when exactly do you say 수고 하세요?

[kimchiandsoju]

More specifically I mean in a restaurant or shop. At one point I thought it was something you say as you leave a restaurant/shop to whoever was working there, but then I got the feeling that people were looking at me funny. I swear some people even laughed. Then I started thinking that I was saying it wrong and got really paranoid and stopped saying it all together.

Do you say it when you go in a restaurant? Before you leave?

I feel like I should know this, so I've always been kind of emberassed to ask but in 10 or so years I still haven't figured it out so somebody please clue me in.

THX.

p.s. 수고 하세요.

[kyuree]

More specifically I mean in a restaurant or shop. At one point I thought it was something you say as you leave a restaurant/shop to whoever was working there, but then I got the feeling that people were looking at me funny. I swear some people even laughed. Then I started thinking that I was saying it wrong and got really paranoid and stopped saying it all together.

Do you say it when you go in a restaurant? Before you leave?

I feel like I should know this, so I've always been kind of emberassed to ask but in 10 or so years I still haven't figured it out so somebody please clue me in.

THX.

p.s. 수고 하세요.

Before I answer you should maybe know that I started learning Korean in Korean school where (at least in my classes...) they taught me little to nothing about grammar (that's why I never managed to figure it out back then haha).
I always thought "하세요" was an imperative because I only heard it when it was used as an imperative. Now I know that it's just honorific but when I think about it I only ever hear "하세요" as an imperative or in questions "....하세요?".
So I could be totally wrong but maybe when you say 수고 하세요 while leaving it sounds as if you tell them to do their best (too late for that).
IMHO the correct version would be to say 수고 하셨어요 (You did a great job/You made a lot of effort/You did your best/You worked well) in the past tense.

Maybe you can say 수고 하세요 BEFORE someone actually starts working.
Or maybe when leaving you could say something like "앞으로도 수고 하세요!"
Something like "From now on give your best, too (like you did before)"


Also, I guess, it can be maybe not totally appropriate in some situations. Say, you enter a grocery store, select your items, pay and say the phrase...
Just selling something to you doesn't involve much effort. Likewise, if you're at McDonalds and buy a hamburger and say the phrase afterwards it's not really something where you have to appreciate the hard, dedicated work either.
By the way, did you know what the phrase means? Or did you just know that people say it when they enter/leave shops/restaunrants?

But I'm not 100% sure about all this... a big part of my Korean """skills""" is based on feelings and often enough my feelings fool me

So let's hear the experts on this.

[cheri]

To Kyuree's point, I agree that you would use the past tense 수고하셨습니다 when talking about something that has already been finished. For example, let's say I washed the dishes after eating at a friend's place, they might say to me, "수고했어, 고마워." Or let's say I was studying hard for a test, my mom might tell me, "공부하느라고 수고했어." I think you would use 수고하세요 when you're leaving and someone else is continuing (or starting) their work. I suppose you could say 수고하세요 at a restaurant but personally, I'd say 안녕히계세요 or 다음에 뵈요 or 다음에 또 올께요. One of my classmate's from China used to tell our Korean teacher 수고하세요 after class, but it was a bit strange, and eventually another Korean teacher told her she should just say 안녕히가세요. I would also wait for the Korean natives to chime in.

Before I answer you should maybe know that I started learning Korean in Korean school where (at least in my classes...) they taught me little to nothing about grammar (that's why I never managed to figure it out back then haha).
I always thought "하세요" was an imperative because I only heard it when it was used as an imperative. Now I know that it's just honorific but when I think about it I only ever hear "하세요" as an imperative or in questions "....하세요?".

Kyuree That's so funny you mention that b/c for the longest time I also thought 하세요 was only imperative! Haha.

[kimchiandsoju]

Kyuree,

Yes, I knew what the phrase meant, but at the same time I always thought of it as an imperative in my head too.

I think we were taught that its something you say when you enter a place of business like a restaurant or whatever, but now that I really think about it I don't know. I mean, I was in Korean class from 94-95 so its hard to think back. But all of my classmates from back then are also on facebook so I'm REALLY tempted to ask them if the remember how we were taught to use 수고 하세요.


Cheri - in those examples that you gave it makes sense to me, and in those cases I wouldn't really be confused, its just this one thing I'm talking about and I think I may have just been taught wrong, or maybe its even old fashioned. I feel like I was taught everything ass backwards at the language school, and I had to learn most of it myself by heading to the local college and asking Korean people if they would talk to me and be my friend. Awkward, but I was desperate.

Actually its kind of funny now thinking back. I remember heading into the cafeteria of the local college (this was in Monterey, CA) and seeing a table of what looked like Korean people. Then I would sit at the next table and listen really hard to see if they were speaking Korean. Then I would finally stand up, walk up to the table, clear my throat and be like "AHem... uh... Hello.... um, I'm a Korean language student and uh.... I was wondering if I could listen to you talk, or something...." It was really emberassing. The next few times I would roll up to the same group of people and do the same thing. Eventually I got to know most of the Koreans at the school (they all knew each other) and they were all super cool to me. It was weird at first but then we got to be good friends. It definitely opened up a whole new world that I was not getting in the classroom. I would bring a little mini tape recorder and tape our converstations, then take them back to school and go over them with one of the teachers who was cool. The tape recording thing was weird too, but eventually they got used to it.

well... that was quite a tangent....LOL.

[manyakumi]

I guess...
They laughed not because of your comment which wasn't appropriate but just because of that a foreigner said like that. Or because of another things you've got.
Just in my opinion since I was not in the situations.

We always say 수고하세요 or 안녕히 계세요 when we leave stores or restaurants.
Some people might say 많이 파세요 / 또 올게요 or something.
And I'm afraid to say that the past tense 수고 하셨어요 wouldn't be fit on this case.

Saying 수고하세요 too friendly might be strange however.
You'd better say it in plain tone of your voice. I bet it won't make them laugh at you anymore.

[kimchiandsoju]

So my mother in law basically contradicted everything here so far, lol.

She says that it is an imperative, i.e. you are "ordering" them to work hard. And you wouldn't say it when you are leaving a restaurant unless you also said that you ate well too, but really she says she never says it at a restaurant because that's their job, which is funny, but I don't know if thats really true or not.


But she is firm that it is not a "handa" its a "hara" (sorry, no hangul at this computer).

[cheri]

So my mother in law basically contradicted everything here so far, lol.

She says that it is an imperative, i.e. you are "ordering" them to work hard. And you wouldn't say it when you are leaving a restaurant unless you also said that you ate well too, but really she says she never says it at a restaurant because that's their job, which is funny, but I don't know if thats really true or not.


But she is firm that it is not a "handa" its a "hara" (sorry, no hangul at this computer).

Well, it is an imperative, but I don't think it's "ordering" in the literal sense. Take, for instance, "시험 잘 보세요." IMHO, it's technically using the imperative form but is loosely equivalent to "Good luck on your exam," rather than "I'm ordering you to do well on your test." ^^ Similar with "조심해서 들어가세요."

[kyuree]

So my mother in law basically contradicted everything here so far, lol.

She says that it is an imperative, i.e. you are "ordering" them to work hard. And you wouldn't say it when you are leaving a restaurant unless you also said that you ate well too, but really she says she never says it at a restaurant because that's their job, which is funny, but I don't know if thats really true or not.


But she is firm that it is not a "handa" its a "hara" (sorry, no hangul at this computer).

Yes, it is an imperative meaning sth like "Make an effort!/Work hard!" but I wondered why you would say that when leaving (like manyakumi said) unless it means "Keep making an effort/Keep working hard!"
My story probably confused you... I guess I told you about it to show you that I have a lot of half-knowledge about Korean due to the fact that in the beginning I was told little about grammar and/or my teachers didn't explain much.
About not saying it in a restaurant... well that's similar to my McDonald's example. I guess you must decide yourself whether or not you consider their work an effort or just a simple job (like selling you a box of ramen in a supermarket).
This is not a concept that we have in the West I guess, at least we don't say it so often like people in Korea or maybe Japan. But then they (most of all in Japan I feel) have a lot of phrases that they use constantly and sometimes they might stop thinking about it's deeper meaning.

And like manyakumi said... since you're white they might just laugh because i) you speak Korean (and they didn't expect it) or ii) you know something as specific as this phrase. It's like
신기해!... 귀엽다!!

[kimchiandsoju]

Yeah "ordering" was a bit strong.

I asked my friend who went to the same language school about it and he said this:


"dude, when I went through, they never taught us that. We only learned the really basic 안녕히 계십시요. I didn't learn this sh** until I was over in Korea and heard it.... I was like, "huh? that ain't how you say goodbye or thank you.... WTF?" Then I looked it up in the dictionary, and it said, "work hard", and i was like, "you wish them hard work?...that's kinda sh***y...you should wish them a chill day and restful day"....then somebody told me that it was more like they wish them a lot of business that will make them work hard and stuff...and i was like, "oh...that's still pretty sh***y". Then I started using it a lot...'cuz I'm kinda sh***y...."



Hahahahaha.