Listening
Identify the place
Seemile Easy TOPIK I · listening · pp. 42–47
Understand the task
Place questions describe an interaction rather than simply name a destination. A passenger may mention a university while speaking inside a taxi; the university is where they want to go, not where the conversation is happening. Combine the service being offered, the speakers’ roles and the objects they mention.
Before listening, imagine an action or expression associated with each possible location. Use several clues together to identify the setting.
How to solve this question type
- Predict one characteristic service for each option: books are borrowed at a library, medicine is collected at a pharmacy and money is handled at a bank.
- Listen for expressions that establish roles: 뭘 드릴까요 is a seller’s offer, and 어디까지 가세요 can be a driver’s destination question.
- Use at least two clues when possible. A greeting such as 어서 오세요 occurs in many businesses and is weak evidence on its own.
Grammar and expressions
어떻게 오셨어요?
In a clinic or service setting this can ask why someone has come, not which vehicle they used.
머리가 아파서 왔어요.
I came because I have a headache.
N(으)로 가 주세요
Request a direction or destination. Use 으로 after most consonants, 로 after vowels or ㄹ.
서울역으로 가 주세요.
Please take me to Seoul Station.
V-아/어 주세요
Ask someone to do an action for you. 하다 becomes 해 주세요.
짧게 잘라 주세요.
Please cut it short.
Vocabulary for this type
- 미용실
- hair salon
- 약국
- pharmacy
- 은행
- bank
- 우체국
- post office
- 자르다
- to cut
- 손님
- customer or guest
A worked example
어서 오세요. 어디까지 가세요? / 한국대학교로 가 주세요.
Welcome. Where would you like to go? / Please take me to Korea University.
- The first speaker offers transport and asks for the destination.
- The second speaker requests travel to a university. The university is not the present setting.
- The interaction takes place in a taxi: identify the service, not the noun that sounds like a place.
Try it yourself
Practice 1
어서 오세요. 머리를 어떻게 잘라 드릴까요? 조금만 짧게 잘라 주세요.
Welcome. How would you like your hair cut? Please make it just a little shorter.
Where does the conversation take place?
- 은행
- 미용실
- 약국
- 도서관
Answer and explanation
2. 미용실
머리를 자르다 and the request about length point to a hair salon.
- A bank handles money; nothing here concerns a bank transaction.
- 머리를 자르다 and 짧게 describe a haircut, identifying a hair salon.
- A pharmacy supplies medicine, not haircuts.
- A library is associated with borrowing or reading books, neither of which is mentioned.
Review your reasoning
- Option 1: A bank handles money; nothing here concerns a bank transaction.
- Option 2: 머리를 자르다 and 짧게 describe a haircut, identifying a hair salon.
- Option 3: A pharmacy supplies medicine, not haircuts.
- Option 4: A library is associated with borrowing or reading books, neither of which is mentioned.
Try the question again with the explanation closed. Identify the exact phrase that supports the answer, then explain which detail makes each other option unsuitable.