In the first session two weeks ago, Jenna and I went over self-introductions in preparation for the COM2 exam. I asked her for help on some of the phrases and words that I wanted to say but didn’t know in Korean such as hospital, chemistry, senior year, doctor, medical school, gaming, exercise, gym, etc. For my self-introduction, I wanted to talk about my family and how I live with my parents, older sister, and my grandma. I also learned to talk about my dog named Kiwi in Korean. Next, I talked about how I got to the University of Richmond and am a senior that is majoring in chemistry. I also talked about what I want to do once I graduate (take a gap year and prepare for the MCAT). Furthermore, I talked about how I wanted to become a doctor when I grow up. Lastly, I talked about my hobbies and what I like to do in my free time. I learned how to talk about how I love to cook and how I like to go workout and exercise at the gym on campus. Furthermore, I talked about how I love to play games with my roommates at night. After learning the basics of the self-introduction, I practiced and told Jenna my full self-introduction. Although there were a couple of pronunciation and formality issues in my full self-introduction, Jenna and I agreed that I was fully ready and prepared for the self-introduction part of the COM2 exam. Next, we aimed to focus on the listening part of the COM2 exam. She told me some example questions that might come up on the exam, such as asking basic questions about a picture or understanding a sentence spoken by the test instructor. Jenna gave me the next week to prepare and be able to quickly understand spoken Korean by listening to podcasts and watching Korean music videos by BTS.
This past week, Jenna and I met up on Thursday to practice and prepare for the listening portion of the COM2 exam. She gave me a picture for me to talk about when asked a question regarding the picture. The picture she gave me was a cartoon drawing of a park with people walking around and different things happening in the picture. She asked me a couple of questions about the picture such as, “what is happening to the left of the park bench?” and “how many people are standing in line for the hot dog stand?” I was easily able to answer most of the questions being asked, but I struggled with replying quickly with full complete sentences. We repeated this process with another picture near the end of the session and Jenna gave me tips on how to speak quickly on my feet and recall the different words that show up in the picture so I can prepare myself to reply to a question quickly. For example, if the picture has a dog and a person throwing a football with his friend, I can think about the Korean words for dog, friend, and football. This would allow me to be quick on my feet and respond quickly to a question being asked, such as “what activity are the two guys doing in the field on the right of the picture?” and “what animal is walking on the sidewalk next to the park bench?”
Comments