EveryEduEnglishKorean
Two Dials, Not One
Korean politeness — who you are speaking to, and who you are speaking about
Getting Korean politeness wrong is not a grammar error, it is a social one, and nobody corrects you because correcting you would itself be rude. Most learners carry one ladder in their head — 합니다, 해요, 해 — and that model breaks the first time they talk to a friend about their teacher. Korean has two dials that move separately: the sentence ending raises the person you are talking to, and -(으)시- raises the person you are talking about. Seven daily lessons that pull them apart and then put them back together: when 합니다체 sounds institutional rather than respectful, the three places -(으)시- must never go, the dozen words that replace themselves entirely, how you raise someone by lowering yourself, and who is allowed to open the move into 반말. The last day covers the two rules Korean speakers genuinely disagree about — including the one you will hear in every café in the country and should not copy.
- Lessons
- 7
- Days
- 7
- Minutes
- 128
- Quiz items
- 49
- To pass
- 80%
Curriculum
Each lesson opens when the one before it is passed at 80%.
Week 1 · The two dials
- 1Korean politeness has two dials, not oneWho you are speaking to, and who you are speaking about — they move separatelySeparate the listener dial from the subject dial, and say why 선생님이 가셨어 is correct.
- The listener dial: 합니다체 and 해요체Both are polite. They are not interchangeable, and the difference is not politenessChoose between 합니다체 and 해요체 by the situation, not by how respectful you feel.
- The subject dial: -(으)시-One syllable that raises whoever the sentence is about — and the places it must not goAttach -(으)시- correctly, and recognise the three places it is wrong.
- The words that change entirely진지 · 연세 · 성함 · 댁 · 말씀 — and where you will actually need each oneUse the honorific noun for age, name, home and food without hesitating.
- Lowering yourself저 · 드리다 · 여쭙다 · 뵙다 — raising someone by stepping downUse the humble verbs for giving, asking and meeting, and know when 저희 is required.
- Coming down into 반말Who says it first, how to build it, and why the first one is not a grammar questionForm 반말 from any polite sentence, and know when you may use it.
- One situation, three registers — and where Koreans disagreePutting both dials together, and the two rules that have actually changedSay the same thing at three levels, and handle the cases Korean speakers argue about.
Languages this course is written in
The lessons are explained in one language. Where a translation exists your screen uses it; where it does not, you see the original rather than a blank.