와! 이번 금요일에 신림에 갈 거야! 아마 류지 만날 수 있는 것 같아…

Oh, and yeah… actually one of my students used to call me “아저씨” with a real nasty tone… Of course, she was supposed to call me “Mr D” or “선생님” at the very least. I would even have been alright with “Teacher.” Anyway, she kept it up despite my best efforts to correct her. One day she did it in front of another teacher who promptly reprimanded her. She did it once more, a few weeks later and then I really let her have it…. now she’s got it right! While I may be 아저씨 to some kids on the street, my own students should never use it!

These terms are really interesting. Although, they sort of allow people to get away with not knowing someone’s name. The 청 소 아줌마 (cleaning lady) at my school is just called “아줌마” To call someone “cleaning lady” in America would be really rude. Especially to her face, and even more so when she’s been at the school a very long time!

Once I saw a teacher address a student as “여학생” literally (girl student). Now, she wasn’t in his class, but still… it sounded strange to me! I guess it solves a problem though. In America, if I didn’t know a student’s name, I wouldn’t really have a way to get her attention. “Hey you” would surely be rude…. so I would have to ask someone before calling to her.

I feel like names are really most often used among friends (maybe even just your 동갑 and younger). Even co-workers will address each other and refer to each other by their title, using a name only when absolutely necessary to identify someone among several 선생님’s. In the states, I would address my boss (the principal) by her first name! That’s unheard of in Korea!!!

we have Korean students in our university.
if i would call a kid 학생 too, would that be ok?

When I first started teaching, my students called me “Austin.” I was OK with that, not having a real preference, since my role is so different than that of the homeroom teachers.

But then, in the second semester, apparently some students were addressing the Korean English teacher as 선형아!!! (That’s her fist name with the friendly-cute tag on the end) Needless to say that is absolutely inappropriate so we decided that students should call me “Mr. D” which is how most students in America addressed me.

But not everyone on staff was properly educated, and being “Austin Teacher” or just “Austin” is more common for foreign teachers, most of the staff and a few students still call me “Austin” or “Teacher”.

And like 마라안 I wonder about children (elementary or middle school kids) is 꼬마 too crass?

It’s really interesting. Having that kind of terms to address people is very useful. While there are equivalents for 아저씨 (”monsieur”) and 아줌마 (”madame”) in french, we don’t have one for 학생 when it comes to adressing young men (there’s “mademoiselle” to address young women). And we don’t really have anything to adress children either. “Monsieur” and “madame” don’t sound as formal as “sir” and “madam”, but they still tend to be used for older people (above 25-30 for men, and above 30-35 for women, though “madame” initially implied that you were married, compared to “mademoiselle”)

When talking to people my age that I don’t know, there’s always an awkward moment when nobody knows how to adress the other…

마리안,
if the students are 9~12 years old, it would be a bit (just a tiny bit) strange to call them ‘학생’ because they are still ‘kids’ but 12~18 and over, you can definitely call them 학생.

For 9~12 year olds, and if there are more than one of them together, a great way to address everyone is “애들아” and if there’s just one kid, calling him/her “저기… 얘야” would be alright. Any other ideas, anyone?

PetiteClaire,
Yeah I find the words monsieur and mademoiselle very familiar because they are very similar to 아저씨 and 아가씨 in nuance. But with 아줌마, I’m always extra careful (hehe) - the only few places that I would safely call someone “아줌마” are restaurants and market places.

Stephen,
Thank you for the comment! We’ll keep working hard to produce helpful lessons!!!

rigo, hehe interesting that she calls you ‘brother’ is she older than you? if so, you can call her 누나, or 누님 and if she’s younger than you, 여동생 or 누이!

:-) you’re welcome! Make sure it’s 누이 not 누미 “nu + i”

민식, sorry for the confusion! What you said is correct. It should be 예요 not 에요 - Right now the picture has 어디에요 but it should be 어디예요. we’ll change the pic right away. It should be 예요, not 에요- but 예요 and 에요 are often pronounced the same. Thanks for the question, and it proves what you’ve learned is correct!

Trent, hehe, I think calling someone 아저씨 in good humor is always a nice way to have a good laugh thanks for the nice comment, and Keith and 설…? hehe, I think 설 is too 아줌마 for Keith (just kidding…haha)

Hi Matt

제가 왜 신림동에 있어요? and 저는 왜 신림동에 있어요 are basically the same thing but it depends on where the focus is

But here, because “왜(why)” is the main focus, both work as almost the same meaning

(Generally, 제가 has the nuance of “no one else but me” and 저는 has the nuance of “as for me…”, but here, there’s no big difference )

Hey Shan Thanks for the questions.

Both are acceptable to ask someone where they are.
어디예요? and 어디 있어요.
But the second question 어디 있어요. Seems a little empty without the particle.. 에. With that particle, the question would be 어디에 있어요? That sounds much clearer than without the particle.

And yup, that’s right! A politer way to call an 아줌마 would be 아주머니 And 아저씨 doesn’t have a politer form. Or at least if it does, I don’t use it

Thanks again for the questions, and I hope you enjoy all the lessons!