기말 시험

We had our end-of-term Korean language examination at SKS yesterday. It comprises an oral and written test. For the oral test, we were first asked to read a short story and then answer a few questions. The interesting part was I didn't know what I was reading and neither did I know what were being asked. Yet, I could still answer all the questions correctly. It seemed like I just knew, in my subconscious, where to find the answers in the story. I wonder if my teacher could see through that I didn't really know what I was saying. Anyway, there was also a free conversation which I was supposed to comment about the course. Among other things, I said that I have learnt a lot of new grammars and vocabulary. I also got more writing practices compared to previous courses. Last but not least, I took the opportunity to "complain" about the absence of multiple choices in the written test (I was doing my written test halfway before being called out for the oral test).

I must confess, going into the exam, I was expecting an easy test paper that comes with multiple choices and fill-in-the-blank sort of questions. However, what we got, threw me off completely. For example, we were required to explain the meaning of "이열치열" (以熱治熱) in Korean, write down the correct Korean idiom (no multiple choices) after being given the explanation and complete 12 sentences using the grammars provided. Then there was a "long" passage (about 3/4 page length with single spacing) that we must read and comprehend before we could select the most appropriate answer to fill in the blank. The passage was not taken off our workbook and that was quite out of my expectation. Despite that, I could understand this passage much better than the one given for oral test. At least, I know that there was a tiger, a crying child and a mother who tried to scare her child by saying that tiger would eat him up if he continues to cry. Finally, we were required to write a 50-words composition about Singapore's gift or food that is of special significance. Though the questions in the test paper caught me by surprise, it wasn't a very difficult paper afterall.

It's one more lesson and a drama to the end of Advanced 2. Hope that we don't make a fool of ourselves during the cultural event next week. Tell you a secret, our teacher is more worried about our drama performance than ourselves. 선생님, 걱정마세요. 우리 연극은 잘 될지 모르겠지만 최선을 다 하겠어요.