Learn how to apologize in a business setting
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to KoreanClass101.com. This is Business Korean for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 17 - Apologizing in a Business Situation. Becky here. |
| Kyejin: 안녕하세요. 김계진입니다. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say that you'll be late for an appointment with another company, and apologize for your lateness on the phone. The conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Kyejin: It's between Linda and Mr. Kim, who answered her call. |
| Becky: The speakers are on a business call, so they’ll be using formal Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Kim:네, 한국 상사입니다. |
| Linda:ABC상사의 린다입니다. 기다리시게 해서 정말 죄송합니다. |
| : 10분 정도 늦을 것 같습니다. |
| Kim: 네, 알겠습니다. 기다리고 있겠습니다. 로비에 도착하시면 전화 주세요. |
| Linda:감사합니다. 금방 뵙겠습니다. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kim:네, 한국 상사입니다. |
| Linda:ABC상사의 린다입니다. 기다리시게 해서 정말 죄송합니다. |
| : 10분 정도 늦을 것 같습니다. |
| Kim: 네, 알겠습니다. 기다리고 있겠습니다. 로비에 도착하시면 전화 주세요. |
| Linda:감사합니다. 금방 뵙겠습니다. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Kim: Yes, this is Hanguk Trading Company. |
| Linda: I’m Linda Baker of ABC Corporation. I’m sorry for making you wait. |
| : I’ll be about 10 minutes late. |
| Kim: Okay, I understand. I’ll wait for you. Please call me when you arrive at the lobby. |
| Linda: Thank you. I’ll see you there soon. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Oh no. Linda is running late for a business meeting. She’ll be in trouble. |
| Kyejin: Right. Of course, it’s better not to be late, but sometimes you can’t avoid it because of traffic jams, train delays, and so on. And if you know you’ll be late, you should call and apologize, and say how late you’ll be if you know. |
| Becky: That’s proper business manners, right? |
| Kyejin: It is. |
| Becky: And in this lesson’s dialogue, it seems like Linda is calling Hanguk trading company from her cell phone. Do companies commonly provide their workers with cell phones? |
| Kyejin: Some companies do. It depends on the job. By the way, “cell phone” in Korean is 핸드폰. |
| Becky: It originates from two English words, “hands” and “phone”, right? |
| Kyejin: That’s right. If you make a lot of business-related calls using your cell phone, you can find a plan from the provider that gives you unlimited calls to both landlines and to other cellphone numbers. We call it 음성 무제한 요금제 or “unlimited voice call plan.” |
| Becky: But it’s better to ask your company to cover the payment, even if it’s registered under your name, so talk to your boss if you are in this situation. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kyejin: 기다리게 하다 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to make someone wait |
| Kyejin: 기다리게 하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 기다리게 하다 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 정말 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: really |
| Kyejin: 정말 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 정말 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 죄송합니다 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I'm sorry (polite) |
| Kyejin: 죄송합니다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 죄송합니다 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 정도 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: about, approximately |
| Kyejin: 정도 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 정도 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 같다 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to be like |
| Kyejin: 같다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 같다 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 늦다 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to be late |
| Kyejin: 늦다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 늦다 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 로비 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: lobby |
| Kyejin: 로비 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 로비 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 전화 주다 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to give a call |
| Kyejin: 전화 주다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 전화 주다 [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Kyejin: 금방 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: soon, shortly |
| Kyejin: 금방 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 금방 [natural native speed] |
| : And last: |
| Kyejin: 뵙다 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to see, to meet (humble) |
| Kyejin: 뵙다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 뵙다 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Kyejin: 로비 |
| Becky: meaning “lobby.” |
| Kyejin: I wanted to introduce this word because it’s used quite often in business situations. |
| Becky: Right. When you visit someone else’s offices, you’ll be asked to call the person when you arrive at the lobby, for example. |
| Kyejin: In the dialogue, the client said 로비에 도착하시면 전화 주세요. |
| Becky: “Please call me when you arrive at the lobby.” |
| Kyejin: Or sometimes you’ll hear.. 로비에서 기다리고 있겠습니다. |
| Becky: “I’ll wait for you in the lobby.” |
| Kyejin: Since many Korean companies have a security system where the staff need to touch their card to enter the office area, you’ll need to be escorted by your client after seeing him or her in the lobby. |
| Becky: And for a short business meeting, it seems people also meet at a coffee shop in the lobby too, right? |
| Kyejin: Yes, many companies have a small coffee shop in the lobby so that you can have a short meeting there. |
| Becky: Okay. What’s the next phrase? |
| Kyejin: 전화주다. |
| Becky: “to give a call.” |
| Kyejin: When you ask someone to call you, you can say 전화 주세요. |
| Becky. It literally means “Please give me a call.” |
| Kyejin: The common phrase is 전화 하다 as in 전화 해 주세요. It literally means “Please do a call” but it sounds a bit strong and direct. So for a business situation, you can say 전화 주세요 as it sounds softer and less direct. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to apologize in a business setting, such as when you’re late for an appointment or when you make a mistake. |
| Kyejin: We’ll be looking at the first expression, which is.. 기다리시게 해서 정말 죄송합니다. |
| Becky: “I’m very sorry for making you wait.” |
| Kyejin: As we learned in the previous lesson, it uses the pattern [something something] 어서 죄송합니다. |
| Becky: But here, it’s interesting that Linda used the honorific verb. |
| Kyejin: You mean.. 기다리시다 as in 기다리시게 해서, right? 기다리다 is the verb meaning “to wait” and by adding 시 after the verb-stem 기다리 as in 기다리시다, you can make an honorific verb. |
| Becky: Is it necessary to use the honorific verb? |
| Keyjin: It’s not a must, but it’s better to use, especially when you apologize for something. If you say 기다리게 해서 죄송합니다 using the regular verb 기다리다, it sounds okay, but not as polite as 기다리시게 해서 죄송합니다 which uses the honorific verb. |
| Becky: I see. Can you give us the full sentence once more? |
| Kyeijn: 기다리시게 해서 죄송합니다. |
| Becky: “I’m sorry for making you wait.” |
| Kyejin: And you can add the adverb 정말 as in 정말 죄송합니다 to mean “I’m very sorry.” |
| Becky: Okay, let’s hear Linda’s line once again. |
| Kyejin: 기다리시게 해서 정말 죄송합니다. |
| Becky: “I’m very sorry for making you wait.” Okay, next, after your apology, say how late you’ll be. |
| Kyejin: In the dialogue, Linda said… 10분 정도 늦을 것 같습니다. |
| Becky: “I’ll be about ten minutes late. |
| Kyejin:10분 means “10 minutes,” and 정도 means “about.” So 10분 정도 means ”about ten minutes." |
| Becky: Now, the latter part, meaning “it seems like I’m going to be late,” is a little complicated. |
| Kyejin: In order to understand this sentence, you need to say the verb 늦다 meaning “to be late” first, and add 을 것 같습니다 meaning “it seems to be” to the verb stem. |
| Becky: So “It seems to be late” will be.. |
| Kyejin: 늦을 것 같습니다. 늦, the verb-stem, and 을 것 같습니다. meaning “it seems to be.” |
| Becky: Using the same pattern, how can we say.. “it seems to be rainy.” |
| Kyejin: “to be rainy” in Korean is 비가 오다. and the verb-stem is 비가 오. It ends in a vowel, so instead of saying 을 것 같습니다, you need to add ㄹ(rieul) to the verb-stem and say 비가 올 것 같습니다. |
| Becky: “It seems to be rainy.” Can we just say “I will be late”? |
| Kyejin: You can say that, but using 을 것 같습니다 makes your sentence a bit indirect, and therefore more polite. |
| Becky: Good to know. What else do we have to know? |
| Kyejin: When you hang up the phone, I recommend that you say 금방 뵙겠습니다 which means “I’ll see you there soon.” And make sure to hang up the phone after the other person does. |
| Becky: This is a very basic rule for business phone calls. And you should hang up the phone before the other person when they have a higher status than you or if they are older than you. |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kyejin: 다음 시간에 만나요. |
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