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Led by Magister Simulacrum
The fourth unit of the GCSE Korean. The Korean honorific system — one of the few obligatorily grammaticalised politeness systems in the world. The speaker-listener-referent triangle, the suffix -시-, the particles -께서 and -께, the honorific vocabulary set, and the six speech levels. Taught by Magister with Toegye Simulacrum supplying the Confucian ethical background. Four modules. Text-only by design — reading and writing only.
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Led by Magister Simulacrum
The question
Toegye opens with the Confucian moral background: a speaker is never alone. Whenever you write Korean, you stand in relation to a listener and to whoever else your writing refers to — and Korean grammar requires you to mark that relation. There is the speaker, the listener (whom you address), and the referent (whom you speak of). The verb's final ending marks the speaker-listener relation; the suffix -시- marks the speaker-referent relation. The student learns to identify the triangle in authentic written sentences and to choose the appropriate kinship/title term of address for a given context.
Outcome
The student can identify speaker, listener, and referent in any Korean sentence, name the *Five Cardinal Bonds* and how each grounds an honorific use, and choose the appropriate form of address for any context.
Sub-units
Led by Magister Simulacrum
The question
Magister opens with the three operations that mark a senior referent. First: the suffix -시- inserts into the verb stem (가다 → 가시다, 가셨어요, 가실 거예요). Second: the subject particle 이/가 is replaced with -께서 and the recipient particle 에게/한테 with -께. Third: certain common nouns and verbs are replaced with their honorific counterparts (밥 → 진지, 집 → 댁, 성함 instead of 이름, 잡수시다 instead of 먹다). The three operations work together; a sentence with a senior subject takes all three. The unit also covers the humble verbs (드리다, 여쭙다) that lower the speaker.
Outcome
The student can insert -시- correctly into any verb in writing, replace 이/가 with -께서 and 에게/한테 with -께 when context requires, and deploy the closed set of honorific vocabulary replacements correctly.
Sub-units
Led by Magister Simulacrum
The question
Korean has six distinct speech levels marked at the very end of the verb. The student must handle four confidently for everyday writing — formal-polite (-습니다), polite (-아/어요), plain (-ㄴ다), intimate (-어) — and recognise the other two when they appear in literary texts. The S-curve of formality from formal (top) to intimate (bottom) is a navigation tool the student uses constantly. The asymmetry of address — that a junior addresses a senior in higher levels but the senior addresses the junior in lower levels — is the key pragmatic insight.
Outcome
The student can produce any verb in all four core speech levels in declarative, interrogative, imperative, and propositive forms; identify speech levels in extracted authentic dialogue; and infer the social relationship of speakers from their levels.
Sub-units
Led by Magister Simulacrum
The question
Toegye opens with the harder work — knowing which form fits which moment. The form depends not on the topic but on the speaker-listener relation and the writing's context. Formal letter, friendly email, business email, narrative, essay, diary — each has a default register, and consistent maintenance of register within a piece of writing is what marks a competent Korean writer. The student learns to compose in each of the four standard contexts, write dialogue between unequal-rank speakers, and recognise when a writer is breaking convention deliberately for effect.
Outcome
The student can write substantial pieces of correspondence in three different registers (formal letter, friendly email, business email) with consistent register maintained throughout; can write dialogue between unequal-rank speakers with each character's register correctly maintained; and can identify register-mismatches in authentic texts and explain their effects.
Sub-units