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Learning Journal #3

Last week in class after a brief review of the previous class's lesson, Jenna, our language partner, gave us a Korean weather forecast article. From the article, we learned many new vocabulary words that have some relation to weather. These words include nouns such as inland, daily range, clouds, air temperature, sea, fine dust, the lowest/the highest and some verbs like to fall/precipitate, to be expected, to forecast, and more. Even though I was familiar with many of these words, we also came across many other words that I normally don't use or saw for the first time. These words are the following: 지표 (the surface of the earth), 가시거리 (visibility/range of visibility), 유의하다 (to pay attention), 미만 (under/below/less than), 형성되다 (to be formed/built/developed), 대기 (atmosphere), 원활하다 (smooth/smoothly), 확산하다 (spread/disperse/diffuse), 농도 (concentration), 권역 (limited area), 천문조 (astronomical tide), 만조 (high tide), 저지되다 (be blocked), 침수 (flooding), 대비 (preparation). After reading it aloud and going over the article together, we answered some reading comprehension questions. Then we also watched some YouTube videos on weather forecasts.

I was very surprised that the article was only about ten sentences long. I didn't know that such a short article about weather would have so many new vocabulary words. I have realized how lacking my range of vocabulary is. It was great to learn more technical/scientific words, because those are the type of words I don't ever use in daily conversations.

This week the day we had class happened to fall on 개천절, or National Foundation Day, so we learned more about it for our lesson. It was on October 3rd, and it is believed to be the day of the traditional founding of Korea in 2333 B.C. Jenna explained to us the folktale of the founding of Korea, which is also the ancentry legend of god-like King Dangun, the founder. One day, a bear and a tiger prayed to Hwanung, the prince of the heavens, that they want to be human. Hawnung told them that if they want to become humans, they have to eat only garlic and mugwort inside a cave without sunlight for a hundred days. After twenty days, the tiger gave up and left, while the bear persevered and eventually become a woman. The bear/woman ended up marrying Hwanung and giving birth to a son named Dangun. Dangun Wanggeom became king and founded the kingdom of Gojosen, or ancient Joseon. We then watched a video that explained this story in Korean. This week's lesson was very interesting. I had not heard about National Foundation Day even though I think I heard the story with the bear and tiger before. It was nice to learn about the history of Korea.

We also review what we learned last week by reading another news weather article in Korean. This article used many of the same vocab words in the article from last week. This time though, I recognized the words we learned and made reading it much smoother. I think reading the vocabulary words in another article made it easier to remember.

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Discussion Post #5

I'm interested in Korean culture, and I think one of the most distinctive features of Korean is honorific language. I often watch Korean TV dramas and variety shows, especially those shot by my idol. At first, I was surprised by the way they communicated, because many words or names are followed by several words. I didn't know Korean at the time, and it didn't exist in my native language. After I felt strange, I searched the Internet for this phenomenon, which was my first understanding of Korean honorific culture. I think one of the most distinctive features of Korean is honorific language.

 

There are also honorific terms in China, but only the honorific names are widely used, for example you should not use "Ni" (which means "you" in English) to call your elders, but use "Nin" (which I can't express in English). Honorific language exists in every situation in Korea, and people have high requirements for respect. The younger should use honorific words to the older, even if their birthdays are only a year or even a few months apart. When people meet for the first time, they should also use honorific words. It is extremely impolite to address each other by name, always be sure to add honorific suffixes. In the variety show, many guests after getting familiar with each other will still use honorific words until both parties confirm that they can treat each other as friends without honorific words. In many cases, when two people are very close to each other, they will only change from honorific to semi-honorific, which retains part of the necessary honorific title.

 

In my future Korean learning, I think it is very important to learn and master the use of honorific language. This will not only help me understand Korean culture better in the future, but also be helpful for daily communication. I don't want my Korean friends to think I am impolite.

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Biweekly Post #2

For the first week of Korean class, I am very excited to work with a group of students who are friends with me as well. Last semester, I had a great experience of one-to-one class with Seonghye, so I became more excited to have a bigger study group. In first class, we reviewed some knowledge I learned last semester. Since four of the us were on different levels, we began with self-introduction. Take me as an example:

  1. 안녕하세요저는류한첸입니다.

Hello!  My name is Liu Hanchen.

  1. 저는만20살입니다.

I am 20 years old.

  1. 제전공은 수학입니다.

My major is mathematics.

  1. 저는동생 한명 있습니다.

I have one younger brother.

  1. 내생일은7 월29 일입니다.

My birthday is July 29th.

7.     나는 우상을 좋아하지 않는다

I do not have a favorite idol.

 

Then, Brenda asked us to do the introduction one by one and let us know more vocabulary from Amber, Yuting, and Nichole’s introductions. For example, Yuting has a little sister, and in Korean, we called younger sister여동생. It is similar to younger brother (남동생), with only the first character being different. Brenda showed another analogous example to help us remember the difference between “여”which means female and “남”which means male. Boyfriend is called “남자친구”and girlfriend is called“여자친구”.

When we discussed Korean drama, I mentioned a web series called 퐁당퐁당Love (Splash Love). It pronounced as “pu dang love”, but I accidentally pronounced as “pu dong love”. Brenda seemed confused and then she realized that I want to say 퐁당(pu dang) instead of 포동(pu dong) because what I said is a word means chubby.

For the second week, Brenda used Yongsei textbook and talked about the difference between 가and 는. However, since Seonghye and I mainly focused on this book last semester,  it was not something new for me. Besides that, we spent the rest of the class learning vocabulary of different colors of the rainbow. There was an interesting phenomenon that the pronunciation of color in Korean is basically the same as the English pronunciation of this color. For example, red is 레드(lede), and pink is called 핑크(pinke). There is a more traditional way to say colors. Red is 빨강색; orange is 주항색; yellow is노랑색; green is 초록색; blue is 파랑색; purple is 보라색; black is 까만색. I was delighted with learning new Korean vocabularies because one of my goal this semester is remembering more daily vocabularies and try to use them when I talk with native Korean speakers.

    To sum up, the first two-week class is helpful for me to pick up what I have learned with Seonghye after a long summer. The new stuff for me is attractive, which helps me step closer to my goal.

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SDLC 111: Biweekly Journal #3

For the past two weeks, I realized that I need more practice for reading than what I originally imagined. I spent the past two weeks trying to read more Korean articles. One of the articles I read was about Korean holidays and the government’s role in enforcing them. I read this while I was learning new vocabulary and Korean holidays during my time with my language partner.

 

The article talked about how the government would repeal a holiday that it previously announced upon review of current economic conditions in Korea. I struggled with this article because the vocabulary was more difficult than those of any article I read in the past. The vocabulary words consisted of words that describe public institutions, government districts, and political policies. These words were not intuitive because of they were specific names that could not be derived from other Korean words. Therefore, I spent a lot of time learning the definitions for these words before trying to understand the article. I did this because I thought learning these words beforehand would help me to gain a holistic understanding of the situation. Even after I learned the words, I had difficulty understanding the article. For the first time in a while, I felt challenged by a Korean article.

 

            I communicated to my language partner about the difficulties I was facing in understanding the vocabulary and reading. Thankfully, I was able to readjust some of my learning plans to prioritize reading. When I’m with my language partner, I will focus on learning vocabulary. Outside of the classroom, I will take more time to read more Korean articles that talk about politics and economy. However, I am worried that I will not retain this information because I won’t have the time to talk about Korean politics using Hangul except when I’m in class. I am also not an expert in Korean politics, so the conversation topic itself is already limited. I retain information mainly by talking to other people with general vocabulary words, but I do not know if it’ll be possible for these words. Therefore, I am going to try to write sentences using the words that I learned.

 

            I’m also still watching Korean television shows that use more conversational Hangul. I think that shows are a good break from the more academic Hangul and keeps my casual conversation skills intact. Watching television is also a fun way of learning Korean. Sometimes, I watch with some of my friends, transforming a solo activity into a group one.

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112 Learning Journal Post #3

During these past two weeks, I have covered a lot of material.  With my language partner, we have been focusing on time orientation and location.  There is a particle (에) that has many uses, but its three main purposes are to indicate a location or time.  For example, if you were to say, “We meet at 10 o’clock tomorrow”, you would say 내일 10시에 마나요.  We’ve also been going over vocabulary for today, yesterday, every day/month/year, now, later, etc.  This is a great place to start off because we can text each other saying where and when we are going to meet for our next lesson.  I think this allows for good practice.

In my later lessons with my language partner, I want to learn some general sentence structures such as, “I want to do this” or “I have this”.  These are very basic things I still do not know, yet I think they will be easy to understand.  I know that I use these phrases a lot in English, so I would like to learn how to say them in Korean.  Afterward, we can build on the structure to make it more and more complex and add in more vocabulary as we go. 

During my meetings with Professor Kim, we have been talking about complicated topics such as political corruption and history in Korean and English and going over vocabulary as we go.  This part can get pretty confusing for me because I don’t understand a lot of sentence structures.  Most of them sound familiar to me, but I don’t know what they mean exactly.  Because of this, I am easily lost.  Professor Kim will stop and explain a lot of things though, but in this context, there is little repetition.  This makes it harder for me to remember things.  I think all of the vocabulary is useful and we go over concepts I need to know, but the information is not being portrayed in the style that is easiest for me.  In later lessons, I will talk with her to try and reach an understanding of how I process and learn information. 

We’ve also been talking about and preparing for our presentations due at the end of the semester.  We’ve been going over topics and Professor Kim has been giving us some suggestions and information about our topics to incorporate in our presentation.  She has been very helpful with that and helps us stay on time with it. 

Something that was surprising during my sessions with Professor Kim is that she will talk to me in Korean at the beginning of class asking how I’ve been, what I did etc. and I can understand most of what she is saying.  And if I don’t understand something, it's usually a word I don’t know the meaning of, but I am able to pick it out and specifically ask about that one thing instead of just being overall confused.  I wasn’t expecting myself to understand basic conversation questions.  The main thing is that I have to work on answering them.  However, the practice every time we meet is a great opportunity to better that skill. 

 

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112 Cultural Post 1 with Artifact

I read an article written by Gyoung-hae Han, a professor in the Department of Home Economics, at Seoul National University, about the transition of Korean culture around the role and perceptions of elders in a modern society.  The concept of ‘modern’ is relative due to this work being published in 1996.  I still think it has important perspectives on the cultural movement to provide a background into what is going on currently.  The bias of the author is sided with the importance of continuing to honor elders in society. 

Han begins by emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural values and attitudes that relate directly to the perceptions and roles of the elderly in South Korea.  One of these values is the aspect of filial piety, which promotes the devotion to and importance of family.  When filial piety is highly incorporated into society, elders hold a high status that supports their involvement in society.  Han paints the picture that the “'blessed elderly' was the image of 'long life' surrounded by many filial children and grandchildren, enjoying a place of honor, authority, and respect in family and community,” (43).  It is clear that the elders have had a strong, established role in society that is well-known by South Korean citizens.    

Not only does filial piety affect the elders, but the youth carry a lot of responsibility.  They are the source of support for their parents and grandparents, even after they move out of the house.  This is sourced from the cultural value of reciprocity.  Since the parents loved and cared for their children during their youth, the children, therefore, give back to their parents in their old age to honor and respect them.  The concept of familism also plays a role in giving the elders their high status by making them the head of the household, leaders of rituals/celebrations, and able to control property.

In recent years, the Western ideology of individualism and egalitarianism has brought some very opposing views of the elderly.  As youth wish to become more independent, they see their grandparents as more of a burden.  Many have come to value opportunity and autonomy over filial piety and familism.  In this “cultural transition” some elders wish to be self-sufficient to lessen the burden on their children (42).  This ideology has had a weird mesh with the traditional perceptions of aging that has regarded elders as wise and respected and their old age celebrated as an accomplishment.  The Western ideology of the elderly as sick, poor, and weak has started a contrasting idea that the youth are benefitting from.  In the growing popularity of the ideology of independence among youth, they have experienced more opportunities for economic and social freedom. 

There has been some push-back that Han supports in her article.  She believes that education of youth about filial piety and respecting elders should be prioritized.  In her opinion, this is the only way for the aged community to feel a sense of purpose and honor. 

Before reading this article, I knew that elders were more respected and honored in Korean culture than in American.  However, it is interesting to identify the specific aspects of the culture that favor the elderly.  I was also unaware of the extent to which the youth cater to their parents and grandparents, or at least what is expected of them.  I think learning about the culture around respect for elders is extremely important in learning Korean due to the prevalence of formal and informal speech.  In my previous lessons, I have learned how to speak respectfully to someone older and about someone older when speaking to someone your age or younger.  An interesting factor is that there is even a different way to refer to yourself when talking to elders so that you appear humble.  As I delve more into this research topic, I would like to focus on cultural customs that reflect honoring the elderly and the presence of Western ideology and to what extent it is affecting current perceptions of aging comparatively to Han’s article. 

Han, G. (1996). TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN THE CULTURE OF AGING IN KOREA. Korea Journal of Population and Development, 25(1), 41-57. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43783476 ;

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105: Ning Post 4

105 Reflection 4:

Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don’t exist in American English? If so, provide several words and their phonetic transcriptions of words as examples to support your argument. What do you need to know about the sound system of your target language? How will you acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segments in your listening, and to produce these sounds in your speech? 

My target language, Ge’ez, has the same phonetic inventory as my native language, Tigrigna except for one letter, “ha”, that is pronounced with what seems like stronger throat involvement. The letter in IPA is [ʜ] pronounced as [h] in Ge’ez. For example, the word for he dwelt is spelled ሓደረ [ʜɔdrɜ] but because the sound for ሓ is not in Ge’ez it is spelled with an alternative “ha” sound like so ኀደረ [hɔdɾɜ]. Even when ሓ is seen in Ge’ez it is pronounced as [h]. However, intonation is another thing to consider in Ge’ez which I think is not as much of a concern for in Tigrigna...however I have yet to study it. With the word ወረደ [wɜrɜdɜ], it has the same meaning and spelling in Ge’ez and Amharic but the difference is in intonation on the [r]. My teacher told me that there are several types of reading with different intonations used in different situations, however, this is something to be learned in the future and does not always affect semantics.

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105: Ning Post 3

What kinds of structures do you observe in your language of study? Refer to the diagram on page 9 in Aitchison’s linguistics. How do you combine different disciplinary perspectives to formulate a more holistic understanding of your target language? Do you give preference to one disciplinary approach over the others? How will your knowledge of language structures and disciplinary methodologies influence the trajectory of your learning plan?

In Ge’ez what I am focusing on the most is the syntax and semantics of the language. This is mainly because phonetics and phonology are close to my native tongue so I feel like I don’t have to start from there. Crystal brought up an interesting point saying that, studying the aspects of language in an isolated fashion may help you focus but it introduces an artificial element to the study. When you are learning the language to use it, the stepwise fashion that is described American linguist Leonard Bloomfield is helpful, because essentially you are using building blocks to get to meaning and without having those your meaning or semantics can be misconstrued. Structure dependence is important to understand as you are going through this process. It might guide how much focus you may need in syntax or what style you should mimic in learning. Languages like latin don’t have much dependence on structure from what I understand.

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My Learning Plan

My Learning Plan

Learner Name: Lidia Amanuel

Semester: Fall 2019

Language: Ge’ez and secondarily Amharic

Course: SDLC 110 and 105

 

Where are you now?  What can you do? What do you know?

Use the Levels of Competence document and the LinguaFolio® checklists to assess your current abilities in your language.  For more information, see the SDLAP Wiki.

Amharic:

  • Interpersonal Communication: Intermediate Low
  • Interpretive Listening: Intermediate High
  • Interpretive Reading: Novice High
  • Presentational Speaking: Novice High
  • Presentational Writing: Novice Mid

Ge’ez:

Much less proficient; I can only read it in the context of Church scriptures I have already reviewed. I can spot similar roots and cognates. I know the phonetic inventory. I can greet people in Ge’ez and listen to short poems and songs. 

 

What is your ultimate goal?  What is your goal for this semester?

What do you want to be able to do with this language at the end of this semester and in the future?

 

  • My ultimate goal is to feel more comfortable reading and writing in Amharic through knowing the basic grammar concepts and expanding my vocabulary.
  • In Ge’ez I want to learn about sentence structure and basic conventions of Ge’ez and expand my vocabulary.

What tasks will you complete and what activities will you do this semester to meet your goals?  How will you document and evaluate your progress?

  • I will use youtube videos and podcasts for listening.
  • Create written responses to improve in writing.
  • And read regular scripture and some health news reports.
  • I will use the grammar books for amharic and dictionary for ge’ez to help me.
  • My language partner will assess my speaking and listening and also grade my written responses.
  • Interact with the people at the Ethiopian Church I attend on Sundays, communicate with my language partner in Amharic.



I have left room for flexibility in my learning plan due to the fact that I am starting with my learning partner a little later and I would like to see how his approach pans out first. So far, we have agreed on me reviewing class material outside of class alongside the 2 hours of instructional time. He is sending me important vocabulary words and grammar concepts as we go. Additionally, we have decided to conduct the class in Amharic unless there are any discrepancies to be cleared up to give me more exposure to listening to it. Additionally, I will be attending weekly services in Ge’ez in order to assist my exposure in Ge’ez. There are some resources online for spoken poetry in Ge’ez called Qinie that I will be using as well. Lastly, I will read parts of a story every other day in Ge’ez and Amharic then compose a summary in Amharic. Soon, my teacher will be giving me small compositions in Ge’ez as well. I have identified a dictionary that will help me with this that we have acquired.  

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105: Ning Post 2

105 Reflection 2: 

Summarize some of the main ideas behind Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture. Do you predominantly agree with these assessments? Are there any statements, generalizations, and opinions expressed in the reading that you find problematic? How do these ideas relate both to your own native culture, and the target culture associated with the language you are studying?

This article is really interesting because it gives definitions and terminology to a lot of concepts that I notice and analyze daily in my own life. I often feel like my cultures as an American and Eritrean directly contradict each other. In each category, I saw that a dichotomy between my American and Eritrean Cultures. 

In Eritrea we are collectivists, while in America we are individualists. 

In Eritrea have a polychronic time while in America we have a monochronic one.

In Eritrea there is an external worldview, largely due to theist influences. In American culture, I see a widely internal change oriented worldview. In regards to communication, I find that I can’t say the same thing in English as I can in Tigrigna or it seems wordy, and vice versa it might sound curt, because of the culture of indirect and direct communication. The article also made a point to say one culture isn’t fully one way or another, which is a good point. It failed to mention the layers of the concepts outside of the dichotomy, the different ranges and mixes that there may be in attempts to simplify the article. However, overall in reading this article, I appreciated how it explained the concepts in a very simple way and didn’t unnecessarily elaborate. 

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Discussion Post #4

The article mainly talks about the detailed explanation and classifications of phones. Last time I was confused about the difference between phones and phenetics but after reading this, I have a deeper understanding of phones and make it pretty clear, so Phone is mainly about production and perception of speech sounds in any language, while Phonetic is about the sound pattern that occurred in one language. In the article, the author mentioned Nasals, such as [m] or [n] in English, which reminded me of my Cantonese studying process in Hong Kong. In Cantonese, there are lots of words ending in Nasals while Mandarin words are not, and the nasals in Cantonese are very unique and really hard to pronounce exactly correct. For example, the word “Hong Kong” in Cantonese pronounces [hoeng gong], so two words all end in Nasals and I could not pronounce these sounds at the beginning. Lots of people think Cantonese is very similar to Mandarin, but the truth is the pronunciations differ a lot. However, my Cantonese professor said that young people in HK loved to ignored those Nasal stops and made the Cantonese pronunciations nowadays became closer to Mandarin, which is much more simplified. Also, the article mentioned vowels, which is a tough problem I met recently in Turkish studying. There are 9 forms of each word because of the 9 combinations of vowels in Turkish, and it is very easy to be confused since I have never seen these many changes in a word in any languages because of vowels. I might need lots of practices of it to find the pattern.

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Discussion Post #4

The Korean alphabet -- Hangul, consists of 14 simple consonants and 6 simple vowels. The letters are combined together into syllable blocks. For example, Hangul is written: 한 (han) = ᄒ (h) + ᅡ (a) + ᄂ (n) and 글 (geul) = ᄀ (g) + ᅳ (eu) + ᄅ (l). When compared with American English, several English consonant sounds do not exist in Korean. The most significant of these are the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds in words such as “then”, “thirteen” and “clothes.” Additionally, there’s the /v/ sound, which is produced as a /b/ in Korean, and the /f/ sound, which leads to “phone” being pronounced “pone.”

Interestingly, you could also find trace of Chinese and English in modern Korean phrases. Because the Korean language borrowed some elements from both languages and adapted. I think it’s important to first learn the structure of Korean syllable blocks, as the sounds of some consonants change depending on whether they appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a syllable. It would be helpful to repeatedly listen to a native speaker reading a sentence, in order to gain a better idea of how to follow the sound structure.

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Cultural Post #1 with Artifact

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My friend and I recorded a conversation about each other’s favorite Korean dramas and movies. Since I was talking to someone with proficient hangul skills, I was able to advance immediately to the subject at hand.

 

I started the conversation by asking her about her favorite Korean drama. She answered hesitantly because she had an extensive list of shows that she watched. I told her that she used to love this Korean drama called “Sky Castle”, and she agreed. She said that she likes the drama because it sheds light on the rigid education system in Korea.

 

“Sky Castle” is a satirical soap opera about a community of wealthy doctors, professors, and lawyers that ruthlessly secure the success of their families by making their children attend the top universities in Korea. While the drama exaggerates the culture of education in Korea, it sheds some light about the difficulties of entering some of the top universities. In order to even enroll in the top universities, students must achieve excellent grades at school and high scores for Suneung, which is a national graduation test that asks all the contents students learned in high school. This is no easy feat.

 

Students prepare for Suneung during their early years of high school, attending additional study sessions on top of their regular school hours. From an early age, they are conditioned to believe that exams are both objective and reliable for assessing a person’s capabilities. This belief stems from Korea’s commitment to education during its developmental period. One of the main reasons that Korea was able to rise and compete globally is because highly educated individuals were at the forefront of economic development and innovation. However, overemphasis on education and examinations has their drawbacks. First, students’ social lives and mental health are affected due to extreme pressures from society to pass the Suneung. Second, students are conditioned to believe that examinations are the center of their lives. According to an article I read online, most young Koreans are disillusioned when they realize that the real world is not a multiple-choice exam and that most of the problems in the world are morally, financially, and technologically ambiguous.

 

This conversation compelled me to research further about Suneung and create possible solutions for the future. First, Korea has to reduce their emphasis on standardized testing as this will relieve pressure from the youth. This will allow them to allocate their time into extracurricular activities that build their leadership skills and other technical capabilities that involve activities such as sports. Second, the country should allow students to change their majors in college. This will relieve the burden of committing to an area of study that students are no longer motivated to succeed.

 

 

 

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Cultural Post #1

In order to get more exposure to the Korean language and culture, I chose to read one Korean proverb every two days and try to understand the context behind it. I’ve picked out a few of the proverbs which helped me learn a lot about Korean culture. A proverb that I found fascinating is ‘개천에서 용 난다’ (a dragon rises from a small stream). Mythological stories always have dragons rising from the depths of the sea; therefore, it is unexpected and astonishing to have one rising from a shallow stream. Hence, this proverb is used when referring to a great person who arose from humble beginnings. In Korea, one of the things that can play a role in whether you’re a great person of not is your appearance as noted in the proverb ‘옷이 날개다’ (clothes are wings).This proverb is used to emphasize the importance of dressing well. Its English equivalent is ‘clothes make the man’. Another proverb which I thought was interesting because it references a staple dish in Korea is ‘남의 떡이 더 커 보인다’ (other’s rice cakes always look bigger). It means that anything that you do not have always looks better than what you do, even when it really is not. Its English equivalent would be ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’. Since rice cakes are a staple food item in Korea, they showed up in a quite a few of a proverbs that I read. One other example for a proverb as such is ‘누워서 떡 먹기’ (eating rice cakes while lying down). Rice cakes are easy to make, and can be held in the hand and eaten by themselves, so eating them while lying down is considered to be easy. Hence, this proverb is used to refer to something that is very easy to do. Its English equivalent would be ‘piece of cake’. While it makes sense that rice cakes keep popping up in proverbs because they’re considered staple food in Korean, there are other proverbs that involve other Korean food items. ‘콩 심은데 콩나고, 팥 심은데 팥난다’ (beans come out from where beans are planted, and red beans come out from where red beans are planted) is a proverb that uses beans as a metaphor to say that you are what you surround yourself with and what you put your time towards. Its closest English equivalent is ‘you reap what you sow’. Another proverb that references Korean food is ‘김치국부터 마시지 말라’ (don’t drink the kimchi soup first). Apparently, kimchi soup is had at the end of a meal to aid digestion, so you should wait till the end of your meal to have it. The proverb uses this fact to imply that you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself. Its English equivalent is ‘don’t count your chickens before they hatch’. The use of food items in so many proverbs gives me a sense of the importance of food in Korean culture. I’ve seen a couple of videos which involved making Korean food that hinted at how making food is a joyous process. Even in a conversation with Professor Kim a few days ago, she told us about how eating food is an intimate activity. I would like to dive deeper into Korean food next time.

--Edit--

Current sources for proverbs (picked up from random google results): 

http://multilingualbooks.com/wp/soundandvision/2014/02/25/korean-quotes-proverbs-english-translation/

https://seoulistic.com/korean-culture/wise-korean-proverbs-to-live-by/

https://www.90daykorean.com/korean-proverbs-sayings/

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/south-korea/articles/12-proverbs-that-will-make-you-fall-in-love-with-the-korean-language/

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