For the past two weeks, Jenna and I have continued to work on my writing and reading in Korean. Different from reading articles and writing summaries on it, we started working towards practicing for the specific types of questions the COM2 exam will have. She broke down what the COM2 exam will contain: A speaking or self-introduction section, listening and speaking portion, a reading comprehension portion, and a writing portion at the end (free handwriting). She told me we should focus on one part at a time for the next several sessions to really pinpoint and prepare for the exam. So, this past week, we started with the self-introduction part of the exam. Although we practiced self-introductions the past semester and a little at the beginning of this semester, Jenna gave me a couple of minutes to talk about myself and things to say and not to say. One big thing that I made a mistake on was introducing myself and my name. I used informal language and Jenna showed me what I should say instead to make it more formal and respectful. Furthermore, she gave me tips on what other things I should talk about in my self-introduction since it must be at least 5 minutes long. So, for homework, she told me to jot down, in English, what things I should say in my self-introduction. Yesterday I came up with a couple of subjects to talk about in my self-introduction including who I live with, my dog, where I live, where I go to school, what my major is, what year I am in, what are some of my hobbies, and what I wish to be when I grow up. There are a couple of words that I am not sure on how to pronounce in Korean so I will ask Jenna next week. Furthermore, Jenna and I planned on mastering self-introductions the next session and then continuing on to the next part of the COM2 exam: the listening portion. I predict that it will not be too difficult for me to learn because I am fairly confident in my ability to speak and listen in Korean. I hope to finish the second section of listening on the COM2 exam by the end of the next bi-weekly journal entry.
I think the effectiveness of my strategies of learning Korean has been working efficiently and has proved to become helpful. I can see my improvement in reading, writing, and listening. In the future, I hope to build on what I have learned, continuing to read, write, and listen in Korean to further my proficiency in Korean. I also think that I have become a lot prouder of being Korean. Before I started this SDLC course, I was embarrassed to speak and write Korean at such a low level. But now I feel like I am gaining more confidence and pride in learning and knowing Korean. I will continue to listen to music in Korean and practice writing sentences, but I will also attempt to find new strategies to help me learn Korean. My short term and long-term goals still remain the same as the last bi-weekly journal entry: Writing full and compound sentences and preparing to take the COM2 Exam.
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