LK9002 KOREAN LANGUAGE LEVEL 2 (3.0 AU)

Year Taken: AY 18/19, Sem 1

Compared to Level 1 which had 24 classes, we only have 8 classes for Level 2. The content got exponentially tougher (grammar got more complex, vocabulary increased a lot). Nevertheless, the mean is pretty normal in my opinion, and those who memorized the content well should ace this module with ease.

30% Mid Term (10% Listening, 20% Written)
20% Oral Project
40% Final Exam (15% Listening, 25% Written)
10% Class Participation

As usual, I struggled with the Listening portions since I don’t watch Korean dramas nor listen to Korean songs. The Korean ability gap is really wide for my cohort, you have people who are supposed to be in way higher level classes taking this Korean Level 2 (to be honest, I think that they purposely did badly for the entrance exam though) and people who were struggling to even pass the content. The mean was 68% for Mid Term (Median was 69%) and 71% mean (median was 73%) for Finals, which is very normal IMO. Level 1 was worse, with a mean of 73% and median of 79%. Everybody did well for the oral project despite the slip of tongues we all had during our oral presentation. The oral presentation involves coming up with a script for 4 assigned scenes, drawing on grammar rules and vocabulary learnt in Level 2. I guess I will be going on to Korean Level 3 since the curve for Level 2 is not as bad as Level 1.

This review was reposted with the kind permission of aLMSstudent. Originally published at https://ntulmsmods.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/ntu-lms-2018-2019-semester-1/

Taken in: AY18 Sem 1
Grading components: Test 1 (30%), Group Presentation (20%), Test 2 (40%), Class Participation (10%)
Grade: SU
Difficulty rating: 5/5

Warning: Do NOT take unless you are very confident in your Korean proficiency or keen to invest a lot of time into studying for this mod.

Level 1 was a breeze for me so I mistakenly thought level 2 wasn’t that much harder. I thought that my years of watching drama and Kpop, self-learning Korean and exchange in Korea would be more than enough to ace level 2 but nope, this is multiple times harder than level 1. I was struggling to catch up due to the fast pace of lessons and the tests were honestly very hard and tricky – both the teachers and classroom full of students agreed. I failed the first test and barely passed the second, it is THAT hard. Failing is definitely a possibility for this mod and I’m not exaggerating. Go ahead and take this mod to test the difficulty yourself if you doubt me.

Yet, the median and average score of the cohort were much higher than my expectations, it makes me wonder how many of the people who said it was hard were faking it and just how much did these people study. All tests are conducted during class timing (continuous assessment), so there are no final examinations. You will know around 75% of total CA for you to estimate your final grade.

As for the lessons, they were pretty fun with plenty of interactive sessions and games, so I got to make a couple of friends while practicing Korean in class. My lecturer (Ms Ahn Hyojeong) was really sweet and helpful too – you could tell she really cared about her students and tried her best to help everyone understand. Definitely one of my favorite lecturers during my time in NTU.

In conclusion, I do not regret taking this module – the lecturer and classmates were great, and my Korean improved a lot. However, I do feel I need to warn students planning to take this that the difficulty is really high for a UE.

This review was reposted with the kind permission of The Beautiful Sotong. Originally published at https://thebeautifulsotong.com/2018/12/08/ntu-electives-review