Project 1
No End in Sight
Disciplinary Narrative
Bolded text in every hue flashes on every side, whether zooming back and forth or popping up out of nowhere. I eagerly open up tab after tab trying to find a way to read the words that fly across my screen. It’s summer 2017 and I’m in my bedroom falling down a rabbit hole of K-pop content, fully entranced by an interview of a group called Blackpink. Unbeknownst to me, I am about to spend the rest of my night, and the rest of my summer for that matter, learning Korean. I was drawn into the exciting, bubbly, curated world of K-pop and I stayed for the euphoria I got from learning Korean. Something about gaining knowledge of the language that allowed me to unlock more understanding of the content I was consuming felt so fulfilling. This moment marked a huge turning point in my life as it eventually inspired me to study linguistics in college. This summer was my first time engaging with Korean media, but far from my first time with a foreign language.
My relationship with foreign languages began in my childhood, as I was bilingual in my parents’ mother tongue of Cape Verdean Creole, or Kriolu. As a creole language, it fuses vocabulary from Portuguese with some grammatical remnants of various West African languages like Mandinka. In my early teen years, I grew a greater appreciation for the language and made extra efforts to learn more. The language was the only way to communicate with my grandmothers, and it added a deeper sense of connection and playfulness when using it to talk to my mother. I found myself using the language for comedic effect with my family and noticed that I took on a slightly different personality when speaking the language. Language had already been a central part of my life since I was born because of the role it played in my earliest relationships with my loved ones.
My first ever attempt to learn a foreign language was in elementary school when I picked up a French book from the school library. I knew that my parents learned French in school back in Cabo Verde, so I was so excited to share my learning with them. I exclaimed to my dad that the word for ‘yes’ in French was oh-oo-ee which was met by laughter from my dad. He explained that the proper pronunciation for the word was actually wee, much to my frustration as a kid seeing it clearly spelled out with very distinct letters as ‘oui’. Years later, I began formally studying French in middle school, and I was fascinated by the relationship between the words of French and Kriolu. The similarities between the two romance languages kept me intrigued for years. That is, until I found the Korean language.
Once I started learning the Korean language in high school, my interest in French was redirected toward Korean as I excitedly self-studied the language nearly every day. Within the first few days of my studies, one of the foundational concepts I learned about its grammar is that verbs have a basic dictionary form that ends in -da. While watching a behind-the-scenes clip for a Blackpink music video, I picked out the -da ending, looking up the translations for about five verbs uttered in the video. After doing this I realized that they all ended with -nida. This discovery made me light up. Because I knew that Korean uses compounding to create new verbs, I assumed that the “prefixes” were compounds added before -nida, and I set out to find the meaning of this new verb nida. I rummaged through many different resources trying to find the translation for this verb and found nothing. I felt defeated because of how daunting and unpredictable this new grammar system seemed to be. After more time learning the language, I discovered that nida is not a verb itself, but a type of formal conjugation. I came across a website that had a chart of every conjugation for any Korean verb. I was ecstatic to discover that the grammar of the language was less complicated than the conjugation system of French, but still extremely intricate and detailed. This opened up an entire level of the language that was way deeper than what I was studying. It thrilled me to think about fully understanding all of these novel forms now that I had a succinct list of them.
It was around this time that I was figuring out my plans for after high school. I never really had a dream job in childhood, and for some reason I couldn’t see myself turning any of my interests into a career. Influenced by the pressures to choose a “safe” career path prioritizing money, I settled on a major that seemed viable that I also excelled in during school. I declared my major as chemistry upon entering college. Within my first semester, I knew that my initial interest in the subject was dying, but I still found great joy in studying Korean and I also developed a desire to start writing music. Even though my path wasn’t linear, every step along the journey has given me a deeper understanding of my discipline. The way I used language differently when speaking in Kriolu would lend itself to my studies in college, as the theory of linguistic relativity (which suggests that a speaker’s worldview is influenced by the language(s) they speak) would prove to be a big part of my studies of how language interacts with things like culture and gender. And if it weren’t for that mixup with the Korean verbs, I wouldn’t have realized that a big part of my interest in learning languages was the grammar aspect, which tied into my studies in college through my love for syntax and morphology.
Just like the chaotic and constantly changing text flying across the screen of that first K-pop interview, my academic career has undergone some major changes. Today, my interest in Korean and foreign languages has faded somewhat to make room for this new interest in music production. I now find myself with a major in linguistics and a minor in music recording. Throughout my academic journey, I have slowly grown to allow myself to follow the things I am passionate about without fear of having to have everything figured out beforehand. I have not limited myself to what I think will be viable, as combining a music recording minor with a linguistics major may seem like a bit of a risk but I believe that following the things I am most interested in will allow me to be most fulfilled in the long run.
Process Exhibit
Justin's Feedback:
The controlling idea of this essay is that Matthew chose to pursue a career in what truly found joy in studying, language, and that he was able to overcome the pressure to use his talent to secure a “safer” career in STEM. Matthew does this through the parallel of his discovery of the Korean language and his interest in learning its complexities, along with the interpersonal and emotional value that language has carried for him throughout his personal and family life. Matthew does a good job of describing warm memories related to language, and the interest that he found he had on multiple occasions for Korean. The recommendation that I found myself leaving a few times throughout my comments was to really bring his personal emotions into the descriptions of the events. If he is writing about language strengthening his relationship with his mother, or grandmother, or father it may add even more depth to give insight on his feelings during these interactions, or describing the joy that he feels when diving into linguistics. Matthew makes it clear that his childhood relationship with language was instrumental in his love for linguistics but some introspective writing about what is emotionally stimulating about language to him to go along with what is intellectually stimulating may make the essay more powerful and add to the “argument” that he makes for choosing to pursue a career in linguistics. There may not be room in the 800-word limit, but Matthew does hint at a sort of struggle between his original choice to pursue a career in chemistry, and his ultimate decision to study linguistics. I am curious about the more complex backstory to this dilemma and, if there is room, some development here could add to the depth of the essay as well. The essay is arranged chronologically, save for the introduction taking place closer to the current day than the rest of the stories told. Matthew calls back to the introductory story to tie together the parallel between his interest in Korean and his evolution as a student and a linguist. This structure lends itself well to the essay. Matthew’s learning of Korean as a parallel for his progression through life as a student and an up-and-coming professional is explained in his concluding paragraph, where his comfort with the chaos and unpredictability of the K-pop content is compared to his newfound comfort with the unpredictability of life when pursuing a career based on fulfillment and enjoyment as opposed to safety. In this way, the closing paragraph plays a classic structural role of reviewing and concisely explaining the contents of the essay. Matthew’s voice throughout this essay is analytical and descriptive. The description of the Korean language structure is complex and well developed. This sort of factual writing style persists for much of the essay. While it fits well with the content, and with his decision to write the essay as a casual piece that one could tell a friend verbally, I wonder if telling it to say, a really close friend (by incorporating more of the emotional highs and lows of his journey) would make the reader feel even more convinced of Matthew’s conviction in pursuing linguistics. This essay has a great core concept, and Matthew’s history with language makes it even more convincing and powerful as a piece describing not only his career path, but also the foundational way that he interacts with the world. Really good job so far.
Sihan's Feedback:
You started your essay by telling the story of how you began to like kpop and wanted to learn Korean to have a deep connection with the group you like and the kpop culture. You addressed the importance of language in developing relationships with other people by telling the audience that you learned Kriolu in order to have a better communication with your grandmother. You talked about what you have learned about Korean and what you have decided in college about your career goals, passions, and interests.
I really like that you talked about how the language Kriolu is important to you since you have to use it to communicate with your grandmom and it is the only way you can talk to her. You showed the importance of how language serves as a critical role in developing relationships with others. This makes me to have the same feelings that if I learned how to speak Korean, then I could be better at learning the kpop culture and to have a deeper connection with my bias. Sometimes I would question myself that if I met my idol, how would I talk with them? what should I talk about? I can’t even speak Korean and they can’t speak English either. It feels like we were in different worlds and that makes me to have a sense of alienation with my idol. So, I’m glad that you have the courage to learn a new language, because I gave up of learning Korean.
My suggestion for you is that for the fourth paragraph, you could try to develop a topic sentence that makes a transition from the previous paragraph to this paragraph. Also, you could do a better job of explaining more detailed about how your interest in Korean caused you to give up the original plan of studying chemistry to have a stable career path and choose to pursue a career of linguistics and music recording.
The main idea for this essay went through a few different phases. My first instinct was to write a memoir about the initial moment that sparked me to choose my discipline, but I was weary to follow this path because I had already written about this story for my college essay. In accordance with the main theme of my portfolio, I ended up following through with my original idea by developing it past what I had already done in my college essay. I provided more context to the story and situated it in a more realistic snapshot of my progression as a student of linguistics. I also had ideas to make it more creative by formatting it like a grammar book of a language. In the portfolio revision process, I also considered having brief sections of definitions for certain words like "creole" or "safe career path". Ultimately, I decided that the amount of such inclusions would be too small.