At all levels of Korean, I am probably at a high beginner stage. I can understand about half of the words in a given sentence, and likely understand the meaning somewhat in a written sentence. I have learned about 1500 words, but some of these are more official/archaic and not used in everyday speech. Also, I am often not able to connect these words, as I have no practical experience needing to form sentences that are past a basic level. For Korean, I plan on not necessarily learning a lot of new words, but using the ones I know and learning how to manipulate them to convey what I want.
My end goal is being able to communicate with people at a relatively good level should I go to Korea again in the distant future. This would include being able to manage daily tasks, correctly interpret and get myself out of stressful situations, and possibly make friends, although I recognize that it would take years of learning to be comfortably at that level.
Interpersonal communication: I would like to be able to hold a basic conversation for a few minutes with someone. This includes being able to understand almost everything that they say, be able to relay what I have done during the day or tell a small story, and be able to express how I feel about something. The conversation does not have to have a certain topic, but should use everyday vocabulary. I will measure this in reflecting my level of confidence during the conversation, such as how often I stuttered or had to ask the other person to repeat a sentence, or whether or not I felt I accurately said everything I wanted to in Korean. I will also record some conversations so that I can measure how well I spoke and re-listen to anything I was not able to understand during the conversation. I think that I will be able to accomplish this at the basic level, although I know it will be difficult for me to understand someone speaking at a natural pace.
Interpretive listening: I would like to be able to understand the main idea of an intermediate conversation, such as in a Korean show, as well as be able to understand what someone is telling me at a basic level. This may not mean understanding every word, but, given the context of the conversation, being able to pick out key words and make sense of them. I will measure this in listening to small conversations and giving a summary of what was said, then looking at a transcript of the conversation and seeing how close I was to fully understanding it. I think that if I have learned the relevant vocabulary in advance and as I get used to a native speaker's pace, I will be able to build up to understanding an exchange between two or more people.
Interpretive reading: I would like to be able to understand written passages at the intermediate level, such as being able to relay the main idea of the passage and being able to pick parts of the passage to give my thoughts on (in English or Korean). Since I am stronger at reading, this requires learning about how the words I already know are used in sentences, and learning more verb endings and what tones certain verb endings convey. I can measure this in giving summaries of written passages, as well as being able to pick in the passage where I see certain points, and comparing my interpretation of it with a translation. As I am already somewhat good at reading Korean, I think this will be the easiest task for me to achieve.
Presentational speaking: Just as with interpersonal communication, I would like to be able to present a beginner topic for a few minutes fluidly. This would include telling small stories, which would be very subjective, or talking about something basic in a more factual manner. I would use this area of speaking to try to improve my pace of speaking Korean, and work toward speaking more quickly. I would measure this in recording small presentations I did and analyzing how well I was able to convey what I wanted to say, how well I spoke, and how my grammar was. I think this will be the hardest for me to work on. I tend to not say something unless I am absolutely sure of the grammar, meaning I can get stuck presenting something at a lower level than what I could actually say, and thus would not grow as much as I want to.
Presentational writing: I would like to be able to write passages at the beginner/intermediate level discussing various topics with few grammar mistakes. I would also like to learn how to use slang/words that are popular among young people in a text conversation. This would also include both subjective and objective passages. I would measure this in writing a passage, then analyzing it for fluidity and grammar mistakes, as well as whether or not I used relevant vocabulary. I think this will be easy for me to achieve given my wide vocabulary knowledge, and because I will be able to use a translator for word usage in written passages.
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