The Mistake EVERY Foreigner Makes in Korea

Today we're going to be talking about why it's rude to call people by their name in Korea. If you're addressing someone in Korean with literally just their name and nothing attached, that's considered like pretty rude. You just you don't do that. This is where honorific suffixes and titles are introduced. Today I'm going to be going over 15 Korean honorific suffixes and titles to add to someone's name or call someone instead of their name so that you don't make somebody so angry that they literally chase after you screaming Korean swear words. Not that I've actually experienced that, but I have gotten some pretty weird stares. Not gonna lie. To start off this video, I have a few questions for you guys regarding Korean honorific suffixes and titles. What would you call somebody who is unfamiliar with you? You don't really know them that well, but is at a relatively equal social and conversational standing? What about somebody who is your boss or teacher? What would you call them? Or what if you're addressing somebody who's either older than you or younger than you in school? What would you call them? How would you address them? Let's go over it. First, someone you're unfamiliar with but is at an equal social standing or conversational standing. With this type of person, we use she at the end of their name. When you add this to somebody's name, it basically has the same thing as like miss, mrs, or mister in English. This is your go-to for somebody who you know has the same similar standing as you, but you're pretty unfamiliar with. Their name plus she. Quick tip, the suffix should always be attached at the end of the first name and not their surname. So just keep that in mind. I remember when I first started watching Korean dramas, I heard she used all the time after all the names. So if you watch K-dramas, I'm sure you can see this example everywhere. Next, we have somebody who is your boss or teacher. What would you call them, right? Nim is the correct honorific that you would use with these types of people. This is a step above she, and it's used with someone who has like a really good profession or other notable status. Such as a songsaengnim, a teacher, or a daepyonim, a CEO of a company. As you can also see based on those past two examples, you usually attach nim at the end of their profession, not really their name. That's what makes it polite, and that's what you call these kinds of people. Now, when it comes to addressing your schoolmates, those who are older than you or younger than you in a higher class or lower class, how do you call them? We have two terms for that, sunbae and hoobae. If you've watched any K-dramas set in like a high school setting, then you've probably heard both of these honorific titles. You can literally just call someone sunbae or hoobae without even saying their name. It's fantastic, just use a title. This would be so helpful for somebody who just is terrible with names like me. I love Korea, guys. But if you don't want to go that route, you can also say sunbae or hoobae right after their name. Such as... All right, now let's move on to a few more questions. These questions are a little bit harder, so see if you can figure out the answers. What would you call somebody who is younger than you and unmarried? So unmarried female and an unmarried male. And what about addressing somebody as dear, such as in a letter or in other forms of writing? Do you know the honorific title for that? When it comes to addressing unmarried men and unmarried women, there are two titles that you can use for that. These are definitely, definitely not as common as si, but they still mean the same thing. Geun is used to address younger males or unmarried males. And yang is for younger women, unmarried women. You'll typically hear these at special occasions, such as a wedding or something like that. You may also occasionally hear these from older people, such as your elders. But the thing is that sometimes these titles can come across as kind of condescending to the people that you're addressing because it might make them feel like they are like lower down, more submissive, and have certain gender roles. Therefore, I think it is good that you know these two titles, but not necessarily use them. And hey, now you can know when someone might be condescending towards you. So that's a plus. The honorific that's more used in your written text and is used to mean dear like in a letter, that is kiha. So yes, you'll most likely see this in the written form as in a letter or when a company is addressing a very valued customer or a client, often with the name attached, such as Yoon Hee-chul kiha. The best way to know how to actually like use all of these honorifics and be polite can't really be studied out of a textbook or even just a YouTube video. Korean is such a contextual language and so that's why it's really important to study with stuff like real world videos. Which is exactly why I recommend to people who are studying Korean, FluentU. Because what FluentU does is it literally turns media into bite-sized lessons for you. So you're able to see all that you're learning actually used in real life. And to help keep it in your mind, they have quizzes, they have transcripts, they have flashcards, so that you're able to review everything that you're learning. And they also have a video dictionary where you can literally press on a word and see it used in tons of different clips. You can get FluentU for two weeks absolutely free in the description below. Go check it out, do it for two weeks and then come back here and let me know how it helped you. Now we're going to go over some titles that aren't necessarily honorific, but they're still titles. It's like they're not polite, they're just titles that you just attach to people's names or call somebody. You can use these titles with close friends or people who are of like the same age or lower than you. That's what makes them not as honorific. Therefore, they are a little more informal in nature, which means I like them. I love speaking informally, so I'm excited about these titles. Two suffixes that are often attached to names when you're calling out to someone is "-a and "-ya. You've probably heard these a lot in K-Dramas too. For example, if you want to catch the attention of your friend Jimin, you can say Note that "-a is only attached to a name that ends in a consonant in Korean, like Jimin ends in a consonant. Jimin-a. Use "-ya at the end of the name if the name ends in a vowel, such as Yeonji. If you want to call out to your friend Yeonji, you can say using that "-ya instead of "-a. We only really use these titles and suffixes with people who are like our close friends and who definitely aren't our superiors. Don't do that with someone who's superior. It's also common for parents to use this with their children as well. Little tip. "-ya is also used as more of an interjection, like hey! Again, you've probably heard this in K-Dramas. It's like an exclamation and you don't need to attach it to any name. It's used in more informal circumstances, so don't use it in any formal way. So you could say something like which means hey, come here. "-n and "-nyeon are two more informal titles that you can use. And by themselves, they're actually kind of derogatory towards either a man or a woman. And when they're used, they usually highlight the negative aspects or qualities of a man or woman. "-num is for man, "-nyeon is for woman. I am very familiar with these because I made a huge mistake when I was in Korea before. It's really embarrassing to talk about, but I'm going to tell you anyways. When I was studying Korean, I originally thought "-num and "-nyeon just meant man and woman in no derogatory form. See, this is where I didn't study with context, guys. Me and my friend were walking around one night and we saw this guy. He kind of looked like he was a celebrity because all these people were waiting in line to like get his signature and take photos with him. But we didn't know who the guy was. He seemed like an older guy. Lots of older women were standing in line, but I was like, who is this person? So I went up to one of the girls there and I was just like which I thought meant who is this man? And the girl that I asked the question to was like so shocked. She was like, wait, what are you saying? But then I think she recognized that I was like a foreigner. And then she felt a bit more calm. You know, you have that foreigner card in Korea. And she kindly told me that this guy was like part of this like show, this drama or something and people were really into him. So she told me that much. So I was really thankful for that, but I still feel so bad about that. So yeah, I really made a mistake with "-num in Korea. So don't do it, guys. I mean, the person reacted well because she was nice, but you will not get that reaction all the time. So just don't make the same mistake. Okay? Okay. However, you can use "-num in Korean as more like a teasing way with your friends, you know? So it can be used in two ways as more of a derogatory term towards someone or as more of like a teasing way with your friends. Just be careful with this one. By the way, if you're liking this video so far, don't forget to give it a thumbs up to let me know. Now we're going to go over some common Korean titles for friends or family members. You've probably heard this very often in K-dramas when the main girl is like Yeah, it's very cringy. But it means older brother and a younger girl will call that to an older guy. It's more specifically now if they have like a really close relationship or if they're like dating. So it kind of has more of like a romantic term to it. But younger sisters can also call their older brothers. It's yeah, just when a girl is younger and the guy's older and you're pretty close. This is an expression I can never use, which is really sad. But it's basically a younger boy will call this to an older guy. So this can be used in a family setting with the younger brother calling the older brother or just with friends. If like your friends like a year or two older than you and you're a guy, you just call him. This is another title that I cannot use. It is for a male to call an older girl. If I had like a brother who was a few years younger than me, he could call me noona. And then if also I had a guy friend who was like a few years younger than me, he would call me noona. This means older sister. So if I have a friend who's a few years older than me and we're close, I could call her unni. Similarly, if I had an older sister, I could call her unni as well. If you want to review everything that I went over in this video, plus some more bonus content, be sure to download the free FluentU PDF in the description below. It's got all this information in here plus more. I think it'll be really helpful to review. Now I have the perfect video for you right over here to go watch next. It's all about how to start a conversation with anybody in Korean. I go over 10 sentences that you can use to just start a conversation to get talking to someone. It's a really helpful video and I think you'll really enjoy it. So I will see you guys over there for the next part of our lesson.