How to…say hello in Korean

One of the goals I had when I started this blog, as you may have guessed, was to share my love for Korea and her culture with as many people as possible. You may have also guessed that I’m learning Korean, and even though learning a new language is hard and challenging, I do really love the Korean language. Actually, last night at dinner with my parents I replied to them in Korean without thinking, so I guess it’s going well. More recently, as I’ve started improving, I’ve found that there are lots of words and phrases that are unique and special to the Korean language (as with any language). 

I had a lightbulb moment of excitement a few weeks ago, when I thought how amazing it would be to team up with someone, and together we could create content about words and phrases. I’m not a native Korean so I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to start educating people in the language, and since I didn’t really know where to start, I reached out to Korean Teacher HEYJU (@heyju_korea ) of Instagram fame, having watched a lot of his videos and I was so excited that he agreed 🙂 

Every now and again, we’re going to share one word/phrase – and explain a little bit about it. But since this is our first post, we agreed that there would be no better word to start with than….

…hello!

 

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Before we start, it is important to understand that the Korean language has an honorific system – which means that there are different levels of politeness, and it is important to communicate with people using the proper level of formality to avoid causing offence.

The Korean Culture / languages uses honorifics as a way of showing respect through the way you communicate to someone who is older or high in the social hierarchy – the language and culture itself being a hierarchical one, in which age and status play an important role. 

The three most common levels are: 

1. Formal – the way you would speak in situations such as business meetings, public-speaking, etc. Those who work in the formal service field would use formal language when speaking to guests or customers.  
2. Standard politeness – this speech level is one you could use when you’re speaking to people you know, but don’t have a close friendship with. 
3. Informal – this speech level is reserved for those you have close relationships with, such as friends and family. 

Formal

안녕하십니까

Pronounced: an-nyeong-ha-sim-ni-kka). 

The formal manner of saying hello is one of the ways to greet someone who you are meeting for the first time, or as a way of greeting someone to whom you want to show high levels of respect for. 

Standard politeness 

안녕하세요

Pronounced: an-nyeong-ha-se-yo

As the word ‘standard’ implies, this is the most common way of saying hello in Korea. The ‘yo’ at the end makes it polite and therefore it can be used to greet people in any situation. This is still

Informal

안녕

Pronounced: An-nyeong

This form of greeting is minus the ‘yo’ at the end, meaning it has a low politeness level and is therefore only really used with your friends. 

Origin of the word

Now you know how to say it, I thought I would touch a little bit on what the word itself means. Yes, the translation becomes hello, but actually:

The 안녕’ part means well-being and peace and 

The 하십니까’ and ‘하세요’ parts mean ‘are you?’

So…. it was from the check if the listener is well, okay, or peaceful.

Isn’t that nice? 🙂

BONUS

Koreans also have a way of saying hello, but only on the phone. 

This is “여보세요” or yo-bo-say-oh. Technically, this is a way of saying hello where you don’t know who it is you are speaking to. The actual origin isn’t exactly known, but HEYJU says the best guess is that it is a change from “여, 보세요”, which translates to “hey, look!”.