Your Challenges & Homework for Tomorrow
Hi everyone!
Tomorrow, I’ll say more about your midterm exam, which will be this Thursday, 2 June. It will involve both a written and a speaking component, but I’ll explain more tomorrow.
Next, your homework for tomorrow is to read the first page of Unit 6! Check the dialog, make sure you understand the vocabulary, and look at how the opinions on that page are expressed. (It also wouldn’t hurt to look over the whole unit before you come to class, if you have time.) As usual, I’ll have an idioms quiz and handout for you to supplement the book.
And now, the big news: today, we decided on the challenges for the remainder of the course. You designed suggested challenges, but I’m going to fill in some of the details and rules about how Challenges work, as well as the specific rules for each challenge.
Challenges are worth 20% of your final mark in this class, so please make sure you understand the rules and expectations!
Challenge 1 (Week 2): Customer Service Call
Due Date: Friday, 3 June (2015), 7:00 p.m.
Task Description: You must call a customer service center for some place, and obtain appropriate information using only English.
Examples:
- If you call a computer repair center, you would ask for the location of the repair center, instructions on how to go there—including which bus or train to take, and possibly street directions—the opening and closing time for the service center, how much it costs for repairs if you do not have a warranty, and so on.
- If you call the Incheon airport, you might ask how to get to the airport from Jochiwon, how long it takes, how much it costs, and the opening and closing hours of the restaurants and duty free stores at the airport.
- If you call an English bookstore, you might ask if they have a certain book in stock, how much it costs, how to get to their shop, and their store hours.
Time Limit: There is no limit on the length of the call, as long as you (a) ONLY use English for the call, and (b) get all the information you might reasonably need if you were a real customer. If the person you’re talking to asks if you speak Korean, just tell them no, you can’t. After all, it’s true: for this assignment, you can’t speak Korean!
Evidence: You must record the phone call. There are apps to do this on Android and iPhone, though I can’t recommend which. You could also record the conversation if you have the conversation using Kakaotalk on your computer and use basic software to record the audio. Finally, you can also simply use the speakerphone function on your phone and use a separate phone or audio recorder to capture the sound.
You will submit the audio file as an MP3 format file. (Other file formats are unacceptable.) I will let you know how to upload the file later this week, but hopefully it’s possible to do it on Blackboard.
Challenge #2: Video Review
(Rules coming soon)
Challenge #3: How-To Video
(Rules coming soon)