In Beginners’ Korean Level 1, our teacher requires all of her students to do a 3 minute speech. This speech is about our usual weekend activities. In front of the class I had to deliver the words without reading the speech. In other words, I have to memorize the whole thing.
In order to memorize it I did two things. First, after editing, I wrote the speech repeatedly. Over the past week, I may have copied my speech onto scrap paper about 60 times. Second, I bothered my Korean friends. I had about 4 victims. By myself I was capable of doing the memorization. My friends were really helpful because they corrected my pronunciation. My experience gave the friends fond memories of when they did the same activity in elementary school.
Today was the big day. I stood in front of the class and did the speech. I remembered all of it, and I pronounced the sentences the way I had been instructed. I also tried to surprise my teacher by correctly using grammar that she has not yet taught us. In my opinion her reaction was not the best. She always appeared to be looking down or playing with the window. Today is one of those days that I am reminded that I am not one of the Korean teacher’s favorite students. None the less, it is over now. I get to sit back and relax while my classmates complete their speeches.