90초 역할극: 예상 못 한 되묻기와 스크립트 재시작
In a KLAT 말하기 role-play, Dana has 90 seconds to prepare and 90 seconds to speak. The task card asks her to call the 국제교류센터, ask when the language-exchange program starts, say what level she is, and ask about the fee. She has memorised:
「안녕하세요, 저는 한국어 중급이에요. 반은 언제 시작해요? 그리고 돈은 얼마예요?」
At about 00:40 the examiner, playing the coordinator, interrupts in Korean: 「죄송하지만 다시 한 번 말씀해 주시겠어요? 그리고 수업은 한국어로만 진행됩니다.」 Dana panics, says nothing for four seconds, then restarts from 안녕하세요 and runs out of time before reaching the fee question. Afterwards she says she restarted because "the first attempt was ruined", and that she did not understand 수업은 한국어로만 진행됩니다 but was too embarrassed to say so.
1. Diagnose the script's problems and rewrite it in a register appropriate to a first call to an administrative office.
Read the worked answer
Three problems, in ascending order of cost:
- 돈 - understandable but childish in this setting; 수강료 or 참가비 is the expected word. Word choice is scored under 어휘, and 돈 reads as a vocabulary gap rather than a style choice.
- 반 - acceptable in casual speech but 수업/프로그램 fits an office. More importantly, 반은 언제 시작해요? omits the object of the question: which class? The task card says language-exchange program, so 이름을 붙여야 한다.
- Register - 해요체 to a university office is not wrong, but the opening of a formal inquiry is conventionally -ㅂ니다/-(으)십니까: 처음 전화할 때는 격식체가 안전하고, 상대가 편하게 말하면 따라 내려가면 된다. Starting formal and relaxing is recoverable; starting casual and climbing up is not.
Rewrite: 「안녕하세요, 국제교류센터죠? 언어교환 프로그램에 대해 문의드리고 싶습니다. 수업은 언제 시작합니까? 저는 중급 정도인데, 제 수준에 맞는 반이 있는지도 알고 싶습니다. 참가비는 얼마입니까?」
2. The examiner asks 「다시 한 번 말씀해 주시겠어요?」 and adds new information about the language of instruction. Should Dana restart her script? Explain what the rating criteria reward here.
Read the worked answer
No - restarting is the single most expensive move available. Restarting discards the content she has already delivered, spends her remaining seconds on a greeting the examiner has already heard, and signals that she is reciting rather than interacting. Interaction is a scored dimension; a script that cannot absorb an interruption is a script that has already failed one criterion.
The correct sequence when interrupted:
- Repair the immediate request, briefly: 「네, 죄송합니다. 다시 말씀드릴게요.」 Then repeat only the last question in a slower, clearer form - not the whole introduction.
- Acknowledge the new information, which is also a chance to ask: 「아, 수업이 한국어로만 진행되는군요. 그러면 초급도 들을 수 있습니까?」 This demonstrates comprehension of 수업은 한국어로만 진행됩니다 without claiming to have understood every word.
- Continue forward, not backward: ask the fee, which is still unasked and still on the card.
The likely intended reading is that the coordinator is warning her the class is Korean-only - i.e. a level check dressed as information. Treating it as a question is safer than treating it as a fact.
3. Dana did not understand 수업은 한국어로만 진행됩니다. What should she have said in the moment, and what is the general repair strategy when the missing word is the key one?
Read the worked answer
In the moment: 「죄송합니다, 잘 못 들었습니다. 수업이 어떻게 진행됩니까?」 Asking the coordinator to restate is not a failure - it is the correct use of a repair strategy, and 말하기 criteria typically reward attempts to maintain the interaction over silent accuracy. What is not recoverable is four seconds of silence followed by a script restart.
General strategy, in order:
- Ask for repetition if the sound was the problem: 다시 한 번 말씀해 주시겠어요?
- Ask for a paraphrase if the word was the problem: 죄송한데, 무슨 뜻인지 쉽게 설명해 주시겠어요? / 다시 말씀해 주시면 감사하겠습니다.
- Confirm your guess if you have partial comprehension: 한국어로만 수업한다는 말씀이세요? A yes/no check is cheap, keeps her speaking, and often resolves the gap.
- Paraphrase around the gap rather than stopping: if 수강료 is unavailable, 돈을 내야 합니까? is less precise but still completes the task - and completing the task is worth more than lexical precision.
Silence and restart are the only two options that score zero on every criterion simultaneously; every strategy above scores on at least one.