In Korean, knowing what you want to say is only part of the decision.
Before choosing a form, you may also need to consider who you are speaking to, how well you know each other, your roles, the social distance between you, and the situation in which the conversation takes place.
In this short video lesson, Tymur Levitin uses a simple question — 밥 먹었어? / 밥 먹었어요? — to demonstrate a much broader principle: similar information can require different language choices when the relationship between speakers changes.
The lesson does not reduce Korean communication to “polite speech for older people and informal speech for friends.” Age can matter, but so can familiarity, status, closeness, formality, social role, and the relationship the speaker chooses to express.
This leads to an important distinction:
a grammatically correct sentence is not always the right communicative decision.
The lesson is part of Levitin Language School’s Language as Decisions approach: meaning → listener → relationship → situation → language form.
Related reading:
Why Learning Korean with a Private Tutor Makes All the Difference
https://levitintymur.com/why-learning-korean-with-a-private-tutor-makes-all-the-difference/
The Language of Decisions
https://levitintymur.com/the-language-of-decisions/
Understanding Grammar Doesn’t Mean You Can Use It
https://levitintymur.com/understanding-grammar-doesnt-mean-you-can-use-it/
The Russian article that develops the Korean-specific question in greater depth:
Почему в корейском недостаточно знать, «как правильно сказать»: язык начинается с отношений между людьми
https://levitintymur.com/ru/pochemu-v-korejskom-nedostatochno-znat-kak-pravilno-skazat-yazyk-nachinaetsya-s-otnoshenij-mezhdu-lyudmi/
Learn Korean online with Levitin Language School and develop not only correct sentences, but the ability to choose language for real people and real situations.
