The questions that I had the most when coming into this class was if the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese writing systems were the similar or different and thankfully after this class I learned that in some ways they are similar but in many ways they are not. For the readings we had before class and during the topics discussed in them were frequently very interesting albeit sometimes way to long. The ones i enjoyed the most was the Korean language lecture and the history of tea lecture I had in this class because of just the amount of fascination I received from the two lectures. I learned just how much Chinese tea impacted other cultures technology, language, and religion and just how intricate the Korean writing system is and its history. For this course, what helped me the most was to do the required days reading before class, take the quiz and memorize the major points of the readings, then go into class to cement my knowledge on the topics. After this class, I found out how cool of a field that linguistics is. I originally came into the class knowing nothing about it but have since learned how broad the field is, how unique it is, and just how cool many languages are.

Hello everyone, my name is Raymond Pan and I am exploring student here at the University of Oregon in my first year of college. To answer where I am from is truly one of the most difficult questions to answer. I was originally born in New York in one of the Chinatowns there, and would then relocate to many states within the United States. As a baby, I’ve been to North Dakota, Alaska, and lastly California before I was shipped off to China with my aunt to live the village lifestyle with my grandparents. After those four years of being in China, I was then taken to live in the United States in Redding, California. Due to this, I am able to speak two languages which are English, Mandarin Chinese, as well as a dialect of Chinese native to the province of Fu Jian.

During the summer, I spent the whole four months working as a waiter at my parent’s restaurant. This is by no means a hobby of mine since no one wants to work ten and a half hours per day. However, from these experiences every summer, I was able to meet new people and improve upon my awkward communication skills a miniscule amount.

This will be my first time going to college and since I did not participate in Introduction which caused me to be super confused my first day here. I ended up meeting a new friend who introduced me around campus and answered one of my biggest questions; where is the nearest Chinese market. It’s important because I love Lao Gan Ma with rice.

I decided to take this course because of my interest in Asian culture, history, and also the relationship between the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese people and how them coming into contact with each other changed their society and languages.

Personally, I love the way this class is structured as it is so organized and makes information in this class easy to learn. At our dorms, we are to read the daily readings for the next day of class. Upon arrival for the next day of class the professor reviews that information with a lecture and provides us Iclicker questions and quizzes to access our knowledge retention. Since this is naturally the way I learn things, through repetition, I feel like this class will be interesting and is for the benefit of our learning career.

Me being the antisocial, awkward person I am, I do not have a lot of hobbies besides being a certified nerd and dog lover.