One
day, in middle school, a student comes in the teacher’s office and meets his
teacher. The teacher who is in charge of the student gives advice about his
problems. The student now knows what he should do, and thanks his teacher for
having a conversation with him. When he leaves the office, “Keep up the hard
work!” is what the student said. And the teacher got really mad.
With
the above story, do you realize what the student did wrong? Why did the teacher
get mad?
Well, yes. It is about the students
speaking that caused the problem. If we change this word into Korean, we say “수고하세요(Su-go-ha-sae-yo)”. So, what’s wrong about it? Korea is a country
where they have words to respect the elders. In this case, “수고하세요(Su-go-ha-sae-yo)” is rude because the student spoke it when he was
talking to the teacher.
Actually many Koreans make mistake with this word. Because many
people don’t know that it’s rude to use it to the elders. People usually use
this kind of word when they are leaving some place. Especially when they leave
after spending some money they use these words. It was just a friendly way to
say “goodbye” but the young misunderstood it and used it to follow the old.
Don’t use it when you get off the taxi! The 아저씨(Ajushi) will get mad at you. Or, if he is kind he will not even
care about it. Why don’t we use “힘내세요!(Him-ne-sae-yo!-means
Do your best!)” instead?
A friend in MANNAM Korean class asked about this matter before. He
didn’t know that was rude or not. Every time he said that, the elders looked at
him in a strange way. He was so pleased when he learned this. When you learn
about a language or a culture, it maybe can be hard. But if you learn in
MANNAM, we have many people from all around the world. That is how we can learn
more and share more. This is a small but a big thing. If we can make people
together with these kinds of reasons, peace will come.
# Korean Vocabulary
- 수고하세요(Su-go-ha-sae-yo) : Keep up the hard work
- 힘내세요(Him-ne-sae-yo) : Do your best!
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