My New Puppy

Hi everyone, I got a new puppy! She is a 2 month old Boston terrier, and her name is Holly.


More pictures here: Holly's Blog

Final Week

Hi students! This is the final week of our class. I just finished grading your final exams, and they were much better than the midterms.
You guys did a great job this semester. This class was really hard, and you didn't give up. I saw a lot of improvement in your listening skills, and that was the goal of the class.
I hope you have a great vacation, and please keep in touch with me. :)

Final Homework

Congratulations students, this is your final homework of the semester. Most of you have done an excellent job with the homework.
For this homework, you should look on a website that has news videos. Some examples are Yahoo News, CNN News, and MTV News.

1) Choose a video that is interesting to you, and listen to it a couple times.
2) Make a Yes/No chart about the video, similar to page 126. You should have about 5 questions.
3) Post the link to your video and your chart on this website by next Thursday.

Week 12 Overview/Week 13 Intro

Hey guys, in week 12 we studied how to answer Ordering Questions. These questions usually ask you about the steps in a process. For example, what happened first, next, finally, etc. These questions might also ask you to rank 3 or 4 things, like we talked about in class.
This week, we will talk about matching questions and completing charts. This is the last topic we will study before the final exam.
Here are the two presentations since the midterm exam. The first one is about replay questions, the second about ordering questions. There will be questions from these presentations on the final exam.

Replay Questions
Ordering Questions

See you all on Friday!

Week 11 Overview

In week 11, we began to study ordering questions. You guys did a great job with the class activity of writing directions for other students to follow. That was a lot of fun. In week 12, we will continue to study ordering questions as well as matching questions.
The semester is coming quickly to an end. Keep working hard! There are only about 3 or 4 more weeks until the final exam.
Finally, here is the video that we watched in class, I hope you enjoy it.



Have a great week, and I will see you guys next Friday! :)

Homework 5

For this homework, I want you to find a movie/TV scene that you like and make a replay question. You can use Youtube or another site that has videos.

When you make a comment, copy the link and write your question with 4 possible answers. As always, homework is due by Thursday at 10pm.


Have fun!

Replay Questions - The Notebook

Hey guys, here are the movie clips that we listened to in week 10 to practice replay questions.







Enjoy!

Translating Songs

Hey guys. One of my favorite hobbies these days is translating my favorite Korean songs to English. Everyone knows that I love Jaurim, so I have translated a few of there songs, including '미안해 널미워해' and '낙화'. Here is an example of my translation:



모두들 잠든 새벽 세 시 나는 옥상에 올라왔죠
하얀색 십자가, 붉은 빛 십자가
우리 학교가 보여요
조용한 교정이, 어두운 교실이
엄마, 미안해요
아무도 내곁에 있어주지 않았어요
아무런 잘못도 나는 하지 않았어요
왜나를 미워하나요? 난 매일밤 무서운 꿈에 울어요
왜나를 미워했나요? 꿈에서도 난 달아날 수 없어요
사실은 난 더 살고 싶었어요
이제는 날 좀 내버려두세요
...내일 아침이면, 아무도 다시는 나를, 나를...

When everybody was sleeping at 3 am I came up to the roof
A white cross, a red-lit cross
I can see the school
The quiet schoolyard, the dark classroom
Mom, I'm sorry
Nobody was next to me
I didn't make any mistakes
Why do you hate me? I cry in my nightmares every night
Why did you hate me? Even in my dreams I can't get out
Actually I wanted to keep living
Just let me go from now on
When tomorrow morning comes nobody will...me

새벽-Late night
옥상-Roof
오르다, 올라오다- Go up, come up
하얗다-White
십자가-Cross
붉다-Red
빛-Light, colour
학교-School
교정-School yard
어둡다-Dark
잘못-Mistake
울다-Cry
달아나다-
사실-Fact, actually
더-More
이제-From now on
아침-Morning
다시-Again

Well, this song is pretty easy to translate. These days, my new favorite song is '청춘예찬' by Jaurim of course. Do you know this song? Let's listen.



I think this song is really beautiful. I have been trying to translate it recently, but it's much more difficult than the other songs. If you want to try to translate, I think it would be fun. It's not homework, just for fun. You can try just one sentence, one part, or the whole thing.

Here are the lyrics:

청춘예찬(靑春禮瓚)

눈물이 가만히 내 입술을 적시네
고독이 조용히 내 어깨를 감싸네

하늘은 가슴 시리도록 높고 푸르고
젊은 나는 젊은 날을 고뇌하네

침묵이 가만히 내 입술을 적시네
어둠이 조용히 내 어깨를 감싸네

세상은 눈이 부시도록 넓고 환하고
젊은 나는 내 젊음을 절망하네

라라라라 라 라라
일월의 태양처럼
무기력한 내 청춘이여

라라라라 라 라라
닿을수 없는 먼곳의
별을 늘 나는 갈망한다

먼 밤하늘로
천사는 날아오르네
라-라-라
순결한 별들이 죄도 없이 지네
갈곳을 잃은 외로운 모래와 같이

나의 두눈은
공허를 보네
.
.
.
먼 밤하늘로
천사는 날아오르네
라-라-라-
순결한 별들이 죄도 없이 지네
갈곳을 잃은 외로운 모래와 같이

나의 두눈은
공허를 보네

라라라라 라 라라
일월의 태양처럼
무기력한 내 청춘이여

라라라라 라 라라
닿을수 없는 먼곳의
별을 늘 나는 갈망한다

눈물이 가만히
내 입술을 적시네

[출처] [자우림] 청춘예찬(靑春禮瓚)|작성자 승부

PS - I have learned hundreds of Korean words by translating songs. Maybe you can do the same with English words!

Midterm Review

Hi Students. Hopefully you know that next week is our midterm test. The test will contain information from the class lecture powerpoint presentations, as well as some TOEFL listening conversations. The listening questions will be from conversations, not lectures. I think the lectures are a little too difficult right now. So far, we have studied:

1) Main idea questions
2) Factual, negative factual, and inference questions
3) Purpose and attitude questions

So, these are the kinds of questions that will be on the test. Similar to the real TOEFL test, you will not be able to read the questions before you listen. So, it's important that you take good notes while listening. You will listen to each conversation 2 times, then answer the questions.

Click here to find some good practice. There are 3 conversations. I would listen to them, take notes, and then click 추가정보 to answer the questions. Don't look at the questions first. This will not help you, because you can't do this on the test. There are several other listening activities on YouTube that you can listen to and practice with. Just do a search for 'TOEFL listening conversations'.

The test will not be easy, so you should study a lot. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.

Class Lecture Powerpoints

Hey guys, for some reason there is a problem with the class powerpoints that used to be on the side of the page. I am trying to fix the problem. For now, I will put them here, so you can study them. Some of the information in the powerpoints will be on the midterm test. Here they are:

Powerpoint 1 - Introduction
Powerpoint 2 - Listening Skill 1
Powerpoint 3 - Listening Skill 2
Powerpoint 4 - Listening Skill 3

Homework 4

For this assignment, I would like you to find your favorite song on Youtube or another site that has videos. Copy the link of the video, and answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of this song? Why was it written?
2) What is the attitude of the singer?

As always, this homework is due by Thursday at 10pm.

We Shall Overcome/야상곡

Hi students, here are the songs that we listened to in week 6. The idea was to try to understand the purpose/attitude of the singers and the songwriters. These songs both happen to be very serious. But even the silliest songs out there have some kind of purpose or attitude behind them. I hope you enjoy.





Click here if you would like to download the Bruce Springsteen song.
Click here to download the 김윤아 song.

Week 5 Recap

Hi students. This week, we studied the second important listening skill, facts and inferences. On the TOEFL listening test, there are several questions about this, so it's important to practice this skill. To understand the facts of the conversation/lecture, you should think about the who, what, when, where, why, how, and so on. Please take a look at the lecture notes to review what I said in class.
Also, I made an announcement about the class attendance policy. Please click here to look at that again and make sure you understand it.
Finally, here are the videos we watched in class. I hope you enjoyed them.

Dido - Thank You

Hey guys, here is the song we listened to in class this week. This is the live version.



Click here if you want to download this song.

Homework 3

Hi Students. This week, we learned how to understand the main idea of a conversation or lecture. Your homework this week is to listen to this short lecture, then write what you think is the main idea. Also, become a follower of this site. Put your picture on there if you want to.

Please remember, this is due by next Thursday at 10pm. Don't wait until the last minute to do it.

Week 3 Recap

Hi students. In week 3, we continued note taking. This is a very important skill, and we will continue to practice this throughout the semester. The conversations and lectures are at normal speed, so being able to pick out the important information is crucial.

We also began to take the TOEFL pretest. You got your first real taste of what the test will be like. It was hard, I know. We will continue this on Friday.

You guys did a pretty good job on the homework. Some common themes that you mentioned were the importance of abbreviations and practice. I totally agree with this.

Please remember to check this site, even if there is no homework. I often make posts on here (like this one), and you guys should read it. Have a nice weekend, and I'll see you on Friday.

Homework 2

Hi students. In this week's class, we studied note taking. The homework is to read p. 149-154, and answer these questions:

1) What will you remember from our lecture on Friday? What do you think was important?
2) What did you learn from the reading? What do you think is important?

Have a nice weekend guys. Please remember, this homework is due by 10 pm, Thursday night. See you on Friday!

White Stripes

Hi students. This is the music video that we listened to in week 2. Enjoy!



Click here to download the song.

Have you heard this song before? Do you like it? Leave a comment!

New Classroom!

Good news guys. We have a new classroom starting next Friday, it's 경천관 408-1. See you there!

Welcome Students!

Hi Kangnam University students! Welcome to my class, and this site. This class will help you improve your listening skills for the TOEFL exam. On this site, I will post important information about the class. In a few days, I will be posting MP3 audio files that we listen to in class. You can listen to them on this site, or you can download them and put them on your MP3 players. I would recommend listening to them several times, as it will help you with this class and help you improve your overall listening skills.

For now, everyone needs to buy the book for this class at the university bookstore, in 학생관. Here is a picture of the book.

After you buy the book, you should read pages v - vi, and xi - xx. These pages are at the beginning of the book.

After reading these pages, please post a comment on our site here:

• Introduce yourself
• Of the 10 keys to better scores on the TOEFL test (p. xvi - xx), which do you think is the most important? Why?

Thanks for visiting this site. I hope you come back often, and enjoy this semester!