13.1 Gate of Phase 1 — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read twenty short sentences at sight and say what each one means, without a dictionary. Write five of them down from hearing, which tests the sound rules of volume 1 rather than the grammar. Read five sentences aloud correctly, applying the five-step procedure of lesson 1.8. Choose between five pairs that English does not distinguish: 안녕히 가세요! against 안녕히 계세요! Score yourself honestly against a table, and know which lesson to return to for each thing you got wrong. Prerequisites : 12.2, and with it every lesson of the phase. Nothing here is new. Every sentence below has appeared in an earlier lesson and is quoted from the same corpus, so a low score means that something needs revisiting, not that the test was unfair. This is the gate of the first phase. It is not an examination and there is no pass mark, but there is a purpose: the second phase begins with speech levels, and a reader who cannot yet read a two-block sentence at sight will spend the whole of it decoding rather than learning. Work through the four sections, score yourself on the table at the end, and go back to the lessons the table names before starting the second phase. Twenty short sentences Cover the English column. Read each Korean sentence aloud and say what it means before uncovering. Score one point for each you get right. Korean English What it tests 잘 가요. [1] Goodbye! the polite ending, 3.7 저는 학생이에요. [2] I am a student. topic and copula, 3.2 and 3.5 이름이 뭐예요? [3] What is your name? question word in place, 3.15 어디에서 오셨어요? [4] Where are you from? the origin ending, 3.3 저는 호주 사람이에요. [5] I'm Australian. nationality from a country, 5.1 한국어를 배우고 있어요. [6] I'm learning Korean. the progressive, 3.6 음악을 좋아해요. [7] I like music. object ending with a transitive verb, 3.3 문을 닫아요! [8] Close the door! one form as a command, 3.7 돈이 없어요. [9] I have no money. the negative existence verb, 3.6 컴퓨터가 있어요. [10] I have a computer. existence for possession, 3.6 나는 몰라요. [11] I don't know. a verb with its own negative, 3.8 영어를 못해요. [12] I don't speak English. the ability negative, 3.8 가을이 왔어요. [13] Autumn is here. past for a present state, 3.9 가게에 갈 거예요. [14] I'm going to the shop. the plan construction, 3.10 맥주 두 잔 주세요. [15] Two beers, please. thing, number, counter, 3.11 몇 시예요? [16] What time is it? the clock, 3.12 화요일에 만나요. [17] Let's meet on Tuesday. the time ending on a day, 3.12 그는 좋은 사람이에요. [18] He is a good person. the modifier form of an adjective, 3.13 기차를 타고 왔어요. [19] I came by train. the neutral connector, 3.14 나중에 봐요. [20] See you later. the time ending and a contraction, 3.7 Five to write down Have somebody read these to you, or read them aloud yourself and write them from memory an hour later. This tests the spelling rules of volume 1 and nothing else, because every word in them is one you know. Korean English The trap 잘 자요. [21] Good night. the contraction of 3.7, so the vowel is not doubled 물 좀 주세요. [22] Please give me some water. the softening syllable is a separate block 어서 오세요! [23] Welcome! two blocks, not one 배가 불러요. [24] I'm full. the doubled liquid of the fourth irregular pattern, 3.16 안녕히 가세요! [25] Goodbye! the breathy letter is written even though it is not said, 1.6 Five to read aloud Apply the five-step procedure of lesson 1.8 to each, and say the sound aloud before checking it against lesson 1.8, where every one of these five words is given with its spoken form. The spoken forms are not repeated here on purpose: producing them from the spelling is the whole of the exercise. Score one point for each block you get right, not for each sentence. Korean The block that changes The rule 나는 한국말을 공부해요. [26] 한국말을 nasalisation then liaison, 1.4 and 1.3 저 케익 맛있어요. [27] 맛있어요 closing then liaison, 0.5 and 1.3 식당 가고 있었어요. [28] 식당 tensification, 1.5 괜찮아요, 걱정하지 마세요. [29] 괜찮아요 the breathy letter disappears, 1.6 천천히 하세요. [30] 천천히 the same rule again, 1.6 Five to choose between Each pair below is two attested Korean sentences that English translates almost identically. Say which one belongs in the situation described. Nothing here is wrong Korean; the mistake would be choosing the wrong one. The situation One The other You are leaving a shop and the shopkeeper stays 안녕히 가세요! [25] 안녕히 계세요! [31] You are talking about a bowl of soup 물이 뜨거워요. [32] 너무 더워요! [33] You want to say where you study rather than where you live 도쿄에 살아요. [34] 나는 도서관에서만 공부해요. [35] You are asking a stranger considerably older than you 이름이 뭐예요? [3] 성함이 어떻게 되세요? [36] You are offering to pay, to the person you are with 가게에 갈 거예요. [14] 제가 살게요. [37] Self-assessment Add up your four scores and read the row that matches. Be honest: the table is a diagnosis, not a grade, and the only cost of overstating it is a harder second phase. Section Out of If you scored under half, go back to Twenty short sentences 20 the volume named in the third column of each row you missed Five to write down 5 lessons 0.5 and 1.8, the closing of bottom letters and the procedure Five to read aloud the number of blocks lesson 1.8, and then the one rule you missed most Five to choose between 5 lessons 5.1, 3.3 and 3.13, in that order Three thresholds are worth naming. Under ten on the first section means that reading is still decoding rather than reading, and the best remedy is not revision but re-reading: go through lessons 7.1 to 7.3 again, aloud, twice each. Under three on the second means the sound rules are not yet automatic, which will slow down everything in the second phase, since the speech levels are taught by ear as much as by eye. And any score at all on the fourth section is fine, because those five distinctions are the ones that take a year rather than a phase. One more thing is worth measuring, and no table can do it. Read the twenty sentences of the first section again and time yourself. A reader who has finished this phase properly should get through them in about a minute; two minutes means the grammar is there and the reading is not, and that is a differe