Listening and Responding Skills
What you must know
Listening tasks test gist, detail, purpose and inference. The recordings are short exchanges or announcements set in school, home, shops and transport. You need fast recognition of question words (누구, 무엇, 어디, 언제, 왜, 어떻게, 몇), numbers, times, and the speech level (해요체, 합쇼체, 반말) which signals who is speaking to whom.
Strategy
- Read the options before the audio starts and predict the topic and the type of answer (a time, a place, a reason).
- On the first hearing, catch the situation and speakers; on the second, catch the specific detail the question asks.
- Listen for discourse markers that signal a change: 그런데 (but), 그래서 (so), 사실은 (actually), 아니에요 (no). These often introduce the correct answer.
- Write only key words - Korean or English - never full sentences.
Traps
- Self-correction: “세 시에 만나요. 아니, 두 시에 만나요.” The second time wins.
- Negation: 안, 못, -지 않다, 없어요 reverse the meaning. 잘 들었어요? means “did you hear well?”, not “did you hear badly”.
- Numbers: listen for native versus Sino-Korean; 시 and 분 use different systems.
- Speaker roles: the question may ask what the man will do, while the woman does most of the talking.
- Sound-alikes: 사과 (apple/apology), 배 (pear/boat/stomach), 눈 (eye/snow). Context decides.
- Inference items ask how a speaker feels (기뻐요, 걱정해요, 화나요) - use tone and adjectives.
Worked example
Audio: “오늘 시험이 있어서 학교에 일찍 갔어요. 그런데 버스를 놓쳐서 늦었어요.” Question: Why was the speaker late? Options: the exam, the bus, the school. The word 시험 is a decoy; the causal marker 때문에/서 attaches to 버스. Answer: 버스를 놓쳐서.
Rule of thumb
Before each item, ask yourself: “What kind of word am I listening for?” A time, a place, a reason, a feeling - decide first, then listen.