The topics that have intrigued me the most during this class were everything to do with gender. Oppa and gendered honorifics were particularly interesting to me because I like learning about gender differences in other cultures. In addition to the readings, it was interesting to hear people’s different opinions concerning gender in class. The dispute over oppa was particularly interesting because I got to hear people’s different views on the subject. I really enjoyed having a smaller class size because everyone began to feel more comfortable voicing their opinions in class than they might have in a larger classroom. Going into this class, I wasn’t sure what linguistics really was. Now I feel like I have a much more comprehensive knowledge about the subject and field.

-Audrey Andrews

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.

This class overall has been a new topic and subject matter of learning I normally wouldn’t have taken. I think that there is a sense of cultural understanding gained when you have the opportunity to learn about cultures in a different way, especially through linguistics. There are aspects of certain cultures that don’t make sense until you can dive a bit deeper. For example, I always wondered why East Asian cultures, particularly Japanese, were known for brands like Hello Kitty. But through learning about normative linguistic features, I learned that the style stems from the certain word kawaii, that plays a large role in Japanese culture. Though, I can say this is true for multiple things I have learned from the class.

While it hasn’t necessarily challenged me to think a different way, the course has changed how I piece together multiple aspects of culture and discover how these many interconnected things make up their way of life and customs. For example, taking things learned from a linguistic side and an economics side, finding connections between the two, and inferring how a linguistic phenomena could possibly change the state of the country’s economics.

This class presented an interesting subject, taught in a way for non-native speakers of the languages to be able to learn, but I feel for native speakers to dive a little deeper into their own culture. Surely, when thinking about English, I have never thought about the way our language has affected other aspects of our society and culture. Its impact could be great insight into our culture, but I have yet to encounter a class that teaches these things for English, like this course has.

This class has changed the way I think of languages and their affects on their culture and has opened the opportunity for me to continue this trend of learning with other places.

This photo was shown at the Jordan Schnitzer museum of art. This photo celebrates the history of Japanese mezzotint prints. I think the most interesting part is that the photo shows the character at that time. Especially for their clothes, in Japanese, it has been called “kimono”. When I see this kimono, I will recall the Chinese traditional clothes in Tang dynasty. The style looks the same, but the pattern and color is different. This design uses some elements and technology from Italy, the main aim is to adjust the different colors and let them look vividly and beautiful. I think the most incredible part is that this photo only shows the kanji (the traditional characters), “北齊”. I did not find the hiragana and katakana from this print. Also, I feel confused about these two characters. Does it represent the name of a place or the other special meaning? Also, I think kanji was important in people’s daily life at that time.

I feel the most difficult part is to recognize the different writing styles, the Japanese words, and Korean words. And sometimes it was connected with the meaning, the different intonations will let me confuse, I should review it for several times and easier to forget. But I think it is interesting and have their special background information and culture.

These two photos are taken from Uniquely Chengdu, a Chinese restaurant right off of campus and across the Duck Store on 13th St. The characters in the 2nd picture spell out Cheng Du ming xiao chi, which translate to Cheng Du famous’s xiao chi (a type of food). This shows that Chinese language is left branching, with the modifie, in this case the word ming -famous, placed on the left.

    Everything we covered in class have intrigued me so far. I like how the course introduces different subjects and topics about east asian cultures that I have never thought of. The one aspect that intrigued me the most was about the tonal of Asian languages, where one word can have different meanings depending on the tone of it. My learning strategy is do the readings and quizzes before class in order to have a general knowledge about the lectures, then take notes during the lectures to memorize it. I feel like I’m learning a lot and engaging with the materials the most when I’m in class listening to lectures. There has been a time when the lecture was not clear, and what I did was asking my friends about it.

This photo was taken at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The painting was painted by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. The text on the picture is Japanese. The painting shows a woman pulling a striped fabric. The theme of the painting is to thank the guards of baotaro who answered the prayer. Ukiyoe masters at the end of the edo period used novel designs, unrestrained ideas and solid painting skills to break through the framework of ukiyoe and create many attractive works. He was one of the representative painters in the late period of ukiyo-e painting school. In the class, the Japanese class covered how to use three writing systems. For kanji, hiragana and katakana. In the picture I took, there are Chinese characters and hiragana. In context, it is an embodiment of the meaning to be expressed in the work. The purpose of these Japanese words is to tell the viewer what the picture means.

So far, my classroom experience has been good, except for many professional words and sentences that I need to concentrate on taking time to remember and digest. The upcoming mid-term exam is a challenge for me. I don’t know anything about the classroom materials, but there are many concepts and knowledge that I need to spend time to learn and distinguish. I will constantly review the presentation and memorize it over and over again, because my learning method is to keep learning for a long time and get certain satisfactory results.

This photo is from a restaurant in Springfield, very close to Autzen stadium. I looked up the restaurant to see if I could find out if the name was the same as the Chinese on their sign. Turns out it is called “Chopstix Chinese Cuisine” and the sign on front says “Zhu Kuai Xiao” then I could not identify the last character because of the font. The Chinese to English translation is “bamboo chopstick” then “small/little”. I thought this sign was cool because of the font, and the fact that there is not a sign in English, they only have the Chinese sign. It also appears that the last character may be in traditional writing and that is why I cant identify it. Ive noticed a lot of Chinese signs tend to use both traditional and simplified. This reminded me of how some Chinese characters are still used in Japanese culture, especially on signs.

So far I have felt that all the lecture material has been clear and is going well. I feel I learn the most in class when reviewing the materials from reading quizzes in lecture slides and when talking to classmates around me about the material. When we stop lecture to talk with others around me I feel like it makes me engage in the material more and keeps lectures interesting. I feel like I am learning more about things I have already studied. I have taken many EALL classes and linguistics classes for my degree but I am still learning new pieces of information about linguistics, EALL culture and languages in this course.