Lesson 1
반말 is the name for casual speech in Korean. The first and the most important rule in using 반말 is that you need mutual agreement. If you suddenly start speaking casually without the other person's agreement, you can sound very rude and get into some serious trouble.
Mutual agreement is key to using casual speech safely, but there are some exceptions.
Exceptions:
Casual speech is often used even without mutual agreement in these situations.
- When hierarchy is very strong in the certain organization, such as the military
- Between small children
- When a much older person (e.g. in their 70s) is talking to a much younger person