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Review focus: Communication, language, Hangugo, social structure, levels of language, doing business, relationships
Asian Business Code Words Index NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine
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Only a small percentage of Korean business people and government officials speak English, so it is also important for the foreign executives to learn some Korean, particularly if they are going to be in the country for several months or years. Just a modest ability with the language goes a long way in helping to make and sustain the kind of personal relations needed to function effectively. Using even a few phrases - not necessarily in the conduct of business itself, but in greetings, casual comments, or at eating and drinking parties - helps foreign professionals build important business relationships. Communication is, of course, a necessary foundation for understanding and cooperation. More and more Koreans are being educated abroad and becoming bilingual, and the number who learn English in local schools is also increasing rapidly, but foreign business people who do not learn some Korean are greatly limited in both their professional and social contacts in Korea. Those who cannot communicate at all in Korean are severely handicapped in their ability to relate to and participate in life outside the narrow confines of the foreign community and world of international business. Korean is generally described as difficult for English speakers to learn because it is unlike any Western language. Becoming really fluent in Korean is a formidable task, but learning enough of the language to communicate on a basic level is easy enough. Anyone of average ability can accomplish this limited goal in two or three months of daily sustained study. Korean is mostly made up of "pure Korean" and Chinese, along with a sizable number of words borrowed from Japanese and English. The Korean language is called Hangugo (Hahn-guu-go) in Korean. The alphabet, created by a team of scholars in the 1400s at the behest of King Sejong, is called Hangul (Hahn-guul). There are fourteen consonants and ten vowels in the language. Various combinations of these make up approximately fifty-four sounds or syllables. Over the centuries very few Westerners ever learned Korean, resulting in a general assumption that the language was simply too difficult for foreigners to learn. As recent as the 1960s and early 1970s, Korean-speaking Westerners were so rare that most Koreans were amazed to encounter one who was able to speak the language - and they would often fail to understand the Korean speaking foreigner because they simply couldn't conceive of that being possible. Anecdotes about Westerners speaking quite fluent Korean but getting only blank stare in return were commonplace. This situation has changed considerably since the 1970s. A significant percentage of the foreign business people stationed in Korea are students of the language, and some of them speak it very well. Koreans in rural areas may still be surprised to hear Korean spoken by a foreigner, but this is no longer the case in the cities. Because of the development of a superior/inferior social structure and a highly refined system of etiquette between and among classes of people, several different levels of language were also developed to distinguish between individuals and classes. The three most important basic levels of the language are an extraordinarily polite form used when addressing superiors, and intimate of familiar form for addressing close friends or equals, and a rough form used when speaking to people on a lower social level. Becoming really fluent in Korean therefore means that one has to master these various levels, which is almost like learning three related but different languages. Fortunately, foreigners who are less than fluent are generally excused from this very strict social requirement and can get by with the use of familiar Korean in most situations. There are occasions, however, when the use of familiar speech in not appropriate, and it is better to either speak in English or remain silent. As is often the case in the languages of Asia, there are a number of peculiarities in Korean and its use that must be quickly mastered by the foreigner who attempts to use the language on any level. It is very uncommon to use the single word "no" as a response, since just no is regarded as too abrupt, too impolite. In Korean the appropriate response to a negative question is a negative. For example, suppose you say, "Don't you know his phone number?" The answer may be, "Yes". This means, "yes, you are right. I don't know his phone number". This can cause both confusion and frustration, which can be avoided by phrasing all questions in the positive form. "If" is one of the most commonly used words in the English language, but it is virtually untranslatable in Korean and gives a very negative image when used; Koreans tend to associate its use with being uncertain and unable to make up one's mind. Because of the importance of being able to establish personal rapport with Koreans, the least that foreign business people should do is learn enough Korean to engage in simple social pleasantries and to survive in restaurants, taxis, and such. This will not only smooth their existence, but help to establish the kind of atmosphere essential for building and sustaining the personal relationships that are so important in doing business in Korea.
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Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the 
| This month's column is excerpted from Korean Etiquette & Ethics in Business, by Boye Lafayette De Mente available from NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |
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