There is a Korean proverb, "한국말은 끝까지 들어봐야 안다.", and it can be traslated into "You should listen to Korean to the very end of it.". It means, because we Korean speak topics or essential things at the end part of one's speech. That's why you should not make haste and pay attention to the very end of conversations, when you are talking to Korean (esp. in Korean!).
Of course it is not just Korean people who speak in indirect and circular way. As we learned in previous lecture, maybe oriental people tend to avoid straight and direct way of speaking, and I guess it is a lot influenced by asian traditional culture or idea. Because in Asian cultures, politeness and one's face has been considered to be very important thing in our lives, and it has a lot of things to do with way of speaking.
Everybody all around the world don't want to threaten others' face. Of course in Korea, it is so rude to speak or act straight forwardly to others, especially to strangers or elder people. That's one of the traditional concept in Asia which is related to the reason why Korea has been called "東方禮儀之國( ; Polite Nation in the East)".
Because we don't want to threaten others' face and also want to keep our face, Korean people speak indirectly and circularly regardless of their attention to face threatening. I mean, when people talk to each other, I think they don't need to pay attention intentionally not to threaten others' face, but it is more like something unconscious for Korean people who are born and grown in Korean politeness culture.
Based on the concept of politeness and face, I realized once again how much related they are, language and
culture.
October 12, 2009
October 4, 2009
Collectivism in Me
I was born in Korea and grown up there for 21 years.
As one of Asian countries, Korea is also familiar with the concept of collectivism, not individualism,
and it is well reflected in every part of our culture.
One of the most remarkable examples can be found in Korean language. When we speak in Korean, we use a lot of 'U-ri', which means our, than 'Nae', which means my. For example, when someone look at my family picture and ask me 'who is she?', pointing my mom, I would reply 'u-ri umma.(; our mother.)' , not 'nae umma(; my mother)'. Similarily, let's say that I brought my foreign friend to my school for the first time. When he or she asks me 'Where is this place?', I maybe reply 'u-ri hakkyo(; our school)', not 'nae hakkyo(; my school)'. Like this, there are a lot of expressions with U-ri in Korean, such as uri-dongnae(; our town), uri-nara(; our country), uri-gajok(; our family), uri-jib(; our house), and so on.
It can sound a little bit strange, and, I know that it is hard to understand for people who speak other languages. Besides, translating Korean expressions into English can never be perfect because the concepts in each languages are totally different from the bottom. That's why I would not and can not explain why we use 'U-ri' more than 'Nae', and I just want to tell people that it is as an example that shows collectivism in me and my country. Also, it can show how much related they are, I mean language and culture, and how language can affect one's perception and thoughts.
As one of Asian countries, Korea is also familiar with the concept of collectivism, not individualism,
and it is well reflected in every part of our culture.
One of the most remarkable examples can be found in Korean language. When we speak in Korean, we use a lot of 'U-ri', which means our, than 'Nae', which means my. For example, when someone look at my family picture and ask me 'who is she?', pointing my mom, I would reply 'u-ri umma.(; our mother.)' , not 'nae umma(; my mother)'. Similarily, let's say that I brought my foreign friend to my school for the first time. When he or she asks me 'Where is this place?', I maybe reply 'u-ri hakkyo(; our school)', not 'nae hakkyo(; my school)'. Like this, there are a lot of expressions with U-ri in Korean, such as uri-dongnae(; our town), uri-nara(; our country), uri-gajok(; our family), uri-jib(; our house), and so on.
It can sound a little bit strange, and, I know that it is hard to understand for people who speak other languages. Besides, translating Korean expressions into English can never be perfect because the concepts in each languages are totally different from the bottom. That's why I would not and can not explain why we use 'U-ri' more than 'Nae', and I just want to tell people that it is as an example that shows collectivism in me and my country. Also, it can show how much related they are, I mean language and culture, and how language can affect one's perception and thoughts.
September 16, 2009
[20090911] Practice Enough To Be Confident
To express what I have in my mind is a very important skill which is hard to get, especially if it's not in one's mother tongue. That's what I strongly felt in GEK class last week.
I am used to write many different kinds of writings in Korean, such as letters, diaries, academic reports, and so on. However, English is my second language, and in Korea, we usually focus on just reading when we learn foreign languages. That's why I had a lot of difficulties with making stories based on pictures that professor gave us. The first problem is that I am not used to write in English, so my vocabulary or expression is not enough to convey what I think. Moreover, that fact makes me feel hard to be confident in my English.
I know that in terms of language learning, practicing is the best way. That's the reason I came to Singapore, to learn both English and Chinese. By attending classes, meeting many people from other countries, and by just living in Singapore, I cannot get away from speaking English and Chinese.(Of course I don't need Chinese that much but sometimes when I want to order food, there are some people who just speak Chinese, even in PGP Residence where foreign students live. Actually it is good for me to practice my Chinese!) As I speak English and Chinese, I found out that my problem is not related to language itself, such as grammar, vocabulary, etc., but more related to my confidence and attitude.
For example, when I talk to Korean friends who are not that good at English, I feel confident and my English competence seems to be better than usual. However, when I talk to English native speakers, I feel like getting smaller and smaller by myself. It seems that the level of confidence definitely shifts relatively. However, I believe I can change it. I can change my mind and try to be confident everytime. Although it would be not that easy, I think it is possible on the condition that I put enough effort on language learning and practice it again and again. Now my own conclusion has come out
; Practice enough to be confident.
As I have learned English for almost 10 years and Chinese for about 4 years, I have my own opinion that there exists a clear(and thick) line that I cannot go across as a foreign language learner. I mean, people can improve their foreign language competence to some degree, but there is a limit they cannot overcome. Nevertheless, I still have long long way to go to get even to the line, and I need to put a lot of effort and time on my way.
For this reason, I cannot waste my time here in Singapore being lazy.
I am used to write many different kinds of writings in Korean, such as letters, diaries, academic reports, and so on. However, English is my second language, and in Korea, we usually focus on just reading when we learn foreign languages. That's why I had a lot of difficulties with making stories based on pictures that professor gave us. The first problem is that I am not used to write in English, so my vocabulary or expression is not enough to convey what I think. Moreover, that fact makes me feel hard to be confident in my English.
I know that in terms of language learning, practicing is the best way. That's the reason I came to Singapore, to learn both English and Chinese. By attending classes, meeting many people from other countries, and by just living in Singapore, I cannot get away from speaking English and Chinese.(Of course I don't need Chinese that much but sometimes when I want to order food, there are some people who just speak Chinese, even in PGP Residence where foreign students live. Actually it is good for me to practice my Chinese!) As I speak English and Chinese, I found out that my problem is not related to language itself, such as grammar, vocabulary, etc., but more related to my confidence and attitude.
For example, when I talk to Korean friends who are not that good at English, I feel confident and my English competence seems to be better than usual. However, when I talk to English native speakers, I feel like getting smaller and smaller by myself. It seems that the level of confidence definitely shifts relatively. However, I believe I can change it. I can change my mind and try to be confident everytime. Although it would be not that easy, I think it is possible on the condition that I put enough effort on language learning and practice it again and again. Now my own conclusion has come out
; Practice enough to be confident.
As I have learned English for almost 10 years and Chinese for about 4 years, I have my own opinion that there exists a clear(and thick) line that I cannot go across as a foreign language learner. I mean, people can improve their foreign language competence to some degree, but there is a limit they cannot overcome. Nevertheless, I still have long long way to go to get even to the line, and I need to put a lot of effort and time on my way.
For this reason, I cannot waste my time here in Singapore being lazy.
September 9, 2009
[20090904] Reflection
When I first took my major course in year 1, my professor told me in the class that "Linguistics is a science.". It sounded strange for me, because what I knew about science were totally different and so far from linguistics. However, as time went by and as I took more and more major classes, I came to understand a little bit about what he meant by 'science'.
We can collect so many speech data all around. When linguists have plenty of data, they classify them into some categories according to their functions, characteristics, etc. Then, they analyze the data step by step in order to understand them. In this procedure, they sometimes need to set up some hypothesis to explain patterns or facts that they found in the data. Although I simplified the process of linguistic analysis too much, but anyway, here we can see the procedure of analyzing linguistic data : gathering data - observation of the data - figuring out patterns - making hypothesis and explain the patterns.
That is what linguists do, which is exactly same as what scientists do. Both linguists and scientists try to analyze data and explain facts based on their hypothesis. This is what I saw and learned in my major classes.
What we learned on this Friday class was about the anylizing. If what I said above can be a whole picture of analyzing, what we did in the class was more specific and more detail step of analysis. It was my first time doing discourse analysis, so it was not easy to understand the speech according to every single components of speech events. However, it was interesting that there are some kinds fo patterns or rules in every speech -even in a short chit chat with friends - in our daily lives.
We can collect so many speech data all around. When linguists have plenty of data, they classify them into some categories according to their functions, characteristics, etc. Then, they analyze the data step by step in order to understand them. In this procedure, they sometimes need to set up some hypothesis to explain patterns or facts that they found in the data. Although I simplified the process of linguistic analysis too much, but anyway, here we can see the procedure of analyzing linguistic data : gathering data - observation of the data - figuring out patterns - making hypothesis and explain the patterns.
That is what linguists do, which is exactly same as what scientists do. Both linguists and scientists try to analyze data and explain facts based on their hypothesis. This is what I saw and learned in my major classes.
What we learned on this Friday class was about the anylizing. If what I said above can be a whole picture of analyzing, what we did in the class was more specific and more detail step of analysis. It was my first time doing discourse analysis, so it was not easy to understand the speech according to every single components of speech events. However, it was interesting that there are some kinds fo patterns or rules in every speech -even in a short chit chat with friends - in our daily lives.
September 2, 2009
[20090828] Lecture 2 Reflection
Today's topic was Speech Acts, especially 'compliments and responses'.
While the activity, which we filled out our discourse completion paper and compared them with group members, I found a lot of interesting points which are hidden in my compliment responses.
Different from the research result that professor showed us, the class members accepted compliments a lot, which is close to the western way of response to compliment. However, to the four compliments on the paper, I had 2 accepting only, and the others were 'Thanking and Denigrating'. Because I am from Korea and my country belongs to a part of Eastern culture, it was not a surprising result.
However, while I was analyzing datas, I thought that, for me, the result can be different according to the language that I use at the moment. My mother tongue is Korean. If someone gives me a compliment in Korean, I would not accept it and denigrate it. For example, if someone says "너 오늘 무척 예쁘다.(Neo Oneul Mucheok Yebbda ; You look pretty today.)", than I would reply "아, 아니에요.(Ah, anieyo. ; Oh, no, I'm not.)". On the other hand, if someone compliments me in English, like "You look pretty today.", then I would accept it saying "Thank you. You look great, too.".
As I concluded, this kind of difference is related to the language and the culture in it. When I'm using Korean, I speak and act in a way that corresponds with Korean language or culture. However, when I speak English, I fit my behaviors or thoughts into a way of English speakers'. It can be discussed as 'language identity' that I'm studying these days in my major class.
There are many connections between this GEK module and my major module 'Social Variation in English'. Therefore, I hope to learn a lot about language which is related to social contexts, by combining all the knowledge that I get in the two modules.
+) It's my first time making my blog and publishing posts in English.
So there can be a lot of mistakes, but I'll try my best to get better and better!
While the activity, which we filled out our discourse completion paper and compared them with group members, I found a lot of interesting points which are hidden in my compliment responses.
Different from the research result that professor showed us, the class members accepted compliments a lot, which is close to the western way of response to compliment. However, to the four compliments on the paper, I had 2 accepting only, and the others were 'Thanking and Denigrating'. Because I am from Korea and my country belongs to a part of Eastern culture, it was not a surprising result.
However, while I was analyzing datas, I thought that, for me, the result can be different according to the language that I use at the moment. My mother tongue is Korean. If someone gives me a compliment in Korean, I would not accept it and denigrate it. For example, if someone says "너 오늘 무척 예쁘다.(Neo Oneul Mucheok Yebbda ; You look pretty today.)", than I would reply "아, 아니에요.(Ah, anieyo. ; Oh, no, I'm not.)". On the other hand, if someone compliments me in English, like "You look pretty today.", then I would accept it saying "Thank you. You look great, too.".
As I concluded, this kind of difference is related to the language and the culture in it. When I'm using Korean, I speak and act in a way that corresponds with Korean language or culture. However, when I speak English, I fit my behaviors or thoughts into a way of English speakers'. It can be discussed as 'language identity' that I'm studying these days in my major class.
There are many connections between this GEK module and my major module 'Social Variation in English'. Therefore, I hope to learn a lot about language which is related to social contexts, by combining all the knowledge that I get in the two modules.
+) It's my first time making my blog and publishing posts in English.
So there can be a lot of mistakes, but I'll try my best to get better and better!
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