Saturday, May 11, 2013

Weak Comebacks

I've been using video chat and messenger clients to talk to native Korean speakers (thanks 종).  It has been helping me a lot.  My weakest point is having a verbal conversation.  The first problem is my listening skills, I find it very difficult to identify words when being spoken to at a normal pace (native Korean speed).  My pronunciation needs some work as well.  I have found that my biggest issue is that it takes me a very long time to actually put together a decent response during the dialogue.  I do not have this issue while writing.  I believe that the reason for this is that I have to translate what is being said by the other person in my head, and then translate my English thought back to Korean.  While doing this I also have to make sure that I am using correct grammar rules and sentence structure.  So I have decided to focus my energy on verbal practice.  I have downloaded some simple dialogue mp3's and will be listening carefully while translating them.  I think that this will be most helpful because I can pause and replay any part as needed.

On the positive side of things I'm really happy and fortunate to have language partners that I can Skype with.  They are really an invaluable and necessary resource.

'Til Next Time.   

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