Greetings

There are three basic ways to greet someone in Korean, depending on what degree of politeness and/or formality the situation requires :

1)	안녕? An-nyeong?	Very casual – not used among adults
2)	안녕하세요? An-nyeong-ha-se-yo?	Honorific
3)	안녕하십니까? An-nyeong-ha-sim-ni-kka?	Honorific, formal

1) Generally, you should use the honorific form:

Jack    : 안녕하세요?

              An-nyeong-ha-se-yo?

Olivia :  안녕하세요?

              An-nyeong-ha-se-yo?

2) However, when a student greets a teacher, the formal expression can be

     used:

Student   : 선생님,¹ 안녕하십니까?

       Seon-saeng-nim, an-nyeong-ha-sim-ni-kka?

Teacher   : 안녕하세요?

        An-nyeong-ha-se-yo?

3) And when two young people bump into each other on the street, they can

    just say 안녕? (An-nyeong?). Or they might say:

Amanda  : Susan,¹ 어디 가니?

       Susan, eo-di ga-ni? (Susan, are you going somewhere?)

Susan       : 응, 어디 가.

       Eung, eo-di ga. (Yeah, I am. Lit. I am going somewhere.)

Note 1: The student addresses the teacher by the title ‘선생님 (Seon-saengnim)’,

which is respectful. On the other hand, Amanda just addresses her close friend by name. (There will be more on titles later).

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