24.08.01 회화구문. <회화 능력이 안늘어!>

*상황 : 코지와 코바는 VR CHAT 이라는 게임 안에서 대화를 나누고 있다.


안녕 코지, 오랫만이야 잘 지내지? 요즘 일본어 공부는 어때?

나쁘지 않아. 코바, 너가 하던 영어 공부는 어때? 잘돼가?

요즘 계속 하고 있는데, 이상하게 회화 실력이 잘 늘지 않아.. 혹시 단어를 더 공부해야 할까?

아니, 나는 그렇게 생각하지 않아. 만약 너가 회하 실력이 늘고 싶다면, 단어 공부가 아니라, 실전 회화 기술을 터득해야 한다고 생각해. 왜냐하면 너는 이미 많은 단어를 알고 있거든.

나도 그렇게 생각해. 하지만 이 게임에서 영어 네이티브를 만나는게 쉽지가 않아.
설령 만난다 하더라도 그들이 말하는 것을 종종 나는 알아 들을수가 없어.

나도 예전에 일본어를 배울때 그랬어. 나는 그때 일본어를 할줄 아는 중국인들과 많은 대화를 나눴어.
왜냐하면 그들은 일본어가 모국어가 아닌 외국인이잖아 그래서 그들의 말은 알아듣기 쉬웠거든.
너도 알지? 대부분의 외국인들은 다른 외국어로 말할때 쉬운 단어만 쓰잖아, 그래서 나는 알아듣기 쉽더라고.

그렇구나. 나도 다음에 한번 시도해 봐야겠어.
근데 나도 예전에 한번 그 방법을 시도해 봤는데 종종 중국인들은 일본어로 말할때 말을 너무 느리게 하는 경우가 많아서 답답한 경우가 많았어.
물론 가끔은 일본어를 아주 잘하는 중국인을 만나기도 했지만, 그런 사람은 너무 드물더라구.
그리고 내가 하루에 이 게임을 한시간 하는데, 그 방법을 사용하게 되면 전체 플레이 시간의 40%는 사람을 찾는데 사용해야만 하는것이 너무 싫어. 하루 이틀 하면 되는게 아니고, 그짓을 매일 해야 하잖아.

맞아. 그러니 계속 공부하면서 계속 시도해 보는 수 밖에 없다고 생각해.

맞아 나도 그냥 이것저것 생각하지 말고, 일단 영어로 계속 말을 걸어봐야겠어.

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Koba: Hi Koji, long time no see. How have you been? How's your Japanese study going these days?

 

Koji: Not bad. Koba, how's your English study going? Is it progressing well?

 

Koba: I've been studying consistently, but my conversation skills don't seem to be improving. Do you think I need to study more vocabulary?

 

Koji: No, I don't think so. If you want to improve your conversation skills, I think you need to master practical conversation techniques, not vocabulary. Because you already know a lot of words.

 

Koba: I think so too. But it's not easy to meet English natives in this game. Even if I do meet them, I often can't understand what they're saying.

 

Koji: I had the same experience when I was learning Japanese. Back then, I had many conversations with Chinese people who could speak Japanese. Since Japanese isn't their native language, their speech was easier to understand. You know, most foreigners use simple words when speaking a foreign language, so it was easier for me to understand.

 

Koba: I see. I'll have to try that next time. But when I tried that method before, I found that Chinese people often spoke too slowly when speaking Japanese, which was frustrating. Of course, sometimes I met Chinese people who were very good at Japanese, but they were rare. And I only play this game for an hour a day, and using that method means I'd spend 40% of my playtime just finding people to talk to, which I hate. It's not something I can do just once or twice; I'd have to do it every day.

 

Koji: Yeah, I agree. I think you just have to keep studying and keep trying.

 

Koba: Right. I guess I shouldn't overthink it and just keep trying to speak in English.