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Tarko’s Log (TAC 2014 Team Gumiho) | ||
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| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 81 of 119 20 April 2014 at 1:03pm | IP Logged |
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I just took the 34th TOPIK exam (한국어 능력 시험 34회). Here are some of my thoughts.
1. It feels like I just took the TOPIK! Oh, wait, I did. (Look approximately 5 posts back.) 2. I took it with the same co-worker with whom I took the 33rd TOPIK. He hasn't studied since that exam and thinks he did a bit better on this exam than the last. 3. The first part: I went straight into the essay section and spent 35 minutes writing 675 characters on the happiest day of my life. I always have a bit of a brain-freeze when I have topics like that so I sort of hem and haw around the subject. This time I said that there have been many happy days but I will took about a day that happened two days ago. I managed to use quite a bit of 중급 grammar, including 게 되다, 다고 생각하다, 며, 은 편이다, and a few others. As the proctors were collecting the exams I saw that very few people managed to do the 400 characters - it looked like most people did half of that. 3.5. The first part (part 2): after finishing the writing section I did the grammar and vocabulary section. It was very, very easy. I had a game plan: if I didn't know the grammar, make an educated guess, but don't dwell on it. A+ idea. There were maybe 5 questions I didn't really know how to answer and the rest went pretty well. I finished with about 10 minutes to spare, which was a dramatic change from last time. 4. I was smart and brought along a bottle of water and a granola bar to re-energize me during the 30 minute break. I will do this again. 5. The second half: the listening section went by quite quickly. Due to the huge amounts of listening practice I've been doing recently it seemed very, very slow. I don't feel terribly good about this section, but I don't feel bad about it, either. I probably did around the same as I did last time. 5.5. The second half (part 2): the reading section was very, very easy. There were a few stories toward the end that I wasn't quite sure how to answer, but it was substantially simpler than last time. I finished with 10 minutes to spare again. Overall the test went quite well. I think there's a very good chance that I'll get a 3, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few sections are worthy of getting a 4. Just a guess: 60-70s for grammar/vocab and reading, 50s for writing, 40s for listening. Oh well. Just when I get used to the test they switch to a brand new format! Scores will be released on May 31st. I have a while to wait... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5527 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 82 of 119 20 April 2014 at 2:30pm | IP Logged |
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기다리는 것은 제일 귀찮은 부분이죠? 암튼 축하해요!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 83 of 119 22 April 2014 at 1:24am | IP Logged |
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그래요. 기다리기 진짜 힘들어요 ㅠㅠ
축하해서 고마워요~ ㅋ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 84 of 119 29 April 2014 at 12:55pm | IP Logged |
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4월 16일부터 4월 29일까지
Korean - Ewha 4 (20 vocab words) - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire vol. 1: 27-138 - 5 hours of talking with a Korean friend who knows no English - 120/120 TTMIK Iyagis (#90-135) - 120/120 Harry Potter vocab words (#76-120) French - Candide by Voltaire (11-90) (end) - La prime by Janet Evanovich (1-82) - Le journal en français facile: 6 - assorted articles in French Last week I was quite sick so I didn't feel up to posting. I've finished the 120개 challenges for Team Gumiho! I'm very happy with how they went. The TTMIK Iyagi challenge was a particularly good idea - listening/reading to 20-30+ minutes of Korean every day did wonders for my listening skills. I also learned a lot of words in Harry Potter, although some were more useful than others. Due to being sick last week/Buddha's birthday this weekend, I won't have tutoring Thursday/next Tuesday so I'll try to do some extra studying on my own. I think the trick now is to figure out how to parlay the results I had from the 120개 challenge into something more. I want to continue listening to 20-30 minutes of Korean a day, but I can't watch TV at work, so that's out. I will probably try out 라디오 독서실, since it also has scripts on its website, but ideally I'd be able to find a slightly more advanced version of the 이야기s to continue my study. I may also try to watch shows without subtitles from here on out, just for the hell of it. French... well, I didn't particularly enjoy Candide, but I really like the Janet Evanovich book I'm reading now. I have a funny story about it; back in high school when I was studying French I got the idea in my head to read this book in French, since I enjoyed it in English. I bought the book, opened to the first page... and I never got much farther than that. Reading it now is kind of mind-blowing for me because I find it to be on the easier side. Also in French, I started listening to RFI's journal en français facile. I find some of the presenters to be much too slow. Ideally they'd speak at a normal rate but use easier vocabulary words. I tried listening to a few articles on RFI and Euronews in French and was actually surprised by how much I understood. I guess all those years of French study, plus my Assimil studies, have accumulated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 85 of 119 13 May 2014 at 11:12am | IP Logged |
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4월 30일부터 5월 13일까지
Korean - Ewha 4 (25 vocab words) - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire vol. 1: 139-248 - many hours of talking with Korean friends/doctors in Korean - TTMIK Iyagi #136 - 기찰비록: 7 episodes French - La prime by Janet Evanovich (83-273) (fin) - Le journal en français facile: more than 7, less than 14 I'm alive, I'm alive! Well, kinda. I've been sick, and 석가탄신날과 어린이날 contributed a bit to my laziness. Okay, a lot. Currently I should be at Korean tutoring, but I canceled because I can't speak without coughing uncontrollably. Apparently I can't type, either, because I'm currently hacking up a lung. Korean is going well enough. I finished watching 기찰비록 which is not only the first Korean drama I've ever finished (!!) but it's also quite possibly the most brilliant show I've ever watched. Genius. I tried to figure out what to watch after that, but... laziness... A couple comments: I've been to enough hospitals recently (for various reasons, none of them serious however) that I've discovered that my Korean is NOT up to snuff to get by in a healthcare environment. Fortunately all doctors in Korea speak English. Gotta work on that. Also, I've applied to several graduate schools for Korean Literature and I should hear back by the end of the month. There are some other things related to that which I'd like to discuss, but I'm going to bite my tongue for now. Don't want to jinx myself. French was French. The RFI news was kind of weird last week - some days the transcript wasn't updated, other days the broadcast wasn't updated, one day the broadcast cut out 5 minutes in. Plus, I'm lazy and sick and full of excuses. I really liked reading La prime - I learned some, uh, interesting vocabulary and I'm looking forward to reading book #2 in French as well. Highly recommended. And just for fun, here's a sample of my Korean writing these days. I wrote, edited (with the help of my tutor), memorized, and presented it. I think I've made some pretty great progress. What I'm particularly pleased about is that recently a lot of the grammar I've crammed into my head is becoming active. I just start writing (or talking) and out pops a grammar form that I've never used before. It's pretty cool. 오늘 제가 사고 싶은 것에 대해서 말할게요. 요즘 저는 삼성 갤럭시 S5 스마트폰을 사고 싶습니다. 이미 갤럭시 S3 스마트폰이 있는데 왜 그런 스마트폰을 사고 싶냐고 묻습니다? 둘 다 비슷하긴 하지만 갤럭시 S3보다 갤럭시 S5가 장점이 많습니다. 갤럭시 S5가 화면이 더 크며 화소가 더 높습니다. 16 메가픽셀이라서 스마트폰의 사진기도 더 좋습니다. 갤럭시 S5가 있는 한, 카메라를 사는 것이 필요하지 않을 것 같습니다. 지문 센서를 손가락으로 만지면 심장박동을 측정할 수 있습니다. 운동을 선호하는 사람들을 위한 그 기능이 좋습니다. 새 갤럭시 S5 스마트폰을 사면 단점도 있습니다. 갤럭시 S3는 무게가 133그램인데 갤럭시 S5 무게는 160그램입니다. 작은 스마트폰의 화면을 선호하면 갤럭시 S5가 마음에 들지 않을 것 같습니다. 아주 큰 단점이 또 있습니다: 새 스마트폰은 너무 비싸서 갤럭시 S5로 바꾸고 싶으면 돈을 많이 써야 합니다. 돈이 있으면 그런 문제가 괜찮은 편입니다. 제 경험에 비추어 보면 갤럭시 S3가 아주 유용하고 좋아서 새 모델도 좋을 것 같습니다. 제가 새 스마트폰을 바꾸고 싶어서 앞으로 마음대로 스마트폰을 사고 싶다고 생각합니다. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 86 of 119 20 May 2014 at 12:54pm | IP Logged |
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5월 14일부터 5월 20일까지
Korean - Ewha 4 (35 vocab words) - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire vol. 1: 249-301 (fin) - TTMIK Iyagi #137-8 French - Deux fois n'est pas coutume by Janet Evanovich (1-105) - Le journal en français facile: 6 I've been very busy this week due to work/stress/being sick so I haven't done a lot of studying. A lot of my time has been spent reading, although not in Korean or French. I just haven't been in the mood to study or even be social. I'm thinking I should start reading 10 pages of Harry Potter a day. I'll try raising my limit for the week and see how it goes. Besides that, nothing new to note. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 87 of 119 27 May 2014 at 10:16am | IP Logged |
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5월 21일부터 5월 27일까지
Korean - Ewha 4 (63 vocab words) - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire vol. 2: 11-80 - TTMIK Iyagi #139 - talked with assorted friends/doctors French - Deux fois n'est pas coutume by Janet Evanovich (106-210) - Le journal en français facile: 7 It was a very busy study week. I increased the number of pages I read per week in Harry Potter, which worked nicely- 10 pages a day is not much more than 8, and it feels nice to have a solid double digit number every day. Just for fun, here's the process I use to memorize vocabulary from my Ewha textbook these days: 1. I read through my text, underlining any words I don't know/can't remember off the top of my head. 2. I write the unknown words in my notebook in one column. 3. I look up each word in a dictionary and write the meaning in a parallel column to the first. 4. After that, I enter each word into Anki. 5. I review the new words and reread my textbook. 6. The next day, I mark all new words as "10 seconds," even if I already know them. I work may way through them like that. 7. For the following days I accurately gauge how well I know the words as I review my Anki. Around this point I start to see some of the new words in other contexts which helps them stick. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tarko Senior Member Korea, South Joined 4683 days ago 119 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 88 of 119 30 May 2014 at 11:44am | IP Logged |
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It's been a very stressful few months, but this week/today has resulted in a lot of good news related to my Korean studies!
1. I've received the NIIED KGSP scholarship. This scholarship is paid for by the Korean government and pays for 1 year of language studies at a language school somewhere in Korea (they choose) followed by 2-3 years of graduate school. I applied to Korean Literature graduate programs and was accepted by a university in Seoul. My graduate studies will be 100% in Korean, so I'll be spending the next 15 months attempting to get insanely good at Korean and learning Hanja and possibly Japanese in an attempt to succeed at my studies. But yeah... I'm going to be paid to study Korean/Korean Literature! I am quite thrilled. 2. The TOPIK Exam results were released today, and I basically nailed it. 34th TOPIK Test Results - 중급 Vocab/Grammar - 51 Writing - 54 Listening - 67 Reading - 60 Total - 232 Average - 58 Pass Here's the January TOPIK for comparison's sake: 33rd TOPIK Test Results - 중급 Vocab/Grammar - 62 Writing - 34 Listening - 46 Reading - 61 Total - 203 Average - 50.75 Fail Basically, I'm a total badass. I am kind of shocked by my listening and writing scores. Mostly my listening score. I'm not too surprised that my writing score improved so much- I tried to be cute last time with my answer- but my listening score... well, I'd originally predicted my score to be in the 40s. Possibly not passing at all. Instead it was the best score I've received out of both tests. The 120 challenge I did for Team Gumiho really worked! Now, to analyze the rest of my scores... writing was quite good. I certainly didn't use perfect grammar or anything, but I used a wide variety of grammar, vocabulary, and I filled in virtually the entire page. Reading was just about the same, which doesn't surprise me. My vocab/grammar score does surprise me, however. Last time it was my highest score, this time it's my lowest. I have no real excuse. I didn't review a lot (... at all) for the exam. Another very surprising thing was that my overall score was very, very close to passing the level 4 mark. If you were to combine my best scores on both tests I'd totally have a 4점 right now! ㅋㅋㅋ Unfortunately, this was the last time this testing format is being used, so I get to spend the rest of the year trying to get used to the new format. Oh boy. At least I got a nice, solid 3점 to stick on my wall and boast about for the next few months. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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