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Professor Sumi Kim has adopted a way of increasing our Korean vocabulary by listening to Korean pop (K-pop) songs. This makes understanding Korean grammar hard because things like songs and poems transcend the grammatical rules of the language to sound better or to convey a deeper meaning; however, this method has made remembering words much easier because I can recall them in accordance with the catchy tune of the song. It also does help that K-pop is extremely popular now and that it’s something I really enjoy listening too.

There are probably 4 out of every 5 people who have either heard the song Gangnam Style or recognize the iconic steps that go with the song. Ever since the huge success of the artist Psy due to the extremely catchy nature of Gangnam Style and its dance, K-pop songs have slowly been taking over the music industry everywhere. There’s the first generation idols (word used to refer to a K-pop artist) like Psy and BigBang that started K-pop off on this trajectory, then there’s the current biggest K-pop group BTS which really brought K-pop to a new level internationally by winning multiple Billboard award, debuting on multiple country’s television shows, and presenting an award at the Grammys. BTS’s global takeover is challenging the music industry everywhere to do even more, because K-pop idols don’t just make music and sing, they also have intricate dance choreographies for each song which makes their stage presence unbelievably powerful, and they take part in various shows and make multiple videos for the people in their fanbase to make the fans feel connected to the idols in a way that no other artist outside the Korean entertainment industry has accomplished. 

After putting in all that work, it makes sense that BTS is doing so well globally, but even within the K-pop industry BTS’s success is considered huge. Various entertainment companies are trying to compete with this by forming supergroups consisting of members from different popular bands. For example, the supergroup SuperM was formed in 2019 consisting of members from three Korean boy groups (Shinee, EXO, NCT 127) and one Chinese boy group (WayV). Think about that for a second. Ever heard of members of 4 already very successful bands being picked and put together and told that they need to work together now to make it even bigger? Even for forming BTS, auditions were held to form a group in 2010 and then the people who were picked were taken in as trainees and taught how to live life as K-pop idols for years before they finally debuted in 2013. The process in which K-pop bands are formed is not the same as in America where one tries to find a record label to release songs that they have ready. As mentioned above, K-pop idols have to get picked through auditions, then go through the who training process, and then they debut if all goes well. The training process that they have to go through is very intensive and it takes a lot of work to get through it. It is made in such a way because the K-pop industry understands the harsh reality that celebrities have to face when they make it big and their lives are constantly under a microscope with the paparazzi ready to jump at the smallest little deviance. Hence, even after a group debuts, their management helps makes sure that the group’s image is well maintained. This also means that if a K-pop groups ends up with the wrong management, things can quickly go south while the group feels too stressed out by the expectations. 

After going through all this, idols have started becoming a global sensation. However, even the biggest K-pop bands haven’t fully developed respect from the Western market. This is because many people still view K-pop as some teenage girl trend and not as a respectable genre of music. Hopefully, that changes soon.

Israelis tend to be blunt, brash, and quick tempered. Obviously that is a generalization, but it is something most people notice when speaking and getting to know them. At this stage I think it would be hard to answer the question of whether this has anything to do with their language. It is at least funny that Hebrew as a modern spoken language was made in a hurry, and tends to be a simple, rapid manner of communication rather than a language like Japanese where you have to say a lot to mean a little. Hebrew goes straight to the point, and does away with complicated conjugations or grammatical rules in favor of guttural pronunciation and a plethora of swear words. One funny example of Israeli bluntness can be heard on weekends when my language partner is at her house. During a break, sometimes I will her yell at her mother downstairs to get her a glass of water. The sentence (and sentiment) could be translated something like "mom! water now!" In response I will hear similar yelling coming from downstairs but I can't quite make that out. Of course, a sentence like that sounds pretty rude to American ears, but when asked about it, she just said she thinks it is normal. In her words, Israelis in general don't see the point of using words like please and thank you since getting what you need is more important than superficial manners. As such a young country, that has fought an existential war almost every single decade since it's inception, this cultural facet makes me wonder if the overwhelming national sense of urgency and emergency has contributed to this linguistic and cultural mannerism.

These past meetings my study of Hebrew has moved on from useful phrases and pronunciation and instead focused on basic grammar and conjugations such as conjugating adjectives and the possessive "my." These two systems seem to function as extremely simplified versions of arabic - instead of arabic's 12 or 13 conjugations of verbs, I can't quite remember which, hebrew only really has 4: male singular, female singular, many masculine, and many female. Hebrew is the first language I have studied where verb conjugations don't really extend to cover every single pronoun - for example, there are different words for you male, you female, but these are the same conjugations as he and she, since in the end you are only referring to one male or one female. Possessives are a bit more complicated, with Hebrew adding two extra forms in he and hers to bring the total to 6 endings. Adjective conjugation is similar to verbs with only 4 endings depending on gender and number.

One tricky thing that makes hebrew a little tough is the fact that gender for many words is not explicitly defined. Arabic female endings almost always end in a special letter called tar marbuta that is pronounced like a, russian usually ends in a or ya with some exceptions, but hebrew words rarely end in an a. Instead, if the word is spelled with a consonant like t or h, it is generally female, but this rule has exceptions. I haven't really gotten the hang of this yet but I don't think it is a huge deal at the moment since people still know what you are talking about if you misgender an item.

Lastly I worked on article definition. I wasn't really sure what this was at first (and neither was my language partner) but as we worked together we realized that there were rules concerning when you referred to an object by et (that) ha (the) ze (this) or none of those. Apparently we have this in english too although I never noticed, and luckily like english this doesn't change anything about the object, unlike arabic which uses different case endings depending on whether the word is defined or not.

For the last two weeks, we learned numbers, times and family trees. We also watched many interesting videos which introduce a lot about Turkish food and music. I think I am much more familiar with the Turkish alphabets now, and I can pronounce almost every word in Turkish even though I do not understand its meaning. My instructor also praised my pronunciation which encouraged me a lot. At the beginning of every class, my instructor would have a small conversation with us in Turkish, and normally the conversation was about the thing we learned in lase class or simple greeting, which I think is good because it helped me to revise and remember what we learned in past.
When I first learned numbers, I thought it is really difficult to remember the pronunciations. Then I would translate the pronunciation into something I am familiar with. Also, the Turkish rule of expressing numbers is quite easy. For example, “bir” means one, and “on” means ten. So eleven is “on bir”. “bin” is thousand and “yuz” is a hundred. So “bir bin bir yuz on bir” is “1111” Also, we did a little exercise at the beginning of the last class to help us revise numbers, which I think really helped.
However, it is more difficult to express time in Turkish. There are two different expressions: past and to. For example, if the time is “10:08”, we would use “past” to say “8 minutes past ten”. And if the time is “10:45”, we would use “to” to say “15 minutes to 11”. Also, the expressions of the number are different, depending on whether it is “to” or “past”. I made a little summary table below to help me better memorize the rules.
We also learned family trees. Turkish culture really values family, so they have almost every person their own names. However, we only learned some basic ones. We learned father, mother, cousin, son, daughter, and husband. We also learned how to introduce their names and ages.
We also watched a very cute video of American kids trying Turkish food and snakes. I am so obsessed with Turkish food, so I enjoyed watching that video. Unfortunately, there is no Turkish food restaurant in Richmond, but my instructor said there are several really good Turkish restaurants in New York. I will definitely try them if I go to New York someday.

My language learning over the past two weeks has largely focused on familiarizing myself with the vocabulary surrounding time in Bahasa Melayu, certain topics on food, and, as always, pronunciation. One of my primary goals was to be able to tell time. Luckily, this is very similar to the way time is said aloud in English (five o'clock in the morning, e.g.), and I was able to catch on fairly quickly. The useful thing about learning time is that I am gradually able to build upon my language foundations in other areas and convey more complicated messages that go beyond generalities and basic statements. Similar to Chinese, verbs are not conjugated in Malay, meaning that a great emphasis is placed on context and verbal indicators to glean meaning about past, present, or future statements. Because of my experience learning Mandarin, this idea was fairly easy to grasp early-on and not particularly unusual to me. Whether it is adverbs (already, always, never, etc.) or specific times (everyday, yesterday, tomorrow, next week, etc.), forming sentences in this way has proved easier than I had anticipated, especially given the similar grammar structures that exist between Malay and English. In many ways, Malay has proven to be a great middle-of-the-road language for me as both an English and a Mandarin speaker, with notable elements and influences from both. Melissa has been very helpful and patient in helping me form new sentences or in providing me with coherent examples and phrases. In our meetings, much of the learning is done through conversation and oral repetition, which allows me to practice both new components of the language and pronunciation at the same time.

I also explored food culture in Malaysia more deeply, using the textbook as the basis and expanding further after that. Melissa showed me a video in Malay on how to make fish head curry (Kari Kepala Ikan), a very popular dish in Malaysia -- I am even contemplating making it on my own. We talked about measure words in Malay (which are present in Mandarin, though perhaps as more specific quantifiers than Malay), and how some of the most prevalent ones are used. I am more and more excited for Asia Week next month, given that the chefs at D-Hall are going to be serving some Malaysian cuisine (and likely Chinese as well). I loved the food when I visited Malaysia, and the vocabulary surrounding food is perhaps one of the most useful bits of language one can learn to engage with the host culture. Of course, I will continue to learn different topics of food throughout my language learning journey, but I enjoyed learning about a popular dish and the ingredients used to make it.

Overall, the past two weeks have admittedly been a slower period in language learning because I was out for one week at a conference and did not have the regular exposure to and contact with Melissa, which is always immensely beneficial to me and my learning. Though I had homework and a clear list of material to review, I want to find other ways that I can continue to engage independently with my language when meeting with a language partner is not always an option, especially considering that this is something that I struggle with even today in learning Mandarin. Maybe this means using a new app or website, or maybe it simply means trying a less traditional approach to studying (e.g. watching Malaysian TV or listening to Malaysian Music). I am still working on the best way to handle this.

One of my biggest motivations for learning Turkish is to learn more about Turkish culture, especially their food and music. Turkey is famous for its delicious food, besides its spectacular landscape. My instructor said in class that Turkish food never let anyone down, and I strongly believe in that. Turkish food is a perfect combination of Western food and Central Asia food. It uses all kinds of meat and strong spices. Also, since China is also famous for its delicious food, I want to compare their foods.

Another thing that I am interested in is Turkish music. My favorite Turkish singers are Tarkan Tevetoglu and Hadise Acikgoz. Hadise Acikgoz is a singer and a song-writer. She wrote almost every song she sings. Turkish songs are all very catchy. Although I do not understand the lyrics, I am still attracted by the vibrant and energetic flows. Also, their music videos are westernized, which I am a lot disappointed. Because I think Turkish culture is unique and exoteric, the music videos would seem much more amazing if they could incorporate some indigenous culture.

On the third week, Brenda asked us to choose a topic in the textbook to learn. There are a lot of interesting topic such as shopping, tourism, restaurant and telephone. We finally decide to learn more about restaurant because we think it is important to learn how to order food in Korea. At the beginning of the class, we learned about the background of Korean meal. A Korean meal usually consists of rice, soup, main dishes, and side dishes. The rice and soup are served separately to each individual, but the main dished and side dished are placed in the center of the table to shared with others. There is no need to leave a tip. This is actually really similar with Chinese meal. And since I have watched a great number of Korean show, I had plenty of knowledge about 식당 （restaurant) in Korea.

After having a basic understanding of Korean meal, we learn how to order in Korean.

여기요 (Excuse me!)  in for calling a waiter. And the waiter will reply 주문하시겟슴니까? This means that would you like to order? And then you can start to order. For example, you want two orders of Bulgogi. Then you should say,불고기 2 인분 주세요. In this way, you successfully order two orders of bulgogi. Then, the waiter will say 네, 알겠습니다. This means yes sir/ma’am.

Except this, we also learned a lot of conversation related with restaurant.

Is there a good Korean restaurant nearby? 근처에 좋은 한국 식당이 있습니까?

May I please have a menu? 메뉴 좀  주세요?

What is the most popular dish here? 여기서 가장 인기있는 요리는 무엇입니까?

I would like to order. 주문 할게요

We will have one Samgyetang and one Bibimbap please. 삼게탕하고 비빔밤 주세요

Please leave out the Gochujang. 고추장 뻬주세요.

At the same time, we also learned a lot of vocabulary about 식당.

Side dish: 반찬

Salt: 소금

Pork: 돼지고기

Chopsticks:젓가락

Check:게산서

Delicious: 맛있는

It is spicy:매운 맛입니다.

Water: 물

Peper:후추

Fork:포크

Spoon:숟가락

Pay:계산

With these examples of conversation, we practiced with each other to order food in Korean.

On the fourth week, we also learned some vocabularies related to dormitory and country.

Korea 한국     India 인도     Philippines필리핀 Thailand 태국

Australia 호주  Canada 캐나다     China 중국    France 프랑스

Germany 독일       America 미국      Japan 일본         UK 영국    

Russia 러시아   Vietnam베트남

Refrigerator 냉장고   pillow베개    fan선풍기     shoes신발

Trash can쓰레기통   hanger걸이  blanket담요    window창문

Wardrobe옷장      bed침대     curtain커튼    cup 컵 

In these two weeks, I did learn a lot. I believe the knowledge that I learned in the class will definitely help me live in Korean. And I really liked the way we learned in class. Practice makes perfect. Only when we really apply what we learned by making sentences on our own, we will say it more fluently.

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There are scores of Malaysian cultural insights that I would like to delve into more deeply, though I am perhaps most interested in learning more about the Sultanate. The Sultanate has a rich history in Malaysia and, given it still exists today, also has a lasting legacy and impact on the culture. Few places can boast a constitutional monarchy with nine separate monarchs. Exploring the Sultanate more deeply yields insights not just into the role that this system plays in society, but also sheds light on the presence of Islam in Malaysia and how the monarchs, with dual roles of ceremonial heads of state and Islamic leaders, contribute to religious culture. Islam in Malaysia has been garnering increasing amounts of my attention and interest during my study of Bahasa Melayu, as has the multicultural and multi-religious societal framework. Though I have made clear from the beginning that I want to focus more on Borneo than Peninsular Malaysia (which has, by contrast, a large Christian population), learning more about the Sultanate and Islam in Malaysia can paint a clearer picture of the present state of the country writ large and will offer new and valuable understandings into the mindsets and worldviews of the large Muslim subset of the population. If given the chance, I would also like to learn more about the broad range of indigenous tribal cultures and customs in Sabah and Sarawak this semester as well, particularly the Kadazan ethnic group in Sabah and the Kaamatan festival.

With clear cultural interests in mind, I now have to figure out the best way to incorporate these into my lesson plans in language learning and formulate goals around learning them. This will undoubtedly require learning a more specialized set of vocabulary, which will likely focus on the most common cultural and religious icons related to the Sultanate and the practice of Islam. I would like to frame it in a more generalized learning plan, but also include, if possible, some additional learning material on the history of Malacca, e.g., or stories surrounding different sultans. In other words, this can take on a range of different approaches, including cultural, religious, historical, and political. I want to be able to describe what the Sultanate is, where it originated, how it developed, and where it is today and the role it (but also Islam more broadly) plays in people's lives. This will give me enough room to learn a wider variety of vocabulary without over-complicating it or making it beyond my learning level. To this end, I hope I can work with Melissa to ensure that I am learning the correct material with the proper terminology.

The last two weeks, I worked on several things individually as well as with my language partner. The first week, I finished up studying about Korean history. Because the history of Korea was much more lengthy than I thought it was, I took much longer than anticipated to cover all the topics I wanted on this subject. Last week, I read over the graphic novels that the Global Studio called 설민석의 학국사 대모험 which roughly translates to Seol Min Seok’s Korean Adventure. Different volumes covered something different and illustrated different historical events. Because the graphic novels had a visual aid in addition to the text, the book was very readable, and I understood a lot more than I did when I read textbooks. One of the historical figures I read about Admiral Yi Sun Shin. Admiral Yi was a naval commander during the first instances of Japanese invasion of the Korean peninsula. During the Joseon Dynasty, Admiral Yi fought the Japanese army several times but never lost a battle. In the 23 instances of fighting in the sea, Admiral Yi maintained a perfected win record. Admiral Yi has since become a national hero and is featured in many aspects of Korean culture. Many movies, books, and documentaries are written about Admiral Yi and his accomplishments. There are even statues dedicated to the admiral for his achievements fighting for the country. I think this unit about Korean history was a very fruitful because I had many good refreshers about the rich history of Korea and went more in depth about the history I learned about when I was younger. I was able to take time on my own to study more in depth which I enjoyed as well. I also learned about the history that are not frequently brought up or taught in schools which was also helpful. In addition, I learned more about the language by reading the texts and speaking about it with my language partner. Often times, I found myself struggling with the texts because a lot of historical terms in Korea have difficult root words. These were words that had hanja in them, so it was hard to decipher what the word meant at times.

The following week after finishing up Korean history, I took a break from the formality of history and learned more about slang in Korean. With the help of my language partner and some online resources, I learned about how culture of slang has changed over time. Much like how the slang language changes over time in America, it took changes in Korea as well. Many of the slang in Korean are used in text messages and on TV shows. Usually, most slang used in Korea aren’t metaphorical but shortened versions of the meaning. For example, “갑분싸” is just shortened version of “갑자기 준위기 싸해짐” which means the mood suddenly turned cold or uncomfortable. I also noticed several slang words were just Korean pronunciations of English words such as “티엠아이” which literally reads “TMI” in English. Learning about more informal language after learning about history was very refreshing because I am used to informal speech more. In addition, since I use it more often, I get more practice as well.

In the past two weeks, I have learned how to introduce various aspects about myself in Korean. I now know how to say, “My name is Eden,” “I am a college student,” “It is nice to meet you,” “I am from America,” and “I am majoring in leadership and music.” These sentences took a long time to learn because I need to hear the Korean pronunciation several times before I can say it correctly. The vocabulary that Prof. Kim has been teaching us is different aspects about me and my classmates, such as “name,” “student,” “doctor,” “husband,” “wife,” etc. So far, most of the phrases that I have learned have been very practical. I will introduce myself many times in Korean, so it is essential to know how to explain various aspects about myself.

The strategy that Prof. Kim has been using to teach us is lots of repetition. When I learn a new phrase in Korean, I write down the Korean spelling and English translation. At this point in my language learning, I still need to write out the pronunciation in English. This is because it takes me a very long time to read Korean, as I read words letter by letter. Prof. Kim still emphasizes conversation over reading and writing because she believes that we will be speaking and listening in Korean more than communicating through text. I think that Prof. Kim’s strategies are effective. Conversation and language immersion is an extremely effective way for me to learn a language. I am still at a beginner level though, so sometimes it seems like Prof. Kim is speaking very quickly to me.

One obstacle that I expected to encounter was surprise at the fact that I cannot speak Korean, even though I am Korean. However, I was not expecting to encounter shock to this degree and by my instructor. In my beginner level class, I am one of two Korean people. Almost every time I do not understand Prof. Kim, she is shocked. It is difficult for her to see my Korean language level because she assumes that I know more than I actually do. After four weeks, she still laughs when I do not understand something she thinks is simple. My professor showing constant surprise at my beginner skill level adds another challenge for me to overcome. Despite this obstacle, I am glad that I am learning Korean. I have already learned several important phrases that I can actually use when meeting someone new.

As I continue in my Korean studies, I hope to learn how to say more useful descriptions about myself, such as how old I am, things that I enjoy doing, and what my family is like. I also think that learning a lot of vocabulary words is important because it will help me listen to native Korean speakers. Knowing more Korean words will help me identify them when others speak, so that I can get a better grasp of what they are talking about.

Finally, something cool that I learned is that, when the written Korean language was being created, all of the characters were made to reflect either the sky, ground, or people. Korean is a very logical language. This is helpful to keep in mind when writing Korean because it provides context for where the next character should be placed in relation to the others.

I have been reviewing Hangeul and learning some basic words and conversations in Professor Kim’s class. I didn’t go to class this week since I was out of town for most of the week, but I did go to both the Wednesday and Saturday class for the week before. I feel that by getting familiar with Hangeul, it is getting easier for me to read the characters even though I don’t exactly know the meanings. 

The practice of the basic conversations definitely reinforced my memory too. We practiced on self introduction, including saying our names, greetings, what we do(college student), our major, and our interests. Korean as a language has many rules regarding manners. That’s why there are polite ways of saying things and a casual way. Usually when you are talking to people older than you or people you are meeting for the first time, you should talk in the polite way. For example, when doing the self introduction, we will say 저는 instead of 나는. Some other words we learned for basic conversation include 남자 친구(boyfriend), 여자 친구(girlfriend),예쁜(pretty),귀엽다(cute),이름(name), 대학생(college student).I learned how to say yes and no, to say I have/not have something, like/do not like something. And we also learns some basic sentences like what, why and how. These kinds of basic sentences would really help to express a lot of things. 

We took a quiz in the Saturday class, and it made me realize that even though I am familiar with the sounds of consonants and vowels, I still do not know the written forms well enough. Another thing other students and I all discovered in that class is that some consonants and vowels have different forms of writing. And sometimes it really confuses us because what Professor Kim wrote on the board looked completely different from what the vowel/consonant is on the Hangeul handout. It took us a few minutes to clear this with Professor Kim, but we are all glad that we solved that problem.

On the Wednesday class, we were discussing that we would learn some Korean songs together as a class and maybe also watch a Korean movie. I recommended 사랑을 했다(LOVE SCENARIO) by iKON as one of the songs to learn because I think the song is really catchy and the words are easy to follow. I definitely like kpop but I have never really learned to sing a Korean song since I didn’t know Korean before. But I think right now learning one is a great opportunity to learn more about some Korean songs I love and improve my Korean skills.

Unitha Cherry

SDLC

In my starting research I have found that what interests me most about my target culture is the intersection of Judaism into Israeli culture. While in America for the most part there is a separation of church and state to some degree Judaism is Israeli culture. Hebrew being the language of Judaism is the language of Israel. Many travel blogs recount that to foreigners’ Israeli people can seem rude but it is due to the bluntness of the Hebrew language and in reality, many Israelis are very friendly. In the case of Hebrew and Judaism I think that because Judaism is based in the promise between G-d and the Children of Israel is it so enmeshed in society. For example, no transportation is available on Shabbat which starts Friday night and is until Saturday evening. This is because in Jewish tradition one is not supposed to drive, work or cook on Shabbat. When it comes to the intersection of Hebrew, Judaism and Israeli culture I think that I do need some language in terms of understanding the religion but I think that because of my own involvement with Judaism I have some understanding of how to talk about it. I will say however in the vain of Communicative Competence I do think that will be gaining the needed Sociolinguistic competence will come as I learn more about the culture and even still it may not come because that is something you get from being in a culture. Sensitivity to different dialects comes from being aware that there are linguistic nuances and being able to hear them and I can not yet do that. 

I really enjoyed the classes in last two weeks, because we have studied lots of new stuff and watched lots of Turkish cultural videos which were very interesting. A good progress is that right now I can pronounce Turkish letters pretty correctly and do the basic greetings in Turkish. And I also found it was getting more interesting when I became more familiar with this language. Sometimes I think Turkish sounds like Japanese a lot, but I cannot speak Japanese, so I really want to ask people who can speak Japanese whether they feel the same way. Also, we studied numbers in Turkish and I have already memorized them by using a kind of stupid way. For example, “sekiz” is eight in Tukish, and I easily memorized it because it sounds like “赛棋子” in Chinese which means “chess competition”, so I remembered numbers very fast in this way. And they are not very hard actually, because Turkish does not have specific words for 11, 12, and etc., they use “on bir” or “on iki” as 11 and 12, while “on” is 10 and “bir” is 1. Other numerical patterns are basically as same as English.

We also learnt expressions related to time in Turkish. It’s interesting to see that they don’t have the expression of a.m. or p.m. and they use 12 hour rule, because my language partner told me that they can tell the morning or the evening by looking out at the sun and she believes it is always unnecessary to use a.m. and p.m. thing (I thought in the same way all the time, maybe I should live in Turkey). They also loved to use the expression of “10 minutes to 9” or “5 minutes past 5” to stand for “8:50” and “5:05”, which are “Dokuza on var” and “Beşi beş geçiyor”. I had trouble with expressing time in this way at the beginning because we don’t express time like this in China. If it is 8:50, we will just say “eight o’clock fifty”.

We also watched lots of Turkish music videos and Turkish food videos. Originally, I thought Turkish music would be very different from any music form I listened before, maybe Turkish music would include some religious stuff. However, we watched several Turkish pop music videos, and I was very surprised to find that they were really similar to American pop music and the music videos are similar to American style as well. I really like Ariana Grande, and I found one of Turkish singers we watched that day has very similar style to Ariana, including dancing style and make-ups. We also watched two videos that they invited several American kids to taste Turkish snacks and most popular foods. And Turkish foods look so great, because I love cholates and meats, which Turkish popular snacks and foods contain a lot. Those kids in videos also loved Turkish foods. I asked my language partner whether Richmond has great Turkish restaurant, but unfortunately the answer is no. But if I go to New York or Washington DC one day, I must try the Turkish restaurants there, because my language partner said these two places have good Turkish foods. And she also said every one fell in love with Turkish foods after tasting it, no matter where you come from.

In the past two weeks, I have learned a lot more about Korean writing and reading. Last week, Jenna my student teacher, brought in a weather news article and a large chart with different combinations of vowels and consonants (See attached). We went over the pronunciation of each word. We also started learning simple Korean words like dog and wood. These words are simple two-character words that use basic Korean characters. I also learned how to say, "I don't like/I didn't like" and "I like/I didn't like" in Korean. We practiced how to say it (formal) and how to write it. I used examples of myself liking watermelon and other foods. Furthermore, during that class, we read a news article about the daily weather forecast in Korea. I learned many new words such as highest/lowest, wind chill, dust particles, and north/east/south/west. One thing that was really interesting was that in the weather report, they reported the levels of dust in the air. In Korea, there are high levels of particulates floating around the air. Because of this, Korean news reports always include dust particle levels, in order to alert the population of harsh breathing conditions. This is fascinating because we don't have that in America. This is a clear example of how different cultures can have different patterns and problems. This past week, Jenna and I reviewed the chart again and identified my most common mistakes. She also quizzed me on the basic vowel/consonant alphabet to make sure I was reviewing it. We spent another 30-45 minutes reviewing how to write/say "I like/used to like" and "don't like/didn't like." Lastly, Jenna brought in an article about the Los Angelos Lakers NBA team. It was written by a Korean sports analyst and it was an eerily long article about the team as a whole. Jenna told me that this article contained lots of fluff and unnecessary information. As we read through the first three paragraphs, she helped me identify words I did not know. There were many words I didn't know but learned through context what they meant. I think this is a great skill to practice for the future so I can use context clues to understand a specific sentence. On my own time, I have been practicing how to read and write Korean. A game that I have played to improve my Korean writing/reading skills is to ask a friend to say any creative sentence in English. I would then translate it into Korean and attempt to write it out. To check if my sentence was written correctly, I would go on voice notebook and check. This was a great way to self-evaluate myself on a certain word or phrase I didn't know how to spell. I have also been watching Korean music videos to become familiar with pop music in Korean (https://www.ranker.com/list/best-korean-hip-hop-songs-2019/ranker-music) In the next two weeks, I want to be able to write a letter in Korean to my parents and grandparents for their birthdays or holidays. I've never been able to write a fluid thoughtful letter in Korean so that will be my goal in the next few meetings. I will also continue to practice reading and writing in Korean to become better at it.

I am learning Korean and am interested in many aspects of its culture. Although I was born in Korea, I moved to the USA when I was three years old, so I don't remember anything about Korea. Because I am a true born Korean, I think it is important for me to learn Korean culture and understand it. There are two main cultural aspects of Korea that I really want to target. First, I want to learn about food culture. I've grown up eating all sorts of Korean food, but I want to be able to learn the true culture and history of Korean food. My second target culture is music. Korean music is very different from American music and it would be interesting to learn a new music culture. I am primarily interested in rap/pop culture in Korea and how they change the pronunciation of words to make the music flow better. 

Another side target culture is sports, especially basketball. I love playing basketball and following the NBA. I know there is a Korean professional basketball league, and it would be really fun to watch Korean sports broadcasts and highlights. Recently, I read an article in Korean about the NBA, and there were many words that I had to learn in order to understand the meaning of the article. There were vocab words such as team, record, practice, losing streak, pride, etc., that I had to become familiar with. I also have added these target culture learning aspects to my learning plan and have been starting to learn about these things with my student tutor and during my own time. 

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Last week, after some review on self-introduction and sentence structures, Jenna took us to a higher level of reading. We have a weather forecast and a list of words on our handout that day. Before we started reading, we learned quite a few new works regarding weather, such as micro dust, temperature difference, and fog. We also encountered geographical words such as inland and the East Sea of Korea. There are some sentence structures such as “to be expected” and “to be forecasted” in the passage as well, so we talked about them too.

Then, we started trying reading the weather forecast. It started with simple sentences that we could understand, but then it gets more detailed as it moves on. I read it quite slowly because there are many vocabs in it that I didn’t know, but Jenna pointed them out and explained them to us. I read the handout for a few more times after the lesson and became more familiar with the words. It feels so good to be able to understand the majority of a paragraph.

We did a little review on a weather forecast this week, and then we learned about 개천절(National Foundation Day) on October 3. We watched a short video talking about the original story, and Jenna added more details to it afterward. We learned the name of the characters in it as well as the vocabs for bears, tigers, and some veggies. I am quite interested in the history of Korea, so I asked Jenna more about 세종대왕 who created hangul and also a farming guideline. I enjoyed our lesson a lot and I’m glad that I’m working on my Tasks 1 and 2, which are to discuss the weather and to learn more about animals, colors, and Korean holidays.

For the third week, Brenda asked us to choose from three topics that we are going to cover this semester, including topic about shopping, restaurant and tourism. As a foodie, I definitely vote for the topic of restaurant. I am really excited about that because one of my goal this semester is to improve the skills of communication, especially to learn the conversation that I can truly use when I travel to Korean. I have been to Korean restaurants in Richmond several times but never spoke in Korean with 이모, the female owner in the restaurant who help us with ordering food. Korean food is the most attractive part of Korean culture.

Usually the menu is visible on the wall of the restaurant, however if for some reason the menu is not there, we need to ask for the menu. Through situation dialogue, Brenda taught us how to order the food in restaurant and some common phrases we can use.

여기요!

Here!

주문하시겠어요?

Would you like to order?

육게장 일인분주세요

One order of spicy beef soup please.

어떤것을추천하세요? 

What would you recommend?

이거좀더주세요! 

Please give me some more of this!

제가낼게요

I am ready to pay.

This is very helpful because after class I went to Korean Garden, a restaurant owned by 이모, I used this conversation and it works! Besides some vocabularies I learned in class, I also learned from menu. My favorite Korean food is 육게장(spicy beef soup) and 김치볶음밥(kimchi fried rice). 이모was surprised and acclaim my Korean pronunciation as well.

For the fourth week, we learned 30 vocabularies related to dormitory and country.

Korea 한국     India 인도     Philippines필리핀 Thailand 태국

Australia 호주  Canada 캐나다     China 중국    France 프랑스

Germany 독일       America 미국      Japan 일본         UK 영국    

Russia 러시아   Vietnam베트남

Refrigerator 냉장고   pillow베개    fan선풍기     shoes신발

Trash can쓰레기통   hanger걸이  blanket담요    window창문

Wardrobe옷장      bed침대     curtain커튼    cup 컵 

I believe that nouns are vital because they refer to places, objects and people. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language, so knowing nouns can largely improve the effectiveness of conversation,especially for a beginner of language-learning. Sometimes I might not speak a complete and grammatically correct sentence, but if I can speak out the main object, my conversation partner can still understand what I mean.

To sum up, I was satisfied with what I have learned these two weeks and after class I made a detailed plan to review and consolidate my memory by making sentences with new vocabulary and applying it with Amber.

The Korean entertainment industry has always been fascinating to me. The past few years I’ve mainly been interested in Korean pop culture revolving around idols and fashion. In general, I think that it takes a certain level of mastery of a language to be able to understand songs written in that language, because singers have an artistic license to stray from grammatical rules and they might use subtle metaphor to refer to the theme of the song which can easily get very complicated to understand–especially for someone who is just starting to learn the language. Someday I want to be able to listen to a Korean pop song and fully understand it on my own. For now, I just listen to K-pop songs as a source of entertainment and as a source for learning new vocabulary. To reach the level of aforementioned mastery, I’ll start by working on expanding my vocabulary and by spending time on understanding the fundamentals of Korean grammar.