VCE Korean First Language cheat sheet

Units 1-2 centre on the individual and immediate society: family and relationships, school life, leisure and hobbies, and everyday communication in Korean.

Units 3-4 widen to public and global concerns: Korean society and culture, science and technology, environment, and the world of work and study beyond school.

Each area of study pairs a theme with a text type and a communicative function, so responses must show topic knowledge plus appropriate register and structure.

Formal written Korean uses 합니다/습니다 style; informal spoken or personal writing uses 해요 style; mixing styles within one text is a register error.

Honorific vocabulary is lexical, not just grammatical: 드시다, 계시다, 주무시다, 연세, 댁 replace 먹다, 있다, 자다, 나이, 집 when the subject is honoured.

Korean society topics typically require both description and evaluation, so a strong answer states a position and supports it with two concrete reasons.

Culture questions often test comparison: describe the Korean practice, then explain how it differs from or resembles the student's own context.

Vocabulary fields should be learned by theme (environment: 오염, 재활용, 기후 변화; technology: 인공 지능, 개인 정보) to allow precise topic-specific wording.

Text-type conventions differ across areas: a diary entry permits 감정 표현, while a report or letter to an institution requires objective tone and clear headings.

Personal text types: 일기, 편지, 이메일, 블로그 - first person, 감정 and 경험, 해요 or 한다 style depending on audience.

Persuasive text types: 논설문, 건의문, 편지 to an authority - clear 주장, two or three 근거, and a concluding 재강조.

Informative text types: 보고서, 기사, 안내문 - headings, factual tone, 합니다 style, and no personal emotion.

Narrative text types: 수필, 이야기 - time markers (그때, 그 후, 얼마 뒤) and past tense 았/었 consistently.

Formal letters open with 안녕하십니까? and close with 감사합니다 plus the writer's name; informal letters use 안녕? and a warmer close.

Cohesive devices to deploy: 그러나, 따라서, 예를 들어, 반면에, 결국 - each signals a specific logical relation, so choose by function not habit.

Paragraph structure for Korean essays: 서론 (문제 제기), 본론 (근거와 예시), 결론 (요약과 제안); one idea per paragraph.

Text-type accuracy is assessed separately from grammar, so an answer with strong content in the wrong format still loses format marks.

Length and audience control: count syllables for word limits and adjust honorific level to the stated reader before writing content.