Author Archives: jjohns26

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One of the questions that has intrigued me the most was actually from our newest topic. If language effects how people perceive the world, and how differently speakers think from one another. I hadn’t thought of it much before this class and now thinking about it I am amazed at how much the way our languages are structured can effect what we perceive first and the results of thoughts all together. As, in class I thought it was interesting to know that English speakers when deciding if the person in the center was happy or not. A big percentage chose happy no matter how the surroundings were and only focused on the person in the question, while even in the other exercise with the fish tank. You see the difference that east Asian language speakers could have that instead of looking at the first thing they see and answering, they look at the bigger picture with everything included to give an answer. Also, the cow and grass picture was just another intriguing moment, as it wasn’t until now that there was a difference between how people categorize things and how relationships affect the result.

How I approach learning for this class, is just preparing myself to read the content more than once. So that I am able to fully comprehend and remember what I am reading/learning about. Flashcards also help me when trying to remember important parts of the lectures and readings that have shown up on quizzes and in the readings. This class has challenged my thinking when it comes to linguistics. In terms that I have learned more than I’ve ever really known about linguistics and it’s given me good insight within the three languages and in my own in this class. Also, learning that a lot goes into linguistics and there are several parts to it which opens my eyes to see just how complex languages can be and just how interesting that is. Seeing the difference between three languages that people tend to mix up, and understanding just how different they are as well as shared similarities between each other. As someone learning Japanese and Korean and has taken Chinese classes as well, this class actually gave me more knowledge that comes into mind as I am doing homework and practicing the language. It has made me think a lot more about the language that I am learning and overall has helped me understand it more from grammar to gendered linguistical features within it.

East Asian Writing

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For this blog post, I decided to head down to the Eugene Asian Market at 11th Ave. I not only walk by it quite often but I go here as well to pick up items. Since, it is walking distance from my dorm, it is super convenient! One of the first things I noticed when seeing this market are the traditional Chinese characters present on their signs as well as to the stairs up to the entrance. The Chinese text shown in the picture is 亚洲龍 (yàzhōu lóng). The kanji 亚洲 (yàzhōu) means Asia, then the kanji 龍 (lóng) means dragon.

With the information I learned during the lectures, seeing Chinese kanji and searching for the meanings. I see first hand where di-syllabic and mono-syllabic are used. 亚洲 has the two syllables, the first being yà then the second as zhōu to be used together in order to mean Asia. With the kanji 龍 it is an example of a monosyllabic word since it is only lóng. It is intriguing after learning this in class to look at different kanji and words that you learn and understand what the word is apart from its meaning. Also, reminding me how important tone is as well to the Chinese language. How a flat tone to a falling tone makes a difference to what the meaning of a single word is. As I was using the chinese keyboard on my computer, while typing in the pinyin without the tones being an option on the keys itself. The bar showed a whole array of different kanji together with the same letter but having a different tone syllable in order for it to be a different word from what you could have been intending to write. Quite fascinating!

In class, I feel like I am learning the most when listening to the lecture. Taking notes when needed, but also the in-class clicker questions. It feels like a reflection for the content I just learned. While also keeping me engaged and attentive during class in-order to get the correct answer. I always seem to remember the content I was quizzed on in the clicker-questions easier than some of the other material, since it feels like a breather from the previous slides to put everything I just learned together in order to answer the question. To use the information previously given is what is helpful for my learning within the class because it is easier for me to remember that content.

Hello Class!

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Hello! My name is Jasmine and I am a sophomore here at the University of Oregon. I am originally from Seattle, Washington as well.  I am currently majoring in Pre-Business Administration and minoring in East Asian Studies. A few more things about me is that I like to draw and studying languages. I also even traveled to Japan for the first time this summer. I am interested in East Asian languages and societies because since I am part Korean, I have always been interested in learning more about the culture and the language. To learn more about Korea, since the language was never pushed for me to learn this is a good opportunity to learn more about something I am apart of. I am also learning Korean and Japanese so this class will be able to help me learn more about the languages and the societies with them more.

A picture I took in Shibuya (渋谷)!

This was in DiverCity Tokyo Plaza (ダイバーシティ東京 プラザ)

A question/issue that have intrigued me the most is the debate between a language and a dialect. I always have known that there are languages and dialects but I never truly knew what made them different from one another. Also, it is interesting to have learned what is considered a dialect compared what is considered a language and the qualifications for both. To differieniate a dialect to a language I realized is more of a gray area to the process. The teaching methods in this course is pretty straightforward and easy to understand with everything in nice bullet points. It feel’s organized and easy to digest. To describe my own way of learning, I will re-write the notes from the lectures so that I can always reference the notes and also writing things down helps me remember content better.