learning new vocabulary in Korean because different words with the same pronunciation can have very different meanings in different contexts, so it is important that I learn to ask clarifying questions and understand other words that would be applicable to the context of the vocabulary words I’m learning. I’ve already been learning how similar a lot of sounds are in Korean, so it’s very important to train my ears to hear the distinctions between the sounds and to enunciate them correctly. As I first began my language learning lessons, I realized very quickly that there were many sounds in Korean that don’t exist in English, so I’m constantly learning new ways to use my vocal chords and tongue as well as pay attention to the air flow in my throat to mimic the correct pronunciations. I think the pronunciation of Korean consonants use similar or even the same sounds as most consonants in English, but the Korean vowels is where I struggle most with the new sounds, especially as some different vowels sound very similar to each other (for example, the “ae” and “e” endings for various vowels). I’m learning that constantly speaking and trying to pronounce the vowels and consonants has helped me to learn to say them correctly, and it definitely takes a lot of listening to learn the distinctions between each. I’ve constantly been asking my language learning partner to repeat the pronunciations correctly and ask if I’m pronouncing it correctly. I’ve also found many online audio samples and videos very helpful to learn the pronunciations while looking at the written form of the characters so I can learn these distinctions. 

Source: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/pronunciation/american/bass_1

Spelling seems to be completely arbitrary in relation to the actual pronunciation of a word or a phrase. The letters used to make up a word can make different sounds depending on the language applied. For example, there is the word “auto” in English and in Slovak. In English, “auto” would be pronounced “ah-tow”. In contrast, a Slovak speaker would pronounce “auto” as “ow-tow” with a soft-sounding “t”. It is important to differentiate between spelling and sound in order to recognize the difference in written and spoken language. When a word is spelled incorrectly, the language speaker has a greater ability to determine the target word. However, when a word is pronounced incorrectly, the temporality of speech can make it difficult to determine the target word. Spelling is important but understanding the sounds of your target language will assist in both speech production and comprehension.

There are a lot of new, unfamiliar sounds in Slovak. I have little experience observing accents, tildes, and trills from my Spanish education, but there are also many sounds that prove challenging. There are long vowels/short vowels and long consonants/short consonants. The stress is always placed on the first syllable of the word. Only Slovaks in the East (populations near Poland) place stress on the penultimate syllable. There is a lot of variability between Eastern and Western dialects.

Additionally, Slovak has the largest Slavic and European alphabet with 46 letters. One of my biggest challenges is that the Slovak alphabet involves trills and taps with the letters “r” and “ŕ”. The “r” without an accent creates more of a light tongue tap on the soft palate. The other letter, “ŕ”, indicates additional stress on the soft palate, resulting in a trill. Additionally, the letter, “ch”, challenges my American accent as I imagine myself adopting a Scottish brogue. It’s like creating an “h” noise at the very back of the throat, it focuses more on the throat and less on the expulsion of air. For example, the Slovak word for fridge is “chladnička” (xl̩adnɪt͡ʃka). One of the biggest resources in better comprehending speech is listening to podcasts of Slovak speakers. They help me better observe typical pronunciations while also allowing me to pick out recognizable words. After listening, I try to find the transcript for the podcast episode to better understand its context. I plan on continuing to listen to these podcasts and ask for listening exercises during my tutoring sessions.

In the past weeks, I started to invest more time delving into vietnamese media beyond the typical Vietnamese musical videos, reality tv shows, and games shows. Over the past week, my partner and I have been watching and discussing said Vietnamese filmography. We’ve watched a total of 2 movies, all of which starred Vietnamese actors as well as actresses and produced in Vietnam. We watched each movie twice. Both times the movies are played using their Vietnamese audio track, but the first time we had Vietnamese subtitles (I’m a visual learner, and I typically watch movies with subtitles to aid my understanding), and the second time we watched with English subtitles. So the first watch was supposed to be an immersive Vietnamese experience, whereas the second was to see how much of the dialogue I understood and retained from the first time watch. Afterward, we would discuss the movie in detail (i.e. Logan would ask me specific questions pertaining to the movie and I would have to give a satisfactory answer before we move on). 

The first one we watched was Hai Phượng [haːj˧˧ fɨəŋ˨˩˨]; the film is named after the main character’s name, but the film’s English title is known as Furie. We found the movie off of Netflix and both of us decided to give the movie watch since it is extremely rare that we find any Vietnamese content directly on a mainstream streaming site. The movie was an action and martial arts film that centered around the kidnapping and trafficking of a child (Mai)  from a village in the Mekong. Mai’s mother was a former gang member who decided to settle down in an obscure village by the Mekong region to protect her family. Mai was abducted by an organ trafficking gang and was brought to Hồ Chí Minh city. After we watched the film, we decided to look it up and found that this movie broke the record for highest-grossing Vietnamese film in history and was highly regarded for its martial arts sequence.

Next we watched ‎Mắt Biếc [mak˧˥ ɓiək˧˥], known internationally by its English title, Dreamy Eyes. This was a slice of life, drama, and romance film. It told the story of a young man, Ngân, one sided love for his childhood companion, Hà Lân. It dealt with a lot of heavy and hard to understand topics like longing and loss that comes with unrequited love. The ending was bittersweet when the main character was forced to move on from his decade long crush. This movie was hard to follow mostly because of its poetic language. 

The biggest obstacle I had to deal with while watching these films was verbal comprehension. The moving pictures and plot for both movies were nothing extraordinary or complicated, but some of the actresses and actors use a central dialect or have a northern accent that is almost incomprehensible to me. Luckily, the subtitles were somewhat helpful with my understanding. Whatever I absolutely could not comprehend, my partner was able to step in and help fill in until I completely understood. 

This past month of February, my vocabulary expanded a lot. While listening to the radio or watching any shows that are in Korean, I wrote down any words that I did not understand. In the beginning, it was a little frustrating and tedious to stop every time I did not understand a word or a phrase. However, as time passed, it became easier and a part of my routine when watching Korean shows or listening to radios. Every week, I came up with a new list of vocabulary words that I learned, and I made quizlets to study them throughout the week. I gave the updated lists weekly to Rachel, and she would quiz me using the quizlet test function, which consists of matching, multiple-choice, and writing definitions. During the beginning of our lesson sessions, I did not quiz myself on these vocabulary words, and I would forget about them as I moved on to new words I wanted to learn. However, testing my ability to remember and really learn these words helped me better than just simply writing the words down in my personal dictionary. I utilized the new vocabulary words in my diaries, and I used them when talking to my parents as well. I felt really proud of myself because they were surprised to find out I knew such words, such as 허용 (permission), 버중했어 (it was important), 순한 맛 (mild taste). I don’t think I’ll forget their surprised reaction I witnessed on facetime. It was a small accomplishment of mine in my language learning journey, but it made me feel proud to see how happy they were. I am glad I decided to assess my vocabulary skills because it made me more confident in my speaking and writing skills.  I can see my vocabulary expanding even more in the future if I continue to use this strategy. 

This month, I focused on three grammar aspects. I learned the difference between 돼 vs. 되, 니가 vs. 네가 vs. 내가, and 안 vs. 않. 돼 is the combination of 되 and 어, which means that 되었다 is the equivalent of 됐다. 돼 is the conjugated version of 되. While learning the difference between the two, I learned a trick. If you can replace 되 with 하, then it’s considered correct, and if you can replace 돼 with 해, then it’s correct. I also learned the difference between 니가 vs. 내가 vs. 네가. 네가 and 니가 are the same, but because 네가 (you) pronunciation is too similar to 내가 (I) people write and say 니가 to avoid any confusion in the sentence. Additionally, I learned the difference between 않 and 안. 않 is used as a negation after the verb and comes after adjectives and verbs. 안 comes before adjectives and verbs and is used as negation in front of a verb. One sentence structure to follow would be 안 + verb. With these three grammar rules I learned, I did practice exercises to make sure I understood. Then, I showed my practice to Rachel, and she helped correct my mistakes and explained the grammar concept in more detail. 

One of my main reasons for watching 2 Days 1 Night was to get exposed to different aspects of Korean culture, food, and historical landmarks. Last week, I watched an episode where they went “back in time” to different Korean eras, and the Goryeo Era stood out the most. They went to the Gwanchoksa Temple. Gwanchoksa Temple is located at the Banyasan Mountain in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do. I  was curious about this Buddha statue, as the members talked about how beautiful it is in April when the cherry blossoms are blooming.  It enshrines the 석조미륵보살입상 (Seokjomireukboksalipsang) Buddha, which was built in 967 due to a legend. The legend was about a lady hearing a baby crying, and when she went to look for the baby, she found a large rock on the ground. After this legend, the government made the Buddha from the rock that was found. When I visit Korea for vacation or study abroad, I hope to visit this temple. 

Additionally, I have been writing my article summaries and diaries about my day. I have been typing them now on the computer, and I have a shared folder with Rachel, where she could fix any grammar or spelling mistakes I make. We also occasionally watch 2 Days and 1 Night together during our learning session. Overall, I think my learning journey in February was a lot better than in January. I feel that I have learned more about grammar, vocabulary, and Korean culture overall.