# 께서, 께서는, and politeness?



## gahando

Hi all,

I remember learning 께서 a while back (and 께서는 as well...?). Anyway, we had learned that they are more polite (e.g. we learned that it's 선생님께서, or 선생님께서는) ... but so then if we are speaking to our professor, we should use, say, (e.g. 그래요? 저는 선생님께서 가실 줄 알았는데요... rather than 그래요? 저는 선생님이 가실 줄 알았는데요...) while we are talking about 선생님 to a friend 께서 is not used, correct? (e.g. common expression - 이 교수가 진짜... , rather than ... say, 이 교수님께서 진짜...)

Thanks,
gahando


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## Kross

gahando said:


> while we are talking about 선생님 to a friend 께서 is not used, correct? (e.g. common expression - 이 교수가 진짜... , rather than ... say, 이 교수님께서 진짜...)



Hello, gahando

Both are okay depending situation. When you want to talk about the professor in an informal and impolite way, e.g. because you detest or dislike him and his class for some reasons, you can use 이 교수가 진짜~. In this case, you make sure that the friend should be a reliable enough person not to relay your comments to the professor. Otherwise you would be in big trouble. There is one more thing to add. If your friend is older than the professor, you can use 이 교수가~. It is 반말, but acceptable and not rude. 

We usually say 이 교수님께서 진짜~. This is formal and polite because the professor is expected to be older than the friend. So we need to show some respect with 높임말 even though this professor is not next to you right now.


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## robin223k

Yes. Many people tend not to use '께서' when they are having conversation with their friends but it doesn't matter whether you say '께서'. If you use it all the time you look more polite person.


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## mille gateaux

If you're talking to a friend, it's not a big problem.
BUT, if you're talking to sb who's older(or senior in hierarchy) than your professor, you can't say '께서'

You might want to look for '압존법'


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