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These past two weeks have been really rough weeks for everyone I am guessing. During spring break I was just relaxing and watching a Korean variety show called running man which I have started finding extremely entertaining, and then all of a sudden I had to put all my things in storage and fly back home within 24 hours. This has been a big shift for everyone and I wasn’t really able to find a good time to meet with Prof. Sumi Kim either. So, I was not able to learn a lot of new things these two weeks, but I did do something that I found really fun and useful. I tried to simulate random conversations in Korean in different settings with different people and see how to structure sentence and what kinds of words to use. A lot of Korean culture is based on your reputation and how you present yourself. So, with the different levels of politeness and respect and different words that convey them, it is very important to know how to communicate with different types of people, so this was a fun activity to do. It felt kind of like a matching game which also served as a great review of everything I have learned so far. These are some vague English translations of some of the hypothetical conversations that I came up with-

Conversation 1-

Setting: In a cafe alone

Waiter: Hello how are you?

Me: Hello, I’m good. How are you?

Waiter: I’m good. What can I get for you?

Me: Could I have 1 cup of oolong tea please, thank you.

Conversation 2-

Setting: Working on a group project

Older group mate 1: Which part of the project do you want to do?

Group mate 2: I think I would like to do <this>.

Me: I am pretty good with this, so I think I can work on this.

Older group mate 1: I think we should do it this way. 

Me: That sounds like a good idea. What if we also added <this> perspective?

Group mate 2: Yeah we can look into that too.

Conversation 3- 

Setting: Making plans to hangout with friends

Me: Hey guys! Do you have any plans for Thursday night?

Friend 1: No, have not come up with anything.

Me: We should do something together.

Friend 2: How about seeing the new movie that came out.

Friend 3: I was planning on checking out the new sushi place that opened downtown.

Friend 1: I already watched that movie and it wasn’t that great. I do like sushi though.

Friend 2: Let’s get sushi then.

Me: Sounds good what time should we meet?

Friend 3: How about 6pm?

Everyone: *agree*

Conversation 4-

Setting: Job interview

Me: Good afternoon, sir. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Interviewer: It is good to have you. Why do you want this position?

Me: *praises the company and the interviewer and mentioned how I want to be a part of it*

Along with having fun with all these conversations and getting a few good laughs out of them too, another thing that made me really happy was an email I wrote to Prof. Kim Sumi. I asked how she has been, told her how I have been, and also mentioned a few good times to schedule a call. The part that made me super happy was that the entire email was only in Korean. I was really glad to see myself using the material that we covered about dates, days, and time.

Since the university extended our spring break another week and remote learning has recently began, I have only communicated with my language partner once. Although we were a group in the start of the semester, it was decided that Jenna should meet Vivian and I separately in case of any changes that might conflict with each other’s schedule. Jenna and I decided to use the KakaoTalk app’s video call as a way to communicate and keep in touch during quarantine. In our first meeting back, we discussed our situation and how we were doing. It was kind of nice to talk to another person in Korean that wasn’t a family member. Since teaching through a screen was not the most ideal case, the homework she gave me was to watch a Korean drama. After watching, I would need to write a summary or reflection about the episode. This way, both my listening and writing skills could be put to use. Jenna gave me a few suggestions, but instead of a newer series, I decided to go with a drama called Reply 1997 which came out around eight years ago.

Since I have only stayed home and with an occasional walk, I have been spending much of my time with my family. Both of my parents moved to America in their thirties, so they are much more comfortable communicating in Korean. My siblings on the other hand are comfortable speaking in both English and Korean but prefer communicating in English. I was able to practice speaking since it is the only way my parents can completely understand me. Usually with my siblings, Konglish was the way to go. Recently, my sister and I have gotten competitive with who is “better” in Korean. We tried to make it into a contest with bragging rights as our incentive. It was a point to recognize and correct the other person’s grammar or sentence structure, a point if you could get the vocabulary word correct that the other person didn’t know, another point for being able to write out a difficult word or phrase that my mom would provide for us, and finally another point if we could guess what my dad was saying when he spoke with an unfamiliar dialect. It is disappointing to admit that she won because I unintentionally said the incorrect phrase multiple times, but it was a fun way to keep working on my skills.

When our family got bored, we tried to play “Assa”, a Korean rhythm game. It is supposed to be an icebreaker with a goal that everyone learns each other’s name, but we decided to play it anyways with our Korean names. It’s a game where we have to time what we say with the correct beat as the rhythm speeds up. There were so many games I learned from other Korean friends that ended with all of us laughing. Even in the midst of the covid outbreak, I got to enjoy spending time with my family while progressing in the Korean language.  

I have successfully finished my first week of zoom classes and in summary, it is different. I have never been one who loves learning through technology, whether that be lectures or online module assignments. Nevertheless, we adapt.

            It has been interesting to study sign language over applications like Facetime and Google Duo. Although I have a one-on-one meeting with Reba, twice a week, this form of teaching does not feel as personal or interactive to the same degree. Now, I understand that with the current situation, social distancing needs to be practiced, and, as such, this is the next best form of teaching. Our first lesson online together was good, but with the extended spring break, I was slow to recall many of the signs. However, by lesson 2, Reba and I were back to our old pace. Recently, the structure of each one of our lessons consists of a quick review of words we learned previously, learning around twenty new words during a session, and then formulating and processing example sentences with the new signs. So far, we have covered family, colors, modes of transportation, furniture, animals, common verbs, and a little bit of terminology revolving around this current pandemic, such as a virus.

            Reba and I have been utilizing the recourses we have used in the past such as the “Signing Naturally textbook”, the “ American Sign Language Dictionary”, and the application “Sign School”. However, I have also recently started using a program/website called “udemy.com.” The website has thousands of courses, all related to different topics, including ASL. I had bought a beginner ASL course several years ago but never completed it, thus I recently went back to complete the course. This online teaching just provides me more opportunities to learn ASL through video-based methods, instead of a book. In addition to this, I have also recently been searching covers of songs in ASL on YouTube. These are really fun videos to watch as the performers add a chorographical component to their signing, making it a hybrid of dance and ASL. As a dancer, I thought this could be a fun and exciting new way to build my vocabulary, as well as get some exercise during the quarantine.

            Reba and I still have yet to go over medical terminology; however, I am really excited and happy about the material we have covered thus far. Although my goal for the course was to be able to communicate with deaf individuals in an emergency medical situation, I have found a passion for sign language that I want to explore. I do not want my vocabulary to be limited to a medical emergency, but rather be included in my arsenal of signs. I love how kinesthetic sign is as a language and the ability to express the degree and intensity of a story through emotions and signs. It is beautiful how an entire non-verbal language has been constructed to convey the same meaning and information that a verbal language does have.

When my family lived in Missouri, we hosted a college student who studied and sang pansori. She would sometimes give us sample performances and attempted to teach us this style of traditional Korean musical storytelling. Pansori is often referred to as the “Korean Epic Chant”; for those who have never heard this genre, I would compare it to a form of opera. The word itself is derived from pan (판), which refers to a place where people gather, and sori (소리), which means sound. It is comprised of three main components: the singer, percussionist, and audience. The singer narrates a story while the drummer accompanies them. Since this is a form of storytelling and the lyrics and method of delivery is largely improvised, the drummer and audience will occasionally shout encouragements to the singer. This improvising makes every performance unique, even if it’s the same story. The sole singer plays every character in the performance, even the background, and will alternate between singing, speaking, and gesturing with their fan. Both the singer and drummer wear hanboks, the traditional Korean wear. With the intense vocal training that pansori singers go through, they are able to produce more than four octaves along with falsetto and breathing voice.

This genre first arose in the 17^th century of the Joseon Dynasty and it was used for shamanism so that people could pass on rituals, but it wasn’t until two centuries later that it became popularized. Like many types of entertainment, pansori was mainly performed for the nobles and royals. Finally, singers changed the lyrics and melodies so that the lower class could also enjoy this music. By training groups of women, a singer names Shin Jae Hyo became responsible to make pansori Korea’s national music. When the Japanese invaded Korea, the number of pansori performances started to drop. Also, with modern music being popularized, this art form wasn’t being recognized as much. Nevertheless, in the past 60 years, pansori regained its popularity and even young children start to learn it. In the Joseon Dynasty, there were 12 sets of stories pansori singers would tell, but only five of those original are told today. Even so, those stories have multiple versions as they changed over the hundreds of years; each full performance can last between three to eight hours!

People say that the all pansori masters have trained next to a waterfall at one point in their life. This is so that they can get some of the inspiration from the sound that nature makes around them. They will try to mimic the sounds so that they can incorporate them into their stories. When I hear pansori, I don’t really understand the words that they are saying at all times, but I can sense what the singer is trying to portray through the pitch of their voice and how fast they talk. It is an authentic style of music and performance that I have become more interested in. It’s amazing to see how some people can make these beautiful sounds that have the ability to move others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=72&v=BIwuh5ThHsA&feature=emb_logo ;

Regardless of any external obstacles to my language learning experience, such as a pandemic, I have been regularly contacting my language learning tutor Jimin in order to keep progressing. I have recently been watching a very popular K-drama called “Itaewon Class,” and although the first episode made me unsure if I wanted to invest my time into it due to the violence and tragedy, I gave it another shot. Now, I want to watch it at all hours of the day (which I of course can’t). This drama is quite different from many of the stereotypical and predictable K-dramas revolving around love relationships. It stars Park Seo-joon, an actor whom I am very fond of due to his smooth acting. It portrays the tragic but purposeful life of Park Saeroyi after he gets expelled from school and his father is killed in a car accident, all due to the very powerful and affluent Jang family. Park Saeroyi opens up a pub and is relentless in his journey as he tries to throw down the Jang family and become the owner of a successful franchise. He has a rather refreshing and admirable way of thinking and working as the star is very faithful to his friends/coworkers and also cares about dignity and wants to make the most out of his life. I find all of the other characters are rather diverse, as there is a transgender character, an African-American who has a Korean father, and a 20-yr old genius/rebel. I find that this drama helps me learn more about Korean social culture, as it is about the restaurant culture and also revolves around one of the hottest areas in Seoul- Itaewon. Additionally, just hearing the cast speak in Korean helps me to learn and understand new slang, as well as formal speaking from the Jang family. Overall, watching “Itaewon Class” is a very entertaining way for me to improve on my Korean language learning, even in bed.

            Other than watching Korean TV shows, I have also been keeping up with my language learning by visiting the Korean market called HMart in Philadelphia. I know that it is slightly risky in times like these, so I make sure to wear gloves and a mask. Although it is somewhat daunting to wear PPE whenever I go out due to stares from other people, I feel more at ease when I wear it going to HMart, as Asian people already have the custom of wearing masks whenever one is even slightly sick. I visited the Korean market twice in order to get ingredients for Korean dishes that I prepared. I ended up making ddeokbokki (떡볶이), spicy marinated pork (돼지불고기), and marinated beef (불고기). Overall, it was a success! Oh, I also picked up some of my favorite Korean snacks as well. I was able to practice speaking and reading in Korean as all of the products at the store were written in Korean as well as in English. I thought that it was a very useful way of practicing my language learning skills, as it is a skill that I would need if I were ever to stay in Korea.

            Lastly, I have been facetiming Jimin on a weekly basis to discuss my future learning plans and also to do mini grammar lessons.

I began my language learning experience with already knowing the Korean alphabet and how to generally write in Korean. However, writing is definitely one of my weaker points and it is something that I knew I wanted to improve on this semester. I am not very comfortable with writing and because I don't really have much practice with it, my handwriting is crude and looks quite awkward. I strongly prefer to type and am somewhat familiar with where the hangul characters are located on the keyboard, but it is also definitely something that I could also work on. I try to type in Korean when I communicate with my mother or grandmother as often as possible so that I can gain some practice.

Most of my knowledge in Korean comes from speaking informally with my family and I have difficulty translating what I read, hear, or speak into written words. Since I also do not have a strong foundation in formal Korean language, sometimes my sentences are improper or incoherent. I am definitely able to understand a lot more through reading or listening than putting forth those words myself. A writing exercise that I have done was to write a short biography on myself. I don’t currently have access to what I actually wrote since I left my notebook at school but it basically consisted of a simple introduction, what my interests are, how I was that day, etc. I think it was an effective exercise because it broadly demonstrated my level of writing and also any relevant vocabulary that I knew.

I recently finished a Korean drama called Itaewon Class. It’s a drama about a guy who wants revenge on the owner of a big company so he opens a street bar in Itaewon with people he encounters that help him make it successful. Street bar or pub in Korean is called Pocha or 포차. I thought it would be interesting to look more into street bars in Korea because it’s a major part of their drinking culture. 

Normally in Korea there are food stalls or carts outside called Pojangmacha or 포장마차. These stalls are tented spots where people eat while drinking late at night. The literal translation of Pojangmacha is covered wagon. Pocha is the abbreviation for Pojangmacha. Many of them have evolved to become indoors now. Both the outdoors and indoors Pocha have shown up often in Korean dramas. Itaewon Class is all about the newer indoor Pocha in Itaewon that is opened by the main guy and his obstacles. The newer indoor modern Pochas are very aesthetically pleasing compared to the older outdoor Pochas. 

I was looking up more information about these Korean pubs and found this very helpful article from people who visited Korea as tourists with tips and also learned some new Korean words. Typically when you go to a Pocha hungry with a group of people, you should order anju or 안주 based on how hungry you are so if you are really hungry, you could order spicy rice and fish cakes because those don’t last long. If you want to order a small snack cause you’re not hungry, you would order dried squid. A good choice of food to eat with soju and beer is some sort of stew like kimchi stew or jjigae (김치 찌개) because they are kept on a burner so it’s kept warm. The two common alcoholic drinks that people usually drink are soju and beer. People will play Korean drinking games with both. The drinking culture in Korea is big where there might be societal pressures to drink because most people do and a lot of times you might have to drink in a work setting. The article that I found also gave tips on avoiding drinking if you are not in the mood or it’s just not your thing. The first tip is to pour water in your shot glass when you’re pouring water into your water glass. Another tip is to throw your shot over your shoulder or on the ground when everyone is throwing back their shot. The last option is to throw your shot in a water glass before anyone notices. 

I find the concept of Pocha to be really interesting and the evolution was also really fascinating. I actually went to a Pocha in New York City in Ktown. It was pretty nice and everything that I had thought it would be but I think I would like to go to an authentic older outdoors Pocha one day in Korea. 

Here is the link to the article: https://www.eatyourkimchi.com/how-to-survive-a-korean-bar/

Now we are transitioning to narrative style manuscripts, specifically books of Miracles. I decided to try this style because I felt like I should learn to translate different types of texts. Also within narrative style you get a context that you  may not have with poetry. The chronological nature and the specific actors within a story lend itself to a more informed translation. While outside references may be considered the most important thing is the content of the narrative which is not always the case to understanding poetry. 

We are starting with a story from the book of Miracles of St Urael which outlines the life of the author Abba Giorgis zeGasicha. He is one of the greatest authors who wrote original works in Ge’ez. Of course they are all considered inspired and he is a saint of the Church, but he created a large body of work that changed the history of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Some of which are used in daily praises such as Anqetse Berhan “The Door of Light”, Widasie Mesqel “Praises of the Cross”, Seatat “The book of Hours”. Authorship is a very obscure thing in Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox texts because out of humility, authors are known to ascribe their writings to someone else or completely omit a/their name. However, Abba Giorgis includes a miracle that tells of his life in this miracle book that we are translating. Though, this piece has already been translated and it is serving just as a means to practice by. Abba Giorgis names himself in some of his works as the lowly servant of God and includes many important facts about himself such as birth place, lineage, and upbringing. 

His style can be described as heavily using repetition, obscure references, amazing vocabulary (in Ge’ez, Greek, Hebrew), both capturing hymnology and theology in his works.

We are using a transcript compiled by Getatchew Haile which compares 4 different manuscripts using one as the primary text. It is absolutely fascinating the work that goes into this. “Getatchew Haile is an Ethiopian-American philologist widely considered the foremost scholar of the Ge'ez language alive today. He was acknowledged for his contributions to the field with a MacArthur Fellows Program "genius" award and the Edward Ullendorff Medal from the Council of the British Academy.” My language mentions him a lot but I never realized how much of a leading scholar he is! Looking at his body of work, recognitions, vast deep and wide experiences, and continued work till this day is amazing. His work may be a project I want to look in for my final project. It actually makes me even more interested to study linguistics even further into my career whether it is in a self directed fashion as I am now or a formal way. This is definitely something I am interested in exploring. What I know for sure is that I don’t want to stop learning Ge’ez and working on translating. 

Now we’ve moved on to translating the Easter service rites. This is different because it draws from a lot of different resources for example it starts off with the daily book of prayers, then into a poem called “the Image of the Praises”, then it goes into the readings of the day from the Holy Bible, finally the part of the rites that are specific to the day draw almost completely from the Book of Psalms. Once we figured out that that’s where the phrases were coming from, we were able to look up the verses in the Ge’ez and English versions of the Psalms to locate the verse and contextualize it in the translation.

Because the document we were working on was compiled but another party, we were also going through and fixing common spelling mistakes and forms. 

One big lesson I got from this project was the importance of identifying object markers. These are the different object case markers in Ge’ez:

They are seen at the end of the noun; if the noun ends in a 6th order it will go to 1st order, 3rd order → 5th order, adding a ḥā on proper nouns and names also makes it an object, 

Object markers: for example with sī (3rd order) → sie (5th order) bi’sī to bi’isie, man subject form to man object form. This changed one sentence we were working on and because the sentence order was also off we needed to spot the case change in order to make the most sense of it.

I made some stylistic notes as well like using exclamation marks in the presence of an imperative or a plea. Putting these notes into action as well as reiterating simple grammatical lessons like common prepositions really feels like I’m getting the best of both. In this lesson, I learned a new term “clictic” which refers to prepositions. “In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but depends phonologically on another word or phrase. In this sense, it is syntactically independent but phonologically dependent—always attached to a host.” One such example is im- which may also be seen as i- depending on the noun that follows it in the word. The word itself means from, originating.

I also just realized the difference between perfect and imperfect verbs and how they are used in Ge’ez. The distinction doesn’t always make a difference in translation. Perfect is for a completed action while imperfect is an ongoing action.

These past three weeks can be summed up essentially with one word, chaos. With the unbelievably rapid rate that the COVID-19 is spreading across the world, daily life for everyone is becoming affected. The University of Richmond has decided to transition into online classes. Thankfully, it is not just our school that has decided to transition to this form of teaching. As far as I know, every school in the United States has decided to either close or transition to online education for the rest of the semester. This is very concerning, since I have no idea how this will impact my education, but I am almost certain that having classes online will only make learning more difficult.

            As far as this course goes, the professors have decided to essentially keep the curriculum exactly the same, which makes sense since this course is primarily a self-directed learning course. One major change is that we will no longer be able to meet our language learning partners face to face, but rather rely on communicating through webcam. Though this may be difficult to some, since I am primarily focusing on practicing communication and pronunciation this will make the online transition much smoother. But for this biweekly journal I want to talk about what I have done in the past weeks and what I am planning to focus on for the upcoming weeks.

            During these past few weeks of spring break, I was able to come back home in California and be with my family. My family primarily speaks Korean, so I had the opportunity to really be immersed in an environment that only speaks Korean. I believe that during my time here, my ability to think and speak in Korean has become much more proficient and natural. I find that I am able to confidently express what I want to say to my parents without having to stand there stumbling for words. In addition, over the course of the break, I watched a Korean drama called Itaewon Class. This was a very fun drama that was released on Netflix. I made it a goal to watch the drama and try not to rely on the English subtitles that they provide. I found that I was able to understand a majority of what they said, but I found it difficult to understand once they started to use slang and curse at each other, which are parts of the Korean language that are constantly changing. But overall, I enjoyed the drama very much and I learned a lot of new vocabulary as a result.

            Looking towards the future, I realize now that I will be home for the rest of the semester, which is something that I am not totally against. While I am here with my family, I will try my best to continue to speak Korean and practice my Korean speaking, while being quarantined. In addition, I will try to get in touch with my language learning partner and continue our weekly meetings.  

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, I was unable to meet with my language partner. In addition, I travelled during spring break, which further prevented me from continuing my Korean studies. However, I was able to get in contact with my language partner and review the lesson plans that she personally outlined for me in the beginning of the semester through Kakaotalk, a messenger application that is popular among Koreans. This review eliminated some of the uncertainties that I was experiencing in regards for the continuation of the self-directed language program and helped me to reevaluate my learning goals.

My language partner and I decided that it would be best for her to continue her original teaching style. I agreed with this method because it would reduce the amount of variability in my learning experience and would save time by reducing the time of experimenting with learning styles. In the past, my language partner would give me two to three news articles and video links for me to translate, understand, and discuss. This has been the most effective way of learning for me because I get to simultaneously read, write, listen, and speak Korean. In other words, I am currently at an advanced level where I can multi-task with numerous language material. The only topic that we did not discuss was the date, time, and method of recording the podcast at the end of the year. There is still much time left in the semester, so we decided to review that topic later.

For the past couple of days, I was able to see the results of changing my default language to Korean on my computer. My mother encountered an issue with her computer and needed my help in resetting the default settings. The task was challenging at first because I had not practiced using Korean on my computer during Spring Break. With enough time, however, I was able to translate most of the settings in my head and reset the computer for her. I was very proud upon completion of this task because I never actually demonstrated this ability to anyone other than myself. While the task itself didn’t add much pressure, considering that I was helping my mother, I was still nervous because I was not sure if I could reset the device on my own. This experience validated my Korean skills and my ability to use my Korean in uncertain and new scenarios.

Since the last two weeks were technically considered Spring Break periods, I relaxed and watched several Korean dramas in one sitting. People who know me and have read my bi-weekly journals in the past know that I love learning Korean while engaging in an activity that I enjoy. The dramas that I watched were Itaewon Class and the second season of Kingdom. These two dramas take place in two different time periods. The former takes place in our current time while the latter takes place in a more ancient setting. While watching the dramas, I learned words like 박새로이, 순두부, “왜!”, and much more.

During our sessions, my language partner and I worked on this poem; “The Image of the Icon”. This is one of the paragraphs we translated and analyzed. This is my language partner’s finished edit. 

The Image of the Icon (Malkəʾā Śəʿəl)

ኦርኅርኅተ፡ ሕሊና፡ አፍቅሮተ፡ ሰብእ፡ ልማዳ።

ሰአሊተ፡ ምሕረት፡ ይእቲ፡ ማርያም፡ ሐፁረ፡

መስቀል፡ ዘየዓውዳ።

ንትቀበላ፡ ንዑ፡ ለወለተ፡ ዳዊት፡ ዘይሁዳ።

መጽአት፡ ነያ፡ ኅቡረ፡ ምስለ፡ ወልዳ።

ናንፈርዕፅ፡ ቅድመ፡ ሥዕላ፡ እንዘ፡ ንሁብ፡ ጋዳ።

ለለጌሠሙ፡ ትመስል፡ እንግዳ።

Orəḫrəḫta ḥəllinā afqərota sabəʾ ləmādā.

Saʾālita məḥrat yəʾəti māryām ḥāṣura masqal

zayaʿāwdā.

Nətqabalā nəʿu lawallata dāwit zayəhudā.

Maṣʾāt nayā ḫəbura məsla waldā.

Nānfarʿəṣ qədma śəʿəlā ənza nəhub gādā.

Lalageśamu təmasl əngədā.

O compassionate of mind, whose custom is to love mankind, / Thou intercessor for mercy, Mary, who

art encompassed by the rampart of the Cross. / Come, let us welcome the daughter of David of

Judah! / Behold! She has come, joined by her son. / Let us leap with joy before her icon, giving

offerings! / Every morning she resembles a guest.

O compassionate one, whose habit is to love mankind?, Mary is the beseecher of mercy, who is surrounded by fortification/palisade/rampart of the Cross; come let’s receive her, the daughter of David of Judah/the Jews?; Behold, she has come here together with her Son. Let’s jump with joy in front of her icon/image as we give her gifts; (for regulars?) everyday she looks like  a guest

I would like to highlight some words that we discussed in length. 

“Lalageśamu” which quite literally means morning by morning to indicate repetitive context. Also in Ethiopian/Eritrean culture, guests are very honored. Receiving guests is an event and is observed by all members of the household. Thus, St Mary is likened to a guest who is received into the home. 

The concept of being compassionate in mind is hard to pinpoint in English. In Ge’ez rəḫrəḫta ḥəllinā can also be translated as compassionate one, compassionate conscience; loving, kind, can also be used.

In this stanza, we can also note the rhyming of each line, ending with the “ā” sound. In this stanza the lines don’t have a syllabic consistency, with some lines holding 12 and others 20, but it fits very well with the melody of the song.

As I described earlier, the way we went about the translation is by doing independent research on the context and meanings and coming together to orate the translation. There we would discuss alternate meanings and how the translation can best fit the audience I am translating for. Namely, young, native English speakers with a simple background in Church services. This informed the formatting and definitely has an impact on how I choose to do transliterations as opposed to my language partner. His work is more for the academic setting and his audience are scholars of Ge’ez. Thus his work consists also of comparing manuscripts and their small differences as well as providing a more comprehensive contextual explanation.

February 16:

These past two weeks have been really great and I have learned a lot! We have gone over very important things like verb categories and other grammatical concepts like forming clauses without a verb. One exercise that we have done is a translation exercise with the Epistle of St John in Ge’ez. This was new to me. I would start off by reading aloud the group of verses to practice my reading and pronunciation. Then I would vocally exercise translating on the spot. My language partner would suggest some things or point out important grammatical markers and I would thus improve my translation. Another way we did it is by preparing more with the text to spot out vocabulary I didn’t know or conjugations I could mark. Then, during our session, I would use that knowledge to reform the translation along with the feedback of my instructor.   We also are trying to translate Melke’a Si’il which is a piece of poetry. The subgenre is “Melk” or portrait. The style is archaea poetry. It isn’t very easily translated in English but it is a type of poetry in which God, the saints, and events are characterized physically. The stanzas are typically 5 lines and the number of syllables in the line are very important to the piece because it is sung in melody. Each stanza ends with a rhyme and keeps one rhyme in the stanza. Thus, words are often rearranged to make the rhyme fit. The order of subject, object, verb is often moved around in comparison to a typical narrative script. The poems are often long, having around 30 stanzas or more. 

One of the first important comments that I got from translating this poem is identifying infinitives. Identifying subjunctives, verbs in perfect and imperfect “tenses” is another difficult exercise that we do while translating. And actually I found out that the sense of tenses in Ge’ez is much more dependent on the context of the sentence than just the verb alone. Imperfect tense for example can have a future implication or a subjunctive implication when translated into English. 

Another great thing thus far has been the resources that my language partner has compiled for me including grammar guides, dictionaries, and dictionary guides. I have been primarily using Holmstead’s Introduction to Ge’ez. It has small lessons that I take weekly and come back to our sessions with questions. I really like how the information is organized in the textbook. It is very easy to follow and includes graphics and exercises to apply the lessons. It also includes a dictionary and verb conjugation guide. 

So far, I really like the format of this class. I am able to apply the concepts that I have learned, work on projects that I am really passionate about, and discuss the application of the Ge;ez language in a larger social context. I can’t wait to see the future projects we choose, because the ones we’re looking at now are really applicable to my daily service in the church as well.

I hoped to learn build upon what I’ve been learning on for the past two weeks, as well as learning some new material. I think I was able to complete these goals these past two weeks.

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic considering the situation that is going on around the world. I was able to meet with Professor Kim once for the past two weeks, before spring break. We were able to review what we learned about the date. She always begins class by asking us how our week has been and what we did today, or yesterday. These conversations at the beginning of the class are always nice, since it is a good refresher before we begin learning. It also helps us practice our speaking and listening skills. Since spring break, Professor Kim has emailed us and attached some handouts to help us practice. She gave a list of vocabulary words that we’ve been going over and another worksheet about grammar particles.

I was able to meet with Jannette these past two weeks. One week, we did our usual practice by reviewing and practicing the things that I learned with Professor Kim. As usual, Jannette taught me new vocabulary here and there. We try our best to have as much conversation in Korean as we can. Since I am just a beginner, we don’t speak in Korean for a majority of the time, but it is always good practice and forces me to draw on things that I’ve learned in the past that might not be as fresh in my mind. Besides our usual meeting, we also watched a movie. Jannette held a movie night with all of her language partners, so I was able to meet people who are also learning Korean. We watched 200 Pound Beauty, which is a Korean movie. It was very informative and actually was a very good movie. It touched upon some issues in Korean culture and was funny, but at the same time informative.

In order to practice what I’ve learned these past two weeks; I will look over the handouts that Professor Kim sent me. I will also use other resources to learn Korean, such as different language apps on the phone. There is also a website I’ve used in the past, so I think that I will go back to that. Our classes with Professor Kim will also continue so I look forward to those. I will continue to try to incorporate Korean into my conversations with Korean speaking friend. I also hope to continue having practice conversations with Jannette in our future meetings.

I think my strategies have been effective so far. I’ve found that things are sticking, and I am starting to pick up more and more Korean. After laying down a foundation, I’ve been able to continue to build upon it.

In order to build on what I’ve learned so far, I hope to learn more useful vocabulary and new grammar points. I plan to find different ways to practice Korean and learn more about the language, even though I’m home now and don’t have the same resources. I look forward to seeing how the rest of the semester will be like and find more sources to learn Korean. These resources will be helpful for me after I graduate and hopefully continue my studies in Korean.

When humans first learn a language, they have people around them that are constantly using it and books that contain the written way of that language. When the language is no longer used by through the four skills, speaking, listening, reading, and writing, the language can go extinct. A language can die when the last members who utilize them pass away or when people have to learn the dominant language in their environment and forget about their old language. Linguists can help preserve a language by working with native speakers to audio record their conversations. Having a dictionary, preferably online so that it doesn’t get misplaced, and having the audio translation will also help. Other artifacts, songs, and dances that are part of the culture can also be recorded. In this way, the older generations can pass down the knowledge of the language and culture to the newer generation. This can even help bring back a dead language to life. In the article, it mentioned that the language of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians went from a status of nonexistent to federally recognized. It also mentioned that the dances were adopted by the surrounding tribes, but at that time, the language was not adopted. The process took many decades, but now there are around 4,900 members in the Siletz tribe.

The government once used schools to extinguish the native ways but now the language of the Siletz is offered in public school. Learning this new language allows students to meet the language requirement in Oregon. The tribe is continuing to spread their language and culture so that it can be appreciated and preserved.

Over the past few weeks, a lot has happened across the world due to the Coronavirus pandemic. As a result, I was unable to officially meet with my language partner and discuss about Korean. On the other hand, I actually was able to still practice and learn Korean on my own time because the covid-19 situation gave me great incentive to listen to news surrounding current events happening not only in the United States but also in South Korea. I actually never had that much of a motivation to listen to Korean news channels because usually the events that were happening in Korea were mostly political and did not really interest me that much. However, currently, due to the coronavirus hitting South Korea so hard, I was really drawn to listen to the broadcasting coverage daily. So, although I was not able to meet up with Jenna, I actually feel like I still am improving on my Korean even more because I was listening to the news (sometimes even for 3 hours) and trying to comprehend the news everyday.  

In the news, I learned a lot about how this pandemic affected the stock market and how much it affected businesses especially private contractors. I think through Korea’s news, I was able to pick up on new vocabulary terms like “증상,” “사회,” 발생,” “국경봉쇄,” and e.t.c. Of course I did not understand the news to the entirety, however, when I could, I made sure to search up a few vocabulary words that I picked up from the announcer and I translated it so I could remember it for the next time I come across that word in the news. 

Another result from this pandemic was that I had a lot of time on my hands at home since we are encouraged to stay quarantined. This is why I actually started a Korean drama (something that I really do not do because of lack of time) called Itaewon Class. This drama starring Park Seo-joon, Kim Da-mi, Yoo Jae-myung and Kwon Nara is about the story of ex-convict Park Sae-ro-yi whose life has been turned upside down after he gets expelled from school for punching a bully and his father is killed in an accident. Following his father's steps, he opened his bar DanBam (Sweet Night) in Itaewon, along with his manager and staff, striving towards success and reaching greater heights. This drama actually was not only very entertaining, it also was very informational regarding how restaurant businesses work. I was very intrigued about the amount of investors, correct management, staff, and leader, and money a business needed in order to expand and thrive. Overall, I am going to just continue to listen to the news and watch this drama in order to keep up with my learning plan during this quarantine process. 

According to the NY Times article, Siletz Language, With Few Voices, Finds Modern Way to Survive, languages can go extinct due to government intervention. For example, the United States government had an Indian policy that created artificial conglomerates of tribes that jammed them into a single place even though many of the groups spoke completely different languages and in many instances, had very little in common. Eventually, some languages prevailed over other tribes. Some dances prevailed over other tribes as well. And ultimately, some cultures prevailed over other tribes that led to the extinction of certain languages and overall cultures as a whole. 

Linguists can help preserve a language by creating dictionaries of the language. For example, a Georgetown University student made many dictionaries to preserve a language. 

According to the article, a ‘dead’ language can be brought back to life. For example, in the 1950s, the tiny tribe, Siletz was declared dead by the United States- a “termination” from the rolls. The Siletz however clawed back, clinging to former reservation lands and cultural anchors in songs and dances and in two decades time near the 1970s, this language became only the second tribe in the nation to go from completely nonexistence to federally recognized status. Currently, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians now have about 4,900 enrolled members and a profitable casino in the nearby resort town of Lincoln City.

To document linguistic diversity, schools now teach the language through the 6th grade at the public school in Siletz and the tribe aims to have a teaching program in a few years to meet Oregon’s high school language requirements, allowing Siletz, in a place it originated, to be taught as a foreign language.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks with the COVID-19 spreading, spring break plus its extension, and classes being moved to online. Due to this fact, I have been unable to meet with my language instructor for almost two weeks now and my progression with the language has been slowed. Regardless, I have been trying to keep up with my ASL assignments and have continued to practice my signing daily for around 30 minutes.  Fortunately, before I had left school, I was able to grab my ASL notes, my textbook, and my ASL dictionary and have since been self-learning the material. One new interesting component of my language journey is that I have been learning from an online DVD application that strengths my visual acuity and observation. The DVD displays individuals practicing sign language and my job, as a student, is to observe and write down the translation of the simply constructed sentences the performer's signs. Through this DVD application, I have the opportunity to improve my translational abilities of the language which is extremely helpful as ASL can not be taugh through traditional means, such as a textbook (at least, not as easily). It is an interesting form of teaching, one that I have never experienced. However, since my return home, I have encountered two issues with such a method. None of the modern computers in my household have a disk drive, making it much more difficult for me to use said DVD application. In addition, this form of teaching only improves my visual interpretation of the language, not my ability to recall and actually sign.  However, with the lack of face-to-face meetings with my sign instructor, I believe this modality of teaching to be an appropriate alternative solution,

            I have also been learning ASL vocabulary through the application “SignSchool” on my phone - trying to improve my basic understanding and strengthing my terminology of ASL by learning approximately 30 words, or rather signs, per day. SignSchoool is essentially an ASL dictionary on the phone, however, there are also short lessons incorporated into the app that revolves around specific, topical vocabularies, such as transportation or fruit. One challenge I will be facing in the future is my ability to communicate with other deaf speakers and actually practice my sign language. However, to combat such a concern/obstacle, I will be making appointments on italki.com to practice communicating. The plan for the future with my instructor is to perform FaceTime calls twice a week for an hour in which during which we will practice conversing. I am a bit worried to be practicing through online because I will not be able to see her full picture in the same manner as being face-to-face, nor am I confident in the wireless connection’s speed, but it is the next possible best possible option so that is what I plan to do. I’m still developing my vocabulary to strengthen the basic understanding of the language. Thus, Reba and I have not learned much medical terminology, which was the goal for this course. However, the information I am learning currently will be helpful in describing events preceding and post any medical events as my terminology is revolving around common nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Languages go extinct when humans cease to utilize them, whether it be through speaking, reading, or writing. When a language dies, it is no longer used as a form of communication between individuals. The reading and the interview made me think of how people say that Latin is a dead language. I always found that claim interesting, considering the fact that there are still many scholars who study and use Latin, although perhaps not on a daily basis. It seems to me that the life of a language depends heavily on its utilization by native speakers, and I think this is partially due to the relationship that culture has with language. Anyone can learn another language, but to truly understand it, one must be able to connect with its cultural aspects. 

The best way to preserve a language would be for elders to teach it to younger generations. However, this option is obviously not always feasible and is probably the most difficult way to preserve a language. Linguists can help by using the Internet and technology, which has already been done countless times to preserve multiple languages. Not only can they create written documents, but also record podcasts for further interaction. I am unsure of whether a language that dies can ever truly be brought back to life, because if it has died, it means that there are no longer any native speakers. However, I think that there are many efforts that can be taken to ensure that a language is never forgotten, because languages are a significant part of cultural history.

Sadly I was only able to see my language partner once before spring break. We used this time to discuss current events happening in the world and the major hot topic currently, the coronavirus. The week before spring break, we were still discussing what we would think would happen for classes and whether or not the virus was really that serious. Turns out our predictions were pretty accurate. We thought that it was gonna spread even more in the United States and that we would probably not be able to come back after spring break. The virus is now a pandemic which means it is a disease prevalent all over the world. The spread started slowly in China but developed into a rapid spread over many Asian countries, South Korea being one of those countries. 

I think this pandemic kinda shows how good a country is at handling a crisis. It seems like the United States was not ready for this pandemic even though we had months to prepare for the arrival. In many of the Asian countries, it seems like it is stabilizing. In Taiwan, there were only 67 cases with 1 death. Sure this might be because it’s a small country in comparison to other countries like China and the United States but I think it speaks volumes to how ready and well prepared the country was for the arrival of the virus. I think that it’s concerning to see how unprepared the United States was. Almost as if the United States thought the virus was a joke. I do understand that the United States is a really big country and that it might be much harder to control but we had so much time to prepare for it. 

Just a couple days ago, news reports show that South Korea is stabilizing the coronavirus outbreak. While there are large numbers of infections with the coronavirus in South Korea, there is aggressive testing for the virus which allow them to quarantine those who test positive. They also have really fast testing. I think this is also due to the faulty healthcare system we have in the United States as well. To be ready for a serious pandemic outbreak this big, there would have to be large amounts of supplies at the ready as well as enough employees and resources. It’s a known fact that the United States healthcare system is very faulty and lacks a lot which is why I suspect that our faulty healthcare system might be a large reason for the rapid spread of the virus. 

It’s hard to predict how much longer this outbreak will last and whether or not we will return to school but I don’t think a remote education is the best way to learn. Although this self-directed language course is partly online, the other half relies on person-to-person interaction which will be hard to do now. Hopefully, we will be going back and the coronavirus will be stabilized by April 3rd.