The past couple of weeks set the stage and foundation of my word bank and sentence structure knowledge, so we started to move in the direction of conversation. My instructor printed out a two-page conversation about topics that we previously covered—education and family—and created a practical conversation between two parties. When we read it through the first time, it’s pretty slow as I’m sounding out the words—we would also switch up the roles, so it would feel like we’re reading through the script for the first time both times. Then, I would also ask her to repeat the line several times so I can hear what it’s supposed to sound like and would attempt to parrot back the line she read in the most similar manner I possibly could. Overall, this process took a very long time because I would ask to read through the script several times that by the end, we most likely read through the script at least 15 times. On that note, I would like to add my instructor was always supporting and never suggested we moved on which I really appreciated. Even after going over the script multiple times with her, after the lesson was over, I’d read the script with other friends of mine as well. We chose to read personalized scripts because I really wanted to work on my conversational skills. We played around with different ideas like books or even finding scripts for Korean dramas and read that, but neither was exactly what we were looking for. So that’s why my instructor ended up making a script of a realistic conversation, so I can see exactly how to respond to certain questions when asked—which is something I’ve been wanting to learn for quite some time.
The scripts consisted of four different scenarios. The first scenario was between two friends talking about how their semester has been going, what classes they’re taking, descriptions of their teachers, and how they’re feeling about the workload. The second scenario was between an adult and a student asking how they’ve been doing, what they like to do, what they want to do with their future, what they’re favorite subject is in school, and so forth. The third scenario was between two friends talking about their family members that are visiting, and the fourth scenario was between an adult and someone younger of a similar situation. The reason for this is we also worked on honorifics and casual speaking, so the scripts really helped in showing me the differences in the responses between the two parties. I still struggle with this one a little bit, but because my instructor gave me a hard copy of the scripts, I’ve been reading them and practicing them on my own. I’ve also been taking notes of the distinctions I’ve found and noticed them being used when I was Korean variety shows which is really nice since I’m able to see how the different phrases are used in different settings.
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