Reflection on Course

Johnathan Kim

Reflection on Course

        From my overall experience throughout this semester, I believe that the main goal this course aims to achieve is to instill a broader understanding and view of Arabic culture for those who have not yet had much exposure. The course mainly achieves this goal through the medium of singing the Arabic music, which in a way is a projection of cultural attitude, beliefs, and principles. Of course, there exists numerous other methods by which one can approach learning about a culture. However, this approach of exploring through music definitely provides an unusual but unparalleled understanding on the culture, as popular music in any culture is a reflection of its media. Depending on what type of songs become popular in a particular country, they reveal what that culture believes and values at that particular point in time of popularization.

        As a Korean American, throughout my own personal life, I have had the privilege of growing up in a home environment that draws from both American and Korean culture. As my parents immigrated from Korea but have been living in the States for several decades, they always tell me that they have taken what they believe is the best of what both cultures have to offer. For example, they emphasize the importance of respecting your elders, which is a major aspect of traditional Korean culture. However, they reject the patriarchal structure of families that still is very rampant in the majority of Korean families and embrace the more American ideal of a flatter family structure. Therefore, I grew up with the mindset that learning more about different cultures provides amazing perspective on different good and bad ways to lead our lives.

        In this class in particular, mastering these Arabic songs was definitely not an easy task. Because I was in the class period in which the majority of students never had prior experience with the Arabic language, music, or culture, the language barrier made learning the material a big challenge. However, we as a class also had a lot of time to truly internalize, practice, and understand each song and as a result the difficulty of the process of learning these songs made the course much more worthwhile. Because we literally had to go line by line and word by word in order to get everything about the delivery correct, including the tone, the pitch, the volume, the length, and the pronunciation, the class truly was able to gain a deep understanding of the message and mood of the song. Great attention to detail was definitely a requirement to successfully learn the songs because there were so many elements to consider in every line of the music. However, this depth also had to be accompanied by an ability to bring the whole song together and have a broad overview of what the music is aiming to do. Both perspectives are extremely necessary.