Hello! My name is Christyn and I am currently a freshman here at the UO. I was born and raised in San Diego, California before I moved up here for college. I currently am majoring in Asian Studies with a minor in Korean. Somethings about me are that I am the youngest of 4 kids where we all speak a different second language. I was also on my high school’s varsity swim team for all four years and I hope to continue to swim during my time here at the U of O.

What interests me in East Asian Languages and Cultures is how different eastern Asian countries are culturally from western countries. Specifically, the culture around Asian cuisine and it’s cooking style is something that interests me a lot seeing as I grew up eating Thai and Korean food- my favourites being Khao Soi and Bibim-Naengmyeon- and being able to see how important food and cooking can be to Asian cultures.

Although this is the first linguistics class I’ve ever taken, the teaching style is familiar to teaching styles I have had in high school. Personally, I think the iClickers are a great way to engage kids, especially kids like me who might be shy or introverted but still want to participate because it allows us to still be involved without being put on the spot by speaking out in front of everyone. Typically I approach learning as an auditory learner so the lectures are really nice to just sit and listen to rather than the reading. While this class hasn’t altered the way I think, I’m sure as the course continues it will alter the way I think.

About me:

What’s up y’all

I’m Alex Wick, I was born in Washington and moved to Oregon when I was about 2 years old. I’ve lived in Oregon all my life, and the UO has always been my university of choice. I am currently majoring in Business and exploring minors like sociology, computer information & technology, etc. I have two cats and a dog at home, the dog being a miniature golden-doodle named Ollie. I haven’t taken any classes about East Asia, so I thought it would be interesting to explore something new! I am also interested in differentiating Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, simply because I’ve always been curious what the differences are. Lastly, I really would like to study abroad and I want to check out all my options.

About the class:

I don’t have any questions about the course so far, seeing as it’s been well organized and engrossing. I like how the course is being taught because it’s a familiar format. On top of that, I like that we get more, shorter length assignments rather than less frequent, lengthier assignments. I really like this approach because it keeps me engaged throughout the week, and I end up spending more time on the material overall than if it were project-based. My learning style is exactly as I described above because I need to stay consistently engaged in order to get an A in the class. So far I wouldn’t say that the class is challenging me to change how I think or prepare, but it’s engaging and I’m enjoying it!

About Me:

Hello Class! My name is Noah Weisel and I’m from Los Angeles, California. I lived there my entire life and moved up to Eugene two years ago for school. I am currently entering my Junior year at the UO, majoring in Business and minoring in Computer Information Technology. I have two dogs back at home in LA, a white labrador named Koda and an Australian shepherd mix named Willow. I have never taken an Asian studies class before but for as long as I can remember I have been interested in Japanese culture, and have wanted to visit Japan. So far I am really enjoying my time in EALL209 and am looking forward to learning what differentiates Korean, Japanese and Chinese languages. I am taking this class to expand my global mindset and give me some insight into different interesting cultures. I am also hoping that later this year I have the opportunity to study abroad in Japan for a business school 

About the Course:

The teaching style of this class is similar to other classes I have taken in the past, but at the same time, this is the first linguistics class I have taken at UO. Overall I don’t believe that this class is going to be super difficult, but I am definitely going to need to take notes during lectures as I don’t speak any Korean, Japanese and Chinese. I really enjoy the teaching style of this class, as it is similar to the teaching style of classes I have previously taken. I like the quizzes on the reading every week which allows me to solidify what I read in my brain. I am also a fan of the iClicker questions in class as it’s an easy way to get participation points but also gives me extra practice to study the information. I’m also really looking forward to the upcoming class in which we try teas from different regions. 

Hello, I am Jackson Li. My Chinese name is 李芝明. I, myself, am from Portland, Oregon, however, my parents were from Guangzhou, China, so I can speak both Cantonese and English. I have also been learning Mandarin, however, I don’t consider it to be a strength of mine. My intended major is Psychology, and I hope to be able to also minor in Chemistry or another a foreign language.

Something interesting about me is that I like to collect vinyl records. I like supporting artists that I like and so that is one of the ways that I do it. A few records that I bought recently are Igor by Tyler, the Creator and Self-Titled by Kids See Ghosts. Another thing I recently started to do is go to concerts. The first one I went to is Daniel Caesar, but it definitely is not going to be my last.

One of the most interesting things to me about East Asian societies is the music. There are a lot of artists that I really enjoy listening to such as DEAN and Shirley Chen (陈雪凝). I think that music from East Asian cultures is very meaningful and the melodies are relaxing. Some of my favorite songs are Instagram by DEAN, 后来 by Rene Liu and 绿色 by Shirley Chen. Aside from music, I love East Asian cuisine. I grew up eating mostly Chinese food, but I got around to eventually trying lots of other foods. One of my favorite foods is tteokbokki because I really like spicy food.

Looking at what we have discussed in the class, I have found everything to be really interesting. I’m very interested in the origins of these East Asian languages. As a Chinese person, it’s very intriguing to see what Chinese writing was once like and how the language has evolved. The lectures are very interactive with the iClicker questions, which I find very helpful. My general approach with learning is the same as the lecture. I go through the reading and then I go do the quizzes. It helps me see what I have learned and what I am missing. Then I go back to the reading and write down important information. The course has provided a lot of information that has changed my perspective on the three languages. The difference between how each language uses Chinese characters was very important for me because I thought they had mostly the same meaning and uses.

I look forward to seeing where the class goes and what we will end up learning about!

Hello everyone! My name is Xinran 欣然(means “happiness” in Chinese) and I am a junior student. My major is education and I’m minoring in East Asian Studies. I was born in Dalian which is a coast city and is famous for seafood. My home city is only 1 hour and 20 minutes of flight to South Korea and 3 hours to Tokyo. Many Korean people and Japanese people work and live in Dalian. Also, Dalian is a multi-culture city that includes Chinese culture, Japanese culture, and Russian culture because of historical reasons. My grandfather and my dad all can speak fluent Japanese. So, I grew up under the nurture of multi-culture. When I was in middle school and I was attracted by K-pop culture. My favorite band is EXO and I came to its concert in 2016. I think this class is very helpful for me to know more about East Asian culture and it will be very useful for my future career.

Japanese style’s buildings in Dalian

Russian style’s building in Dalian

By the way, I enjoy cooking and baking, especially Chinese dishes and all kind of cakes.

So far, I really enjoy the class. I am looking forward to learning more information about East Asian culture. I think connecting the content of reading with Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture is a better way to understand and learn. My learning approaches are two simple ways: reviewing notes from the reading and the last class and previewing the PowerPoint for the next class. I use that approach in most of my major classes and it is also useful in our class. We have daily read with a quiz before the class and it is a very good way for me to prepare. I feel like this course is very interesting.

Hey! My name is Kalissa, and I’m a first-year majoring in Computer Science. I grew up in the suburbs of Bay Area (yeah sorry, I’m another Californian), and I’m really glad to be living in Eugene because I did’t have to deal with the PG&E power shutdown that happened this week. My mother’s side of the family is from Hong Kong, but I can only speak and understand a microscopic amount of Cantonese. I visited Hong Kong this summer, and had the chance to meet up with a few relatives and family friends, which was really nice because I don’t get to see them very often. Being in Hong Kong strengthened my appreciation towards its culture and language, so I’m excited to learn about other East Asian cultures.

A shiba I saw in Hong Kong!

I want to learn more about how Eastern societies interact with one another, and how these interactions may also impact the societies’ cultures. China, Japan, and Korea each have such distinct cultures, and I hope to learn about how the history of these countries have led to such individual societies. I’m also interested in the history of the Cantonese language, and how the language itself is similar to Mandarin and other East Asian languages.

The debate about whether or not languages within language families are dialects has intrigued me because before taking this class, I assumed that Cantonese was a dialect within the Chinese language family, so I found it interesting that there is actually a distinction between dialects and languages. The teaching methods for this course are pretty straightforward and clear to me. I think that the assigned quizzes help me understand the key points and ideas from the readings. Personally, I am a visual learner, so I find it easier to understand certain concepts when there are diagrams and maps presented. I’m excited to learn more from this course!

Hello everyone. My name is XinzeZheng, in Chinese character is 郑信泽. I am so happy to meet you guys in class. My hometown is in Zhejiang province in the south part of China. This is my third year in the United States. The first year I studied at AEI. A language training center to help the foreign student to learn English. Then, I studied at UO. Now I am a sophomore major in economics. This summer I came back to China for two months. I thrived in two major cities called Shanghai and Chengdu. And I went to a poor village for ten days to be a volunteer to help them.

About the Anisa language and society. I chose this class one reason is that I want to know more about China from a different perspective. Also, I am interested to know that the language connection between Chinese and Japanese because I saw many Chinese Characters in Japanese. Right now, I don’t have many questions. The teaching method in this class is that students need to read the article on canvas before class, then they will get some basic knowledge about the topic, in-class students can know more detail about the content. It’s similar to my learning style. I normally read some textbooks before class then in class I could learn it more deep way. This Class has one challenge is that I don’t know too much information about Korea, but I will put more effort into this part. I excited about the rest of the term.

Hi, I’m Claudia Lee, and I’m from sunny LA, California! I’m a freshman studying journalism, and I hope to become a video producer and editor in the future. I’d love to expand my production to cover campaigning, advocacy, etc. My hallmates and I joke a lot about making a Youtube channel to improve our skills, but we’ve actually come up with cool ideas like talking about what’s it like to be a POC in Oregon or where to find good Asian food. If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them out (plus make friends hehe). 

In my free time, I like going out and having fun with my friends. This summer I didn’t travel, but I went to Six Flags for the first time, had a Star Wars marathon, and walked around the city. I do love traveling, though! I’ve been to different parts of the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Hawaii, and I’ll be traveling around Europe this winter break. Some places I’ll be visiting is France, Holland, and Germany.

I identify as Chinese-American, so I definitely wanted to take a class that could help me better understand the history behind my culture and language. Growing up, I wasn’t sure if how I behaved made me too Asian or too American, but I know now that there is no problem with how I live or who I am. I’ve already learned so much from our lecture about dialect vs. language (I speak Cantonese and I always thought it was a language, but I’m studying French at UO). So far, I’ve found the class and Friday discussions straightforward and easy to follow. I’m excited to see what else I’ll learn in this class!

Sunset in Oahu, Hawaii (captured with my Canon Rebel 40mm).

Friends & I fooling around during our spring dance concert. <3

Hi everyone! My name is Kaitlyn Unger and I am currently a senior at UO. I am majoring in Chinese and East Asian studies (linguistic intensive) and minoring in business and anthropology. I’ve always loved languages around the world and Chinese and East Asian foods; So I decided to start studying Chinese in high school and I’ve suck with it ever since. I don’t know much about Japanese and Korean language and culture, I’ve only take one other EALL class, but I am excited to learn more about it!

I am very busy with three jobs but I think I have the best jobs ever because they each relate to something I am passionate about: teaching, art, working with kids and music. I wanted to add a photo of my favorite job and which is teaching figure skating! After spending my life skating I now have the opportunity to coach and this photo is one of my youngest students at her second competition. I also decided to add some photos of my recent trip to LA. I love to travel and it was cool to experience a lot of LA’s music history and art. I also included a photo of me and my doggo in my home town. I am from Gig Harbor, Washington and I love this picture because the Pudget Sound is in the background. The beaches, water, mountains and forests in that area are so beautiful and I’m happy to call it one of my homes (in addition to Eugene now).

Hi guys! I am Erica. I was born in Illinois and raised in both Tokyo and Michigan. I am majoring in Architecture. I am planning to join the Ahiru daiko club and also planning to apply for UOPINK rep in this winter term.

Here is a fun fact about me. I love to travel. So far I’ve been to Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii(i know this is not a contry but kinda it is). Hopefully, I can go to some Europe country next year. I also want to study abroad since I am in an architecture major and I am quite obsessed with historical buildings and stuff.

(Here is me when I visited Hong Kong)

The reason why I am in this class is I wanted to know more about East Asia cultures since I am part of Japanese. I didn’t have a chance to learn about Japanese culture or history so I thought this is a great opportunity to educate my self and show some respect to my family. I also don’t know any history or culture about China and Korea as well.

So far, I am enjoying this class but I noticed that there are so many facts that I didn’t know about. Through this course, I want to learn what is the main difference between Japan, Korea, and China. Some people think they are all the same and can’t describe which is which. As a part of Japanese, I don’t want to be like that. I want to be able to describe differences and their own cultural background after I finished this course.

I look forward to meeting new people and share our cultural backgrounds!

-Erica