Presenter: Youngju Park (Linguistics)
Mentor: Patricia Pashby
Oral Presentation
Panel B: “Cultural Expressions” Oak Room
Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am
Facilitator: Lou Vijayakar
What acts of politeness do you, the reader, expect to encounter throughout your day? Perhaps someone slows down for you while merging onto the highway, or a door is held open for you while entering a building. What polite speech acts do you expect to encounter? Is this a more difficult question to answer? The Korean language consists of a complex honorific system that requires that the speaker manipulate grammar and vocabulary according to the listener’s status, age, and title to a higher extent than in American English. This project serves to native English speakers who are studying Korean as a second or third language. This project goes further to make a larger claim for the importance of studying a foreign language because of the experience of relativity one can gain.