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politeness levels

# Posted: 2 Nov 2006 22:58 KST - Edited by: _joseph_
... Re-Sideview ...

If you are coming from English where there is just slang and proper English, understanding Korean which has not just formal and informal speech, but many kinds of speech levels, can be confusing.

Correct usage of these rules demands a simple appreciation of ... age, education, job position, money, etc.... everybody knows these things, but to native english speakers somehow it is easy to confuse polite speech with respect. In Korea, you have to follow the linguistic rules of politeness. Using the polite language itself has nothing to do with actual respect. I\‘ve seen many arguments where they are using polite speech and yelling at each other; I\‘ve also seen lots of them where they used informal, speech, too, however.

For ways of an example, the following are decreasing in politeness:

1. 가십시오. please please go
2. 가세요. please go
3. 가요. go
4. 가 go ahead and go or get out of here

You can read about politeness levels at the wikipedia entry on korean speech levels, so I will not do the cut-and-paste-korean-style-of-a-whole-article-you-could-just-link-to thingie. Instead, I will give you the ezcorean rundown.

Generally, this structure is referred to as 존대법 (respective speech(?)) which actually includes the low forms (impolite) as well as the polite ones, but they\‘re all referred to collectively are speech levels.

The 2 general types are 반말/낮춤 and 존대말/높임 ; 반말/낮춤 is non-formal, and 존대말 (jone day mahl)/높임 means formal speech. Or, 반말 can be translated as informal speech, and 존대말 can be translated as repectful speaking

http://ezcorean.com/korean_grammar/Politeness_and_Formal_Levels/politeness_levels_-_polite_speech

http://ezcorean.com/korean_grammar/Politeness_and_Formal_Levels/politeness_levels_-_informal_speech

http://ezcorean.com/korean_grammar/Politeness_and_Formal_Levels/politeness_levels_3_-_extremely_polite

Any further study, please refer to your local PH.D korean specialist. For ordinary conversation, that is enough to know about 존대말 and 반말.

material on 존대말 and 반말 in Korean (untranslated)

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# Posted: 11 Feb 2008 11:07 KST ... Re-Sideview ... Koreanclass101.com entry on politeness levels	Joseph, copying from: 남자의여자 by 이원호 Posts: 301 native korean
이원호 신작 장편소설

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