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These past two weeks have been all about adjusting to meeting with my language partner and working on setting aside time to utilize the online resources as much as possible. I have been using the How to Study Korean website a lot and it is very helpful with giving me lots of practice with listening and reading. I find that setting a schedule for myself to practice every day is much easier when I am not on campus as I don’t have so many other things that I have to do while running around campus.  

While I practice listening, writing, and reading, one of my major weaknesses is mixing up certain characters especially with the vowel sounds. Because I have this problem, I am sometimes unable to write or read the words correctly. I think for the next couple weeks, I will be working on strengthening this problem by focusing on the differences of the sounds of the vowels. One of my strengths is being able to recognize simple words easily like 사과 or 노래 or 뽀뽀 which are apple, song, and kiss. These are easy words that I can easily recognize. I think writing out the words is harder for me. I think another thing that I can practice over the next couple weeks is writing words down from listening to them in dramas. One last thing that I can do is to practice typing them after writing them down. This will improve my memory with them. 

I think when I practice speaking with my language partner, I am still struggling with pronunciation which is also correlated with my mix up of the different vowel sounds. I think once I am able to fix the major problem of mixing up the sounds, I will be able to fix the pronunciation problems. I think I enjoy practicing in person rather than through a webcam. 

One thing we talked about was the current pandemic and how much it is affecting the world. I think it’s interesting that South Korea is the “model” country for this pandemic. Their healthcare system seems to be something the United States should aspire to follow considering they were able to get through this coronavirus pandemic easily with many resources. One thing that we discussed that South Korea did was that they sent out a notification whenever a new case happened and you were able to get alerts from an app whether you were in the area of someone who had coronavirus or not. Earlier on they retraced the steps of those who tested positive and those who might have had contact with someone who tested positive using security camera footage, credit card records, and GPS data from cars and cellphones. Once there were more people who tested positive, they had to rely on the app to send out mass notifications to people. I thought this was interesting and something that the United States would probably not do because privacy was given up. But I think considering this pandemic is a serious issue, I’m sure that sacrificing their privacy was worth it. 

When I traveled around Korea last summer, something that was obvious to me were the different types of dialects people used depending on which area they live in Korea. If I was to receive a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean language and culture, I would want to learn more about the influences on how different dialects were formed and how a region’s culture evolved as the dialect was developed. Korea has six main dialects, also known as saturis, which were most likely divided up by mountain ranges. In America where some say “soda” while others say “pop”; in the same way, some Korean saturis can call the same objects different names. My mom speaks the standard dialect while my dad grew up with the Jeolla-do saturi, so communicating with my dad’s parents have been more difficult for me. I think that the formation of different dialects is fascinating, and I would like to understand more about how they came to be.

Another aspect of Korea I would like to further study is how other countries influenced their culture. With so many other surrounding countries like China and Japan, I want to find out what parts of their culture they have in common with each other. When looking at language, Korean is pretty much its own family but have many words are similar to those in Chinese and Japanese. Since they were close enough to have some overlap in vocabulary, I want to also find the overlap of their customs and traditions.

Because of the COVID 19 outbreak, we started the online course two weeks ago. As a result of the outbreak, our spring break was extended by one week, which meant that the course was delayed by one week. So Brenda and I, in our first online class, first talked about what we were going to do for the rest of the semester. As the number of courses decreased, we decided to make the course content more focused on the completion of the set goals and keep up with the pace of the syllabus. At the same time, Brenda and I both believe that the content of the course can be updated with the times, such as understanding the covid-19 epidemic in South Korea, and learning some language and culture from it. With that in mind, our focus for the last two weeks would be on the COVID 19 outbreak in South Korea. An important part of my goal for this semester is to learn more formal written languages through more formal Korean articles. Therefore, Brenda and I searched for a news report about the local epidemic in South Korea, and read the article in detail, had a deep understanding and learning together.

In the process of reading, I found that my vocabulary is still lacking, so my reading speed is relatively slow. However, considering that this is my second formal in-depth reading of a Korean article, everything is still in its infancy. As long as I accumulate the vocabulary, practice the different sentence pattern expression more, certainly I will have the enhancement. Since I have already studied an article about the Korean general trend movie “parasite”, I applied the structural characteristics of the Korean article I summarized last time to this reading. Therefore, in the process of reading, I quickly grasped the main points of the whole article and the refutation of the author to the holder of the opposite point of view. I think it is very important to master the main tone of the article when reading the article, because it can make us have a clearer and accurate understanding of the content of the article. This way of reading I think is also very helpful for beginners like me, because it prevents us from misunderstanding the main points of the article at the beginning.

Through reading this article, I learned how covid-19 became popular in South Korea and what measures were taken in South Korea. Of course, reading the article alone can only reveal one side of the truth. Brenda and I then looked for videos about the Korean coronavirus outbreak. As a Chinese student whose country has suffered the same pain before, I can well understand the feelings of the Korean people, and I am deeply impressed by the efficient drive-through test in South Korea.

Through these two weeks of learning about the local situation in South Korea, as well as the discussion with Brenda, I have learned more about the real situation in South Korea. I think it is necessary to keep abreast of the country's news and so on in language learning. This kind of study can let us know more about the country and the nation. On the other hand, I kept on track to achieve my goals for the semester by learning formal Korean articles. In general, although the time, form and schedule of our courses have changed to different degrees due to the coronavirus outbreak, we still keep on track through good plans.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been at home for about three weeks now. Since everyone has been attempting to adjust to their new reality as the University has moved online, I have not been engaging in Korean lessons with my language learning partner. But I recently got in touch with her a few days ago and we have made our plans to meet weekly for the rest of the semester. Regardless of the situation, there have been a few ways I have been attempting to practice my language learning while at home. Although not as great as face-to-face instruction, I have tried to make the most of what I have available and in some ways, I have been able to uniquely supplement my studies.

For starters, I have been able to practice my speaking on a daily basis since I am now home with my family. This was one of the goals that I had established in the beginning of the semester and since it was not easy for me to speak outside of my lessons with Jimin, it has been great to practice my speaking. I speak some Korean with my sister but mostly with my mom. She speaks to me almost entirely in Korean, and will just translate afterwards if she happens to use any words that I do not know. 

Another thing that has been helpful is watching Korean dramas. My mom loves to watch a few episodes every night after dinner and I started joining her out of boredom. The three dramas that we have been into are Itaewon Class 이태원 클라쓰, Memorist 메모리스트, and Eccentric! Chef Moon 유별나! 문셰프. Outside of serving as pure entertainment, watching K-dramas has helped me witness language use in reality-like situations and I have also learned some new vocabulary.

The last thing that I have implemented is switching my iPhone Siri from American English to Korean. I initially wanted to change the entire system in my phone to Korean, but it ended up being really difficult to use my phone. However, that is something I want to do in the future so I am hoping to become better at my target language soon. When I first changed my Siri, I had forgotten I had done it until I tried to use the Maps app on my phone. I was so shocked when the GPS started speaking in Korean to me and I honestly could not understand a lot of what she was saying. Luckily, my mom was in the car with me and she was able to translate everything. I never really used Siri but after that experience, I decided to make more use of it so that I could practice speaking and listening to Korean. I now use her to send texts, make phone calls, and check the weather. These are definitely tasks that I could complete with my own hands but I think that it has helped with my articulation and in general, has provided a way for me to continue speaking.

I hoped to learn more grammar and review the vocabulary that I’ve been learning. I think I was able to complete these goals these past two weeks.

The past two weeks I have been able to meet with Professor Kim over Zoom. I think that these meetings have been going well and I’ve still been able to learn Korean. We have been able to do the activities that we did in person, over Zoom, which is really helpful. As usual, Professor Kim began the classes by asking me in Korean how I’ve been and just have casual conversation about how our weeks have been. After catching up, we went over a list of vocabulary. For the first week it was new vocabulary and a mix of vocabulary that I was kind of familiar with. For the most part I was able to get a majority of the vocabulary but had forgotten some of the words that we learned. After going over vocabulary, we learned some new grammar. Professor Kim gave me a worksheet with a bunch of grammar particles on it. We went over each grammar particle and when it would be used. She also made me read example sentences. This helped me get an idea of what context I would use the grammar particle, as well as practice my reading skills. I’ve noticed that I’m able to read a little quicker, which is encouraging. For the second week, we had a similar format. We went over the vocabulary list again, and I was able to remember more words than last time. I think repetition is good when it comes to remembering vocabulary. After going over vocabulary we went over the rest of the grammar particles.

I was also able to meet with Jannette these past two weeks. Again, we reviewed some of the things that I learned with Professor Kim. I had a hard time remembering the grammar particles and when to use them, so we had some practice with that. Although we practiced them in very simple sentences, it was good practice. I think that I’ve been getting a better understanding and the speaking practice definitely helps. Being able to speak Korean more is very helpful when it comes to me remembering things, so speaking Korean with Jannette is a great way to practice.

In order to practice what I’ve learned these past two weeks; I will go over the vocabulary that I’ve learned. The more I go over it, the more it’ll stick. I will also look over the grammar particles and try to use them in sentences when I can.

I think my strategies have been effective so far. I’ve been remembering the vocabulary more and when I watch Korean dramas, I am able to pick up on more things.

In order to build on what I’ve learned so far, I hope to expand my vocabulary and build upon the grammar that I’ve learned so far. I’ve been watching Korean dramas these days, and I think that it is a great way to keep my mind thinking about Korean. When I watch, I try to pick up on words and grammar. I will also repeat things that I hear. I’ll practice speaking as much as I can with Korean friends and use apps to learn more vocabulary.

As a cultural artifact, I watched a Korean drama called Itaewon Class. This drama is about a young man, who is also an ex-convict, who opens up his own street bar. It follows his journey from when he was a high school student, all the way to his grown-up years.

In terms of entertainment, I thought that this show was really good and entertaining. I would recommend it to anyone who is into Korean dramas or is just looking for a show to watch. Not only was it just fun and exciting to watch, I think that I was able to learn more about Korean culture from this show.

One aspect that I learned about was the night life in Korea. The main character decides to open a street bar, which are very popular places for people to hang out at night and on the weekends. Since a lot of the show took place in these kind of nightlife areas, I felt like I had a glimpse of what Korean night life is like. It seems very lively and many people go out to these street bars and restaurants to eat with their friends. I also saw that the most popular alcohol is Korea is soju and I constantly saw the characters drinking it in the show.

I also learned about the Korean drinking culture as well. Something I thought that was interesting that I never knew before was that, when someone drinks with a parent, it is common practice for them to turn to the side and drink. I guess that this is a sign of respect in some way. Something else that I noticed was that people would always shake the bottle, elbow the bottom of the soju bottle before opening it, and then serve it. I’m not too sure about the background of it, but I just thought that it was something interesting that I probably would’ve never learned in a classroom setting. A final thing that I noticed about Korean drinking culture is that there is a phrase when drinking soju. The main character drank with his father for the first time and his father asked him if the soju is sweet or bitter. The main character said that it was sweet, indicating that it was a good day. It is said that when you’ve had a good day, the soju will taste sweet, but if you have a bad day, it will taste bitter. I thought that this was really interesting, and again, is something about Korean culture that I wouldn’t have learned in a classroom.

A final thing that I learned about Korean culture was their cuisine. Another aspect of the show is a battle between this small restaurant, owned by the main character, and a giant restaurant company. Since there was a battle between these two food companies, food was obviously a huge part of the show. I got to see different Korean dishes, such as soondubu jjigae, which is a soft tofu stew, and other stews. I noticed that Korean cuisine involves a lot of soups and stews which is something that is very different from American cuisine.

In conclusion, I learned a lot about Korean culture from watching Itaewon Class, that I wouldn’t have learned about otherwise. I think that watching Korean dramas, or shows in whatever language you are learning, is a great way to learn about aspects of their culture that you wouldn’t learn about in a classroom. Itaewon Class was a great show and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

Due to my state’s recent stay-at-home order as well as the COVID-19 outbreak in general, I have been spending a lot more time on social media, especially Instagram. I recently saw this trend going around called “whipped coffee”, which seems to have originated on TikTok. After seeing multiple posts of people making the coffee, I also noticed that it was being called “dalgona coffee”, and I knew that dalgona was a Korean candy. As far as I knew, dalgona did not contain any coffee products so I decided to do more research to look into this trend.

Dalgona coffee is basically the opposite of a latte, meaning that instead of frothing the milk, you froth the coffee component. The recipe is pretty simple– all you have to do is mix equal parts of instant coffee, sugar, and water. The goal is to whip all three ingredients together until you achieve a light and airy texture, like in whipped cream. Most people pour the whipped coffee over ice and milk, but I have also seen some people pour it over steamed milk for a warm drink. I personally dislike the taste of coffee but a lot of my friends have been enjoying the trend so I wanted to try something similar. Instead of using instant coffee powder, I decided to try it with matcha powder. I poured my whipped mixture over iced soymilk; it ended up being pretty good and not too sweet! I don’t own a mixer so I wouldn’t make this drink on a daily basis since I would have to hand whip it every time, but I can see myself making it as a special treat. It was really aesthetically pleasing as well as tasty so I can see why it was trending.

As for dalgona itself, I also did some research on its history. It is a popular traditional Korean street food that became popular in the 70s. It only requires two ingredients and is pretty easy to make. In South Korea, they typically heat sugar in a large metal spoon over a flame. You continuously mix it and when it becomes completely melted, you quickly add a bit of baking powder. This causes a chemical reaction and the mixture becomes foamy and increases in size. After mixing for a few seconds, you quickly pour the mixture onto parchment paper and put a skewer in it while it hardens. In Korea, the street vendors usually flatten it with a metal press and use small metal cookie cutters to make cute shapes in it. Once it has completely hardened, you can put it off and eat it like a lollipop!

I recently watched an episode of “The Return of the Superman”– a popular South Korean reality-variety show that features celebrity fathers who are left alone to care for their young children– and one of the dads tried to make dalgona for his child. He attempted multiple times and continuously failed because he kept burning the sugar mixture. He eventually had to ask someone on the film crew to make it for his son and she was able to do so successfully on her first try. I am planning on trying to make this tomorrow with my sister and hopefully it will go smoothly since I know what not to do.

Although an unfortunate situation, the current COVID-19 pandemic has supplemented my language learning experience in a way that would not have occurred if we were still on campus. I came back home to Hawaii about two weeks ago, which was the Friday of our original spring break. Coronavirus had started to slowly appear in the United States a few weeks before that but until mid-February, most people had not paid any attention to it since it was not as prevalent in our own communities. However, my mother and grandmother frequently keep up with Korean news broadcasts, so I initially knew a great deal more about the situation in South Korea rather than in the United States. Even though I was not reading the news articles or watching the news for myself, I was able to learn a lot simply from hearing my family talk about it. Since I did not hear or read the information myself, I did not learn about any of the medical terminology, but rather gained a better understanding of Korean culture.

I am a Healthcare Studies and Philosophy double-major and my specific interest is in bioethics. Witnessing the past few weeks has been a very surreal yet educational experience in terms of healthcare systems around the world. It was interesting to see how South Korea responded to the pandemic and the public health measures that they took to ensure the safety of their citizens. Their main methods consist of aggressive testing and contact tracing, which were swiftly implemented. Korean citizens were also extremely compliant with their government to avoid widespread infection. This made me think of when we learned about different characteristics of cultures in the beginning of the semester. The way in which Korea reacted to the outbreak is truly reflective of how Dr. Hofstede characterized the county, especially as low in individualism and high in uncertainty avoidance. Citizens were quick to adjust to governmental restrictions and rules in order to combat the virus. This is especially demonstrated in how the Korean government is strictly observing those who have the virus and conducting surveillance to find new patients. People have gladly given up their privacy because they know it is a necessary trade-off. Many healthy individuals have also been volunteering as needed to further support the government’s efforts. Social trust is clearly very high and Koreans are very adaptable, which has prevented a great number of deaths, even with the country’s proximity to China.

What I learned through observing Korea’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been useful in enhancing my language learning. The qualities that Koreans exhibit are also reflected in their language, which I also pointed out in some of my past posts. My new knowledge has not only taught me more about the culture, but will prove especially useful when applied to actual communication with other Koreans. This explains why honorifics are an important aspect of the language and why communal terms– like ‘us’ and ‘we’ rather than ‘me’ and ‘I’– are heavily used. 

    Since we are not returning to campus, my language partner and I have decided to have lessons through Facetime. This past week we decided to discuss what the rest of our plan for the rest of the semester is moving forward. The plan is to utilize the most of online resources because it’s not really something we have done so far. A couple websites we were looking at using were talktomeinkorean.com and howtostudykorean.com. This is on top of a facetime session each week which will practice my speaking. Both of them are popular websites that people use to learn Korean. I have been continuing with the usage of Duolingo which has been really helpful. The online resources are more ways to strengthen my reading skills. Other than that, I always use watching kdramas as a way to strengthen my listening skills.

  So for the past two weeks I have been using these online resources to strengthen my reading and I think they are actually really helpful. How to Study Korean is really helpful where it divides everything into different units so starting at unit 0 is the Korean alphabet. Unit 1 is basic Korean grammar and the level advances every unit. With the units, there are also workbooks, practice worksheets, and vocabulary lists to help. It was really helpful for me to learn more about Korean grammar because I think that is an area that I have not really learned much about. Overall, the website really impressed me. The other website Talk to Me in Korean is more of what I focused on last semester. Each lesson has conversation vocabulary with audio, an explanation, and a quiz. I think this website will be helpful for me with reviewing and learning new vocabulary. This website seems to be more popular because they have a free set and a premium set where you have access to more resources if you pay a certain amount of money.  

   A new Korean drama that I am watching currently is Hi, Bye Mama! It’s a really heartwarming and sad drama. It is completely unrealistic but the concept is really interesting. The main character is a girl who died in a car accident and before she died, she was pregnant with a baby girl. During the accident, she made sure to protect her baby so that it was safely born. For five years, she has followed around her daughter and husband as a ghost not knowing that her daughter actually can see her. During this time, her husband remarried as well. When she finds out that her daughter can see ghosts, she curses out the deity or God above and ends up alive on Earth not a human but not a ghost. Her journey through saying her last goodbyes and making the last memories with her loved ones is sad to see especially when her daughter doesn’t recognize her as her own mother. From this drama, I learned about Korean shamans who can see ghosts or are connected with their spiritual side. Overall, I can finish off my semester strong with the plentiful resources that I have. 

In the video it shows that the languages go extinct since there is no more speakers and there is no more conversations between speakers. The elders with low hearing abilities can hardly make conversation using the targeted language. Therefore it is harder to record and preserve the language for further use. Similarly in the reading article, the language xxx came back to life due to the reuse of language. Also, education system plays an important role in language as well. When there is no curriculum about languages like Siletz, the younger won’t be able to acquire them.

Linguistics can do several things to preserve a dying language. First, they can record the language and document them in a dictionary which give access to the general public without violate their intellectual rights. Second, working with government and including the target language in school curriculum can be also very helpful on preserving a dying language. Moreover, linguistics need to be working with other professionists such as zoologists and biologists to understand the language on its own term. Immediate need of care and support of dying languages make language preservation is a great challenge. Although a lot of dedication is needed, it will be worth it as David Harrison illustrated that there are a large amount of knowledge encapsulated in endangered languages that is highly valuable. The linguistic David Harrison are educating high school students and college students about linguistic and recruiting linguistics to work on dying languages.

I have started writing my target language a long ago. Written Korean, like English and most of other languages in the world, are highly related to the pronunciation, therefore makes it easier to write free hand than type. Korean characters are similar to Chinese characters with less type of strokes. The pattern of Korean characters are hard to miss. The vowels are usually placed in below or on the right with consonants on the other half. 받침 are separated with the vowels and consonants. Double 받침 have two parts. In total, there are maximum four parts that consist one Korean character. 

The Korean sentences are really flexible in terms of the order of language parts. Usually it follows the pattern of subject + object + verb. When the subject is obvious in the context, subject is usually omitted in the sentence. The clauses which indicate time, location, relationship, etc, can be put in different order without changing the main meaning of the sentence. 

My main uses of written Korean language are short expressions of emotions. I started to learn how to write simple sentences last week. The following picture shows what I have been working on specifically in written Korean.

For the last week, I created my own lesson as I was not able to meet with my language partner.  I decided to delve into some grammar and sentence making.  I’m not as familiar with adjectives as I am with verbs in Korean, so I chose 12 to study that I would use often such as wet, dry, late, early, etc.  Then I created very simple sentences to tie each adjective to a noun.  I watched a couple of videos on YouTube linked below that explain the two conjugations of adjectives.  I found it interesting that adjectives had to be conjugated like verbs.  The word ‘adjective’ in Korean is ‘형용사’ which translates better to ‘descriptive verb’.  Basically, the conjugation is different if you place the adjective in front of a noun, such as ‘small cat’, or before the noun to form a sentence, like ‘the cat is small’.  To describe a small cat, you take the dictionary form of small ‘작다’, take away the ‘다’ and add ‘은’ in this case to form ‘작은’.  To say, ‘the cat is small’, you just put the dictionary form of the adjective after the noun to make ‘고양이는 작다’.  This is a basic form and can be made honorific by changing the adjective to ‘작습니다’. 

I applied both conjugations to the nouns and adjectives that I had set up previously to form sentences.  I discovered a Korean translator called Naver to check over my work and see the honorific forms of the adjectives.  I also wanted to learn a few phrases that I caught from a Kdrama I’m watching, Itaewon Class, such as ‘Why can’t I?’ and ‘Are you sure?’.  After writing all of these down, I went through and practiced saying each sentence repetitively and quizzed myself.  It was a bit difficult to remember all of the new words, but I think reviewing it over the next few days with help with my retention.  During my next lesson with my language partner, I want to go over the work I did and see what she thinks in terms of the accuracy of the vocabulary.  Sometimes, different words are more commonly used to say the same thing.  I also want to learn more about the situations in which the different forms of these phrases would be used.  Sometimes, certain forms are strictly for use among friends or people younger than you, so I want to make sure I am familiar with these terms.  I also would like to ask my language partner to go over some phrases with me.  I think those are the hardest to learn through a dictionary as Korean has many ways to say the same thing while only changing the formality.  I want to do more exercises like these so that I am able to produce the language more than just receiving it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbKVdf2qcAA&t=395s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFsfjuMrCSk&t=439s

If I received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of Korean, I would use this opportunity to study the influence of other languages on the Korean language. As I learned earlier this semester, Korean is traditionally believed to be a part of one of two language families, the Koreanic family and the Altaic family. However, I know that as a part of Northeastern Asia, Korea is also influenced by languages that are not necessarily in either of the two families, like Chinese. I find it really interesting that Korean has a variety of outside influences but still manages to maintain its own uniqueness. The alphabet is easy to learn to read and write and is also extremely simple in comparison to other Asian languages. Korean also borrows a lot of vocabulary from English and Chinese, even if those two languages do not contribute to its phonetics.

After obtaining the above information, I would also try to compare and contrast the different Korean dialects. I am interested in figuring out if certain historic and geographic factors affect how a dialect is developed. For example, if an area had been dominated by the Japanese or if it is located closer to Japan, is the dialect in that region more influenced by the Japanese language in comparison to traditional Korean? Learning about the dialects would also further supplement the initial study and explain how the Korean language developed in the first place. In general, I am interested in exploring how the Korean language came to be and what external factors were greatly impactful. 

Due to the sudden COVID-19 outbreak, I had to fly home for the extended spring break and a week of school, which eventually turned into the rest of the semester. I typically take two to three flights to and from school since the Richmond airport does not offer any direct flights to Hawaii. Because it was still spring break, I did not have a great deal of work to complete while traveling, so I tried to think of ideas to help pass the time to prevent boredom. Depending on how tired I am when I board my flights, I will usually end up sleeping for a majority of the time, but I was pretty well rested since I had been on spring break for the past week. I decided to browse through the films offered on my first plane and I came across Parasite, or 기생충 in Korean.

Parasite recently won four Academy Awards– Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film– and made history for being the first South Korean film to receive an Academy Award, as well as the first foreign film to win Best Picture. It has also been recognized for a number of other awards but especially made history at the 92nd Academy Awards in February. I personally have heard nothing but positive reviews about the film and had been meaning to watch it for some time now. I was supposed to watch it with Jimin and a few of her other language learning partners but it ended up not working out.

This post is going to be a bit of a spoiler but I’ll try to only discuss the gist of the story. It was basically about the low-income Kim family, who have worked a variety of temporary failing jobs in the past. In the beginning, the son’s good friend gifts him a rock which is supposed to bring him wealth and urges him to take over his tutoring job as he leaves to study abroad. His friend tutors English for the eldest daughter in the wealthy Park family and the Kim son is successfully able to get the job. The rest of the Kims slowly infiltrate the life of the Park family, with the daughter, father, and mother slyly posing as unrelated and highly qualified workers. The Kim daughter poses as an art therapist for the younger son, the father replaces the family driver, and the mother replaces the housekeeper. One day when the Parks leave for a camping trip, the Kims indulge in the luxuries of the Park’s home and celebrate their increasing wealth resulting from their new jobs. Suddenly, the old housekeeper appears and requests to retrieve something that she left in the house. She reveals an underground bunker, where her husband had been living for years to avoid loan sharks. She eventually finds out about the Kim family’s scam but her and her husband are wounded and forced into the bunker when the Park family arrives home early. The next day, the Park family hosts a birthday party for the son and the Kim family members are all invited. The Kim son brings the rock to face the couple in the bunker, but he is attacked by the husband who is enraged by his wife’s death. The husband runs out and stabs the Kim daughter with a kitchen knife to avenge his wife. Her mother kills him and the father ends up killing the Park father after seeing his disgusted reaction to who he thought was a dirty, smelly homeless man. The story ends with the daughter dying, the father retreating to the basement to avoid criminal charges, and the mother and son facing convictions of fraud. The son vows to make enough money so that he can purchase the house, which is occupied by a new family, and eventually free his father.

When I started the Self-Directed Language Learning Courses 110, I was in communication with my language partner, Reba, to figure out when the best times would be for the two of us to meet. We originally were emailing back and forth, but I shared my phone number with Reba in hopes of faster commination via text. However, after one of my biology classes, I received a call from an unknown number. I answered it and was surprised to hear an initial response somewhat like “Hello. This is a telecommunications relay service. You are receiving a call from Reba. Would you like to accept it?” I accepted and was able to speak with Reba regarding scheduling our class, but after hanging up, I remember I was shocked and confused. How did my deaf teacher just call and communicate with me?

            Well, Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (which took full effect on July 26, 1993) requires all U.S. telephone companies to provide telecommunications relay services (TRS). This policy was originally pushed by the National Association of the Deaf as, prior to this, there were limited services for both free and paid relay services. What does a TRS do though? TRS enables those that are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired to communicate with those who are hearing in a manner that is “functionally equivalent” to the ability of individual without a disability regarding telephone communication. The ADA requires the Federal Communications Commission to enforce these relay service regulations and to encourage “the use of existing technology and do not discourage or impair the development of improved technology.”

            For those that are deaf or hard-of-hearing, the type of TRS that is commonly used is Video Relay Services (VRS). How this works is that an individual with the disability will utilize a device that has a camera and they will contact a VRS communications assistant (CA). The caller and CA will communicate with each other in sign language through a video link and that CA will place a telephone call to whomever the VRS user wishes to call. The VRS CA will interpret the VRS user’s sign to the recipient via speech and then will listen to the recipient’s response and translate said response into ASL for the VRS user. Most deaf people have pre-arranged video relay services with a provider, so if a hearing individual wants to contact a VRS user, the call will automatically be transferred through a VRS provider. These services are free for those with disabilities and the VRS CAs are compensated for their work from the Interstate TRS Fund, which the Federal Communications Commission oversees.  

            By using the VRS, deaf individuals and hearing individuals can have seemingly fluid conversations where the participants can even interrupt each other. This is unlike some TRS systems such as teletypewriter (TTY) in which the party members must take turns communicating through the CA. In addition, because these VRS conversations flow much more naturally, the conversations that take place can occur quicker. However, it is important to know that VRS, unlike the other TRS, relies on the internet connection, not the telephone system.

            Although I was unaware of such services before, I believe it to be important to share this information that I have learned with the general public. Prior to this experience, I had just assumed that it would be rude, or ineffective to call Reba because she was deaf. However, it is important to know that there are policies in place to mitigate communication differences between the deaf and hearing population. I think that if more people knew that there easy, free ways to communicate with the ASL community, there may be less separation between the two groups of hearing and deaf/hearing impaired.

*Summarized version of VRS system

https://www.nad.org/resources/technology/telephone-and-relay-services/relay-services/

https://www.fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-relay-services-trs

Although I learned to write at a young age, I never attended a class with intense writing sections. I would say that my writing and reading skills aren’t as high as my listening and speaking skills. Nowadays, I prefer to type, specifically text, rather than write free hand because in this era of technology, texting is much quicker. I also tend to make frequent mistakes to the autocorrect installed in my phone is helpful to see the mistakes I’ve made. On top of that, I haven’t actively written Korean by hand in some time, so my handwriting looks like one from an elementary student. It is a bit more difficult to write because all of the vowels and consonants are squished together. In Korean there are batchims which is the final consonant and is written in the bottom position. In the word “닭” (chicken) the ㄹ and ㄱ are the batchims. English doesn’t have batchims which makes writing much more spaced out and easier.

When I decided to practice writing more sentences in Korean, I realized that all of my sentences were ending in either “다” or “요”. I got a little frustrated because I wanted to make new sentences, but when I researched it, I learned that pretty much every formal statement had ended with “다” or “요”. When looking at the relationship between simple and complex sentences, I would say that it’s similar to English and many other languages. Sentences become complex when more detail is added (number of clauses increase). The English sentence structure is subject – verb – object while Korean’s is subject – object – verb. So in the sentence, “I eat fast”, the translation in Korean would be 나는 (I) 빨리 (fast) 먹는다 (eat). Since the sentence structure is different, I sometimes find myself stumbling on how to structure a sentence correctly. I can fix myself by saying what I want to write out loud and that’ll solve the problem.

March 29 Biweekly Learning Journal

            This past week, Jenna and I went over my cultural presentation topic. I decided on presenting it on traditional Korean food. I will have a general idea of the topics to choose and what part of Korean food to dive into next week. Furthermore, Jenna and I looked over an example article with some questions in Korean. The article was about the BTS music band in Korean KPOP. The article talked about the rise of BTS and how they have become so popular internationally. The questions on the article were pretty easy to understand and find the answers to, but it was definitely a lot harder to write down the correct answer with correct spelling and grammar. The questions were stuff like, “how much money did they make on their debut album” or “what is the name of their first song called.” The questions were easy for me to differentiate and understand through context clues. I think this practice article and questions were really helpful for me to get better in Korean writing and reading comprehension. I asked Jenna to print me one or two more for this week. So, this week, Jenna brought two more articles with some questions attached to it. I worked on it during class and finished it after. We went over my answers and spelling, correcting any mistakes that I made. Another thing that we did during this week’s class was a spelling practice exercise. Jenna wrote five to six phrases in Korean and I had to identify the mistakes in each phrase. I was able to get most of the mistakes but there were a few that I thought were wrong that was right. I definitely have to get better at not second-guessing correct spelling and grammar. I hope to continue to improve on my grammar and spelling in Korean writing through the last few weeks of the semester.

            For my long-term goal in this class, I still hope to take the Korean placement test after next fall and hopefully pass the proficiency test. I think my strengths include listening and speaking in Korean, but my weaknesses are writing and reading comprehension. Compared to the beginning of this year, I definitely have gotten a lot better at reading and writing. My speaking and listening are at the same level of proficiency, but I think I have been able to clearly communicate in Korean with more diverse vocabulary as well as pronunciation of phrases correctly. For writing in Korean, I have definitely been able to be more accurate when writing in Korean as well as writing quicker than when I started learning Korean last year. I remember I couldn’t even write a full sentence correctly and quickly last year, but now I can confidently write anything in Korean without horribly mistaking some of the spelling in Korean. For next week, I will be starting to research on my cultural presentation on Korean food culture and find exactly what type of topics to research and present.

June Choi

Dr. Soloway

SDLC 113

March 29, 2020

SDLC 113 Cultural Post #3

            With the global pandemic of COVID19, I have observed many different responses by country leaders across the world. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to research about the healthcare system and health-related social customs of South Korea. South Korea has been appraised as the “model country” with its approach to the pandemic and its successful efforts to containing the pandemic in a timely manner. Upon looking into South Korea’s healthcare policy, I found that South Korea went from private voluntary health insurance to government-mandated universal coverage that is called Korean national health insurance (NHI) in 1989. The system provides everyone with health insurance, although it does give different groups different coverage. The single-payer healthcare system merged all medical societies into the National Health Insurance Service to get rid of inequity in health care financing and financial distress, and this service is funded by contributions, government subsidies, and tobacco surcharges. Overall, Korea has been successful in mobilizing different resources for healthcare, extending coverage across Korean citizens, pooling both public and private resources to buy healthcare for the entire population, and containing healthcare expenditure. The benefit package of Korean health insurance includes free curative services, biannual health check ups, and vaccinations at public health centers. This system also has mandatory enrollment.

            Based on my experience in Korea, it was very easy for me to visit any type of specialized health clinic for my health problems oftentimes the day I wanted to go without a prior appointment. I recently had to go to a health clinic for my biannual check up/physical. Additionally, visits to health clinics were rather affordable compared to those in the US. I found that many Koreans visit physicians for even minor colds, aches, or miscellaneous health dilemmas. Additionally, many Koreans often wear masks whenever there is heavy pollution or dust in the air, as well as when they are even mildly sick. Koreans are generally very precautious and wary about health problems. Concerning the COVID19 pandemic, getting a test in Korea if a physician decides that a patient does not need it costs 160,000 won (a little less than 160 USD). If a physician does think a patient qualifies for testing, then it is paid for by the government. Additionally, one can receive work compensation for time spent in the hospital. Therefore, people in Korea were more likely to get tested quickly. On the other hand, getting tested in the US costs over 3000 USD not due to the actual testing, but for hospitalization and other related bills . Overall, I think that the universal health insurance system as well as the social custom of wearing masks without a second thought have somewhat helped Korea in its successful efforts to contain the COVID19 pandemic swiftly. Below are some links to articles that I found for supporting information. The video linked below also gives a brief overview on the healthcare system in Korea and foreign travelers’ reactions to it.

            I thought that the national health insurance system implemented in Korea shows Korea’s values of free and equal health coverage to all of its citizens. I think that this is a very valuable custom in Korea, as healthcare is something that no one can live without. Overall, I was very impressed with Korea’s healthcare system, and reading about it in Korean helped me to learn more medical terms as well as political terms.

https://blog.naver.com/lskjhc/221808851250

https://blog.naver.com/termpro2000/221832135024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTNxarFT2c

Hanbok (한복) is a collective term for traditional Korean clothing. Though there have been slight changes in hanbok over time in terms of material, colors, and the length of the skirt or jacket, the hanbok's basic format has more or less remained the same for the past 1,600 years. The general design of hanbok aims to create a delicate flow of lines and angles. The top part is called a jeogori (저고리) and is blouse-like and well-fitted with long sleeves with the men's version being longer, stretching down to the waist. Women wear loose skirts (chima 치마) while men wear baggy pants (paji 파지). The colors of a hanbok are decided according to the “five colors theory” known as obangsaek 오방색. This refers to the theory of yin and yang and the five elements metal (white), fire (red), wood (blue), water (black) and earth (yellow). Most hanbok are made of naturally obtainable colors.

Hanbok can be classified into ceremonial and everyday dress, and then further categorized by gender, age and season. The colors and material of a hanbok used to specify social status and marital status. The material that the hanbok was made of could be telling of one’s social status. The upper class wore closely woven ramie cloth or plain and patterned silks while the commoners wore cotton. The color could also be telling of this: the commoners usually wore white except for on special occasions when they would wear pale pink, light green, gray, and charcoal, while the upper classes wore bright colored hanboks with beautiful embroidery. Eventually, when more people started wearing colored hanboks, bright colors were generally worn by children and girls, and muted hues by middle aged men and women. Unmarried women often wore yellow jeogori and red chima while married women wore green jeogori and red chima.

About a century ago, people use to wear hanbok everyday, but with globalization, all cultures have changed over time. For modern Koreans, hanbok is the formal clothing worn during Korean holidays or on special occasions. Children wear hanbok on their first birthday and adults wear it for their wedding ceremony or for other such major events within the family. But as cultures keep evolving, getting back in touch with traditions in our own way is also a big part of evolving. The runways at Seoul Fashion Week are constantly filled with new ideas for modernizing and incorporating hanbok in everyday clothes today. Many people have started wearing stylish hanbok modified into a suit as an everyday item of clothing, and many people also enjoy outings and taking pictures in hanbok by renting one from hanbok rental shops.

Traditional Hanbok-

Modern hanbok suit-