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I was rather surprised that we had another bi-weekly journal due as I submitted my first journal a week ago. Because of this, I can only write about the things that I’ve learned over the past week. Do understand that the content of this journal may be limited as only a week has passed.

            This week was filled with unfortunate and tragic news. Kobe Bryant, the iconic and legendary basketball player, was tragically killed along with his daughter, Gianna Bryant, and others due to a helicopter crash. In order to explain the relevance of this news to Korean culture, I must first talk about Kobe Bryant’s impact on the Korean community in Los Angeles. To me and my friends, Kobe Bryant was more than a basketball player; he was a role-model, an example that people of all ages could follow. He was dedicated to his craft, constantly pushing himself to the limit. He would never be content with winning championships or scoring some of the highest number of points in a single game. He was obsessed with inspiring a generation so that the legacy, teachings, and fruits of his hard work would carry on into the future. Like many Korean kids in Los Angeles, I grew up in a community with few opportunities. Every opportunity that presented itself for a higher education, rigorous extracurricular activities, and a better life was competitively fought for in the Korean community. As my Korean friends and I would learn to socialize with one another at school through basketball, we came to idolize Kobe Bryant for his hard work and determination. It was sheer coincidence, but a blessing that Kobe’s work ethic was so similar to that of Korean culture. As we grew older, my Korean peers and I would adopt the mantra called “Mamba Mentality”, which describes Kobe’s insatiable desire to chase his dreams and enjoy the process of perfecting his craft in basketball. My friends and I would practice this mantra in every aspect of our lives especially in academics. Because of that mentality, I was able to attend the University of Richmond and attend Korean class with some of my peers.

            I also read about the countless number of deaths due to the coronavirus. The article that I read was very challenging as it was using terms to describe the nature and trajectory of the virus. I’m particularly interested in this topic because I was planning on traveling throughout Asia for a month with my best friend. Unfortunately, my best friend and I had to postpone the planning of our trip because the coronavirus has spread to countries like Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. I want to continue reading Korean articles like this because it challenges me to study a subcategory of vocabulary. In the past, I’ve studied terms that relate to the Korean government and politics. Now, I am interested in learning about terms that define medical terminologies and biological processes in the human body.

I hoped to continue to review the Korean I learned last semester, as well as get into some new material. I think I was able to complete these goals this past week.

This week I had my first class with Professor Kim this semester. It was good to get back into the schedule of studying Korean in a more formal setting. It was kind of hard at first, since I’m still trying to brush up on the Korean that I’ve learned so far. When I walked into the classroom, Professor Kim spoke to me in Korean, but for some reason I just couldn’t figure out what she was saying. It sounded familiar and I know I’ve heard it before, but it just wasn’t clicking for me. After, she was able to rejog my memory and I was able to remember. One activity that we did was watch a movie trailer. There is a very popular Korean movie called “Parasite”. We watched the trailer and Professor Kim pulled 20 vocabulary words from it. We went over each word and its meaning. She made us read each word in order to practice our reading skills. I think I’m definitely getting better at reading Korean. I can read a little faster, but I still have a lot of work to do. We also went over what we want to learn this semester and kind of plan for the future. I’m excited for the rest of the classes with Professor Kim.

This week I also met up with my language partner. I think that meeting up with Jannette will be especially helpful after my classes with Professor Kim. As I learn new material from Professor Kim, I will be able to practice speaking and actually applying what I learn in class. Not only will I be able to apply what I’ve learned in class in my meetings with Jannette, but I will also be able to learn new things from her as well. When I met with Jannette, we did some more reviewing. I reviewed the grammar points that I learned last semester, such as conjugating. We did some practice with conjugation. I also practiced my speaking. We went over basic phrases and how I would respond to them. I like that I am able to speak a good amount of Korean, beyond just the class with Professor Kim. Speaking is such an essential part of learning a language, so I think it will be very beneficial for me this semester.

In order to practice vocabulary and the grammar, I have been reviewing some stuff on my own and with my language partner. I think it’s been helpful, and hopefully will bring me back to where I was at the end of last semester. Vocabulary is really easy to forget, so I’ve spent some time reviewing and memorizing vocabulary again. I still have the worksheets from last semester, so I’ve been looking over those.

I think my strategies have been effective so far. Reviewing on my own is good because I can go at my own pace and try to draw back on my memories from last semester. But beyond just reviewing by myself, reviewing with my language partner has been effective too. It’s good to have someone help me and give me tips, on memorization and pronunciation.

In order to build on what I’ve learned about Korean so far; I hope to learn more vocabulary and learn new grammar points. I’m at a decent starting place, and I can’t wait to continue building on the foundation that I’ve developed last semester. I think I will see a lot of growth this upcoming semester.

February 2nd 111 Reflection:

This week I was able to talk to my language partner to solidify my weekly meetings with him. They will occur on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Class meetings will start tomorrow. I l plan to structure my main study time for the class around the class meeting with practices on Friday as well. We talked briefly about covering grammar concepts using the aid of a workbook of Ge’ez. This will probably make my class more structured. Last semester I thought I would need a workbook of sorts but my teacher just provided the concepts each class and assigned homework based off of it. 

The first assignment I got which is kind of a pre-assignment is to familiarize myself with the special letters of the Ge’ez alphabet which aren’t commonly used. And often when they are seen they are mistaken for the more common variations of the letter. For example, one letter is like the slight vowel difference between kit and quit. It doesn’t necessarily make the meaning different nowadays since many people don’t familiarize themselves with them, but they used to hold more phonemic value before. This kind of shows the slow evolution of language and its phonemes. 

My language partner gives the following description:

Labialized Consonants

Four consonants, ቀ, ኀ, ከ, and ገ, also have labialized forms, indicated in transliteration

with a superscript “w.” The difference in pronunciation is similar to the difference

between “kit” and “quit.” These labialized forms are present in every order except the

second and seventh orders. The forms follow these patterns:

My language partner had initially made a facebook post about tutoring in Ge’ez for the purposes of a phD study that he is doing. This week I am interested in hearing more about it. A part of that conversation, I want to touch on what his goals are for me this semester as well. Knowing a clear goal of my instructor for my studies really helped me keep in mind what kind of expectations I should have and where I should put more effort in last semester. It also showed me how invested my teacher was last semester in my learning. The main goal last semester was to learn the parts of a sentence and create simple new ideas in Ge’ez through them. I think that will be similar for the most part. Last semester there was also a heavy use of Amharic which there will not be this semester. I don’t think this change will necessarily enhance or decrease my learning. I think having a younger language partner will also shift the dynamics of the weekly meetings a bit as well. In my culture, we learn to honor elders and clergy to the highest degree so I feel like at times that made me not open up as much though that got a little better throughout the semester. I am also doing it in 2 sessions a week now instead of one. That will probably push me to be more proactive throughout the week in preparation for my meetings. We will see how it goes this week!

First of all, I totally agree that each culture has its own definition and interpretation of different objects in communications. In the first article, the author discusses nonverbal communication intensively which I agree with most of the author's points. The author mentions that different gestures and body languages fall into three categories. They could mean the same in two different cultures while totally opposite meanings in other cultures or even no meaning in some. Therefore, in a cross-cultural setting, one needs to pay much attention to these gestures since they might create confusion when used  improperly and read in advance the meanings of behaviors in different cultural settings. Additionally, the author also discusses other aspects that cultures may differ from. For example, individualism versus collectivism regarding personal identity in society. Monochronic versus polychronic is about how people regard time differently which I find a little implausible in my opinion. Monochronic says that time is a commodity, quantifiable and limited. Therefore, people will have to use it wisely and not being a wastrel. People need to adjust themselves to suit the demand of time. On the contrary, polychronic claims that time is limitless and it is a servant and tool of people and is adjusted to the needs of people. From where I stand, I find it problematic because time is limited to everyone since a person's life can only last approximately 100 years. Therefore, it's not right to think time as limitless and that people don't need to work hard to achieve something before it runs out. 

Regarding the 6 dimensions model of Geert Hofstede, I find it quite intriguing because it tells what a nation should consider in order to well-organize itself. Individualism and power distance are definitely two important factors in which power distance refers to how power is distributed within the country. For me, I find my country is more of collectivism instead of individualism because the central government is always the most powerful organization and controls the country's economy. And people will work to make a better society instead of a better entity. All in all, a lot of factors have to be considered to organize a culture or to interact with other cultures since everything is mixed and different when positioning in different environments. 

I have to admit that I am surprised that language handling of the brain could be so intricate and bizarre. For example, the author states that for right-handed people, the left hemisphere is dominant for language learning. On the other side, for left-handed people, language learning is dominant by not only the left but also the right hemisphere, called mixed dominance. What's more, different functions are only partly understood and are controlled by different hemispheres of the brain. For example, with right-handed people, the left controls activities like analytical thinking, logical organization, and calculation while the right hemisphere handles musical patterns and creative sensibility. However, I am very curious about how hemispheres function differently regarding the left-handed people.

Also, simple daily conversations require a series of complicated neurological processes, planning, and execution. And every time people want to articulate a word or a phrase, the brain has to plan ahead the behavior and then issue commands and the body executes. What's more surprising is that I could never know "slips of the tongue " could be one of the indicators of how the brain works and processes during conversations. Tongue slips are involuntary and incorrect departures from the person's intentional production of words and tongue slips are not randomly happened but are found when two words are from the same grammatical construction or rhythm. It is because of these unintended errors people make that provide more details of how the brain process and command information. 

The other articles, unlike the previous-mentioned one, is more about how languages make sense, how to distinguish different languages and what can be the difficulty of mastering a new language. One thing I find interesting is that isolated words don't mean to be complete nonsense but they are just conveying too much information. Therefore, it is the sentence and the word to sentence structure interaction that makes the "sense of sense", which circumscribed the words and make them convey the intended meanings. Collocations are one of the difficulties for people to master a new language since they are complicated, some of which may be personal or don't make sense because of the relation between different lexemes. In addition, collocations differ greatly in different languages. For example, in Japanese, the verb "drink" collocates with not only water and soup but tablets and smoking. 

In a nutshell, mastering a new language is not only about memorizing alphabets or grammar but in order to comprehend the meaning, one needs to experience by soaking into the environment. All that matter is speaking.

Last week, I learned three new grammar rules with Brenda. They were “-으니까/니까”, “-지마”, and “-을지/ㄹ지”.

As what I mentioned in my first journal, the plan for this semester would be more focus on my conversational skills. So Brenda and I spent more time on making up sentences using these three verb endings and tried to have conversations using those sentences. The class last week, I think, gave us a good start of making our class more conversational rather than simply learning those grammatical rules. Although we just focused on learning new rules, we would explore more interesting activities later this semester. Moreover, in this journal I want to include more about the first verb ending we learned.

The first verb ending, -(으)니까, is used when the verb before -(으)니까 is the reason for another action or the basis of a judgement. This verb ending reminded me of another verb ending I have learned before. It was “-아/어/여서”. It is also used to link sentences and show a reason/result relationship between them. To be able to distinguish these two similar verb endings and use them accurately in different conditions, I researched the difference between these two verb endings after class. Firstly, although both of these structures show the reason/result, or cause/effect relationship, of two verbs, -아/어/여서 cannot be used in imperative sentences or with “Let’s”. For example, “지금바쁘니까나중에전화해주세요. (I am busy now, so call me later.)” is the right expression. But we cannot say “지금바빠서나중에전화해주세요.” Secondly, for basic greetings and when talking about your own feelings or situations, you cannot use -(으)니까.  -아/어/여서 must be used in this situation. For instance, “와줘서고마워요. (Thank you for coming.)”, which expresses our thanks to others, we should use “와줘서” instead of “와주니까”.

Learning these differences enables me to judge which grammar should be used more accurately in daily communications and helps me to understand the meanings and context in readings.

This week I met with Jenna and did our first lesson. Jenna gave me three articles in Korean to practice with. The first supplementary reading was a conversation between two people, talking about going to dinner and a movie. There were three different scenarios regarding dinner and a movie, and Jenna and I read through the conversation together. There were several vowels I struggled with, but for the most part, I was fluid and calm. Afterward, Jenna even told me that I got a lot better when compared to last semester. The next article she gave me was about a band in Korea called BTS. It was an article talking about the fame and popularity of BTS in America and how they have broken the billboard 200 charts in recent months. Furthermore, it talks about the path of the stardom of BTS and how their new album has become a fan favorite. The article followed up with some questions that Jenna wrote, and it was easily able to answer them out loud, but it was difficult for me to write the answer down. Furthermore, there was a question about writing a letter to my parents about my college experience and how much I have enjoyed and disliked it. It was difficult to write the words correctly. I second-guessed a lot of the spelling of certain words, but the content made sense to both Jenna and me. I also only wrote around four sentences, and I knew that I had to work on coming up with more vocab words to say. I also did not know how to end a letter in Korean, so I now know to work on that. The last article was a weather report in South Korea. There were a lot of vocab words I did not recognize, so Jenna had to help me with a lot of the words. Although this article was difficult to read and understand, it helped me tackle new words and use context clues to figure out the message of the article. This week’s meeting with Jenna was really helpful in terms of figuring out where I stand in reading and writing in Korean. The most common problem Jenna and I found was spelling and punctuation. A lot of mistakes were made on the spacing between words and phrases, as well as spelling certain words at the end of sentences. Jenna told me it would be relatively easy to fix, since I know how to say the words, just don’t know how to spell it correctly every time. For homework, Jenna told me to read through the third article about weather in Korea by myself and learn the new words in the article. I think today was a great experience in terms of finding a baseline of my skill in Korean reading and writing. In the future, I hope to keep practicing writing with correct spelling and spacing and I hope to work on these skills next week with Jenna.

For this week, I watched a lot of Korean TV show series and listened to a lot of Kpop songs. For example, "Knowing Brothers" is one of my favorites series from Korea. It is about the high school concept where the cast members act like students in a classroom while the guests would come as newly transferred students. Together they will play some games and talk about their lives and fun facts. One can only know how funny it is after they watch it. But for this journal, I want to talk about one song I've been intensively listened to that is "Instagram" by DEAN. 

Instagram

It has been one week since my last biweekly journal, so there is not much I can talk about. However, in this journal entry, I will mention some of the things I did to improve my Korean learning journey.

            First, I was able to meet with Jimin and figure out a time and place to conduct our weekly meetings. So, I am excited to start our lesson plan next week with JJ and Jimin. In addition, we discussed what we wanted to do during our lessons. Though I talked about what I wanted to learn about in the last biweekly journal, I just wanted to mention that I wanted to read articles regarding current events in Korean, in order for me to be exposed to higher-level Korean and practice reading. I am especially interested in the Novel Corona Virus that has been going around. I have been following a lot about this virus, due to personal interest and because I am taking a molecular virology class this semester. It is concerning since there have been cases now in both South Korea and the United States. But I know that as long as people remember to be more mindful of personal hygiene then we can prevent the spread of this virus. So, it would be interesting to keep up with this virus both here in the United States and through news articles in Korea.

            In addition, I was able to facetime my parents this week. It was nice to talk to my parents and catch up on how they were. It was nice to take some time off from my schoolwork to listen to my parents. They both encouraged me, but at the same time nagged at me to be on top of what I needed to do, which for some reason, I didn’t mind. In addition, I got to talk to my brother about college applications and it was nice to hear that he has gotten accepted to a couple of schools already. I am so proud of him and the effort he has put into his college application. Also, I got to call my grandma and talk to her about how she was. She had recently moved into a new apartment, so it was sad to see her struggling to change into the new environment, but luckily, she has gotten used to it, and she seems to really like her new place. Being able to talk to my family in Korean and be encouraged by the people I love really helps me while I am so far from them.

            Lastly, I was able to watch a couple of Korean entertainment programs to help my Korean. I have started to watch the programs without English subtitles, and I found that I rarely run into problems with understanding what they are trying to say. However, I do catch myself not reading some of the things written during the program but going forward I will try to read what is written. Also, I got a lot of recommendations for good Korean dramas, so I am looking forward to watching those.

(Spoiler Alert for the Korean movie Parasite) 

Over break I saw the recently released Korean horror  movie 기생충 (Parasite) directed by 봉준호 (Bong Joon-Ho) an internationally acclaimed director. It was a really interesting movie which focused on two families: one rich and one poor. It focuses on the huge difference in their lifestyle and thought processes, and shows how the poor family slowly starts feeding off of the rich family just like a helminth (a parasitic worm). The two big themes explored in the film are freedom and the fact that at the end of the day, all we have to fear is just other humans. I personally think that the movie is more of a thriller than horror. 

From the trailer and a clip of 기생충 (Parasite), Prof. Kim collected a few words from 기생충 (Parasite) that we can learn to expand our vocabulary. I’ve added list of the words at the end of this post. I personally like this method a lot because I have seen the scenes in which the words are used so I have a good understanding of the context. Also, I’m a visual learner, so being able to connect a word and its meaning to a scene in the movie which I can visualise in my head makes it a lot easier for me to learn and remember new words. 

Word List:

1. 공짜 (free) (N)
2. 와이파이 (WiFi) (N)
3. 부모님 (parents) (N)
4. 대학생 (college) (N)
5. 미대 (art college) (N)
6. 위조/ 범죄 (forgery/ crime) (N)
7. 부자 (rich people) (N)
8. 사모님 (madam) (N)
9. 예술가 (artist) (N)
10. 자화상 (self-portrait) (N)
11. 역시 (really) (Adverb)
12. 미술 선생님 (art teacher)  (N)
13. 잠깐 (stop for a moment/ wait)  (V)
14. 과선배 (senior in same field)  (N)
15. 착하다 (affable) (V/A)
16. 반지하 (half basement)  (N)
17. 암호 (secret number/ PIN/ password)  (N)
18. 누르다 (press) (V)
19. 핸드폰 (cellphone)  (N)
20. 구석구석 (every corner)  (N)

One of my goals this semester was to speak and use Korean more often in my daily life. Surprisingly, I was able to speak and write Korean very often this week. I have been texting my parents, my brother, and Jimin in Korean throughout the week. Texting is not the best way to practice formal Korean grammars, but it is a great way to learn Korean culture. There are a lot of Korean abbreviation and unique way of texting in Korean and I was able to learn a lot of new abbreviation from Jimin. It’s amazing how Koreans can communicate with really short text, and it could be as short as two hangul letters. I tried to practice my formal Korean writing with my parents and focus on grammar and spelling when I can. I really appreciated how my parents tried to help me improve by giving me helpful feedbacks. I have also decided to call my parents twice a week which will really provide me with more opportunities to talk in Korean. In addition, I went to Grand Mart this weekend and had a light conversation in Korean with the cashier while ordering my food. Although I am finding a lot of opportunities to practice Korean, I still find that I am forcing myself to use Korean. As I progress through the semester, I hope I can feel more natural to speak Korean. I recognize that it is not something that could happen in such a short period, but I already know that I will improve a lot after this semester.

This week with Jimin, I have read some Korean news articles from Naver. We tried timing it and improving the speed by reading each article three times. We found that when I read the article out loud, I read it like a machine, going through it word by word. Although I have no problem understanding the article, this may be one of the factors that is slowing me down. I should be trying to read the article sentence by sentence, understanding the single complete thought in each sentence expressed by the writer. Evaluating word by word and trying to put the pieces together after reading a sentence is definitely a slower process. It’s not that I do that all the time, but, sometimes, I simply need to break it down by words. This is a problem with familiarity since I don’t read Korean so often, and I know I can improve as I read more throughout the semester. In rare occasions, I would find some words that I don’t recognize. Therefore, I created a vocabulary list that I can fill with these words. So far, I can say that my semester is looking great. I realize that I am slowly getting more comfortable talking and reading Korean and I can only see room for more improvements in the future. Throughout the semester, I hope I can grow more natural talking in Korean, and I look forward to reading more complex reading materials.

During the first week, the main task that I worked on was my reading and comprehension of what I read in Persian. My language partner (Zari) tested my reading level through reading news articles and posts out loud both in Dari and Farsi. The second task that I completed with Zari was speaking about what I read. We spend an hour discussing and analyzing the readings where I also got the opportunity to share my perspective on the topics. 

What I hoped to accomplish this week was to gain a better understanding of what resources, activities, and learning tools my language partner and I should use going forward. One of the major things that I wanted to figure out was whether I should continue with the Iranian dialect of Persian or the Afghan dialect. 

My community partner and I narrowed down our goals for this semester to the following tasks. The first goal is to write discussion posts analyzing and reflecting on the readings. The second goal is to get accustomed to type in Persian using the keyboard and the computer. The third goal is to become comfortable when reading text that is written in the Iranian Persian dialect. The fourth goal is to converse and deliver presentations in Persian in a formal manner. Lastly, through this course, we hope to expand our knowledge on the history of Dari and Farsi by exploring and engaging in cultural activities such as listening to Persian songs, watching videos and reading poetry. 

The strategies that we used during the first week was mainly through reading and conversing. I read a few articles and discussion posts on the death of Qasim Suleimani, the Iranian general who was killed by the US. We used articles both published by foreign news agencies such as BBC Persia but also Tolo News and Iranian news stations. We also watched interviews conducted in Persian related to this topic. Some of the other resources that we used were Persian posts on Instagram where I read the comments of those who had written in response to the post.  For homework, I spend a couple of hours reading in Persian and writing short reflections on what I read. Furthermore, I spend about two hours watching the Afghan Star singing competition which demonstrates a cultural aspect of learning the language. While watching these videos, I paid attention to how people interact with each other and how sentence phrases break certain rules when sang in a song. 

I found out that reading out loud was a very effective strategy. I learned that I found it easier to read the Afghan Persian dialect compared to the Iranian Persian dialect. As similar as Dari and Farsi are to each other, the way words are structured makes a difference in how you pronounce those words. When reading in the Iranian Persian dialect, I understood what I was reading but it was much slower than when I was reading in Dari. I found myself more comfortable wanting to read news articles in Dari and discussing them in Dari rather than Farsi. My language partner and I decided that going forward, we will use both dialects so I can become comfortable with both. Also, watching videos in the language helped me to be mindful of the way words are pronounced in these two different dialects. Furthermore, paying attention to the words in the songs that were sung on the Afghan Star, I realized that if certain phrases were taken out of those songs, they would not make much sense. This is an area that I will continue to pay attention to going forward. 

Overall, during this first week, I realized that I am more comfortable with the Afghan Persian dialect and find it uncomfortable speaking int the Iranian Perian dialect. I hope that by the end of the semester, I will feel more comfortable to speak in both of these dialects. I will continue to build on the Persian language by engaging in more complex reading materials such as poems and historical artifacts. I will also continue to work on my Farsi dialect by listening to more videos and audios in Iranian Persian.

It’s been a great couple first weeks. It’s crazy how fast three weeks will fly by. I think that my language partner and I have started off strong. This past week my language partner and I worked on reviewing the past semester material and starting out with practice worksheets that worked on writing the hangul characters. I think that with writing, I just need more practice but I think that it can be one of my strengths. We discussed more of my goals for the semester and what I wanted to do specifically. 

Another thing that my language partner and I did together for our lesson was going to New Grand Mart for practice and learning more about South Korean culture. It always amazes me how much I learn about the culture just from learning about their food. Food is an integral part of each culture. I ordered Soft Tofu Stew which is Soondubu Jjigae (순두부찌개) in Korean and it was really good with rice. It was spicy which is something that is common in a lot of Korean dishes. Korean dishes are really spicy and usually contain a lot of onions. 

The last thing that we did together was watch and discuss an episode of a currently popular Korean drama called Crash Landing On You which is currently on Netflix. Unfortunately I am still not able to watch Korean dramas without subtitles. At some point, I will be able to. I think that my Korean has improved because I am able to recognize more Korean words and phrases when I am listening sometimes. The drama is really good and something that I look forward to every weekend mostly because the lead actor and actress are so good together. I also think the plot is really interesting, it’s about a successful South Korean woman who accidentally lands in North Korea after a paragliding accident and needs to find her way back to South Korea. She meets the main actor and he helps her out the whole way. I think the most interesting part about this drama is seeing the differences in North and South Korea. They are so different as neighboring countries. 

 I have also started using this app called Duolingo, which I have used before for Spanish so I am familiar with how it works. The last time I used it, it was when the app first came out and the only languages on the app were French and Spanish. Now, I feel like Duolingo has really advanced their app. I think that Duolingo will be super helpful to learning and practicing especially since it’s an app on my phone that I use all the time. It also sends me notifications everyday if I miss a day of practice. I will improve a lot with this app.  

For the next two weeks, I want to continue my Duolingo adventure and advance to new levels. I also want to start learning new vocabulary to add to my knowledge. I think that my language partner and I are off to a great start. 

This was the first week Vivian and I officially met with Jenna together to work on improving in Korean. We started slowly and mainly focused on reading and writing for the time. For writing, we both know the Korean alphabet and how to put the characters together to form words, but a grammar rule we struggled with was the spacing of words. Jenna had printed out some of the basic rules of spacing with examples for each case the rule was used. I learned how to write when I was younger, but when it came to spacing, I was either told where to but the spaces or was told to “put them after a word” which sounds obvious yet also difficult. It was the first time I was told the direct rules of the language. In the beginning when she was going over it, I thought it was pretty easy, but then I learned of the many exceptions that confused the system. Usually in Korean, the rules of the language are set (such as pronunciation) but in this case, it was fairly flexible. We also talked about how a variety show in Korea had native celebrities take a spacing test and how none of them were perfect. As long as the spacing does not change the meaning of the sentence, spacing is not a high concern in writing. I keep the rules in my computer case and occasionally review it so that I can memorize them.

One thing I disliked when I first learned how to read was to read out loud in a group. I still have that discomfort when reading Korean because I know that that is something I need to work on tremendously but try to avoid it as much as I can. Jenna brought two recent news articles; one on the weather in Korea and the other on the corona virus and its effect on supplies in convenience stores. I liked that she could bring in resources that were relevant and interesting. I do not usually read the news in Korean, so I was unfamiliar with much of the vocabulary. We read the article out loud a couple sentences at a time and reviewed the vocabulary along the way. I realized that I should spend more time outside of school reading in Korean so that my brain would be more comfortable.

I am trying to text my parents more in Korean instead of only them texting in Korean while I reply in English. Some of my family members cannot read English, so as I slowly progress, hopefully the communication between us will become easier. I am also speaking in Korean more frequently with other students at UR. Most of them know more terms in Korean so I always feel comfortable asking them questions. Overall, I think that the lessons are going well because Jenna explains everything in a way we can easily relate to. I like that we can work alongside other students because I do not feel as tense as I was when I went to Korean school.

The excerpt of Figuring Foreigners Out mentions five different ways of viewing different societies. The first one is Individualism versus Collectivism. Individualistic countries value independence and personal freedom by members of society becoming self-sufficient. Collectivism is, on the other hand, when groups such as the immediate family are the smallest unit of survival. It is important for people to protect each other and interdependence is encouraged. Another way of viewing countries is by nonverbal communication. There are a lot of cultures that have communication through nonverbal means. When studying different cultures, it is important to note that some behaviors exist in both and only one culture. It is also noteworthy to realize that sometimes the same behavior in one culture might not mean the same thing in another. When cultures do not have the same nonverbal behaviors or meanings differ, misunderstandings and confusion arise. The excerpt also goes on to talk about the difference between how time is conceived. In a monochronic society, time is a commodity. People’s needs are changed to the demands of limited time through schedules and deadlines. This creates an efficient, but urgent society. On the other hand, in a polychronic culture, people believe that simultaneous work is natural. People are not rushed by deadlines or do they find themselves to be servants of ticking time. Another perception of cultures is through their understandings of control: is it internal or external? Societies that place belief into the though that control is within an individual are more activist cultures. Individuals are responsible for what happens to them and their success comes from their achievements and hard work. Conversely, external cultures say that because some things are predetermined, there are limits to what one can do. Success is not only an effort but good fortune. These types of societies usually harbor fatalist cultures. Lastly, the reading mentions direct and indirect communication. In cultures with indirect/high context, people like to infer, suggest, and imply while direct/low context cultures tend to be explicit. Indirect cultures use communication to preserve and strengthen relationships with others while the latter is to give and get information.

Geert Hofstede came up with a six-dimensional model to study cultures. One of the ways to compare is the map of individualism (IDV). This lens focuses on the degree of the individual to the collective aspects of culture. Another is the Power Distance Index (PDI), which focuses on the degree of equality/inequality in a country. While a High Power Distance indicates the growth of inequality of power and wealth, a country with a Low Power Distance ranks societies that do not emphasize the wealth and power gaps. The third focus is on masculinity. This dimension measures whether traditional masculinity is reflected in a society’s achievement, control, and power. Low levels of masculinity represent less discrimination between genders while High Masculinity means the country has higher levels of gender differentiation. The next index is the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI). This study of countries focuses on the “level of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity within the society” and measures whether a country is tolerant of uncertainty and ambiguity or not. Depending on the levels, a society becomes more rule-oriented or risk-taking. The second to last dimension, Long-Term Orientation (LTO), focuses on whether or not a country embraces long-term devotion to traditions and/or “forward-thinking values”. High LTO means the country embraces long-term commitments and traditions while a Low LTO indicates a higher level of change. Last but not least, Geert provides the Indulgence dimension. There is a difference between countries that say indulgence is good and freeing while some emphasize that difficulty (and lack of indulging your impulses) is the “normal state of being”.

It was interesting to read about the different ways to view cultures. As I was reading, I reflected on the two cultures I associate with and am studying: the US and South Korea. I found myself categorizing both societies into the different lenses and found myself agreeing to the studies. However, I do believe that these assessments are based on generalizations and that there are exceptions to each and every culture. Like said in one of the readings, a culture being individualist or reliant on indirect communication does not mean they are 100% individualist or people who suggest instead of explicitly relaying information. Also, I think there are correlations between certain assessments. For example, I would say that a lot of individualist cultures are also externalists while collectivists are also internalists. But this might not always be the case. I believe the US to be an individualist culture while Korea a collectivist society. This does not, however, refute the fact that both societies generally view success to be dependent on one’s effort (America with the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” talk to the belief of “college entrance exams as the determinants of your future success” in Korea). But again, these are broad generalizations of each culture to make it easier to compare their tendencies. As I study the Korean language, I remember how speaking Korean is different from American English because of the difference in cultures. The language and expressions used are shaped by a culture’s tendencies. For instance, while the Korean language deals with clear levels of formality and informality, English requires more explicit behaviors because of their views on the directness of communication. Despite being already aware of the differences between the two cultures, but being able to describe the possible reasoning behind the differences through these devices of UAI, monochronic versus polychronic time, and more is really intriguing.

          One of the main ideas mentioned in the article, Figuring Foreigners Out was about nonverbal communication. It states that people in all cultures rely heavily on non-verbal signs to send out their intended messages. However, in the cross cultural realm of language, it says that nonverbal behaviors can be sorted into 3 main categories. 

• The first are behaviors that apply to both your own culture and to the other culture you are trying to learn. These do not create any confusion because they carry the same meanings. 
• The second are behaviors that exist in both cultures, but have different meanings. For example, in the United States, eye contact is crucial when communicating face-to-face with someone and to develop a connection. However, in other countries, for example, Japan, eye contact is looked down upon because it might seem rude to look into your superiors’ eyes.
• The last set of behaviors is when a nonverbal behavior may have meaning in one culture, but has absolutely no meaning in another culture.
  • I agree with the fact that nonverbal communication sometimes speak louder than actual speaking communication. It is the body language and actions that could present different intentions and meanings, despite being intentional or unintentional. I think that Is why it is important to stay aware of the different nonverbal communication differences when visiting or entering a whole new culture. 

          Another idea was the idea of individualist and collectivist. 

• An individualist is when people identity primarily with self and the needs of the individuals are satisfied before the group. Independence and self-reliance is heavily stressed and personal freedom is always prioritized over the group. On the other hand, a collectivist believes that the survival and success of the group ensures the well-being of the individual. When I went on Hofstede Insights and typed up South Korea and the United States to get a comparative view, it showed through data that United States is way more individualistic than South Korea. United States earned a score of 91 while South Korea earned a score of 18 which is a huge difference in data. 
  • However, I agree with this assessment because I do believe that Korea is in fact very surrounded with the idea of collectivism because of the hoobae and sunbae cultural system that exists. This hierarchical system is a vital portion of South Korean culture which explains why the number regarding individualism is so low compared to the U.S. While in America, they heavily stress the idea of “you can do whatever you want,” in Korea, it is more about making sacrificial actions for the good of the group. 
  • I personally like the idea of an individualist because I like the idea of independence and self-reliance compared to relying so heavily on others. 

Since the last Bi-Weekly post, I was able to meet up with my language partner Jimin and also Tommy because we decided to learn as a group. During our weekly meeting, we also watched a variety show on YouTube that uses a lot of slang before diving into the lesson. All three of us actually already watched the show before, which was fun. Our first lesson covered the most commonly used Korean slang words. Because of my previous Korean knowledge, I knew of a couple of terms such as 치맥 (“Chimaek” = chicken and beer), 핵노잼 (“hecknojam” = extremely boring), and text abbreviations (ㄱㄱ, ㄴㄴ, ㄱㅅ, ㅇㅈ, and ㅇㅇ). It gave me a little confidence to already know of some words. Jimin gave Tommy and me a list of terms to memorize along with the meaning behind each one. I have always wanted to learn more slang, as it is one indicator of proficiency. I also struggled with understanding content in Korean (comments on YouTube, text conversations, and more) because I didn’t have much practice and knowledge of contemporary phrases/abbreviations. To get used to the new words, Tommy and I copied down the terms in Korean and the definitions on our own notebooks. Jimin would ask us to guess the meaning. This is possible because most slang terms are abbreviations and therefore the meanings are somewhat predictable. The term for slang in Korean, 급식체 is a reflection of the culture in Korea: it is a fusion between the word for school-provided lunch (which elementary, middle, and high school students eat at school and the language is made by young people) and handwriting. To add some current events into the lesson, Jimin prepared a reading comprehension session with an article about the Coronavirus. Tommy and I read the article out loud and translated the sentences to Jimin. This helped me not only show my language partner my skill level but also some practice with vocalizing more advanced vocabulary. Jimin is a great language learning partner because she is always open to questions, understanding of mistakes/confusion, and good at readjusting our meetings to fit my learning needs. It also helps that I am well acquainted with her outside of our Korean class. She is someone I can always practice my Korean with. After the meeting, I went over the words I learned on another sheet of paper. I think I always remember content better if I handwrite it down over and over again. So I tend to study for classes by rewriting notes, questions/answers, and diagrams. I plan to continue using this method to review material for my SDLAP courses. I might also utilize online resources like Quizlet to create study sets. In terms of building on what I’ve learned, I am trying to use abbreviations in my text conversations with friends and family who speak Korean. I am also looking up more commonly used slang online to create a larger list of vocabulary for me to review. As I continue learning the Korean language, I want to shift my focus more towards writing and higher-level content such as slang, idioms, and vocabulary before I begin learning business terms.

Last week, I worked with my language partner and peer on the weather reports. Firstly, we read through a weather forecast line by line and tried to understand each sentence. It took us longer than we expected. We have also spent some time on the vocabulary for weather forecasts such as "rainfall amount," "highest and lowest temperature," and "cloudy." There are many new phrases related to weather forecasts as well, including the verbs for rains and snow "dropping" and "to be reported/ forecasted."  To help us get better at reading in Korean, we decided to do similar readings every week so that we can get more used to the phrases as well as the expressions used in such a formal news article. Jenna has also been introducing the usage of words and grammar to us, which is helpful too. It is a challenging task, but I am also going to learn a lot from it.

After reading the article, we went through a conversation talking about the coronavirus concerns that started from Wuhan, China. We talked about washing our hands more often and wearing masks when going out. We will spend more time on it next week as well as a news article about the coronavirus in Korean, and I'm looking forward to that. 

I created my learning plan for this spring semester through Microsoft PowerPoint as a standard mini presentation. I have some previous knowledge of Korean language and culture, but my language partner helped me with outlining a plan to improve on some of my weaker points and to also learn in areas I haven’t explored yet. Since we talked about the four skills of learning a language, I organized my plan into those points: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Within those categories, I tried to specify more in depth of what I wanted to accomplish.

My style of learning is tactile, so I know that I’ll have to use my speech and body and not just read to learn successfully. So far, my language group read some news articles together and tried to interpret them. Through this lesson, we learned many vocabulary words related to weather and also the supply and demand of stores. We also went over spacing rules when writing in Korean. Reading and writing are not my fortes, so I had some difficulty, especially the reading. I was able to read but did so at a slow pace since I was not familiar with that particular type of reading. I thought that learning the spacing rules were interesting but also learned that most native Koreans also have trouble doing it the correct way because the rules are flexible and have many exceptions. As for resources, my language instructor brings in copies of the articles, so I am not in need of textbooks. I found that a website called LifeinKorea to be helpful when looking for vocabulary words because they separate it into topics. I glanced over body parts and the health sections and was able to pick up a few words. My other resources would be my friends who already speak Korean or are learning the language. We try to speak in Korean so that we practice the language and so we can learn more through them whether it’s about culture or some current slang.

I think because we are reading current news, I will get to understand the culture of Korean more deeply. This also implies for the language since the way people speak in a society changes over time. Even though I was born in Korea and still consider myself as Korean, I was raised in the U.S., so I wasn’t completely exposed to modern Korea until I visited recently. It prompted my interested and motivated me to learn more about my country. I realized that I was missing so much information about their history and traditions.

I have yet to receive any written feedback from my classmates, but we did discuss about my level of Korean after my presentation in class. There are different reading levels in English and pronunciations can sometimes be difficult. In Korean, you should know how to pronounce it once you learn the basic alphabet. It might take a little longer, but there will most likely be one way of saying it. On the other hand, I also discussed with my peers that if someone says a word, there can be multiple ways of writing it. Overall, we discussed about the interesting aspects of different languages in general.

Somyung%E2%80%99s%20Learning%20Plans.pptx