Korean Greetings
Alphabets… boring! Grammar… snooze! I finally got to jump into some conversation on Friday with my instructor. We covered some of the basic greetings and the concepts of conveying respect in the vocabulary used. In Korean culture, respect is very important and you would never use certain language with your elders, teachers, etc that you would use with your friends or people younger than you.
There are a couple ways of saying hello but 안녕하세요 is essentially the universal greeting. When someone says 안녕하세요 to you, you can respond with exactly the same word, 안녕하세요.
안녕하세요 - Annyeonghaseyo - Hello. / How are you?
There are two common ways of saying “thank you” and it ultimately doesn’t matter which one you pick.
감사합니다 - Kamsahamnida - Thank You
고맙습니다 - Komapseumnida - Thank You
So far, the vocabulary above doesn’t discriminate based on respect, you can use those words with anyone. When saying “You’re welcome”, this is different. 전만에요 and 뭘요 are two common ways of saying this and you pick which one to use based on the respect you are giving the person you are talking to.
천만에요 - Cheonmaneyo - You’re Welcome (When Conveying Respect)
뭘요 - Mweoryo - You’re Welcome It’s Nothing
So, we can actually have our first (very short) dialogue!
감사합니다
천만에요 
If you would like to apologize to someone, you can say 죄송합니다 or 미안합니다. Like saying “thank you”, you need to use the appropriate term depending on who you are talking to.
죄송합니다 - Choesonghamnida - I’m Sorry (Respectful)
미안합니다 - Mianhamnida - I’m Sorry
The proper response to both 죄송합니다 and 미안합니다 is 괜찮아요.
괜찮아요 - Kwenchanahyo - It’s Okay
죄송합니다
괜찮아요 
Finally, we covered how to say goodbye. Word choice for saying goodbye is different than English in that you use a different term depending on if you are the one staying or leaving.
안녕히 가새요 - Annyeonghi kaseyo - Goodbye (if you are staying and the other person is leaving)
안녕히 계새요 - Annyeonghi kyeseyo - Goodbye (if you are leaving and the other person is staying)
안녕하세요
안녕하세요 
안녕히 가새요
안녕히 계새요
One final note about pronouncing words in Korean, there isn’t any emphasis on intonation. In English, we flower our language by varying the pitch in our voice when we speak, while in Korean, you maintain an even pitch when saying a word.
