Korean Job Discussion Forums

[schwa]

The "can" vs "may" thread got me thinking.

The use of "please" is an essential element of polite discourse in english but sadly undertaught & underused in Korean classrooms. I've dealt with tons of basic textbooks & I cant recall any that have stressed its use.

(I remember when i started this job, driving with my new supervisor to a dinner meeting, he pulls up in front of the restaurant & says, "Get out!")

I've done spot corrections when a student's request sounded like a demand, but I'm resolved to hammer it home this week. Seems to me it will be an easy teaching point, despite the fact theres no direct korean equivalent.

I'm thinking I'll write it in 1000-point font on the chalkboard & explain that every request in english requires it. Sure, thats a bit of overkill, but its never wrong to add "please" when asking for something.

Grammatically simple too. You can slot it almost anywhere into a sentence. It even dignifies a one-word request: "Washroom, please."

I remember my parents rebutting my demands with "Whats the magic word?" until it became second nature to me. Useful mission, isnt it?

[Grotto]

While we are on the topic

I try to get my students say please as often as possible but it does seem to be woefully underused.

One word that is overused is okay.

Would you like some candy? Okay
Is it hot? Okay
Do you like English? Okay

Okay is used in situations that call for a yes no answer.

[margaret]

Maybe she's trying to overcompensate but my boss does just the opposite--says "please" way more often than any native English speaker I've ever heard, and in ways one wouldn't normally use it. For instance, when giving directions: "Please use one and a half liters of milk and add yogurt starter" or "please turn right at the light" when I've asked her for directions to somewhere.
Margaret

[crazylemongirl]

you can practice using please and thank you a lot in class. Eg giving out handouts.

clg: how many?
students: eight please (I won't start counting until I hear please)
clg: there you go
students: thank you (i won't release the papers until I hear thank you)
clg: you're welcome

my students are pretty well trained in this.

[Ya-ta Boy]

As usual, schwa is on the right track. I also use "What's the magic word?" when I teach 'please'. When I'm feeling frisky, I also snap to attention and salute when I get a request that sounds like a command.

A similar problem is their use of 'Of course' when answering a Yes/No question. I try to get them to understand 'Of course' is a friendly response, but only when asking permission. In all other cases I tell them it means "I think you are a stupid mofo" (As in: Are you from Seoul? Of course.)

[Big_Bird]

[tomato]

Hello, Margaret!

The English handbook for my Samsung digital camera abounds with please's also.
I guess we need to add a rule that please is not used in instructions.

[tzechuk]

When I helped out a friend at her hagwon last year, I would have these little kids coming up to me asking if they could go to the bathroom. They would say *teacher, bathroom*... and I'd say *what's the magic word* and I wouldn't let them go until they'd said it. Eventually it became second nature to them to say please when they wanted me to give or let them do something.

I also made sure they learned *thank you*. If I gave them a pencil, for example, I would give it to them but hold on to the item until they'd said thank you, then I release the item to the child. Otherwise they would have to go without.

By the end of my 10 months there, most of them would automatically say please and thank you!!

[Sleepy in Seoul]

For students that are old enough and have good enough English, I explain to them that Korean has polite language built-in, but English doesn't. We must explicitly say "please" and "thank you". I give them examples in Korean and English, and then refuse to do anything that they want without use of the "magic words". They learn quickly enough if it is required all the time.

With students who aren't old enough, I just require it anyway, without explanation.

[Paji eh Wong]

I like playing please game with my kids. You subsititute "please" for "Simon says". The subtext is, if you don't say please, it doesn't happen.

[paperbag princess]

that's a great game idea!

[JongnoGuru]

[mack the knife]

Koreans are saying "please" when they say "chusayo" (that's what they tell me, anyway). However, the actual phrase for please "pootak hamnida" seems rarely used. I've heard it once or twice in my 75 years in Korea.

On another note, Koreans seem to have the darndest time saying "I'm sorry" or "I'm wrong", eventhough Korean phrases exist for both. In my 90 years here in Korea I've been apologized to some three times, and I've heard a Korean concede he was wrong approximately one and a half times.

[Sliver]

The point about the use of ��please�� is understood. I think more of an issue is how native speakers of English utter directive speech acts.

Firstly, most of us here are from traditionally individualistic cultures. According to researchers such as Goffman or Levinson, members of such cultures use ��negative face saving politeness strategy��. This type of strategy uses speech that allows the recipient of a directive to maintain autonomy (a more important concept in Western culture than Eastern culture) and gives an out for the listener to deny the requestive intent.

Put simply native English speakers tend to use an inquisitive imperative (whimperative) when issuing directives. Some examples include:

Would you like to ....?
Can you......?
Do you think you can......?
Is it possible for you to.......?
Do you mind.....?

To use the bare imperative form sounds rude to most native English speakers. I find that the reason some Koreans sound rude is because they are not aware of this pragmatic difference .There is some use of ��whimperatives�� in Korean but no where as often in English. Similarly older Koreans are not aware that in English there is no ��relative power�� difference between speakers so ��politeness strategy�� should be used in all speech acts regardless of age, sex or position in society.

To help my students I try to teach this pragmatic difference and show them not only the use of please but also how to make requests with interrogative forms. This may help them in not sounding ��rude�� to the native speaker.

[Hanson]

What about the teachers? Do you, the teacher, say:

"Open your books to page 35."

OR

"Open your books to page 35, please."

Hmmm. Is the use of "please" necessary from a teacher to a student, or only the other way around?

I tend not to say please as a teacher, cuz it sounds a little weak to my ears. I'm the boss in there, and I find the use of "please" or "Whimperatives" (I like that term!) like "Could you", "Would you please," etc to lessen my authority (cue Cartmen from South Park) in the classroom. Yet, perhaps modeling the use of "please" myself, as the teacher, could lead to more use of please by my students.

What's your take?