How the World Talks ② Korea: From Formal to Casual Speech, and All Those Abbreviations

In Korean, before you can finish a sentence, you first have to decide how close you are to the other person. To someone you’ve just met or someone senior to you, you’d ask “식사하셨어요?” (siksahasyeosseoyo?, “Have you had your meal?”). To a close friend, it’s “밥 먹었어?” (bap meogeosseo?, “Did you eat?”). The question is the same, but the ending changes.

“말 편하게 할까요?” (mal pyeonhage halkkayo?, “Shall we talk casually?”)

When two people who’ve been using formal speech move to casual speech, one of them usually asks first, with something like “말 놓을까요?” (mal noeulkkayo?, “Shall we drop the formal speech?”) or “편하게 말해도 돼요?” (pyeonhage malhaedo dwaeyo?, “Is it okay if I talk casually?”). That one line signals that the relationship has grown a step closer. English has no grammatical device like this, so the same shift shows up in how people address each other and in the warmth of their tone.

“부장님, 내일 회의 자료 미리 보내 드릴까요?” In English: “Would you like me to send over the materials for tomorrow’s meeting?”

English has no honorific marker like Korean’s ‘-시-’ (-si-), so the distance comes through polite phrasing like “would you like” and “please.”

New abbreviations every day

Korean chat is full of abbreviations. There’s ‘생파’ (saengpa), short for 생일 파티 (saengil pati, “birthday party”); ‘갑분싸’ (gapbunssa), “the mood suddenly went cold”; and even ‘별다줄’ (byeoldajul), “you’ll abbreviate anything.” Consonant-only shorthand is common too. ‘ㅇㅋ’ means “okay,” ‘ㄱㅅ’ is 감사 (gamsa, “thanks”), and ‘ㅋㅋ’ is laughter.

Translated letter for letter, words like these look like code in another language. Spell ‘ㅋㅋㅋ’ out letter by letter and the laugh doesn’t come through, when what it means is simply “haha.”

When NATILO translates

NATILO looks at whether the two of you have been using formal speech or chatting casually, and tries to match the tone in the other language. Abbreviations and laughter become what a speaker of that language would say in the same spot, and the original is always a tap away.

The translations in these examples are for illustration. Actual translations may vary from conversation to conversation.