The "You" Dilemma

Korea is a hierarchical society and this is clearly reflected in the language. One thing that definitely needs some time getting used to when learning Korean, is how to code switch in different contexts depending on who you are talking to. There are the different verb endings, different verbs altogether for 존댓말 (polite speech), different counters and the use of the particle 시. 

One headache sometimes is making sure you use the correct "you" in different situations. There are so many terms which are used to mean "you" in Korean like 언니, 선생님 and particles to attach to people's names like 씨 and 님.

I went to Spongemind's soundcloud to see if they had any new episodes out and I saw there was a new one called "How to address others in Korean". (Spongemind is a podcast done by a Korean and an American that is about how to learn languages, specifically English and Korean. They provide content in both English and Korean. They also have a Youtube Channel. The American, Jeremy, has a Youtube channel called Motivate Korean that I also subscribe to). Normally I try to listen to the Korean Spongemind content when the topic of the podcast is general, like "How to study vocab" or something like that. This time around I had to listen to the English podcast "How to address others in Korean".

Johnson and Jeremy covered all the bases in this podcast. I really enjoyed listening to it. I wished they had talked a little more about 그 쪽but whatever. From this podcast I learned something that is most interesting. Jeremy was making a joke that he wished that he could just refer to people as "you" when speaking Korean to avoid the confusion and awkwardness that sometimes is the result of the many ways to say "you". Johnson then told him that in the past people actually used to do this. The example he gave was "You는어떻게 생각하세요?" I found this extremely funny and interesting. I ask my Hellotalk friend about this and he confirmed. Wow. Just wow. He said that he never used it himself but he mentioned that to him "Come here, you" sounds a lot less harsh than "너 이리 와".

The drama the Entertainer is finally over. Yeah, I know. That was kinda out of the blue. Anyhow, in the last episode one of the band members confesses his love for the CEO of the company. In normal conversation he would refer to her as 대표님. When he confesses, this is what he said " 전 대표님을 좋아해요." I was the person who translated this line in the episode (Read about me and subbing on Viki here). I translated it to simply "I like you". A more literal translation could have been "I like you (Miss) CEO". But for a confession who would be that formal? In his case, because of their relationship he had no choice but to refer to her as he did. How nice would it have been if he could have said "저는 you를 좋아해요.".