Korean Language Reflection

Going into the Korean 442, The Korean Language and Culture, I honestly was not sure what to expect to gain from the class. Initially, I felt like I knew and understand a fair amount about Korean language and culture, however I didn’t anticipate the great insight and revelations that I was able to gain throughout the class. Although much of the base of my knowledge of the Korean language was done in an academic setting, a greater part of if was being able to use it in the real world. With this class, I was able to retouch on the academic side of the Korean language and use my current understand and experiences to seeing the importance of its connection to culture. We have covered a wide variety of topics within Korean language throughout this …show more content…
While the readings were interesting at times to read, but I felt like the class truly benefitted from in class discussion. As we have pointed out, much of the readings are of studies done around the 1990’s and are a bit dated to be applicable to contemporary life. However, from the class discussion, we are able to gain an understanding from various points of view of how they reacted to or interpreted the information, which is essential to understanding the relevance of the topic in everyday life. For example, there were multiple readings that touched on the notion of politeness in the usage of Korean language. The reading helped us gain insight and compare the examples of the politeness usage since it is one thing to understand a language, but it is different thing to actually use it, which is why the cultural and experience aspect is so important. And throughout the analysis of the language, one can see the importance of certain morals of a culture as well. For example, with the articles “Gender Differences in Korean Speech” and “Gender Differences in Korean Strategies,” it illustrated much of the patrilineal past of Korea, in the sense that we see that the position and speech of power is generally seen in the male. However, when female figures want to take a position of power in a conversation, they would use speech style that is considered masculine. So from this, I can draw that …show more content…
Of course, now I understand this rejection of a compliment is out of humbleness, but I feel like if I had no knowledge of this cultural background, I would take this reaction as low self-esteem. This was one revelation that I felt like I always knew, but didn’t fully discuss about until this class. Within in this is a lesson that is also applicable to the world as well. We should understand and accept that the world is different, because everyone has distinctively instilled morals in them and their gestures and actions should not always be taken at face value. There is reason for why people act the way they do, even if we may not always know why. Furthermore, I feel like this lesson is also applicable to the big question that we were asked to discuss; how do we create less misunderstanding among different cultures when visiting a new place? I feel like giving education and the opportunity to understand the root of another culture’s morals is extremely important to start understanding the various difference within a culture and the reasons for their