GOMAWO (고마워)

 LEARN WORD NO. 9: GOMAWO

IN HANGUL: 고마워

Koreans pay a lot of attention to formalities and politeness in their language. They have different ways of telling things to people that are close to them and to the strangers, different ways of telling things to their parents and other close ones that are older than them and to their friends which is usually of the same age as them. They also have different ways of telling things when they are talking to the authorities or corporate bosses or teachers as compared to talking with people in public or the people in their neighborhood. 

Generally, there are three main levels of formality/politeness/casualty in korean language. 

First is casual and impolite. (informal)

Second is casual and polite. (informal but polite) 

Third is formal and polite. (formal)

Casual and impolite form is used to talk to people that are of the same age as us, younger than us and that are also close to us. 

Casual and polite form is used to talk to our close ones that are older than us, and to our neighborhood when we want to talk casually (with endearment) to them and still have sense of politeness. 

Formal and Polite form is used on occasions where you would need to be formal and polite at the same time which is usually necessary when we are talking to people that are not so close to us, to people that serves as authority, to our teachers at school, on some establishments, and maybe also to our corporate bosses and workmates.

The word that we are going to discuss today is just another way of saying "thank you". If you would remember, the third word discussed here is "gamsahamnida", that's also one way of saying "thank you" but it is in formal and polite form. On the other hand, "gomawo" is in casual and impolite (informal/banmal) form. 

How do we write gomawo in hangul?

How do we pronounce it?

Learn more about this word with our lecture video. 

A remake for this video is also available, you may check on this one too.

I'm Dae-Hangul and let's meet again on the next blog!