Understanding and Responding to Spoken and Written Korean Texts
Purpose before detail
Stage 2 comprehension rewards purpose-driven reading and listening. First identify text type and function: announcement, conversation, diary, advertisement, news report, opinion column, email. Then decide what the question needs: gist, specific detail, speaker attitude, or implied meaning. Questions usually target one of these, and the classic trap is answering a gist question with a detail you happened to understand.
Cohesion and stance
Track connective endings because they carry the logic: -지만 (contrast), -는데 (background or contrast), -므로 (cause), -면서 (simultaneous), -려고 (intention), -더라고요 (retrospective recall), -네요 (mild surprise). Pronouns and ellipsis are common; Korean often drops subjects, so recover the referent from honorific -시- and from context. Watch negation carefully: -지 않다 (does not) versus -지 못하다 (cannot), and recognise double negation.
Numbers, counters and time
Use Sino-Korean numbers for money, dates, minutes and phone numbers; use native Korean numbers for hours and for counting with counters such as 명, 개, 권, 잔. A frequent trap is 3시 30분, which mixes native 세 시 with Sino 삼십 분.
Traps
Literal translation of idioms (눈이 높다, 발이 넓다), missing the speaker’s stance in -더라고요, confusing causal -아/어서 with formal -므로, and ignoring headings, spacing or intonation all cost marks.
Worked example
Line: “시험이 어려웠더라고요.” The -더라고요 shows the speaker is reporting personally experienced information, not stating a neutral fact, so “the exam was difficult, I found” is closer than “the exam is difficult.”
Rule of thumb
Read or listen once for purpose and structure, then return for evidence. For every answer, point to the exact phrase that supports it.