About Me:

Hello class! My name is Mark Svozil, and I am from the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a transfer student originally from College of San Mateo, so this is my first term as a Duck, however I am academically a Junior. I am an accounting major, and I hope to soon have my CPA in the coming years. An interesting fact about myself is that I have worked at In-N-Out for over 3 years, so am heavily trained in cooking juicy burgers and golden brown fries at the best burger joint in the entire country no contest. I am taking this class for a prerequisite, however I can honestly say I have been enjoying learning about East Asian culture and history. I’ve noticed many people tend to group all Asian countries together, but learning their differences and what makes them unique has been really intriguing in a fresh type of way.

(Me far right)

About the course:

So far into the course I have most enjoyed the small history and cultural differences we have learned about in the course. I truly know very little about each of these countries so all information is new and interesting. I have also enjoyed the teaching methods of the course. Reading the texts has been informative and the quizzes which follow make the text easier to comprehend. I have never used an iclicker before, but I’ve found it to help solidify my studies from the night before. My personal study method is to reread and stare at text and evidence until I understand the concept, so this teaching method works quite well with the way I learn. My absolute biggest worry in this class is that I have literally no knowledge of these countries and no clue about languages other than English. My greatest change in preperation for this class will come when I have to write papers about other languages, because I will really have to rely on research and creativity when it comes to choosing topics which I can understand and write with confidence.

My name is Tung Tran, but I go by Tyler. I was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam and moved to Portland, Oregon a bit over 3 years ago. This is my first year in UO and I will probably choose advertising as my major. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with my family and friends. I also play tennis and love thrift shopping, and I’m thinking about taking a sewing class so I can start designing my own clothes. Music is another big interest of mine, as I listen to music all the time. Some of my favorites are Tyler the Creator, Asap Rocky, and Kanye West.

I’m a huge fan of Asian pop culture, especially Japanese culture and anime. Some of my favorites are Slam Dunk!, Bleach, Attack on Titan and Detective Conan. As an immigrant, I also find it really intriguing about the high school culture in Japan, or East Asian as a whole, as to how everyone is so polite, and there are different social classes in a school. The high school in East Asia, high school is regarded almost as a family-like system, while in America, it’s more of a public place where people mind their own business and there is not as much of a school spirit.

I’m really fascinated by the evolution of each language. I’m Vietnamese, and as far as I know, Vietnamese was very much like Japanese and Korean in the beginning. We also used Chinese characters originally, then developed our own language, called Nom, later on. This is until we invented our current language that we use today, inspired by the Latin language. The teaching method of this course is different from what I was used to in high school, as I have to do a lot more reading outside of class, but I think it’s better for me as it encourages me to be more disciplined with myself. This course is very interesting for me as it deepened my understanding of East Asian culture. The class definitely changed the way I think as I know a little bit more about each language and their culture

Hello! My name is Reina Nishigaki ( in Chinese Character, 西垣玲奈). I am an exchange student from Japan and I’m going to stay here for a year. My major at my university in Japan is Law, mostly because I am interested in international laws. I became interested in this topic when I learned about the important roles of international laws for international relations and issues, especially issues of East Asia. To comprehend the international laws, I need to know more about international perspectives and perspectives from other fields. By acquiring a comprehensive basic knowledge, I’m able to study international laws from a multi-faceted viewpoint to further enhance my research. So, I would like to learn Political Science, International Studies, East Asia Societies and of course English, at UO. I’m not good at English, so please teach me English!

In my free time, I like playing tennis, exercising and listening to music. I often listen to K-pop songs. I like Korean and Chinese culture. I visited Korea this summer. I went to Gyeongbokgung wearing a hanbok. I had a great time in Korea. Next time, I would like to go to China.

I’m interested in the international relationships among China, Korea and Japan. They have similar culture, but nowadays the international relationship among them is not good because of historical problems. Especially, regarding Japan and Korea, it is said that they are mutually “close but distant countries”. I really want to solve the tension between them and improve their international relationship. Therefore, I’d like to learn about these issues in terms of not only international laws, but also history and politics.

So far, I enjoy this class. It is especially interesting to learn the history behind the Japanese language from the viewpoint of an American university student, because there are a lot of things I didn’t know, even though my first language is Japanese. I think the teaching method in this class is effective. Using iClickers is new for me, but it is helpful to know which part of the lesson that I don’t understand. Also, the readings and quizzes before class helps me to prepare for the lesson. Since there are so many technical terms, reading is a little challenging for me. However, the contents are very interesting. I look forward to learning more about East Asia!

Hello everyone!

My name is Thomas Graeper and this is my senior year. I am a business major and hoping to pursue a career in business. I am passionate about ceramics and powerlifting. My hobbies are a huge part of who I am and say a lot about my character. With ceramics, I mainly focus on wheel throwing and especially enjoy making mugs and vases. As for the gym and lifting, I focus on being supportive and inclusive because I know firsthand how intimidating stepping into a gym can be.

This picture is of me and my family water skiing! We love to stay active and make sure to spend time together every year in some way shape or form. This pic was taken on lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho.

I have always been interested in East Asian society. After highschool, I worked in a ramen shop where all of my coworkers were from Japan. I had never considered myself someone who could learn a language. I hated learning spanish in school because my teacher wasn’t a native speaker herself and I had no use for the language. At my ramen shop I had a need to communicate with my coworkers and friends who I spend most of my time with. We all learned by teaching our own language to each other. I realized that learning a language was more fun and easy when I had a real passion and desire to learn.

I like the teaching methods of the course. I really didn’t know what this class was going into it but I found learning about East Asian languages is bringing my knowledge of Asian all together. I’m intrigued by logograms because they are so foreign to me. Also languages that don’t use the roman alphabet are crazy to me. Hangul makes me realize that the roman alphabet accomplishes the same things as Asian scripts. The teaching methods of the course are very nice because they don’t force anything on you. I think they match your level of interest and teach you something no matter what level of proficiency you are at speaking any of these languages. These methods match my learning style because I tend to naturally work harder in a class I am interested in. The class is challenging my western styles of thinking about language and forcing me to actually learn about East Asian languages.

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.

Hello everyone, my name is Christian Carter and I’m currently a junior at the University of Oregon and double majoring in math and physics–I know it’s a lot lol. I’m part of an a cappella group here on campus, Mind the Gap. I’ve been singing with them for two years, going on three. If you want to see me sing come down the EMU amphitheater or the EMU main lobby area a 3:45 pm on any Friday.

This is my a cappella group that I sing with. I’m the lower left-most person with the sick hair

I’ve been interested in East Asian cultures since childhood and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to learn more about them in a formal environment. I’m particularly intrigued by their honor systems, food, and general history. I’m currently learning both Japanese and Chinese Mandarin on my own to help get a better feel for the cultures. I find it interesting that the Korean script is based on and was created mimicking the mouth and the sounds that it can make. I’ve also enjoyed learning more about the Japanese and Chinese scripts as well. I’m excited to learn about the politeness in all the languages next week.

I like the lecture format that Prof. Idemaru is using and I learn well this way. I generally just absorb the information while noting key points in my notebook for later reference. This is how I learn in most of my other classes as well. I think this class will be a larger time commitment than I had previously thought, but I think I can still manage it and am looking forward to learning the most that I can from the course.