# How do you address a senior schoolmate?



## DavidCornell

How would you address someone who went to the same school as you did, but he went to that school earlier than you? Is it Sunbae? How would I say "hello, Sunbae" in Korean in a respectful way but not overdone? Can you give me the Korean characters for that? Thank you very much.


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## loox99

선배 is sunbae in Korean character.
For respectful salutation, you can say '안녕하세요, 선배(님)'.
님 means sort of 'Mr' or 'Mrs', etc, and normally can be omitted in this kind of relation.

And one more thing.
선배 is quite old way of calling someone in respectful way, especially in universities. (Maybe not in some places. It depends on tradition of the community.) These days, it's more natural to call like '형', '누나', '오빠', or '언니', normal title between one and the other with older age.

**형 is between men and men.
**누나 is between men and women(older).
**오빠 is between women and men(older).
**언니 is between women and women.


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## DavidCornell

Thank you very much. can you explain in some detail what 안녕하세요, 선배means? I want it to be appropriate.



loox99 said:


> 선배 is sunbae in korean character.
> for respectful salutation, you can say '안녕하세요, 선배(님)'.
> 님 means sort of 'Mr' or 'Mrs', etc, and normally can be omitted in this kind of relation.


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## loox99

안녕하세요 is the most common salutation in Korea, but in respectful way than 안녕 (which is appropriate between friends.)

In Korea, honorific sentences are engaged with the age of people. And because 선배 is normally someone older than you, it's more appropriate to use 안녕하세요.

In case of someone went to the school earlier than you and not older than you, he or she is also your 선배.

So 선배 is a title about social relation, with is more engaged with position than age 
and 형,누나,오빠 and 언니 are about more personal and private relation.


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## DavidCornell

Wow, very impressive explanation. So I guess I will use 형. is there an English translation of this term? I am a guy and my sunbae is also a guy, so I think 형 should be ok.



loox99 said:


> 선배 is sunbae in korean character.
> for respectful salutation, you can say '안녕하세요, 선배(님)'.
> 님 means sort of 'Mr' or 'Mrs', etc, and normally can be omitted in this kind of relation.
> 
> and one more thing.
> 선배 is quite old way of calling someone in respectful way, especially in universities.(maybe not in some places. it depends on tradition of the community.) these days, it's more natural to call like '형', '누나', '오빠', or '언니', normal title between one and the other with older age.
> 
> **형 is between men and men.
> **누나 is between men and women(older).
> **오빠 is between women and men(older).
> **언니 is between women and women.


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## DavidCornell

What about 형님? Is it also acceptable?


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## loox99

'형' is enough.
If he is very proud of being Korean guy, he would like to be called '형님'.


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## Anais Ninn

loox99's first suggestion 안녕하세요, 선배(님) seems like a best option if you want to be respectful without going overboard.

형 (along with 누나, 오빠 and 언니) is quite personal and you might want to use it to a 선배 you know pretty well.

By the way, 선배(先輩) is a word adopted from Chinese and, there is the same word in Japanese that is used in the same context as Korean word 선배.

Additionally, whether to use 형님 or 형 is usually decided by the age difference and the closeness between the addresser and the addressee. One's sense of pride in his/her ethnicity is irrelevant here.

Hope it helps.

Anais


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