Background

Honorifics are very important in Korean and are something you will encounter in Korean literally every day. Honorification in Korean varies depending on the situation, and even if the sentence has the same meaning, it is possible to establish a vertical relationship with others according to the degree of honorification. The honorification in Korean has a very complex system and is divided into vocabulary method, grammatical method, and type of expression according to the method of honorification. Among them, the types of expression can be divided into three broad categories as follows -1) Subject honorification, 2) Object honorification, and 3) Relative honorification. 1) Subject honorification raises the subject of the sentence, 2) Object honorification raises the object and adverb of the sentence. 3) Relative honorification raises the listener, which is divided into four subsections.

Koreans learn how to use honorification from a young child since they consider using honorifics as the basis. The reason for the importance of honorification in Korean is that it is required by the vertical hierarchy of Confucianism, where age and social status play a big part. An idiom 장유유서(長幼有序) is the one that shows the basis of Confucianism, which means there is a strict order that needs to be followed and obeyed between adults and children. Therefore, it is a huge deal in Korea to show proper respect to older people, whether they are physically older or of a higher social status.

In this way, in Korean, honorification and spelling are very important, but it is very complicated and difficult. As a result, in everyday life, the honorification is often misused, and even in the media, school textbooks, and official broadcasting that specialize in writing, honorification is often misused. Furthermore, more stringent spelling and thorough honorification are required in writing. This is why many Koreans, especially young people, express considerable hardships when doing polite writing.