002（8.5）

All right, let's begin. All right, let's go. So, to start, could you tell me your full name, please?

My full name is Juan Chang Chan.

Could you spell that for me?

Yes, W-O-N and C-H-A-N-G.

Okay, very good. And can you tell me, do you like your name?

Do I like my name? Yes, I do, because usually most people have three syllables in their Korean names. For example, the most common Korean name that I can think of on the spot right now would be Kim Chi Hoon, which would be three syllables. But mine is two, which kind of makes me feel special, so I like my name.

Okay, very good. And are you a student right now, or are you working?

Right now, I am a student, but I am not going to school because I'm on leave. As of now, I'm in Korea.

Okay, and could you tell me about your major?

My major is Business Management, and I'm studying at King's College London right now. It's definitely not a major that I wanted to pick, but I thought that, back at the moment when I was choosing my major, I didn't really have a lot of choices because I didn't really know what I wanted to do. My parents told me that this is kind of like the go-to major if you don't really know what you want to do, so that's why I chose it.

Okay, very good. And what do you like to do when you have some free time?

My free time? I have a couple of things on my list. Usually, I think I spend most of my time on YouTube watching all these videos. I watch a lot of League of Legends videos because it's my favorite game, and also, I'm really into music and movies, so I watch a lot of movie review or critic videos. Yeah, stuff like that.

Very good. Now we're going to talk about the area you live in. Do you like the area you live in?

Like areas in a city, or a specific part?

Well, maybe more like your neighborhood.

My neighborhood? Yeah, I do like my neighborhood because, on a broader aspect, I live in Seoul. Within Seoul, I live in this area called Gupabal, and as a lot of people know, Seoul is a super populated area. I'd even say overpopulated, considering how small the city is. Despite the fact that Seoul is such a crowded city, my neighborhood is really quiet. I wouldn't even say it's populated that much. It's very quiet, not a lot of noises, and the greatest part of my neighborhood is that you can find pretty much everything every other block. For example, if you want to buy a video game, like a game CD or a game pack, you'd have to go to a special neighborhood; you don't find that in every neighborhood. But we have that. We have a lot of cool restaurants, we even have an elementary school, middle school, high school, and a lot of institutions for private education.

Okay, good. And have there been any changes to your area recently?

Recently? I don't think so, but I've lived in my neighborhood for almost 20 years, and probably the biggest change, the most noticeable change, that happened was that about 10 years ago, we had a new subway station installed in our neighborhood. The closest one before that was probably about a mile away, but now we have a subway station like 300 meters from my house, so that's super convenient. Another change was that we used to have a huge department store, but now it's a wedding convention. That's one downside. And I think that's about it because it's a small neighborhood, and it's not even a transportation hub, so not a lot of people come. You can't really find a lot of big changes, but I guess those would be the biggest two.

Okay, perfect. That'll do us for the first part of the test. We'll go on to part two now.

Okay.

I'll just give you that. All right, I'll give you a pen there. Now, I'll give you one minute to read the question, and you can make some notes as well.

All right.

You can begin now, anytime. That's your minute there.

Okay, wow.

Yeah, so let me just grab that. First, some notes. Okay, yeah. So, could you describe an occasion when the weather stopped you from doing something?

Okay, so I'm gonna talk about this time when there was a huge typhoon that struck Korea. I think it was two years ago. That was back when I was in the military. I think it was my third month as, or actually like the second or first month as, a corporal. I was supposed to go on leave for vacation, and I don't remember the exact date, but I know that it was Monday. I was supposed to leave on Monday, but the weather forecast, the media, was talking all about this huge typhoon that's going to strike Korea that week. Our commander decided to ban the soldiers from going on leave since, in an occasion where there's a weather or a disaster forecasted, we're not allowed to leave base because we have to maintain a certain amount of force. So, all the soldiers were devastated, including me, because all we wait about and all we care about is vacations, to be honest with you. I was supposed to leave on Monday but was banned from leaving. We were either going to be let go the day after, depending on how the weather goes. On Monday, all my mates at the base, all we could possibly do was just desperately pray for the weather to get better and for our commander to make the optimal decision. The next day, thankfully, the weather got better, and the commander let us all go, and we were all able to go on vacation.

Okay, cool. That's two minutes now. Right, so you were all able to go in the end?

In the end, yeah. It was a happy ending.

Very good. Was it common for the weather to affect proceedings in the military?

Usually, when it's not that bad, they would just let you go if it's just a slight breeze or a small rain. But when the whole country is talking about this typhoon, it's considered a natural disaster. In a case like that, they'd have to go through a lot of discussions on the high board, and after that, they'd decide whether to let us go or not. That would be a very special occasion.

Okay, I'm glad it worked out. Right, so we're going to the third part of the test now. We'll keep going. Do you think the weather has much impact on people's daily activities?

Daily activities? Yeah, definitely. We have these, I don't know what the exact term is called in English, but I'm just gonna say microdust because that would be the literal translation. Actually, this time of the year, every year, we have a lot of microdust that sweeps in from China. As of now, the coronavirus is the main issue, but usually during this time of the year, the weather forecast always talks about how bad the microdust is. I think that definitely affects people's daily lives because around this time of the year, especially during spring, people like to go out to the park and have a picnic with their families. It's always after winter, so people are so wanting, so desiring to go out and have some time with their loved ones. But if there is microdust present outside, people would probably want to stay in instead of going outside.

Okay, and do you think people in your country talk about the weather a lot?

Talk about the weather a lot? Yeah, I think we do. As I previously mentioned, right now, coronavirus is kind of like the main thing that's keeping people inside. But if it wasn't that, I think that we always talk about how bad the weather is, and that definitely affects our decisions on whether we should go out tonight or today or should we go out next week.

Okay, and do you think the weather in your country has changed a lot in recent years?

In recent years, I think it definitely did. I'm not really into climate change or the environment, but I could definitely physically feel that the temperature has changed. Especially this winter, I think it was possibly one of the warmest winters that I've ever experienced in my 25 years of life. So, yeah, I think global warming is real. It's like an imminent thing that we're facing. I don't think I could possibly recall the last time it snowed a lot. I think it snowed like twice this winter, and it wasn't even that much.

Okay, good, good. Do you think the weather has much of an effect on tourism, not just in Korea, but in general? Does it affect tourism?

Yeah, definitely, I think it does. I'm gonna give you a personal example if I can. The last time I went to the Philippines, it was last year in September. It was during Chuseok, which is like Korean Thanksgiving, and it was a long weekend, a long holiday. Our family decided to go to the Philippines and spend some vacation there. We chose the worst timing to go traveling because during that time, the Philippines was experiencing a typhoon. I have a lot of bad experiences with typhoons. This one time, we got stuck on an island because the boats couldn't go back to the main island. So, stuff like that. If there's disastrous weather, I don't think people are going to go there as much as they usually do.

Okay, good. Could you tell me what jobs you think are affected by weather conditions?

The one thing that I could think of on the spot would be construction site workers because they work outdoors. Let's say that if it's raining, it increases the risk. There are more hazards on their work site because it's slippery and there's a higher percentage of getting an injury. So, I think that the weather would affect people

 that work outdoors mainly.

All right, let's start with the feedback. Obviously, a really good test. I'd say your score would be about an 8.5 today. Some parts, you actually speak better than me. Your pronunciation is perfect. I think your pronunciation puts my pronunciation to shame. Pronunciation is very high. Also, vocabulary—you've got a good range. You're showing good idiomatic expressions. You're saying things like, "on the spot," "my go-to major," "transportation hub." These are good to put in your test to give your score a bit of strength in the vocabulary part of it. Fluency is also very strong. Some instances of hesitation, maybe that would pull you down slightly towards that, but again, you know, a very high level of fluency. Grammar-wise, the mistakes are minor.

Let's just have a look at a couple of them. When you talked about your neighborhood, you said maybe one thing you didn't possibly like were some noises in the area. I'd probably just say "noise" instead of "noises," collectively. I would say "noises" if you put a plural; it's more like one noise and two noises.

Yeah, that didn't really make sense.

That's a small one. Also, when we talk about the subway station, you used the verb "installed." I would say better to say "opened."

Opened?

Opened, when you talk about an establishment or some transportation. I would say it "opened." The restaurant opened, the subway station opened, the new complex opened.

Right.

Installed sounds a little bit more like something inside a building, like the air conditioning was installed or some sort of appliance was installed.

Interesting to think about it.

Yeah, these are small issues. One thing, a couple of small prepositions. You said, "I was banned to leave." I would say "banned from."

Banned from?

From "ing."

From leaving?

Yeah, exactly. Banned from "ing" is always the way it is. Another small thing, one question I asked, I said, "Has it changed?" and you said, "It did." It should be "it has."

It has.

Has it changed? "Yeah, it has. Has it done this?" So, these are a few small errors with the grammar, but all in all, nothing really much to worry about. It's a good score. I think anyone speaking a second language for 15 minutes is bound to make a few errors, so that's nothing to worry about. But yeah, really good score, really good test.

Thanks for taking part.

Thank you for the feedback. Cheers.

好的，我们开始吧。开始吧。首先，你能告诉我你的全名吗？

我的全名是Juan Chang Chan。

能拼写一下吗？

是的，W-O-N 和 C-H-A-N-G。

好的，非常好。你能告诉我，你喜欢你的名字吗？

我喜欢我的名字吗？是的，我喜欢。因为通常大多数人的韩文名字有三个音节。例如，我现在能想到的最常见的韩文名字是Kim Chi Hoon，这个名字有三个音节。但我的名字只有两个音节，这让我感觉很特别，所以我喜欢我的名字。

好的，非常好。你现在是学生还是在工作？

我现在是学生，但我现在没有上学，因为我在休假。目前，我在韩国。

好的，你能告诉我你的专业吗？

我的专业是工商管理，我现在在伦敦国王学院学习。这绝对不是我想选的专业，但在我选择专业的时候，我觉得没有太多选择，因为我不知道自己想做什么。我的父母告诉我，如果你不知道自己想做什么，这个专业是一个不错的选择，所以我选择了它。

好的，非常好。你在空闲时间喜欢做什么？

空闲时间？我有几件事情会做。通常，我会花大部分时间在YouTube上看视频。我看很多《英雄联盟》的视频，因为这是我最喜欢的游戏，而且我也很喜欢音乐和电影，所以我会看很多电影评论或影评视频。就是这些。

非常好。现在我们来谈谈你住的地区。你喜欢你住的地方吗？

是指城市的区域还是具体的部分？

可能更像是你的社区。

我的社区？是的，我喜欢我的社区。从更广泛的方面来说，我住在首尔。在首尔内，我住在一个叫Gupabal的地方，众所周知，首尔是一个非常人口稠密的城市。考虑到城市的面积，我甚至会说它是过度拥挤的。尽管首尔是一个如此拥挤的城市，但我的社区非常安静。我甚至不想说它很人口稠密。非常安静，噪音不多，我社区最棒的部分是每隔几个街区就能找到几乎所有东西。例如，如果你想买一张游戏光盘或游戏包，你需要去一个特别的社区，但我们这里有。我们有很多很酷的餐馆，我们甚至还有小学、中学、高中，还有很多私人教育机构。

好的，有最近你的地区有发生什么变化吗？

最近？我不这么认为，但我在我的社区已经住了将近20年，可能最大的变化，最明显的变化是大约10年前，我们社区新建了一个地铁站。之前最近的一个大约有一英里远，但现在离我家只有300米，所以非常方便。另一个变化是我们以前有一个巨大的百货商店，但现在变成了一个婚礼会展中心。这是一个缺点。我想大概就这些，因为这是一个小社区，也不是一个交通枢纽，所以人不多。你看不到太多大的变化，但我想这两个是最大的。

好的，完美。这就是测试的第一部分。我们现在继续第二部分。

好的。

我把这个给你。好，给你一支笔。现在，我给你一分钟时间阅读问题，你也可以做一些笔记。

好的。

你现在可以开始，随时开始。这是你的一分钟。

好，哇。

是的，我来拿一下笔记。好的。那么，你能描述一个天气阻止你做某事的场合吗？

好，我要说的是有一次，韩国遭遇了一场巨大的台风。我记得是两年前，那时候我在军队中。我想那是我成为下士的第三个月，或者实际上是第二或第一个月。我本来应该去休假，我不记得确切的日期，但我知道那是星期一。我应该在星期一离开，但天气预报，媒体都在谈论那周将袭击韩国的巨大台风。我们的指挥官决定禁止士兵们请假，因为在有天气或灾害预警的情况下，我们不被允许离开基地，因为我们必须保持一定数量的兵力。所以所有士兵都很沮丧，包括我自己，因为老实说，我们所有的期望和关心的都是假期。我本来应该在星期一离开，但被禁止离开。我们可能会在第二天，根据天气情况决定是否让我们离开。星期一，我在基地的所有同伴，我们能做的就是拼命祈祷天气变好，并希望指挥官做出最佳决定。第二天，幸运的是天气变好了，指挥官让我们都离开了，我们都能够去度假。

好的，很好。现在是两分钟。你们最后都能离开了？

最后是的，这是一个幸福的结局。

非常好。在军队中，天气影响事件的情况常见吗？

通常，当天气不是那么糟糕时，他们会让你离开。如果只是微风或小雨，他们会让你离开。但是当整个国家都在谈论这场台风时，它被认为是自然灾害。在这种情况下，他们需要经过高级别的讨论，之后决定是否让我们离开。这将是一个非常特殊的情况。

好的，我很高兴结果很好。现在我们进入测试的第三部分。我们继续。你认为天气对人们的日常活动有很大影响吗？

日常活动？是的，绝对有。我们有一种东西，我不知道英文的确切术语叫什么，但我就叫它微尘，因为这是字面翻译。实际上，每年这个时候，我们有很多微尘从中国吹来。目前，冠状病毒是主要问题，但通常在这个时候，天气预报总是谈论微尘有多糟糕。我认为这绝对会影响人们的日常生活，因为在这个时候，特别是春天，人们喜欢去公园和家人一起野餐。这总是在冬天之后，所以人们非常想出去和心爱的人共度时光。但如果外面有微尘，人们可能更愿意呆在家里而不是出去。

好的，你认为你们国家的人经常谈论天气吗？

经常谈论天气？是的，我认为我们会。正如我之前提到的，现在冠状病毒是主要让人们呆在家里的原因。但如果不是这样，我认为我们总是谈论天气有多糟糕，这绝对会影响我们是否决定今天出去或下周出去。

好的，你认为你们国家的天气在最近几年有很大变化吗？

最近几年，我认为确实有。我不是特别关注气候变化或环境，但我确实能感觉到温度的变化。特别是这个冬天，我认为这是我25年生活中经历过的最温暖的冬天之一。所以是的，我认为全球变暖是真的，这是我们面临的一个迫在眉睫的问题。我不记得上一次下大雪是什么时候了。我想这个冬天下了两次雪，而且也不多。

好的，好，好。你认为天气对旅游业有很大影响吗，不仅在韩国，在全球范围内，天气会影响旅游业吗？

是的，绝对有。我可以举一个个人例子吗？去年九月，我去了菲律宾。那是韩国的中秋节，就像感恩节，是一个长假期。我们家决定去菲律宾度假。我们选择了最糟糕的时间去旅行，因为那时候菲律宾正遭遇台风。我和台风有很多不好的经历。有一次我们被困在一个岛上，因为船无法回到主岛。所以像这样的事情，如果有灾害性天气，我认为人们不会像平时那样去那里。

好的，你能告诉我哪些工作受天气条件影响吗？

我能想到的一个例子是建筑工地工人，因为他们在户外工作。比如说如果下雨的话，风险增加了，工作现场更危险，因为地面湿滑，受伤的几率更高。所以我认为天气主要会影响那些在户外工作的人。

好的，让我们开始反馈。显然，这是一个非常好的测试。我认为你的分数大约是8.5。某些部分，你甚至比我说得更好。你的发音非常好。我觉得你的发音让我汗颜。发音非常高。词汇量也很好。你展示了很多好的习语表达，比如“on the spot”，“my go-to major”，“transportation hub”。这些在测试中都能增加你的词汇分数。流利度也很强。虽然有些犹豫的情况，这可能会略微拉低分数，但总体来说，你的流利度非常高。语法方面，错误很少。

让我们看看其中几个。你谈到你的社区时，你说你不太喜欢一些“noises”。我会说“noise”更好，集合名词。我会说“noises”如果是一个噪音和两个噪音，听起来更合理。

是的，那确实不太合理。

这是一个小问题。还有，当我们谈到地铁站时，你用了“installed”这个动词。我觉得“opened”更好。

Opened?

Opened，当你谈论一个场所或一些交通工具时。我会说它“opened”。餐馆开了，地铁站开了，新建筑开了。

对。

Installed 听起来更像是建筑物内部的东西，比如

空调安装了或某种电器安装了。

很有意思。

是的，这些都是小问题。还有一个问题，你说“我被禁止离开”。我会说“banned from”。

Banned from?

从“ing”。

从离开？

是的，确实。Banned from“ing”是固定用法。还有一个小问题，我问你“has it changed?”，你回答“it did”。应该是“it has”。

Has it changed? Yeah, it has. 这些都是小语法错误，但总体来说，没什么好担心的。分数很高。我认为任何人在说第二语言15分钟时都会犯一些错误，所以这没什么好担心的。总的来说，分数很高，测试非常好。

谢谢你参加。

谢谢你的反馈。再见。