Learn how to talk to postal workers in honorific Korean
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Sending a Package from Korea. Eric here. |
| Suhyun: 안녕하세요. (Annyeonghaseyo.) I'm Suhyun. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to inquire about postal practices and prices. This conversation takes place at the post office. |
| Suhyun: It's between Minho and a postal worker. |
| Eric: The speakers are not familiar with each other, so they’ll be using honorific Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 민호: 안녕하세요? 우편 요금이 얼마예요? |
| 우체부: 국내 우편 말씀이세요? |
| 민호: 아니요. 미국으로 편지를 보내고 싶어요. |
| 우체부: 아, 그러세요? 그러면 국제우편요금이에요. |
| 민호: 네, 주소는 여기 있습니다. |
| 우체부: 네, 결제해 드릴게요. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 민호: 안녕하세요? 우편 요금이 얼마예요? |
| 우체부: 국내 우편 말씀이세요? |
| 민호: 아니요. 미국으로 편지를 보내고 싶어요. |
| 우체부: 아, 그러세요? 그러면 국제우편요금이에요. |
| 민호: 네, 주소는 여기 있습니다. |
| 우체부: 네, 결제해 드릴게요. |
| Eric: Now, listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Minho: Hello, how much is postage here? |
| Postman: Are you talking about domestic postage? |
| Minho: No, I want to send a letter to the United States. |
| Postman: Really? Then that's international postage. |
| Minho: Okay, here's the address. |
| Postman: Okay I'll ring you up. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Suhyun, I have to say I’m a really big fan of the postal delivery service in Korea. It’s so speedy! |
| Suhyun: It certainly is. Whatever you send will almost certainly be delivered within just one day. |
| Eric: And plus, you can request your package be left at a convenience store in your neighborhood! |
| Suhyun: Not only that, you can send your package at the nearest convenience store, so you don’t have to wait for a delivery person to visit your place. |
| Eric: And if you live in a building where you have a security guard, they’ll usually take deliveries for you. |
| Suhyun: That’s right. There are a whole lot of ways to send and receive postal items, so choose the one that works the best for you! |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Suhyun: 우편 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: mail, post |
| Suhyun: 우편 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 우편 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 국내 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: domestic, internal |
| Suhyun: 국내 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 국내 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 말씀 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: speak, talk (honorific) |
| Suhyun: 말씀 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 말씀 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 미국 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: U.S.A, America, American |
| Suhyun: 미국 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 미국 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 국제 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: international |
| Suhyun: 국제 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 국제 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 주소 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: address |
| Suhyun: 주소 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 주소 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 결제하다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to process a payment |
| Suhyun: 결제하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 결제하다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Last we have.. |
| Suhyun: 편지를 보내다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to send a letter |
| Suhyun: 편지를 보내다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 편지를 보내다 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first words are.. |
| Suhyun: 국내 and 국제 |
| Eric: which mean “domestic” and “international” respectively. |
| Suhyun: Let’s take a look at the word 국내 first. It is made up of two words. 국 means “country” and 내 means “inside.” |
| Eric: So, together it literally means “inside a country” or “domestic.” |
| Suhyun: That’s right. But here, you might notice that the pronunciation changed a bit. When the word 국 (guk) is combined with a nasal sound such as 내 (nae) as in 국내 (guk-nae), the pronunciation of the word 국 (guk) changes to 궁 (gung), making 궁내 (gungnae). |
| Eric: Okay. We also have the other word, meaning “international”, right? |
| Suhyun: Yes, that’s 국제. It starts with same word 국 (guk) meaning “country”, but the second word, 제 (je), means “around.” |
| Eric: So again “domestic” and “international” in Korean are... |
| Suhyun: 국내 and 국제 |
| Eric: You can also frequently find these words at the airport, for example.. |
| Suhyun: 국제선 |
| Eric: “international flight” |
| Suhyun: or 국내선 |
| Eric: “domestic flight.” Suhyun, could you give us an example using this word? |
| Suhyun: Sure. 그는 국제 관계학 전공을 하고 있어요. |
| Eric: ..which means “He's majoring in international relations.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Suhyun: 결제하다 |
| Eric: which means “to process a payment.” |
| Suhyun: In Korean, it’s very common to hear phrases such as… 결제해 드리겠습니다 |
| Eric: Which means “I’ll process your payment, sir.” |
| Suhyun: Or you can also have.. 카드로 결제해 드리겠습니다. |
| Eric: .. which means “I'll charge your card.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Suhyun: 말씀 |
| Eric: which is an honorific noun that means “to speak” or “to talk”. |
| Suhyun: 말씀 is the honorific form of the word 말 (mal) which means “words” or “speech”. |
| Eric: And in the dialogue, it was used as.. |
| Suhyun: 말씀이세요? |
| Eric: It means “Are you speaking about..”. |
| Suhyun: When you want to make sure if you understood a topic correctly in a formal situation, you can use this phrase 말씀이세요? |
| Eric: For example.. |
| Suhyun: …어제 구매하신 가방 말씀이세요? |
| Eric: “Are you speaking about the bag you purchased yesterday?” |
| Suhyun: 저희 교수님 말씀이세요? |
| Eric: “Are you speaking about our professor?” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, we’ll go over some basic phrases that you may need to use at a post office. Our first phrase is... |
| Suhyun: 어디로 보내실 거예요? |
| Eric: Which means “Where are you going to send it?” This will likely be the first question you will hear at a post office. Suhyun, how can we answer this question? |
| Suhyun: It’s very simple. First, say the destination of the package and then add 로요, which means “to” as in “to destination.” |
| Eric: Following our pattern, how can you say “To Jeju island”? |
| Suhyun: That would be 제주도로요. First, 제주도, the destination’s name, and 로요 meaning “to.” 제주도로요. |
| Eric: “to Jeju island.” The staff only need to know the country or city you are sending the package to. You don’t need to tell them the whole address. But if you're sending something domestically in Korea, the agent at the post office might also ask you which type of service you’d like. |
| Suhyun: In that case, they’ll ask.. 어떤 우편으로 보내실 거예요? |
| Eric: Which means “Which post service are you going to use?” |
| Suhyun: 어떤 (eotteon) means “which” and 우편 means “post.” |
| Eric: Suhyun, how we can answer this question? |
| Suhyun: To answer this question, you can simply say the type of service you want to use and add 이요 which means in this context “to be.” |
| Eric: There are three types of mail service in Korea. |
| Suhyun: That’s right. First we have 일반 “Regular mail” which you can choose by saying.. 일반이요. |
| Eric: It means “Regular mail.” What about “registered mail”? |
| Suhyun: 등기 is the word for “registered mail” so you can say 등기요. Here, the last syllable of 등기 ends in a vowel, so I said 등기요 not 등기이요. |
| Eric: What about “express mail”? |
| Suhyun: 빠른 우편 is the word for “express mail” so you can say.. 빠른 우편이요. |
| Eric: How would you say…”by international mail”? |
| Suhyun: “international mail” in Korean is 국제우편. So that would be...국제우편이요. |
| Eric: Our next frequently used question is… |
| Suhyun: 안에 뭐가 있나요? |
| Eric: “What’s inside?” To answer this question simply, say the name of the object inside along with the copular verb... |
| Suhyun: 이요 |
| Eric: For example… |
| Suhyun: 옷이요. |
| Eric: “There are clothes.” |
| Suhyun: 핸드폰이요. |
| Eric: “There are cellphones” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Suhyun: 안녕히 계세요. (Annyeonghi gyeseyo.) |
Comments
HideIf you live in Korea, do you know your postal code?
Hello ශිවන්ත,
Enjoying your study? 😄
Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about your studies. We're more than happy to help!😊
Kind regards,
Hyeon Yeong Seo
Team KoreanClass101.com
🙏공부를 잘해❤️ 🙏여러분 공부를 잘해❤️
Hello Ava,
-나요 is a sentence ending used to ask the listener about the preceding content.
있나요? and 있어요? are interchangeable.
Enjoy your study and feel free to let us know if you have any inquiries!
Kind regards,
Hyeon Yeong Seo
Team KoreanClass101.com
In this phrase: 안에 뭐가 있나요
Why is it 있나요 and not 있어요?
Hello Diyo
Thanks for posting. You did a great job! Check below a more natural version of your sentence.
이 새상에 모둔 사람이 경청자 필요해. -> 이 세상 모든 사람에게는 이야기를 잘 들어주는 누군가가 필요해요.
Enjoy your study and feel free to let us know if you have any inquiries!
Kind regards,
Hyeon Yeong Seo
Team KoreanClass101.com
안녕하세요 선생님 , 잘 지내세요?
Mam I have been thinking of making a korean quote . Saying ( Everyone in this world needs a listener ) . I have tried making the sentence. So, could you pls check
이 새상에 모둔 사람이 경청자 필요해 .
안녕하세요 robert groulx,
You are very welcome. 😇
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We wish you good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
레벤테 (Levente)
Team KoreanClass101.com
thank you for the lesson
no , i do not live in korea😞 so i donot have a postal code
robert
Hello Chinwe,
Thanks for posting. 요금 means 'fee', and 이 is a subject marking particle.
~보낼거다 (will send something)-->보낼것이에요 -->보낼거예요.
보내실 거예요? is a very polite phrase used when you are using honorifics to ask if someone else will be sending something.
보내시다 -->보내실거다 -->보내실거예요.
Cheers,
Lyn
Team KoreanClass101.com
What does 요금이 mean?
Thank you!
What does the phrase mean? Please break it down for me. 거에요?
Hi Aia,
Thank you for posting.
전혀 우편으로 편지를 보내 지 않아요
-->우편으로 편지를 전혀 보내지 않아요.
Cheers,
Lyn
Team KoreanClass101.com
전혀 우편으로 편지를 보내 지 않아요