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The Importance of Knowing Basic Korean Phrases When Dealing With Korean Business Partners
By Heejeong Haas | July 15, 2007
Not too long ago, I was in an international conference held by a major charity organization for 1 week. Many officials from all over the world attended the conference with their own consultants and interpreters provided by the organization. As with any major international conferences, there were at least a minimum of ten different languages spoken in each meeting throughout the conference. I will give you a feel of it by giving you a little example: One night, I was in a dinner meeting and sat with six officials from 6 different countries with their spouses and their interpreters. So how do you communicate in such a setting? Say, the Korean official speaks in his native tongue, his interpreter interprets him into English, and as the interpreter speaks in English, other five rest interpreters interpret the English into their own native tongue all at the same time to their assigned officials (and there is also a special name for this interpreting mode; it’s called whispering). To anybody who has never experienced such a setting, it can be overwhelming and intimidating, but exciting and amazing as well. There was a very pleasant surprise I experienced from all the major officials in the conference.
Every single official no matter what the nationality could speak at least one phrase or two in many different languages to simply say, “hello”, “thank you” and “nice to meet you”. Not a big deal? One could say that. But now imagine you remember these phrases in about 10 to 15 different languages and especially in one of those very exotic African or Asian languages. Yes, that takes a certain amount of effort and determination that you would like to get across other person to communicate. Every time they exchanged a little phrase in each other’s native tongue, they had a smile and automatically built that warm and mutual understanding of why they were there.
In business meetings, we tend to think that everybody understands and knows how to say “thank you” and “hello” and “nice to meet you” in English as English has become a universal business language. I have seen only a few executive members making the effort to learn how to say those phrases in Korean for their Korean business partners. Speaking these little phrases in Korean for your Korean business partners can boost your image and earn ultimate respect. It shows them how much you care and respect them and their culture. You will also see this pleasantly surprised smile on their face as Koreans generally are under the impression that the Korean language is way too difficult for any foreigners to learn (there is a good reason why they think this way, but I will go on about this one later).
Business negotiations often get rough and hostile; if you can add something to make the situation a little smoother as simple as this, why not try? It certainly doesn’t cost you money, but the result is priceless.
So, try practicing these phrases:
- Hello or Hi: “An-nyoung-ha-se-yo.”
- Thank you: “Gam-sa-ham-ni-da.” Or “Go-mab-seum-ni-da”
- Nice to meet you: “Man-na-su-ban-gab-seum-ni-da.” Or simply “Ban-gab-seum-ni-da.”
- You are welcome: “Chun-ma-ne-yo.”
Next time when you talk to your Korean business partner, say these in Korean and see if they are pleasantly surprised or not.
Good luck!
Heejeong Haas
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Topics: Communication, Korean Business Etiquette | 2 Comments »
July 16th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I can’t agree more with this post. In my experience in Korea, I found that just knowing those basic phrases can create a groundswell of goodwill among Koreans. It seems like a little thing, but I found that just making that small effort can reap large rewards in your relationship with Koreans.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
need..more..info O_o