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This past week, I was finally able to talk with my language partner Jimin and fellow learning partner Tommy via Zoom. After catching up with each other, Jimin shared a document focusing on 고유어 (Native Korean), 한자어 (Hanja, Sino-Korean), and 외래어 (loanwords). This was an interesting topic that I enjoyed because I was able to properly see how 한자 is used, and that 고유어 and 외래어 are the terms to refer to native Korean and loanwords. While I knew they existed and frequently used words under each category, this lesson provided a time for me to connect the dots. 

한자어 makes up around 70% of the daily Hangul people use. A majority of idiomatic expressions, advanced vocabulary, and professional jargon are words formed by Hanja. An example of a  four-character idiomatic expression is 고진감래(苦盡甘來) meaning a mix of "no pain, no gain", "April showers bring May flowers", and "the bee sucks honey out of the bitterest flowers". Loanwords, 외래어, are also highly conventional in daily Korean. An example of a medical jargon, which also happens to be a loanword is “인슐레이션” (insulation). A more colloquial loanword is 콘텐츠 meaning “contents”. Interestingly, loanwords are not always written in Korean to completely reflect the pronunciation. The word “contents” should be written as 컨텐즈 to read it the way it is pronounced in English. However, the spelling of this loanword is 콘텐츠. 고유어, on the other hand, is the “proper” Korean language––expressions and words that always existed only in Korean. Examples range from 어머니 (mother) and 하늘 (sky) to 꽃 (flower) and 구름 (clouds). 고유어 also tends to be used alone as its own word without the addition of derivational morphemes. An interesting characteristic of 한자어 is that alike to the usage of knowing Latin root words, 한자 (Hanja) can be used to decipher a word in Korean that is unfamiliar. For example, knowing the Chinese characters/Hanja for 人 (사람 ‘인’ = mankind) and 力(힘 '력' = power), one can come to the conclusion that “인력” (人力) means manpower. 

Learning about the three categories of the Korean language was enlighting of how historical ties and events, as well as modern-day events, affect the way a language develops and changes. This lesson was all the more interesting due to my limited recollection of learning Hanja coupled with taking Mandarin Chinese in school. I was happy to notice how I could connect my understanding of basic Chinese as well as 한자어 characters I’ve seen before (menus at Chinese restaurants in Korea, for example, use “대/중/소” (= 大／中／下 = large/medium/small for dish sizes) to come to answers to the questions provided by Jimin. I was also happy to see how easily I could understand an excerpt from a news article about COVID-19. I hope to continue studying Hanja characters to aid me in future cracking of unfamiliar terminology and jargon. I also want to uncover how much 고유어, 한자어, and 외래어 I personally use when speaking in Korean. I have a feeling that 외래어 will take up a large proportion of my Korean. 

Var and Yok (There is / There is not):

The words var and yok are the equivalents of “there is/there are” and “there isn’t/there aren’t” respectively. “Var olmak” means “to exist“. If “var” is used with a subject, this indicates that something exists. Conversely, “Yok olmak” means “disappear“. If used with a subject “Yok” indicates the non-existence of something.

Yok: There is not / There are not

“Yok” indicates something’s or someone’s absence.

Example:

Kalem burada yok.      There is no pencil here

Kendine güvenin yok.             You do not have a self-confidence

Moreover, “Yok” can mean “No”. But please watch out when using this way because this use is a little bit of informal even though it can make you sound like a real Turkish native.

Partiye gelecek misn? Will you come to the party?

Yok      No

Var: There is / There are

“Var” indicates something’s existence. For example, Burada sadece pastahane var. (eng. there is only patisserie here.)

Example:

Annenler evde var mı? (lit. Are your mothers at home? The overuse of the plural suffix -ler/-lar somehow makes the sentence more polite. Even, Annenler evde varlar mı? or Annenler evdeler mi? ) In Turkish, ” sahip olmak ” or “haiz olmak” (old use) means “to have”. Instead of using these words, Turkish people simply use “var” or “yok” to describe the things they have.

Example:

Kedilerin dokuz hayatı var.     Cats have nine lives.

Kalemin var mı?          Do you have a pencil?

Nasıl yani? Hiç paran yok mu?            What? Don’t you have any money?

Benim korkum yok      I have no fear; lit. there is not my fear; there does not exist my fear

The last two translations may look odd in English; however, in Turkish saying “Benim korkum yok.” is easier than saying “Ben korkuya sahip değilim.”

Paradigm of var/yok

In this part, we will see the change of var and yok with different tenses.

Kedim var.       I have a cat; lit. I have my cat

Kedim yok.      I don’t have a cat; I don’t have my cat, it is lost

Kedim vardı.    I had a cat, I had my cat

O yıllarda gri bir kedim vardı.             Those years I had a gray cat

O yıllarda kedim halen vardı.              Those years I still had my cat. it was alive

Kedim yoktu.               I didn’t have a cat; I didnt have my cat

Kedim vardır.              I have a cat when used in a formal way; I surely have a cat

Kedim yoktur.             I don’t have a cat. only one meaning

Kedim varmış.             It is said that I have a cat; It is said that I have my cat

Kedim yokmuş.           It is said that I don’t have my cat, It is said that I don’t have a cat

Kedim varsa.               If I have my cat; If I have a cat

Kedim yoksa.               If I don’t have my cat, If I don’t have a cat

Kedim varken.             While I have my cat; While I have a cat

Var and Yok is the base form of third-person-singular. For other persons, the personal suffixes can be added. You’d mostly encounter var and yok without personal suffix; However, ‘varım’ or ‘yokum’ can be encountered as well. Yet these uses are ‘frozen’ and mostly used for specific concepts.

Example:

Var mısın, Yok musun?           Are you in or out?

İddiaya var mısın?       Do you dare to bet?

Yokum             I am not in

Question Form: Var mı? / Yok mu? :

Question form of var and yok is very simple. It is formed by adding question suffix -mı and -mu at the end of var and yok, respectively.

Example:

Kitabın var mı?            Do you have a book?

Çayın yok mu?            Don’t you have tea?

Bunu yapmaya isteğin var mı?           Do you have the desire to do it?

Idiomatic Expressions with Var and Yok

When Var and Yok is used together, that defines the quantity of something. “Var yok” can be translated as “a little bit”. Also, there exists another way of saying: “Varla yok arası” (var ile yok arası).

Zamanın var mı?         Do you have time?

Varla yok arası            Very little

To be in Turkish:

To be is the easiest grammar structure in Turkish, which only needs two words to put them together: noun and adjective. For example:

Kalem yeşil    Pen is green 

Kalemler yeşil      Pencils are green

You don’t see any suffix or change related to “to be” in the previous examples. BUT, this structure is only correct for the third-person-singular and the third-person-plural.

Generalizations in Turkish:

Anyways, there is also one more function of –dIr. In modern Turkish, it implies generalization. 

Türkler tembeldir     Turks are lazy

Kuşlar ufaktır     Birds are little

Non-verbal Predicates (to be) Example:

Kampüste-y-im. *     I am at the campus

Kampüste-sin     You are at the campus

Kampüste-(dir)     she at the campus

Plural Examples:

Kampüste-yiz     We are at the campus

Kampüste-siniz     You -formal- are at the campus

Kampüste-(dir)-ler     They are at the campus

To be Examples:

Sürücü      driver

Sürücü-yüm      I am driver

Sürücü-sün       You are driver

Sürücü-(dür)       She is driver

Plural:

Sürücü-yüz

Sürücü-sünüz

Sürücü-(dür)-ler

Example Sentence:

Bunu ona söyleyen sensing.       You are the one who told him this

Başarının nedeni biziz.       We are the reason for this success

Evin sahibi Benin.       I am the one who owns this house. or “I” own this house

The past tense of “to be” in Turkish

When talking about past, we use past tense of to be. Simple. But here, it’s a bit different. Because we are not talking about an action. 

I was handsome

Yakışıklıydım

Let’s investigate this word, yakışıklıydım. this ‘m’ must be of ‘I’. y’ is the buffer letter. Yakışıklı, then, is the adjective: handsome. Past refer is given by the suffix –di. The same suffix, past tense suffix is also used when describing actions.

This biweekly journal is different from the rest of all biweekly journals for it covers my SDLAP experience during the beginning of my experience of social distancing caused by COVID-19. Upon nationwide confusion, I was unable to coordinate a meeting with my learning partner Tommy and language partner Jimin. On the bright side, being home meant a more frequent usage of Korean, and inevitably Konglish. The majority of my entire family speaks both English and Korean quite comfortably and sometimes interchangeably. Both sets of grandparents hold nominal to fluent knowledge in English (one couple are immigrants while the other experienced American living for a temporary time working abroad) and long-story-short, both of my parents speak two languages. But, it is important to note that it is pretty obvious that my dad is more comfortable with English and that my mom prefers Korean a little more. This difference is nonetheless caused by their childhood. My personal relationship with the two languages is, alike to my parents’–especially my mom’s–experience, a little confusing. My first language is undoubtedly Korean as it was the language I spoke in first and the language of the country I was born and raised in. Yet, with the beginning of school taught in the English language (both British and American English), I began to develop far more advanced English skills than Korean. Since then, I have been more practically comfortable speaking in English while feeling emotionally close to the Korean language. I like to watch videos and forms of entertainment in Korean all the while writing papers and reading the news in English. I also continued to improve English through school while Korean remained by the rudimentary level (though, I was quite the talker at a young age). The inconsistency of my relationship with learning Korean as English became my dominant, academic language is what I think caused a setback in my improvement of Korean. At this point in my second semester of college, I had begun to pursue the Korean language again in a more serious matter. Being home following this pursuit, unfortunate to the typical college experience, has helped me more as I find myself in a household that can help me with my Korean practice. It also helps that I have been spending my extra time binge-watching Korean dramas. The one thing I find frustrating, and a need for improvement, is being able to verbalize words at the same speed as my thinking with correctness. To explain, I sometimes find myself tripping over a couple of words in a sentence I wish to say. Usually, I know what I would like to express in my head, but once I begin to verbalize it, I find myself stuttering over a specific form of a word to find the correct expression or tense. This is a little irksome because I know what it is that I want to say. Even so, I struggle to say it as quickly as I think it as I’m stuck between two grammatically different ways of expression. Being home, I realized I did this on numerous occasions. I hope that as we all practice safe social distancing that I will be able to pinpoint the issue and work to fix this small error in my Korean think-and-speak system. 

Present Tense:

In Turkish language, you will see two different tenses that can be considered as present tense. ‘present continuous tense’ and ‘simple present tense’. Actually, the latter is specifically called aorist.

Turkish doesn’t use continuous tense for the things that English would use continuous tense. That’s why many sources confuse when naming them.

Simple Present Tense – Aorist

By its definition, aorist seems to fit into present tense, but it differs from the simple present tense of English for lots of situation. Some sources consider aorist as simply present tense but you may want to learn the distinct features of aorist (that would greatly help you to understand and have a better idea).

The main suffix of aorist is -r and depending on the verb base that it is attach, -r can transform to -ır,-ir.-er,-ur,-ar. You’ll decide which letter is the best by vowel harmony rules.

Simple Present Tense – Examples:

In Turkish, Simple Present Tense or Aorist is called ‘geniş zaman‘ which literally translates into ‘broad tense‘. Simple Present Tense is used to describe actions that are done ‘almost’ always. My favorite example of it is ‘döner’ which means ‘(thing) that rotates always’. The following example also shows you how a verb can be derived from another verb by adding suffixes.

Sevmek

to love, like

Sevinmek

to rejoice, to be pleased

Sevindirmek

to make someone happy

Sevindirir

s/he makes someone happy

Emre herkesi sürprizleriyle sevindirir

Emre makes everyone happy with his surprises

Examples：

Telefonu öyle tutarsan ekranını kırarsın.

If you hold your cellphone like that, you’ll break the screen.

O tatlıyı çok sever.

He/She/it likes very much sweet things.

The Circumflex Accent (Şapka) (^) in Turkish Language:   

In Turkish, the thing on top of the letters is called “şapka” which means exactly “hat”. Most of the Indo-European alphabets don’t have it. The circumflex is a diacritic sign usually written above a letter in some languages such as Latin, Greek, Turkish, Portuguese etc. In Turkish, It affects the pronunciation of the word to some degree whereas, in French, it indicates that the letter has been dropped over time. You do not see this sign in English but only on loanwords.

Circumflex Accent Usage in Turkish

1. In Turkish, some adjectives are made from nouns by adding –i with a circumflex accent. This rule is only valid for Arabic loanwords.

Hayat
life

Hayatî
vital

“Yaşamsal” is the Turkish encounter word for “Hayatî” which is derived from the Turkish word “Yaşam”. Hayat is an Arabic loanword but is still in use. Also, you may meet a man named “Hayatî”.

2. In the recent years, Turkish language society has restricted the use of the circumflex accent unless the absence of it leads to an uncertainty or misunderstanding.

Kar
snow

Kâr
profit

To indicate whether it is profit or snow, you need to use a circumflex accent.

NOTE “Shift + 3 + a” gives you â when typed on keyboard.

EXTRA: Apostrophe (Kesme işareti) in Turkish

1. Apostrophe, Apostrophy, or Keşme işareti, whatever you call, it’ll be correct. In addition to the 29 letters in Turkish, “kesme işareti” (‘) (apostrophe) is commonly used. You might also hear “ apostrof ” instead of “kesme işareti.”

Ali’nin
of Ali

Istanbul’da
in Istanbul

Türkiye’den geliyor.
S/he is coming from Turkey

2. In some cases, an omission of a letter may occur. To indicate this, you must use an apostrophe.

How to say “what’s up” in Turkish?

Ne haber? (eng. What’s up? – informal saying– ) < N’aber?

Ne yapacaksın? (eng. What will you do?) < N’apacaksın?

3. Homonyms can lead to misunderstandings. To distinguish between them, you must use an apostrophe.

Selin
a female name

Sel’in
of flood

Selin’in
of Selin

4. Abbreviations indicating size should take an apostrophe.

4-meter-long fish
tr. 4 m’lik balık

5. For the names from mythologyand religion, you must also use an apostrophe and never forget to use capital letters. This is because it is believed that the capital letter at the beginning of the word shows some kind of respect.

Zeus’un oğlu
the son of Zeus

İsa’nın
of Jesus/Jesus’

Muhammed’e
to Muhammad

If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of my target language and culture, I would like to investigate how to better teach the usage of Hanja/sino-Korean (한자어) in terms of morpheme categories since Hanja is purely phonemic or the effects of the integration of non-native Korean terminology in the younger generation of Koreans. These two linguistics-related topics are interesting and areas of personal confusion. When studying morphemes, specifically derivational and inflectional morphemes, I struggled to label a lot of possible morphemes as derivation because of the fact that it was a Korean compound based on Hanja. Historically, Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters, the Chinese characters the Korean language had borrowed and incorporated into the language with Korean pronunciations as a form of written communications. With the creation of Hangul, however, Hanja continues to be the basis of many Korean words and phrases (thus the flooding list of homonyms). For example, 수도(水道) and 수도(首都) are both pronounced “su-do”, yet one means (water "su" and way "do") aqueduct while the other means (head "su", capital "do-eup") capital city. On the other hand, I also find the linguistic aspect of the integration of English, for example, into modern-day Korean, aka Konglish/slang (ex. 셀프 for self-anything; 버스 meaning bus; TMI used as TMI, etc.) I think the cultural influence this has is something worthy of time and research, if not done already. 

Although writing in Korean continues to be one of my top concerns, I have learned to write basic Korean as a young child. I learned how to write the language by hand while learning the alphabet and basic vocabulary before I started primary school. I had a chart of the Korean alphabet, starting with “가, 나, 다, 라, 마, 바, 사…” that I would sing and practice writing. If I remember correctly, I learned Korean writing around the same time as English. However, with the beginning of my school career at a British preschool, English became the main language of my academic experience. This background has helped me pick up writing in Korean at a fast rate in my recent years of self-improving my Korean language skills. Personally, I find spacing and spelling difficult. It is something I intend on getting better at. Also, I have improved my Korean writing in recent years through texting/typing. So, I would like to improve my handwriting more. 

The basics of Korean writing is relatively easy as it consists of simple, compoundable consonant and vowel characters (ㄱ,ㄴ,ㄷ,ㄹ,ㅏ,ㅓ,ㅣ,ㅡ) invented based on mouth shapes upon pronunciation. The difficulty arises after one begins to construct phrases and sentences as spacing and grammar/spelling rules get complicated. This is also where even natives stumble. The Korean language consists of a lot of homonyms, homophone-like morpheme, and extremely detailed expressions. Examples consist of 눈 (eye or snow) and 안/않 (not a word but a morpheme). Some helpful pointers are understanding that English and Korean don’t share a syntactic order of subject, verb, object. Korean is generally S+O+V. It is also important to note that while English sentences can be spoken with a tone or accent to express different points of emphasis, Korean sentences can exchange the object and subject of a sentence (ex. Engish can’t do this, English can’t do this, English can’t do this vs. 영어는 이거 못하잖아, 못하잖아 영어는 이거, 이거 못하잖아 영어 - may not seem correct in an academic paper, but in colloquial speech, this happens often). 

Languages go extinct when it loses active members who speak, write, and read in the language. According to the YouTube video featuring author and linguist K. David Harrison, languages are oftentimes lost and forgotten because there is no written record of the language along with the loss of native speakers. This is also highlighted in the New York Times article, Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction, mentioning the extinction, and revival, of the Siletz Dee-ni language. In a world where some languages are being appointed as an international language, others face the brink of extinction as fewer and fewer people speak it. This was the case about the Siletz language. As a local, native language of a tribe located in the West of the US, there are only five speakers in the world. This once-dominant language belonged to one of the last-standing, large tribe. In the 1950s, however, the tribe was declared dead by the US. The establishment of schools taught in English, decreased tribe population, and declaration of extinction were three large threats in the extinction of the Siletz language. Two decades later, the tribe was federally recognized as a living tribe and thus, the culture and language prevailed. Since then, the language has been dwindling yet again. Differently from the past, however, with the creation of a charter school where the language has been reintegrated into the education program, the publication of a Siletz Dee-ni dictionary worked on by tribe members such as Bud Lane has given the Siletz Dee-ni language a written long-term record. A dictionary is a perfect example of the ways people can document linguistic diversity. Both the article and video underline the importance of the younger generation’s participation in the preservation of a language. To bring a language back from the brink of extinction, or from the dead, people from the outside are important agents in strengthening the content available on a language. Native speakers are necessary to provide the information on the language, but those from the outside of the young people of the population are the ones responsible for the future of a language. 

Here is the podcast with my language partner Brenda Lim.SDLC112 podcast.m4a

After reviewing the recording and slides of my presentation of my intended learning plan, I noticed changes in my course of action as well as success in following the plan. One of the changes I saw was that I intended to incorporate the learning of business terms into my studies this semester. I realize, however, that the lessons I did cover with my language partner are more appropriate and suitable for the level I am at with Korean. Business vocabulary can come in future semesters. I also did not get the chance to utilize the Global Studio’s online resources as my language partner prepared most of the hardcopy lesson materials. The discussions about language structures have helped me in learning my target language because it added details and the name to the different aspects of the language I have been unconsciously using. For example, I didn’t know what to refer to as when mentioning what I now know as derivational morphemes. I believe I am always culturally close to Korean. With the actual language, however, I always felt distanced from the pure usage of Korean as a native “Konglish” speaker. Through my SDLAP experience, I am happy to say that I am uncovering more about the language and will become more proficient. To further improve my communicative competence, I think verbal practice is key (for anyone on any level of learning a language). Based on the H.D. Brown reading, my plan, and what I ended up learning focused on organizational competence, specifically grammatical competence.

Reflection%20Paper%202%20-%20Haskins%2C%20Mallory.docx

Reflection%20Essay%20%232.docx

Here is the podcast with Jimin, Elliott, and June. 

Podcast

In this cultural post I want to talk about PC bang in Korea. PC bang literally means PC room and it is also known as internet cafes. It is a café where you can play multiplayer computer games for an hourly fee. Although access to personal computers and internet are extremely available in Korea, PC bang is very popular as it provides a social meeting place for gamers to play together with their peers. Another characteristic that makes PC bang so attractive is its ability to offer access to expensive and powerful high-end computers or gaming PCs, designed specifically for video gaming, and exceptional internet speed optimal for the best gaming experience. PC bang also provides all types of food ranging from as simple as cup noodles to actual restaurant menus such as black bean paste noodles (짜장면). Additionally, it is open 24/7 which attracts all the night hour gamers as well. It essentially provides everything you need for optimal gaming experience. As PC gaming culture in Korea is very important, PC bang continuously improve to provide better and more services to customers.

The concept of PC bang was first introduced around the 90s and it was a popular idea for new entrepreneurs during the IMF situation. PC bang is still very popular to a large range of age groups including children, teenagers, and young adults. Few problems were raised due to PC bang such as how users including children fall into game and internet addiction, causing damage to other aspects of life. PC bang exists in other countries, but it is definitely the best and the most developed in Korea without a doubt. What’s more attractive is the in-game benefits that the PC bang can offer. Almost all games in Korea offer PC bang exclusive items and events that promotes gamers to visit PC bang more often. Another element that has contributed to the popularity of PC bangs is the lack of private space for young adults at home. Many Koreans live with their parents until they get married, reflecting Korea’s traditional Confucian extended family system. In addition, with the harsh education system and culture in Korea, many young adults feel like they are under strict rules at home, further influencing young adults to feel the lack of privacy. Korean youth are usually released from the surveillance of the watchful eye of their parents when they become college students or get a job, but freedom does not resolve their lack of privacy, particularly when it comes to romantic relationship in Korea. As a result, PC bang is able to provide the necessary privacy and a way to stress relief for many people.

I have been to PC bang myself in Korea and United States. PC bang in Korea is definitely better because it provides more services there. I remember when I was little, I used to play games with my friends in a local PC bang all the time. The gaming environment is really different in PC bang compared to playing games at home. It almost feels like I can play much better in games when I’m there. If you are a PC gamer, I highly suggest you try out gaming in PC bang.

June Choi

Dr. Soloway

SDLC 113

April 26, 2020

SDLC 113 Cultural Post #4

            As I am graduating college and facing a future filled with working a real job, I thought it would be interesting to compare work life and culture in South Korea compared to that in the US. Upon digging into Korean work and business culture, I found that age and status are very important. This is no surprise, for even in everyday life, specific customs are in place to show respect to elders or any person who is older than one’s self. Like in the US, working people often greet eachother with a formal handshake, but it is also common for businessmen to formally bow almost at a 90 degree angle to others especially if they are greeting a powerful or wealthy businessman. One difference between western and South Korean work cultures that I found was that in western cultures, there is a heavy focus on the individual worker and his/her skills and contributions that bring about a company’s success, otherwise known as individualism (개인주의). One needs to be valuable to a company as an individual in order to be worth being employed for a long period of time. On the contrary, as Korean society is based on Confucianism, it is evident that some Confucian principles have seeped into work culture to create a heavily group mentality-based environment (단체주의). Oftentimes, Koreans will work in groups to complete a project and are often dependent on other employees.

            Although there is difficulty in separating work and personal life in all countries, I found that Koreans especially have trouble doing so. Personal and family time are prioritized more and kept separate in the US, while in Korea, often times there are post-work drinking parties or dinners with co-workers (회식) for any day of the week. It is common for Korean working people to return home in the late hours of the night or even the early hours of the morning after spending time with their coworkers. These parties and dinners are generally for team building and communication between coworkers in order to unite everyone. However, I find it quite unfortunate and saddening that Koreans spend so much time with their work partners and invest so much into their work life that they often neglect their personal life and families. One similarity that I found between the two cultures was that both cultures heavily use business cards when people exchange their contact information. However, there is a more formal exchange in Korean culture, as one hands over the card with two hands, and one receives a card with two hands. Finally, it is highly common in Korean work culture for people to work overtime often without pay. Additionally, it is considered rude to be rushing out of the door once the official work hours are over, and oftentimes, workers will wait for their superiors to leave. I find that these concepts are present in western work culture but are not as extreme. Below are some links to articles as well as youtube videos that I found were very helpful.

https://www.koreaexpose.com/south-korea-rigid-work-culture-startups/

https://asialinkbusiness.com.au/republic-of-korea/conducting-business-in-korea/korean-business-culture-and-etiquette?doNothing=1

https://www.englishspectrum.com/differences-in-work-ethics-between-korea-and-the-west/

https://10mag.com/things-to-know-when-working-in-a-korean-company/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T2bF_Y78IU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnwW7o0pVrw

June Choi

Dr. Soloway

SDLC 113

April 26, 2020

SDLC 113 Biweekly Language Learning Journal Post #8

            For the past two weeks, Jimin and I maintained our weekly videochat lessons and covered a variety of topics, including current political issues, grammar, and watching Korean dramas. As for political issues, I learned that April l5th was the voting day for the Korean Members of the National Assembly. The Korean National Assembly is made up of 300 seats, 253 of which are “지역구,” or District Assembly Members. Those members are then further divided into groups of 163 seats for the “더불어주민당,” 84 seats for the “미래통합당,” 1 seat for the “정의당,” and 5 seats for the “무수속.” 47 of the 300 seats are given to the proportional representation assembly that are experts in diverse areas. Again, these 47 seats are divided into groups of 19 seats for the “미래통합당,” 17 seats for the “더불어민주당,” 5 seats for the “정의당,” 3 seats for the “국민의석,” and 3 seats for the “열린민주당.” These different groups  are basically different political groups, just like the Democratic and Republican groups of the US. This voting day was a rather important event for Korea as it was the first ever voting day to occur in the whole world after the COVD19 pandemic started. I thought that learning about this voting day was a great way to expand my knowledge of Korean politics and also to add more complex political words to my vocabulary. It was interesting to learn about the different political groups in Korea and to compare them to those in the US.

            Jimin and I also went over the 6^th anniversary of Sewol-ho “세월호,” which was a national tragedy for Korea on April l6th of 2014. This tragedy involved the sinking of a ferry headed to Jeju Island that resulted in the death of 304 passengers, nonetheless countless missing passengers. Many of the passengers aboard were high school seniors embarking on their celebratory senior trip as is common in Korea. Koreans used a yellow ribbon as a symbol for hope for return of the missing passengers at the time. I remember when this was all happening in the year of 2014, and it was just so tragic of an event that it left most of Korea and Korean Americans, especially, just speechless. I knew of the high school that had sent its senior students on the ferry, as I had lived near that high school while I was in Korea several years ago.

On a brighter note, some grammar that Jimin and I went over included the importance of specific spacing between words in order to portray the correct intended meaning. One example was “아버지가 방에 들어가신다” vs “아버지 가방에 들어가신다.” This shows that one misplaced syllable due to spacing can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Additionally, I learned of the 6 grammatical rules below:

1. 문장에서 각 낱말은 띄어 쓴다.
   1. 낱말이란 뜻을 가지고 홀로 쓰일 수 있는 말의 가장 작은 단위이다.
   2. 나물좀줘 -> 나 물 좀 줘
2. 조사는 앞의 명사에 붙여 씁니다.
   • . 조사란 명사(noun)뒤에 붙는 말로 Tommy가, Ellie를, 수업이, 선생님이다 와 같은 말입니다.
3. 의존 명사는 띄어 씁니다.
   • . 의존 명사란 문장에서 혼자 쓰일 수 없고 그 앞에 꾸며 주는 말이 있어야 하는 명사를 말합니다.

1. 예시: 할 수 있다, 아는 것이 힘이다.

4. 숫자를 세는 단위를 나타내는 말도 띄어 씁니다.
   • . 사람 열 명, 신발 한 켤레, 개 세 마리, 사탕 두 개, 만 원
5. 두 말을 이어 주거나 나열할 때 쓰이는 말들은 띄어 씁니다.
   • . 한국 대 일본, 사과, 배, 귤 등, 선생님 및 학생
6. 본용언과 보조용언은 띄어 쓰는 것이 원래 규칙입니다.
   • . 용언: Subject의 상태를 표현하는 verb나 adjective
     • 본용언: 혼자 쓰일 수 있다 (읽고, 춥지, 꺼져, 아는)
     • 보조용언: 혼자 쓰일 수 없다. 본용언 뒤에 붙어서 본용언에 뜻을 더해준다. (싶다, 않다, 간다, 척한다)

1. 책을 읽고 싶다, 날씨가 춥지 않다, 불이 꺼져 간다, 잘 아는 척한다.

Overall, I thought that learning these 6 grammatical rules were very helpful in my everyday writing and speaking, for they are widely applicable. As my college career comes to an end, I hope to continue conversing with Jimin as a friend and also as a tutor/student.

Due to the coronavirus situation, I have been spending a lot of time watching videos at home. While streaming through different Korean shows with my parents, I came across a TV show called “Mr. Trot”. It is a competition among trot singers including professional and non-professional singers. The winner wins a prize money and also receives a chance to record their single. There have been many shows that have been made in the music industry starting with many audition programs like “K-pop Star”. However, normal competition shows like “Mr. Trot” started to become popular as well. Singing competition shows like “Show Me the Money” grabbed a massive attention from the entire country and even internationally. These competition and audition programs generally targeted young audiences by focusing on music genre that younger generation listen to such as pop and rap. Unlike these previous popular shows, “Mr. Trot” focused on the trot music which is very popular among older generation.

Trot music, also known as Ppongjjak (뽕짝), originates from Korea during the time under Japanese colonial rule in the first half of the 20^th century. With the trot genre having its history of about 100 years, the singing style has been continuously changing. With the rise of K-pop and other genres during the 90s, trot began to lose its popularity and was viewed as more old-fashioned. Recently trot began to regain its popularity due to singers like Hong Jin Young and Daesung targeting younger listeners. The traditional trot music generally contained lyrical contents about love, parting and longing for sweet home as it depicts colonial tragedy during the time. Also, unlike the popular K-pop music today, trot music is mainly performed by one singer or as a duet. It is rare for trot singers to play any instruments while singing and it does not have any heavy choreography. It is a genre focusing a lot on the actual singing component rather than attractive performance.

With “Mr. Trot”, we can see another change in trot style. Younger singers are producing trot music and starting to focus more on performance. It is moving away from the old-fashioned characteristics and trying to integrate more younger population. The show achieved one of the highest view rates among all TV shows aired on TV. Close to the end of the show, it was able to gain almost 8 million participating votes to decide the winner. Modern trot is becoming to be associated with lighthearted fun and many singers including K-pop singers are adopting trot songs, contributing to the expansion of the fan base to a younger generation of listeners. This is evident from the large voting participation from younger generation around my age. The singers on the show is also expanding the concept of trot idol which is becoming more accepted today. After the show concluded, the competition participants gained much popularity and began to show up in many other entertainment shows, confirming the growth of popularity among trot idols. With trot continuously changing throughout the history of Korea, it is still making history today. If you are not familiar with the trot music in Korea, I highly suggest listening to modern trot music. I personally didn’t like the traditional trot music, but it is really catchy and I’m starting to feel differently about it.

Here's one song from the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Pbx9LrsDk

and another by a modern trot singer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_HAPoqV9mo

After learning about the drinking manner with Jenna and Christi, I started to wonder about the Korean drinking game. It always seems to me that even though there are so many drinking games in Korea, people know about them all. I have heard about some of them, but I want to learn more about the details.

One of the most popular and commonly played is called 아이엠그라운드 (I am ground) game. There are four beats where you clap at different places. People sit in a circle for this game and clap together. The first round is self-introduction when people say their names on the last two beats. After that, one person says his/her name first, and then say another person’s name followed by a number less or equal to four. The person who is called out needs to say his/her name on the beats, and then call out somebody else again. One person is out if he/she is off the beat, calls a wrong name, or if he/she calls somebody who is already out. This is a good way for people to make friends when they are hanging out with a group of people whom they are not yet familiar with, such as friends of a friend.

Another classic drinking game is 눈치 (sense) game. In the game, one person stands up and calls out “one!” out of a sudden. Then, each person calls out the number that is one step bigger than the number called out before while standing up. If two people call out the same number or stand up at the same time, they are out together. If everyone calls out a different number until the last person, then the last person is out. This game is fun because there is always tension in the air when people are trying to be the next one standing up. It is also more convenient for people to play since they don’t have to sit in a circle to play this game.

A game that I have tried with my friends is called 바니바니 (bunny bunny). People sit in a circle and start with one person saying “바니 바니” twice. On the first 바니바니, the person points to himself/herself, and on the second one, point to somebody else in the circle. The person who is pointed at will repeat the “바니바니” and pass it to somebody else again. Also, whoever sits right next to the person who is pointed at should say “당근! 당근!” (carrot carrot) when the person in the middle is saying “바니 바니.” Whoever forgets to do “당근! 당근!” or didn’t catch the “바니 바니” passed on to him/her will drink or even take a shot.

There are many general rules for the drinking game. For example, whoever loses the game is taking a shot. Before the person drinks, other people on the table will sing a drinking song, such as “술이 들어 간다! 쭉, 쭉, 쭉쭉! ” (Here comes the drink! Drink, drink, drink, drink!), which makes the drinking more fun and interesting.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkmqpTNVqyI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=2FBajA_MLWY&feature=emb_logo

https://10mag.com/10-korean-drinking-games-you-have-to-try/

http://whatakdrama.com/best-korean-drinking-games-how-to-play/