KoreanClass101.com Blog

Politeness levels. 반말, 존댓말, 높임말.

Essentially, this is the socially appropriate form of language that is used depending on the situation. Think “Please” and “Thank you” times a million.

But if you think about it, we have this concept in English - just not as heightened. I feel that Spanish has a little more in common with Korean politeness levels. For that matter, dozens of other languages have this concept, right? Either way, it’s not an easy concept to transfer. In all honesty, this was probably the most difficult transition for me when first actually speaking Korean.

But like all things, I like to make a game out of it. Let’s pick one of my favorite genres, the RTS. In Company of Heroes, if you want to decimate a wondering group of Nazi soldiers, you deploy a marksman from the Allied barracks and place him in a tall building like a church or bell tower. National socialism problem solved. It’s basically a complex game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. All situations have a an easy way to achieve victory and conversely, all units have a weakness. To win, you must choose carefully which units you deploy and to which enemy units to attack.

Video game violence aside, this concept is just like conversing in Korean. One must quickly size up the enemy and deploy the appropriate weapon politeness level. A rule of thumb is age but like all things Korean, things aren’t what they seem on the surface. Suppose a young Korean male signs up for the mandatory military service and has to serve under a higher ranking soldier who is a year younger than him. Go ahead and guess who gets to use 반말.

It is also completely possible to be too polite. If you’re trying to get closer to a friend that is close to your age, chances are that asking to use 반말 will make the two of you feel more comfortable. Then again, if a super-close friendship isn’t something that you really want, using 존댓말 is a subtle yet friendly way of maintaining your personal bubble.

Honorific speech is something that should be used whenever in doubt when meeting someone older. The whole asking for forgiveness is better than asking permission does not apply here - one can always eventually lower their speech level with minimal social faux pas; but being asked to raise your speech level is fairly embarrassing. I should know. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the entire city of 부산. Moving on.

I joke but I really feel polite speech is most important in Korea. It goes beyond changing the verb ending and a few vocabulary words here and there - it represents a profound sense of mutual social understanding and harmony. When things work the way the should, the social machine runs well-oiled and properly. Those seeking to make friends and do business are especially challenged when deciding what to use in each situation.

I’ve heard of many Korean language students that struggle with the informal-speech constantly being set in the “ON” position. I have the opposite problem. I seem to always have the standard switch on. I naturally want to speak 존댓말 with everyone - including kids and close friends. I struggle to remember “…oh yeah, duh. I forgot. He’s my roommate. I don’t have to use 요 with him…” or “…opps… this kid is like 13 years old. why am I using 요 with him?…”

Anyone have any amusing stories of misusing politeness levels? Do tell.

Thoughts?

Korean blind dating.

Awful. Painful. Haven’t quite figured it out yet. I’m going out on a limb here to present my lack of confidence personal experience on the subject. I hope you’ll forgive me for being frank.

소개팅 is just about as comfortable as a root canal.

It’s a standard game - single guy and single girl meet up in a safe, well-populated environment in hopes of finding a relationship. But it wouldn’t be Korea without a twist.

Let’s talk about the third wheel. This person is a mutual friend that hooks the two people up. Perhaps this person might meet both people together at a cafe - and all three might sit down for a cup of coffee. The friend will try to stimulate conversation and sort of acts as a temporary match-maker. If the atmosphere is comfortable enough, the third wheel will leave the two to talk amongst themselves. But don’t count on it.

You might as well have your grandmother at the table because with another party involved, Matthew’s game reduces to zero. Moving on.

Typically, the guy will pay for the meal. This isn’t terribly uncommon in America, either, but I should mention that typically Americans go Dutch. Without going Dutch, the guy is destined to lose quite a lot of cash; especially if he is actively dating. At the end of the meal, depending on how the date went, the guy might get the girl’s phone number from either the girl herself or from the mutual friend after the date. If so, you got a second date. If not, dust yourself off and move on.

Some people manipulate this system - think of a hot young thing wanting some small adventure and to meet new people but without any desire to date - this equates to a free meal with a guy for a day with zero responsibilities after the date. I shouldn’t be so negative, though - people have been manipulating systems since Game Genie. If only the infinite cash code would work in the real life…

But if you really look closer, the whole thing is not that much different than America’s system. Think about it: the guy usually pays, it’s awkward for everyone involved, and yet some people still end up meeting “the one”. In this regard, it’s not that much different. However, if you hadn’t heard that Korea is generally regarded as conservative in terms of dating, I encourage those curious and brave enough to embarrass themselves try a blind date. It is a humbling experience.

I should be fair and say that not all young people subscribe to the idea that their life partner will be found via planned destiny. In fact, most of my Korean buddies are convinced that finding one’s soulmate through destiny is pretty much a feminine ideal. Hey, did you know that 운명 means both fate and destiny? Wow, I’m destined to pay for everything and meet my soulmate at the same time. Why didn’t I get on this gig before? Oh yeah that’s right. I’m a chump. However, I would venture to say that destiny doesn’t have a full-on gender attribute in America but the idea of falling in love with the person in the same subway car or the coffee shop is just considered romantic - whether you identify with such lofty ideals or not.

My personal experience on the subject is lacking and although I write in a fairly sarcastic tone, in real life I usually wear my heart on my sleeve - I have been known to shed a few tough guy tears (despite total lack of toughguyness). However, dating is a complicated subject no matter the country/culture. My perspective is from a specific age bracket and includes a very specific group of people - a mid-to-late 20s American male looking for a Korean female. That alone biases my viewpoint - Korean women (like any other) look at me with different eyes than say a Korean guy of similar background, age, and physical features. This multicultural difference is especially present in Korea and has more ways to interpret than I care to try. It’s a sociocultural beast I dare not disturb.

Perhaps I was looking for the wrong thing. Is it possible to meet new “just friends” or is the system set up to just meet new potential dating partners only? Man, don’t ask me because she didn’t want my number either way. I shot. I didn’t score.

I wouldn’t be doing my job as a K-blogger if I didn’t mention the Grand Narrative as it deals with cultural phenomena related to Korea and wouldn’t you know it? He’s done a short writeup on the topic.

Thoughts?

We started making more homework videos so that more people can participate in them and make their own videos, but we didn’t expect that we would get so many response videos in such a short time! Thank you very much everyone for your participation and all the amazing videos! And if you haven’t participated in making videos in response to our “Answer Me in Korean” videos, please feel free to make a video response to any of the existing videos or to our future videos as well! Thank you everyone!!! Keep on practicing!!

We’re looking forward to more videos!!! Thank you all once again!

Congratulate Daniel Rhodes for being the first runner-up for our Mail Bag Contest #2!

Daniel lives in Korea and teaches English as a second language.  He’s very enthusiastic about learning the language and increasing his cultural knowledge.  Read Daniel’s great story he sent us:

“I started to learn Korean after I moved to Daegu, South Korea to teach ESL in September 2004.  I immediately felt an overwhelming desire to connect with the Korean people and to  have a more intimate understanding of Korean culture to avoid feeling like an outsider.  I, therefore, asked a friend to teach me how to read Hangul and I started to study basic Korean grammar.

Now, after living in Korea for over four years, and learning more and more Korean everyday, my reasons to learn Korean are not only because I want to communicate effectively with the Korean community and my Korean friends, but because my older brother married a Korean woman and I eventually will become an uncle. I, therefore, study Korean religiously everyday because the Korean culture, including the Korean language, is now an integral part of my family.  As a result, I love to speak Korean and hope to become proficient in Korean one day.

While I listen to the Koreanclass101.com podcast, I read and study the lesson notes.  I then use the Line by Line Audio Transcript to improve my pronunciation and increase my fluency.  Finally, I write down the Korean notes in my notebook and study them while I listen to the podcast on the subway, the train, or on the bus.  This study method has enabled me to retain the new vocabulary and the grammar rules that Koreanclass 101.com has taught me.

Koreanclass101.com has helped me learn Korean because it applies listening, reading and speaking to its lesson plans.  Furthermore, it allows the Koreanclass101.com member to use these learning techniques at the same time, which enables me to learn Korean much more efficiently.  Finally, the Koreanclass101.com website is user friendly, provides its members the opportunity to review what they have learned, and communicate in Korean with other members.  Koreanclass101.com is thus an outstanding educational website that provides first rate instruction to its members.

The Koreanclass101.com  lesson notes have helped me learn Korean the most.  The lesson notes include the dialogue, the vocabulary, the vocabulary sample sentences, and the grammar points.  Because I write down the lesson notes in my notebook, I can reread them whenever I have the opportunity and thus reinforce what I already have learned.  As a result, the Koreanclass101.com lesson notes are the most important part of the Koreanclass101.com lesson plan.”

That’s a great study plan, Daniel! Daniel is definitely serious and very diligent in his studies.

What motivates you to study?

Before I say anything else: over on KoME we had the chance to interview the very successful, and my personal favourite, hiphop trio Epik High. We asked them about their upcoming album Map The Soul, their musical influences, and they even gave us their opinions on issues such as censorship in the Korean music industry (something I wrote about last year right here), and music in the digital era.

You can check out the interview here. They had plenty to say!

So. 서태지 is on a mission to foil my plans every Wednesday. The MV for Juliet still isn’t out yet (okay, so I have no idea when it’s even supposed to be released, but considering how long the single has been out now I just assumed the MV would be out already too). But there is a 15 second teaser for it!

And last week, 13 member boyband Super Junior released the MV for SORRY, SORRY, the first single from their third album, SORRY, SORRY.

Anyone else notice how 은혁 looks a lot like 비 in this? XD (If you don’t know who’s who, 은혁 is the one at around 2:25 with the patterned pants, white shirt, one black glove, and black sunglasses - with the haircut, the whole look was rather reminiscent of 비’s look for RAINISM)

I actually really like this song. It’s not amazing but it’s catchy. This is the style that suits Super Junior pretty perfectly, it’s upbeat and full of energy, and the type of song that lets them show off their dancing moves in the lives (because with 13 members you can’t really show off your vocals). Unfortunately the rest of the album didn’t follow along in this same style - it was a little more laid back, more along the lines of R&B than anything else. There were some ballads, but they were balanced out well and the ballads themselves were pulled off a lot better than they were in Super Junior’s second album. I didn’t enjoy the album as much as I enjoyed the bubblegum pop of their first album, but it was a decent enough album overall.

If you want to read a review of the album, Rinoa over on KoME reviewed it here.

김치.

Delicious. Bold. Distinct. (see also: Smelly. Spicy. Scary) It’s true, not everyone likes kimchi. Then again, not everyone likes soju. Or chocolate for that matter. If you detest kimchi, I weep for you. Moving on.

Yes, I’m being biased. Of course I am. I frakin love kimchi. It’s comfort food. It goes with any dish. It smells good. It’s dynamic. It’s essential. What was my life before kimchi? We don’t speak of that time…

My history with kimchi is a sad one. We got off on the wrong foot - kimchi and I. See, when I got in trouble as a small boy, my father used to say to me, “You’re in deep kimchi now, mister”. Well, it didn’t take much for me to put two and two together to assume that kimchi was something bad (in this case, a substitute for the word that we affectionately know as the “S” word).

Don’t get me wrong - my dad is well-rounded in terms of cuisine. He’s from Texas but his palette has traveled to the far reaches of the globe. Being from an army town, it’s pretty easy to get Americanized versions of just about any dish - to include Korean food.

Speaking of worldly cuisine, Germany has a national food called Sauerkraut that has crept its way across to other European nations. Kimchi and sauerkraut share a few commonalities including a vaguely similar vegetable base, pickling process, and (most importantly) a strong division between sauerkraut lovers and haters. In the same vein, one either loves or hates kimchi.

Most generally, Americans know more about sauerkraut than kimchi. So, when prompted with the standard question of “Hey goofball Matthew, what is kimchi?” I usually just say “Screw you It’s Korea’s answer to sauerkraut” even though the love affair with kimchi runs deeper than the red-headed stepchild of Germany’s sour cabbage.

Kimchi makes its way into cross-cultural conversations daily. Other than some Koreans being freaked out that some foreigners actually know how to use chopsticks, kimchi makes for a frustrating topic at times. If you’re a foreigner eating Korean food, when you pick up a portion of kimchi to place in your mouth, you might get a few hundred people asking you in English “Wow~ Do you like Kimchi?” at which point you can either give them the stink eye and say “Why else do you think that I am eating it??” or you can choose the even more sarcastic reply of “Nope, I’m just trying to figure out what’s wrong with your taste buds. Still haven’t figured it out yet.”

I should go easy. I mean, these are the wonderfully masterful people who took what all other people on the planet would consider salty garbage and turned it into a staple in Korean refrigerators worldwide.

Thanks kimchi. You complete me. No wonder you went into outer space.

Thoughts?

Watch the video, and please answer the question in Korean only. ^^

8eight are an R&B group with both male and female vocals. Their lineup consists of 이현, 백찬 and 주희. They debuted in 2007, and have just released their third album Golden Age. The first single from the album is 심장이없어, and Sohee from the Wonder Girls plays a role in the music video:

Not the most amazing music video, but at least I liked it more than Se7en’s Girls MV featuring Lil Kim. I’m not a Se7en fan but I was expecting more from the guy, considering how long his American debut has been in the works. The lyrics are pretty trashy and self-absorbed too, though I suppose it fits in just fine with the American R&B scene.

Rockstar 서태지 has just released a new single, 8th Atomos Part Secret. It’s the follow up to 8th Atomos Part Moai, both singles are from his upcoming eighth album. Juliet is the main track from this 8th Atomos Part Secret single, but sadly there’s no MV out for it yet. You can check out the single’s teaser though.

And over at KoME, we recently got ourselves an interview with the electronica band Casker. Check it out!

화이트데이.

I’m not entirely comfortable with the name of this holiday. I mean, I’m probably absolutely looking too far into the name of White Day as something bad, but I digress.

Actually, in a different ranting vein, seems that all the holidays on the 14th of each month are kind of like Love Day. White day is another one of these holidays seemingly made by the chocolate companies in order to entice people to buy sweets and candies.

On this particular demi-holiday, men give chocolate sweets to their girlfriends to let them know nothing has changed and you’re still just as cute as you were the day we met although now that i think about it you don’t try as much anymore, you make me feel bad for hanging out with my drinking buddies, and you boss me around more than your little brother but oh well you still like them.

As you can imagine, this day can get a little repetitious for older couples. Just like in America, married couples might exchange more expensive gifts on such couple days to keep with the spirit of the day without resorting the same gift as last year.

White Day should be a fun day and it’s one of the more noticeable 14th holidays (as opposed to Kiss Day - nope, I didn’t make that one up). This day is also quite predictably a couple day much like Christmas in Korea. But for those of you who get shucked on March 14th, hold your innermost emo-ness for 30 more days to celebrate how miserable you really are that you’re not alone on Black day with other dateless bums single friends.

See you in a month, fellow Black Dayers.

Jaded much? Thoughts?

Really Simple Korean Conversation #3

Cast:
Emily (listener/blogger of KoreanClass101.com)
Matthew (listener/blogger of KoreanClass101.com)
Max (listener of KoreanClass101.com)
Hyunwoo (host of KoreanClass101.com)
Gyeong-eun (host of KoreanClass101.com)

You too can participate! If you want to participate in the video, email us at contactus@koreanclass101.com !