ATS1171: Korean Introductory 1

1 x Read aloud test - 10%
5 x Online listening tasks - 5 x 1%
1 x Listening test during last lecture - 15%
1 x Written work - 10% (IIRC, as I took it in semester 1 and I can't find the unit guide anywhere.)
1 x Speaking test - 20% (IIRC, same as above)
1 x Final exam - 40%

• Read aloud test: I'm pretty sure they don't have assessment like this in any other languages, even in the lowest lowest level. This is literally a read aloud test. You will be given a piece of paper (you are going to choose one from three) with ~5 Korean sentences which are similar to the ones in the textbook, you are given 30 seconds preparation time and you just read it aloud. Because it is held in Week 4 or 5, so rather than the fluency or accent or anything, the main thing they are assessing is Korean character (Hangul) recognition. So even you are not fluent at all, as long as you can manage to recognise the characters, you won't get a bad mark.
• Online listening tasks: You have to do a short listening task on Moodle once ever few weeks. It will be similar to the ones for homework. But since you have unlimited attempts, this 5% is pretty give away. But treat you homework listening tasks and these online listening assessments seriously, because they are gonna help with you big listening assessment.
• Listening test: This is 15% of you final mark so it's quite important. You will have it in during the lecture in week 12. I personally found it quite easy but most of the people said it's quite challenging. And as mentioned above, although you have unlimited attempts on the little online listening tasks, you really should aim for being able to understand the whole conversation and every single details even when playing once only.
• Written work & Speaking test: These are group assignments and you have to get in groups of 2, preferably from the same tutorial group. So basically as a group you have to write up a short dialogue (<200 words) and this is the written work, and obviously the two of you will get the same mark for this. The next step is that you have to memorise the dialogue and that is the speaking part. People, at least the ones in my tutorial group generally got a relatively low marks for the written part so it's marked more harshly than other assessments.
• Final exam: IT IS A JOKE. I mean, it is just so easy that everyone starts leaving after one hour. It has two parts: Part 1 is reading comprehension. You have 4 or so short dialogue or text you will be answering multiple choice questions. Part 2 is 40 or so filling in the blank questions. Questions from both parts are taken from the text book directly or with minor alternation. If you go the tutorials and pay a little bit of attention, you will be able to recognise the structure and some fixed usage of grammar/vocabs and you won't fail. If you actually study for the final exam, you'll be able to get something close to 100%.

Overall, this is an enjoyable and easy unit. Most of the people doing Korean really like K-Pop and they already know some expressions/vocabs. But it doesn't really matter, this unit assumes zero previous knowledge and they teach you from the very beginning so there is nothing to worry about. I stopped going to lectures after week 5 or so because I found them pretty useless, not that Dr. Dam Bi Kim is not good, she is actually pretty awesome. And my tutor, Hye Yun Bae is the most awesome tutor I have met at uni so far. She is nice, approachable, caring and is pretty good at teaching. Try and get into her tutes if you can. (She will most likely be the only 1st year Korean tutor anyway as the other female tutor was on maternity leave.) And one final thing about the exam, don't focus too much about the weird vocabs (such as crab) you are never gonna use, just study the common ones and read the book through from the beginning to the end for 20 times or so, read every single thing written in the book aloud and you'll most likely get a good mark.I'm not sure about other languages, people doing Koreans (from the same tutorial) are generally quite close to each other, and I mean go out all the time kind of close, so it is very likely to you will make some good friends doing Korean. So anyone thinking about doing a language at an introductory level, Korean is probably the best.

Dr. In Jun Cho, Dr. Dam Bi Kim

No.

4.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture, but the recording will be online for one week only. Lecture slides are uploaded.

My Korean 1 by Moansh. PDF version is on moodle. A hard or soft copy must be brought to tutorials.

1 x 2 hour lecture, 1 x 2 hour tutorial

2013, Semester 1

90 HD