Speaking Tests

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Lately I've been trying to identify what it is about Korea that makes it different from the US. This is for friends/family/anyone else who's curious about what it's like for an American living here. I thought first I would tell you about my students' English speaking tests. Their presentations illuminate their lives a bit.

The students were supposed to speak for one minute on whichever topic they chose. Then the teacher would make up one question. Brenton and I graded (for the first time!). I only graded first and half of second grade, but the tests were in my office, so I actually heard almost all of the speeches. In some ways, their speeches were like Eugene Hutz’s character in Everything is Illuminated. They often used English words that conveyed meaning but do not actually fit. For example, when talking about her female best friend, a girl would say how long they've been intimate. Not what she thinks it means . . .

The first grade (7th grade) topics were: My family, My hobby, or My friend
-My family—Typical speech: “Let me introduce my family. My family has 4. My father, mother, older sister, and younger brother. My father is salesman. He is very nice. But he is not nice. He is sometimes scare (or hot-tempered). My mother—she is housewife. She is very kind. Her hobby is cook. My sister. She goes to ___________ High School. She is very pretty and studies a lot. My brother goes to ______________ Elementary School. He is mischief but very cute. Finally, me. My name is _____________. I go to Songhyeon Middle School. My hobby is listen to music. Thank you.” They will sometimes describe their parents too (tall, big nose, big eyes, chubby etc.).
-My hobby—Typical speech: “Let me introduce favorite hobby. First, I like listen to music. I love Generation Girls (or some other K-pop). And then, I singing. I go to sing room (private karaoke rooms) with friends.” Other notable hobbies included: belly-dancing, playing piano and other musical instruments, and playing soccer.
-My friend—Typical speech: “Let me introduce my best friend. She is _______________. She has very small face and big eyes. She is very cute. She is always smile and makes me happy. Her favorite color is sky blue. She loves G-Dragon from Big Bang (Korean pop music band). He is very handsome. She goes to ____________ Middle School.” Compliments include: pretty, boys like her, she studies hard, she is tall.

The second grade (8th grade) topics were: My future dream, My favorite food, or My favorite sports star
-My future dream—Typical speech: “Let me introduce my future dream. I want to be a math teacher. I have very good math scores. Students don’t know good math and I want to help them. In order succeed at future dream, I must study hard. Then I will be success and teacher.” Notable future dreams: doctor, world-renown pianist, to be happy, woman soldier (x2).
-My favorite food—Typical speech: “Let me introduce my favorite food. Do you know Korean food bibimpap? This is my favorite food. It has many ingredients. It has rice, many vegetables, and sometimes other things. I like it is spicy and delicious. My mother cooks for me. Thank you for listening.” Other favorites: pizza (pronounced pija, especially ‘sweet-potato pija’), hamburgers, kimchi, tteokbokki (a snack made of kind of chewy rice slices in a spicy sauce), ice cream, and cake.
-My favorite sports star—the least popular topic: “Let me introduce my favorite sports star. He is Park Ji Sung. He plays soccer. He is not handsome. But . . . he is very famous and good. He plays Manchest (. . .er United). Thank you for listening about my favorite sports star.” Other sports star: Kim Yu Na, a figure skater.

The third grade topics were: My (Un) Forgettable Memory (due to a typo, most students told us about their ‘forgettable’ memories), My best friend, My weaknesses
-My (Un) Forgettable Memory—topics I heard were death of a grandparent, vacations to Europe or Japan, and an embarrassing story about blowing a bubblegum bubble all over her face in an elevator and then a guy got on and she was embarrassed (oh the life of a middle-schooler : )).
-My Best Friend—Similar to first grade but with more information and more grammatically correct.
-My Weaknesses—Possibly the worst topic ever created for middle school girls (the Korean teachers picked these). Some weaknesses included “don’t care for parents (ie don’t take care of parents), don’t study enough, have too much arm hair, too shy/don’t talk enough in class, and various problems with their physical appearance”. Very self-deprecating.

Although it was pretty boring to hear about 160 students telling me similar stories about their families, it was entertaining how different each of their behaviors were. Some would be really excited and use excessive hand gestures. Some would stare at the table and talk but next-to-no sound would come out. Others would make loud whining noises as they came in and moan, "Teeeeeaaachah". Then of course, there were those at a lower level which said one word every 5 seconds after much thought. Others would start off strong, just to completely blank out after the first sentence. After 10 seconds, "Sorry teachah". It was also nice to be pleasantly surprised at some students who usually barely participate, but did have decent English.

Next will be more cultural tidbits with pictures, so stay tuned.

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