Learn about using the intimate politeness level when speaking Korean
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Seol: 안녕하세요. 윤설입니다. |
| Hyunwoo: 안녕하세요. 선현우입니다. |
| Keith: Keith here. Mine and Yours. |
| Hyunwoo: Haha. |
| Keith: Haha, why? What’s so funny? |
| Hyunwoo: My what, your what? |
| Seol: Combine them. You’re mine. |
| Keith: I think we are all confused over here. But to shed a little light, before we go into, explain what this lesson is about, explain what this series is about. Now, this is Beginner Season 2. We had Beginner Season 1, which goes into the grammar of Korean, and this is just the continuation, which will go into more Korean grammar but a little more advanced. So by the end of Beginner Season 1, you should be able to hold a simple conversation, understand some Korean and eh.. - what’s the difference with Season 2? |
| Seol: Season 2 is more advanced. |
| Keith: Yeah, pretty much. Just a little, I guess, you can say, Beginner Series point five, maybe? |
| Seol: I don’t get it, but.. |
| Keith: Okay, anyway.. So yeah, we ended up with our last season in the intimate politeness level, and we promised to bring it intimate politeness level in Season 2, and that exactly what we’re going to do today. So what’s today’s conversation about. |
| Hyunwoo: Hyejin is walking on the street, and meets 아저씨. And 아저씨 asks Hyejin where she’s going. |
| Keith: Yeah it’s just a girl and she walks into this man that obviously she knows fairly well. |
| Seol: Yes, even though she calls him 아저씨, she speaks in intimate politeness level Korean. |
| Keith: Well what’s that word again? |
| Seol: 아저씨 |
| Hyunwoo: And this means Mr. and this is referring to any man maybe in the mid to late 30s, 40s, 50s. |
| Hyunwoo: That’s right. |
| Keith: So today we are going to go into the intimate politeness level and here even though generally speaking, this is not a very common conversation between a young girl and a man. |
| Hyunwoo: This is not very common. |
| Keith: Why is that? |
| Hyunwoo: Because usually a girl of Hyejin’s age |
| Keith: Yeah we actually don’t know her age. |
| Hyunwoo: Okay. Yeah usually a girl, a young girl would talk in 존댓말 which is standard or formal politeness level but here she is using 반말 intimate politeness level. |
| Keith: And I guess we can assume that maybe they know each other from a long time ago. They are very close, maybe a close family friend or maybe this guy runs a restaurant and she is there every day or something like that. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah something like that. |
| Keith: So today’s conversation is in all intimate politeness level and they are just catching up saying what’s up. |
| Hyunwoo: And something is up. |
| Seol: 자 그럼 한 번 들어보죠. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 아저씨: 어! 혜진아! |
| ajeossi: eo! hyejina! |
| 혜진: 어!! 아저씨!!! 안녕! |
| hyejin: eo! ajeossi! annyeong! |
| 아저씨: 너 어디 가? |
| ajeossi: neo eodi ga? |
| 혜진: 나 지금 친구 집에 가. 내 친구 마유미 기억해? |
| hyejin: na jigeum chingu jibe ga. nae chingu mayumi gieokhae? |
| 아저씨: 응! 니 친구 기억해! 근데 너 밥은 먹었어? 니 어머니는? |
| ajeossi: eung! ni chingu gieokhae! geunde neo babeun meogeosseo? ni eomeonineun? |
| Seol: 한 번 더 천천히. |
| 아저씨: 어! 혜진아! |
| ajeossi: eo! hyejina! |
| 혜진: 어!! 아저씨!!! 안녕! |
| hyejin: eo! ajeossi! annyeong! |
| 아저씨: 너 어디 가? |
| ajeossi: neo eodi ga? |
| 혜진: 나 지금 친구 집에 가. 내 친구 마유미 기억해? |
| hyejin: na jigeum chingu jibe ga. nae chingu mayumi gieokhae? |
| 아저씨: 응! 니 친구 기억해! 근데 너 밥은 먹었어? 니 어머니는? |
| ajeossi: eung! ni chingu gieokhae! geunde neo babeun meogeosseo? ni eomeonineun? |
| Seol: 영어로 한 번 더. |
| 아저씨: 어! 혜진아! (ajeossi: eo! hyejina!) |
| Hey, Haejin! |
| 혜진: 어!! 아저씨!!! 안녕! (hyejin: eo! ajeossi! annyeong!) |
| Huh, Mister? Hello. |
| 아저씨: 너 어디 가? (ajeossi: neo eodi ga?) |
| Are you going somewhere? |
| 혜진: 나 지금 친구 집에 가. 내 친구 마유미 기억해? (hyejin: na jigeum chingu jibe ga. nae chingu mayumi gieokhae?) |
| I'm going to my friend's house. Do you remember my friend Mayumi? |
| 아저씨: 응! 니 친구 기억해! 근데 너 밥은 먹었어? 니 어머니는? (ajeossi: eung! ni chingu gieokhae! geunde neo babeun meogeosseo? ni eomeonineun?) |
| Yep. I remember your friend. Hey, did you eat? How's your mom? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Keith: Okay, Hyunwoo how did you feel about the conversation? |
| Hyunwoo: Except for the fact that 혜진 is using 반말 to 아저씨, this conversation is very typical because 아저씨 is asking where are you going and did you eat. This is… |
| Keith: It’s like hey, what’s up? |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah. In Korea, people usually ask others 밥 먹었니 like did you eat? Where are you going? |
| Keith: Well let’s go over that phrase really quickly? How do you say did you eat? |
| Hyunwoo: 밥 먹었어? |
| Keith: And this is actually used very frequently in Korean. It’s used more like hey how are you? |
| Hyunwoo: That’s right. |
| Keith: Like hey let’s meet here and then you meet. It’s like oh, did you eat? |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah let’s say it’s 5 o'clock right now and you can get to ask this question 밥 먹었니 or 밥 먹었어 It must be very obvious that you had lunch already but people still ask you. |
| Keith: Well I think this is actually a very good cultural tip that we can add into. Korean people are always concerned about other people’s health. So when you meet maybe like your grandmother, you say, oh are you healthy? You don’t say how are you? You say, are you healthy or if your grandma sees you and says like, oh did you eat, they are concerned about health. |
| Seol: Do you really think that the reason of asking 밥 먹었어 because they are concerned about your health? |
| Keith: Well, are you actually curious as to if they actually ate or not? |
| Seol: Yeah I am saying that it’s just a phrase of asking how are you. So don’t try to find the meaning of this phrase. Just use it. |
| Hyunwoo: It’s so deep in the culture. So like we are not even aware of it. |
| Keith: Yeah but that’s what I am saying. I think you two, growing up in Korea, you are not aware of this but I have kind of grown up in the culture like kind of halfway but I see that and I see yeah, Korean people are always concerned about health but you two, you don’t really think that way? |
| Hyunwoo: Now I wasn’t over here a bit and I have this urge to ask my friends, even when it’s 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I can ask them 밥은 먹었어? |
| Keith: What about if it’s like 3 in the morning? |
| Seol: You wouldn’t ask it. |
| Hyunwoo: You don’t ask it. |
| Seol: No, no… |
| Hyunwoo: It’s too obvious. |
| Keith: Yeah so it’s not like how are you. |
| Seol: It’s not exactly like how are you but it's like ah, are you okay or… |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah everything going alright yeah. |
| Seol: Do you have a problem? You don’t have any problems. |
| Keith: And that’s related to food and health. |
| Seol: Okay then Korean people are really kind. Maybe they really care about you and that’s the reason of asking you that question. |
| Keith: You know what else I care about? Vocabulary. |
| Seol: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: So what do we have? What’s our first word? |
| Seol: 너 |
| Keith: You, intimate politeness level. |
| Seol: 너[slowly - broken down by syllable] 너 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Next |
| Seol: 니 |
| Keith: Your, intimate politeness level. |
| Seol: 니 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 니 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And now we have. |
| Seol: 내 |
| Keith: My, intimate politeness level. |
| Seol: 내 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 내 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And now we have? |
| Seol: 기억하다 |
| Keith: To remember |
| Seol: 기억하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 기억하다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And now we have |
| Seol: 근데 |
| Keith: But |
| Seol: 근데 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 근데 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And next |
| Seol: 밥 |
| Keith: Rice, food. |
| Seol: 밥 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 밥 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And next we have |
| Seol: 아저씨 |
| Keith: Mr, sir, title for middle-aged men. |
| Seol: 아저씨 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 아저씨 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And finally we have |
| Seol: 어머니 |
| Keith: Mother, honorific. |
| Seol: 어머니 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 어머니 [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Keith: All right. Let’s take a look at some of these words in a little more detail. Okay the first word we had was |
| Seol: 너 |
| Keith: You in the intimate politeness level. Now a little cultural note. This word should not be used like the English you. |
| Keith: It should be restricted to your friends or people who are obviously younger than you. |
| Seol: Right. |
| Keith: So if you meet someone for the first time, would you ever use 너 you? |
| Seol: No. |
| Keith: Unless I want to provoke a fight. |
| Keith: Yeah it’s actually considered very rude to say this to somebody. So unless you are sure that they won’t get upset or they are very close friends, then please, please, please be very careful with using this and as this is a lesson based on the intimate politeness level, we are going to go to our next word. What’s that? |
| Seol: 니 |
| Keith: Your. Now this is actually 너 you in the intimate politeness level and |
| Seol: 의 |
| Keith: The possessive particle. So here we have the second person pronoun you followed by |
| Seol: 의 |
| Keith: Possessive particle but instead of that, we just combined it into one. What’s that? |
| Seol: 니 |
| Keith: Now we just have a possessive pronoun “Your”, and once again, since this includes... |
| Seol: 너 |
| Keith: You have to be really careful with this one as well. |
| Seol: Uh-huh. |
| Keith: And this contraction, this second person pronoun and possessive particle, this happens for the next word that we have as well. |
| Seol: 내 |
| Keith: My and what’s I in the intimate politeness level? |
| Seol: 나 |
| Keith: And now we combine that with the possessive particle. |
| Seol: 의 |
| Keith: And that’s 나의 and then we contract that |
| Seol: 내 |
| Keith: And that’s the possessive pronoun my. So let’s have a couple of samples. What’s my money? |
| Hyunwoo: 내 돈 |
| Keith: Yeah that’s right. Don’t touch it. What’s your money? |
| Seol: 니 돈 |
| Keith: Okay how did my and your come out in today’s conversation? |
| Seol: Here we can find that 내 친구 |
| Keith: My friend. |
| Seol: And 니 친구 |
| Keith: Your friend. Once again in the intimate politeness level. Okay. |
| Hyunwoo: There is a very famous or very… |
| Seol: Commonly used saying... |
| Hyunwoo: Commonly used saying that goes like, 니 돈이 내 돈이고 내 돈이 내 돈이지. |
| Keith: Boy! Let’s slow that down a little bit. |
| Hyunwoo: Okay 니 돈이 내 돈이고 내 돈이 내 돈이지. |
| Keith: Your money is my money, my money is your money. |
| Seol: No. |
| Hyunwoo: No. |
| Seol: So no, your money is my money and my money is my money. |
| Keith: So that’s not kind. |
| Seol: No. |
| Keith: You just said Korean people are kind. |
| Keith: So why don't we go over the conversation really quickly. |
| Seol: Ok. |
| Keith: First we have? |
| Hyunwoo: 어! 혜진아! |
| Keith: Huh, Haejin. Now let's go over that last part, 아. What is that? |
| Hyunwoo: 아 is used for calling somebody after. You put it after a Korean person's name. |
| Keith: When it ends in a consonant. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah. So for example, my name ends in a vowel so you can't say 현우아. |
| Keith: What do you say then? |
| Hyunwoo: 현우야. That's more natural. |
| Seol: And my name is 설, ending in a consonant ㄹ, so people call me 설아 instead of 설야. So call me 설아. |
| Hyunwoo: How about Keith? |
| Keith: My Korean name is Seong-ju. So there it ends in a vowel. |
| Seol: 성주야 |
| Hyunwoo: 성주야 |
| Keith: You sound like my mom. So if you're on close terms with somebody, you can use this 아 or 야 with their name. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah, but in most cases only for Korean names. |
| Seol: Ah, not for Keith. |
| Huynwoo: For example.. Keith, somehow, sounds natural with 야, because Korean name also ends in 수. |
| Seol: I also found that when I call Keith, I call him “Keith” but when I say 성주, it’s 성주야. |
| Huynwoo: Hmm.. I agree. |
| Keith: So you can't use this with non-Korean names? |
| Seol: Isn't it awkward when you hear "Tom-a" or "Tim-a"? |
| Keith: That's just because you're not used to it. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah, we're not used to it, but maybe in the future. |
| Keith: It could work. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah. |
| Keith: It can work. |
| Hyunwoo: It's a matter of getting used to it so.. |
| Seol: So from now on, I’ll call “Keith”, Keith야. |
| Hyunwoo: Keith야. |
| Seol: But always I call him “Keith.” |
| Keith: Keith 야. |
| Keith: Anyway, Let's move on. Next we have? |
| Seol: 어!! 아저씨!!! 안녕! |
| Keith: Now, 아저씨 is a title for middle-age men. Once again, Koreans actually tend to go away from names if you respect a person. So 아저씨 is meant for middle-aged men. Alright. Next we have? |
| Hyunwoo: 너 어디 가? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Keith: Now, here, this is in the intimate politeness level. So let's break it down really quickly. |
| Hyunwoo: 너 |
| Keith: You, intimate politeness level. |
| Hyunwoo: 어디 |
| Keith: Where. |
| Hyunwoo: 가 |
| Keith: Go. How do you say this in the standard politeness level? |
| Hyunwoo: 어디 가요 |
| Keith: "Where are you going?" but here we have 요 at the end, so we can take that out and now we just have? |
| Hyunwoo: 어디 가 |
| Keith: It's the same thing. So what we've learned until now, the standard politeness level, generally speaking, you can take out 요 and it's the intimate politeness level, in terms of verb conjugation. |
| Hyunwoo: And in intimate politeness level, you have 너, but in standard politeness level, instead of 너 you can usually say the other person's name and 씨. Keith씨 어디 가요? |
| Keith: Because you're respecting the person. If you're close enough that you know that they won't be offended, you can say 너. |
| Hyunwoo: 너 어디 가? |
| Keith: Nowhere. I'm sticking right here. Next we have. |
| Seol: 나 지금 친구 집에 가. |
| Keith: Let's break it down. |
| Seol: 나 |
| Keith: I. |
| Seol: 지금 |
| Keith: Now. |
| Seol: 친구 |
| Keith: Friend. |
| Seol: 집 |
| Keith: Home. |
| Seol: 에 |
| Keith: To. |
| Seol: 가 |
| Keith: Go. And in the standard politeness level? |
| Seol: 저 지금 친구 집에 가요. |
| Keith: That 요, the politeness particle is attached at the end. Ok, next we have? |
| Seol: 내 친구 마유미 기억해? |
| Keith: Do you remember my friend, Mayumi? Now here we had the possessive particle, 내. Whatever you own or-- I guess not really own in this case, but "my friend." 내 친구. And once again that verb conjugation at the end is in the intimate politeness level, 기억해. In the standard, 기억해요. Ok. Let's finish it up. |
| Hyunwoo: 응! 니 친구 기억해! |
| Keith: Ok. I love that first one. What is that? |
| Hyunwoo: 응 |
| Keith: Now this is-- as this whole conversation is in the intimate politeness level, what is that? 응 |
| Hyunwoo: It's "yes" or "yup" or "yeah". |
| Keith: It's the same thing as 네, pretty much right? |
| Seol: 네. 응. |
| Keith: See, but here, written it's 응. |
| Hyunwoo: 응 |
| Keith: What do you usually say though? |
| Seol: I sound like, 응, 음. In between. |
| Hyunwoo: But if you actually write 음, like with an "m" sound at the end, it means "hmm." Thinking. |
| Keith: It can be both, "ng" or "m". |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah. Exactly. |
| Keith: Can we have both of those pronunciations? |
| Seol: 응. 음. |
| Keith: Same thing. Now we have? |
| Hyunwoo: 니 친구 기억해! |
| Keith: Remember, intimate politeness level. 니, possessive particle "your" followed by "friend". |
| Hyunwoo: 친구 |
| Keith: 기억해, "remember". Ok. Now we have? |
| Hyunwoo: 근데 너 밥은 먹었어? |
| Keith: But did you eat? Now here we have the past tense. Just for a quick review, let's go over the past tense really quickly. What's the verb? |
| Seol: 먹다 |
| Keith: Now the verb stem? |
| Seol: 먹 |
| Keith: And then we add the past tense suffix, 아ㅆ, 어ㅆ, or 여ㅆ according to the 아/어/여 conjugation. Since the verb stem the vowel is 머, 먹 we add 어 so we add 어 ㅆ. So now we have? |
| Seol: 먹었 |
| Keith: And then after that we add whatever conjugation level we want. Intimate politeness level, standard politeness level, mood and then whatever. Since, here, it's the intimate politeness level, we add another 아/어/여 conjugation after that. So together? |
| Seol: 먹었어 |
| Keith: Ate. How about in the standard politeness level? |
| Seol: 먹었어요 |
| Keith: Ok. And now we have? |
| Hyunwoo: 어머니는? |
| Keith: What about your mother? Now this... |
| Hyunwoo: 어머니 |
| Keith: Mother. Now this is honorific, when you want to honor somebody's mother. That's followed by... |
| Hyunwoo: 는. |
| Keith: Here, the topic marking particle. But here, it's used as the contrast particle because this whole time we're talking about Haejin and 아저씨, "Oh, how have you been? Did you eat? But he's bring the subject into a totally different direction, so he's using the topic marking particle 는. 우리 끝났어요? are we finished? |
| Seol: 응. |
| Keith: That was good. That was fun. |
| Seol: 응 |
| Keith: You love this word too hah! |
| Seol: 응 |
| Keith: Okay how do you feel about this lesson? |
| Seol: Umm I like this. I feel we are using more intimate level of Korean and I wish I had this kind of 아저씨. So this is very interesting to me. |
| Keith: Because you are not close to an 아저씨 like this person is. |
| Seol: No. |
| Keith: It is okay you got the word 응. |
| Seol: 응, 응. |
Outro |
| Keith: All right. So that’s going to do it. Remember to stop by koreanclass101.com. There if you want to read up a little more on the honorifics and politeness level, please read up on it in the reference material. There we have a full write up on honorifics and politeness level and what the difference is. Actually let’s go over the difference really quickly. Honorifics is meant to honor who you are talking about in the conversation. So in today’s conversation, it was |
| Keith: 어머니 |
| Keith: But the whole time they are using intimate politeness level because politeness levels are used for people that you are |
| Seol: Talking to. So your counterpart. |
| Keith: Yeah the person that you are talking with. |
| Seol: Yeah. |
| Keith: So there is a difference between honorifics and politeness level. So if you want to read up on that, we have a full write up in the premium learning center. All right, so that’s going to do it. Remember to stop by and say hi. See you. |
| Hyunwoo: 안녕 |
| Seol: Bye bye. |
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