What are Politeness Levels? | Korean FAQ 

Yay! The course will be up soon, I see! Looking forward to seeing them! 😃 And yes, you would use the polite ending and the subject honorific suffix to calm them down as in 살려 주세요 "Please let me live." 😭

You don’t understand, this is exactly the type of video that I needed!! 😃 I have a solid grip on how to study Korean, but I’ve wanted to learn about how saying a sentence different ways/mixing politeness levels can give off different personality types and how Koreans would feel about each one. I want my unique personality to show through in my Korean speech, but that’s what I’m not sure how to do. This might be covered in the future playlist, but could you cover how different real life personalities would sound in a situation you might come across in day to day life? And then do multiple situations? And also I’m curious to learn about subtext! How saying something can imply something else. Does that make sense? Anyway lol thanks again for all your hard work on these videos, truly helpful!! 🥰

Looking forward to your new series! 😊 Politeness levels are just so confusing.

Great Video, thank you!

As a person who is Korean, but born and raised in the US, I know a good amount of Korean(I can't read well tho). However, I wasn't ig embraced into direct culture as much. I have a rough idea of where these are used, but I think it would be much easier if there were examples.

thank you so much for this !! i'm currently learning korean and i couldn't find a video that helped me understand korean politness levels but this summary did :)

another day another post from billy! thank you for posting daily content billy!

Great video. I'm really looking forward for the course about politness levels. Thanks for your great work to teach us this beautiful language 👍😊

정말 감사합니다 I am very excited for the course

Yaaaassss I'm so hype for that course, Billy!!! I love learning about politeness levels! Like you said, the feeling is really important to focus on! I love experiencing all the different feels from the subtle nuances in someone's speech. One of the most fun parts of Korean imo. Thank you again!!! Edit: I would use polite ending in the beginning to try befriending them (think Iroh from ATLA) but if they got rough then I would deffo stop being polite XD.

Awesome summary!

Thank you sooooo much for this summary of the politeness levels! It helped me kind of get a big picture!

한국어 존댓말 정말 어려운 부분이죠. 선생님 설명 아주 명확합니다.

I really liked this video, thank you! It would be nice if you took some verbs and showed how to make all the forms, like transforming one verb to all the politeness levels and honorific/humble speech😊

this makes so much sense when i think about how people address each other in some of the kdramas i watch!

Great explanation

Hi Billy! I'm looking forward for the course! About humble form, I think it would be good to have some explanations about the pronoun "저" (as opposed to "나"). Usually in beginner courses, they explain that "저" goes with formal and polite levels, whereas "나" goes with casual. I think these explanations are a bit misleading, because it's true most of the time but it's not mandatory like a grammar rule. Also, it gets very confusing when applied to "우리" vs "저희". Like why you shouldn't say "저희 회사" when talking about your company with your boss, even if you talking in formal or polite level. It took me some time to understand that "저" and "저희" are humble forms, and I'm still a bit confused about "나" and "우리" in writing, or the fact Koreans sometime use them along with polite level when talking to someone younger. I would be glad if you planed a video on that topic!

I can use formal speech in Bulgarian to keep a sort of healthy distance with people I don't want get closer with. Is it possible to use politeness levels in Korean for something like that. In general is it only and always about showing respect and being polite/or not or there are also some other colours and shades

Thanks! The video was more for beginner but even for me a nice summary. It would be great if you could add the korean words too next time! For example the word for honorific speech, etc. And could you also do a video about 격식체, 비격식체 and the historical usage of all the different formal levels and where you still can find them today. For example 아/어라 is 해라체, not 해체, etc.

Something that confuses me about when you as well as other teachers describe the 요 form is the adjective "soft". But what does that actually even mean? What exactly does "softening" language mean? When is softening a bad thing? etc. I'd love to hear some clarification on the use of "soft" as it's a bit vague to me.

Are there any other politeness levels used in Korean, other than the 요 form, Casual Speech, the 니다 form and the plain form?

🥰🥰🥰🥰Thank you so much 🥰 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

감사합니다 선생님. Is this reddit question serious? Lol. Okay. In America, I would suggest redirection, so you draw attention away from the "attacker"/avoid establishing a power dynamic. That's what CPI classes taught us in Cali. Redirection is pretty sweet. (Rhetorical thought: I wonder how an author might portray a Korean character with autism, a condition that affects communication, in a book or a movie, by the way that character uses/misuses politeness levels.

Something I'm always wondering about is when to use the honorifics equivalent of 에게 For instance if I'm a student and my sentence is "the teacher called a student", "the student called the teacher", or "the teacher called another teacher" I'm not sure when to use 시, 에게, 께

I've long had a question about honorifics which is a bit similar to the "imminent murderer" question that inspired this video. If someone has had bad parents in some way (they were abused, abandoned, etc.), and felt no personal respect toward their parents, I've always assumed that the children would still use honorifics when speaking about those parents (or abusive bosses, grandparents, corrupt politicians, other authority figures, etc.) because the culture itself respects the higher social position, even if the speaker does not respect the actual person being spoken about. It almost feels like it would be rude or at least awkward to the listener (if they were Korean, anyway) to speak disrespectfully about someone in a higher social position, even if it expressed the speaker's honest feelings that the person is not actually worthy of respect. I'm interested in the nuances of what it would mean to use or not use honorifics when speaking about a president who has been impeached, for example. The topic is so complex! Thank you for helping us understand it better!

I'm not sure I would use anything but a stream of obscenities if I was getting attacked.

I have a question TWICE speaks casually with each other regardless of age (Tzuyu to Nayeon vlog) but why does enhypen speak in yo form?

….are you writing backwards in Korean on that board?

Billy you didn't talk about the lowest level.. 냐, 니, 아/어라 i rarely seen resources for these.. but they use it so we should learn it

maybe some examples would be useful

Formal speech sooooo gooddd lecture!!

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

I'm not made for Korean politeness lol, when you said honorific speech is for people we see as above us I was like "so... no one ?" Idk for me if you didn't do anything to earn my humble respect I'm not respecting you more that anyone

First view!!

7:05 thank me later 😉