{"id":3952,"date":"2016-10-20T04:05:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T04:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/?p=3952"},"modified":"2018-08-08T09:23:06","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T14:23:06","slug":"formal-or-informal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/formal-or-informal\/","title":{"rendered":"Formal or informal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Korean has different levels of respect: depending on the speakers\u2019 ages, societal status, or closeness to each other, Koreans will decide which level of politeness to use and how to behave themselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you know that Korean language has seven different levels of speech?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Korean has six formal speech forms and one informal speech form, showing different levels of respect in the language. However, \u201c<em>\uac71\uc815\ud558\uc9c0 \ub9c8\uc138\uc694<\/em><em>!<\/em> (Don\u2019t worry!)\u201d As long as you are aware of the following three levels of politeness, and you use standard polite form, <strong><em>\u201c<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>&#8211;<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\uc694<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u201d<\/em><\/strong> ending, you will be fine for now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\uaca9\uc2dd\uccb4 <\/em>(Honorific speech) is used when you speak to your superiors, customers, or strangers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\uc874\ub300\ub9d0 <\/em>(Polite speech) is the common polite form that you can use at work or with someone you don\u2019t know very well. <strong>This is the form<\/strong><strong> (<\/strong><strong><em>\u201c<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>&#8211;<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\uc694<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <strong>ending<\/strong><strong> )\u00a0<\/strong><strong>that I would use the most for this\u00a0<\/strong><strong>blog.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\ubc18\ub9d0 <\/em>(Informal speech) is used among close friends, to somebody younger than you, or to children.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">Ex) \u201cSit down\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<em>\uaca9\uc2dd\uccb4<\/em> (Honorific) &#8211; \u201c\uc549\uc73c\uc2ed\uc2dc\uc624\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 360px\"><em>\uc874\ub300\ub9d0<\/em> (Polite) &#8211;\u00a0\u201c\uc549\uc73c\uc138\uc694\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;padding-left: 360px\"><em>\ubc18\ub9d0<\/em> (Informal) &#8211;\u00a0\u201c\uc549\uc544\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201c\uba87 \uc0b4\uc774\uc5d0\uc694<\/em><em>?<\/em> (How old are you?)\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may be shocked to hear when Korean people frequently ask someone, <strong><em>\u201c<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\uba87<\/em><\/strong> <strong><em>\uc0b4\uc774\uc5d0\uc694<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>?<\/em><\/strong> (How old are you?)\u201d right after meeting someone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned earlier, Korean language has different levels of respect, so the speakers will determine how they will speak to each other depending on their ages: they will decide which level of politeness to use and how to behave themselves.<\/p>\n<p>So beware, someone you just met may ask, <em>\u201c\uba87 \uc0b4\uc774\uc5d0\uc694?<\/em> (How old are you?),<strong>\u201d<\/strong> <em>\u201c\uacb0\ud63c \ud588\uc5b4\uc694?<\/em> (Are you married?)<strong>\u201d<\/strong>, \u201c<em>\ub0a8\uc790 \uce5c\uad6c<\/em><em>\/\uc5ec\uc790 \uce5c\uad6c \uc788\uc5b4\uc694?<\/em> (Do you have a boyfriend\/girlfriend?)<strong>\u201d<\/strong>, or \u201c<em>\uc5b4\ub514\uc5d0 \uc0b4\uc544\uc694<\/em><strong>?<\/strong> (Where do you live?),<strong>\u201d<\/strong> etc. To foreigners\u2019 ears, some questions may sound private or intimate, but Koreans consider these questions will bring closeness to each other, and they consider these are part of becoming better friends.<\/p>\n<p>When someone asks, <em>\u201c\uba87 \uc0b4\uc774\uc5d0\uc694?<\/em> (How old are you?),\u201d<\/p>\n<p>you can answer <em>\u201c\uc800\ub294 25\uc0b4\uc774\uc5d0\uc694.<\/em> (I am 25 years old.)<\/p>\n<p>or \u201c<em>\uc800\ub294<\/em><em> 80\ub144\uc0dd\uc774\uc5d0\uc694.<\/em> (I was born in [1]80.)\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><strong><em>\uac10\uc0ac\ud569\ub2c8\ub2e4! <\/em><\/strong><strong>(Thank you!)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">__________________<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Most Koreans will omit the first two digits of their birth years and often just give\u00a0\u00a0the last two digits. Ex) I was born in 80 (instead of 1980).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Korean has different levels of respect: depending on the speakers\u2019 ages, societal status, or closeness to each other, Koreans will decide which level of politeness to use and how to behave themselves. Did you know that Korean language has seven different levels of speech? Korean has six formal speech forms and one informal speech form&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/formal-or-informal\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[2871],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3952","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-korean-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3952"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5890,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions\/5890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}