In the culture(s) where 'your' language is spoken, are there significant differences in the language when you are talking to family rather than strangers? older people rather than younger? men rather than women?
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The Korean language reflects the social hierarchy in Korean culture. This social hierarchy is constructed based on age, work experience, and/or standing in society. The way I would talk to someone older to me would vary with how I would talk to someone my own age or younger. For example, I would address an older woman or man (by a year or more) as unni and oppa respectively. If I was male, the terms would be replaced by noona and hyung. Someone younger than me would be my dongsaeng, while I would call someone my own age (or within a year of my age) as 'their name'-sshi. Ahjumma and ahjussi are terms used to refer to significantly older women and men. In work or school, someone of higher rank would be called sunbae while they would refer to their junior as hoobae. Conversations are also influenced by this hierarchy: for instance, words like hello, thank you, and sorry differ with the amount of formality required. Strangers are usually talked to in formal terms (unless they are significantly younger), and in order to determine the formality in conversation for future meetings, it is common to ask someone their age the first time one talks to them.
Informal or familiar speech is called 'banmal' in korean and formal speech is called 'jondae'.
In general, banmal is used for people who are of the same age or older than you and who are familiar with you. However, there are several exceptions depending on the context. Within families, older people will use banmal with younger people but it is less obvious for younger members. Usage of banmal depends on the relationship of family members with each other. People who are more distant with their parents will use jondae while close families use banmal with parents. Sometimes generational differences also come into play. Although children may use banmal with their parents, their parents will use jondae with their grandparents. In other cases such as at workplace, anyone who is older or in a position of authority will use banmal while everyone else will use jondae.
The use of formal/informal speech is more simple for children: they use jondae with adults and banmal with other children. Adults will never start an interaction using banmal. In daily life, banmal is used only with those who we are familiar with, after having already established that we are on informal terms. Usually, we must get permission to speak informally to someone. Once jondae is declared unnecessary, there is no need to go back to it. There are several ways to tell someone to use banmal instead of jondae. Some examples of phrases used for this purpose are 'speak comfortably' and 'plainly'. In contrast, one can also ask others to use jondae using phrases such as 'lower your words'.
In romantic relationships, the use of banmal shows that the man and the woman are very close and comfortable with each other. If a couple is close in age, they will call each other as name-sshi, such as Jane-sshi, and use jondae. When using banmal, it changes to name-ah or name-ya (Jane-ah/Jane-ya).
However, in traditional couples, men/husbands use banmal while women/wives use jondae regardless of the closesness of their relationship. This might be because men are considered the head of the household which gives them a higher status.
Moreover, there is no way to say 'you' in jondae. The structure is such that one cannot address an elder directly in the second person. Therefore, one would say, "I want to talk to Mom".
In Korean, they do use formal and informal language, which depends on the person that you are speaking to. The easiest way to identify whether a sentence is formal or not is to see whether there is a "yo" at the end of the sentence. The "yo" is always placed at the end of the sentence to signify formality. Sometimes there won't be a "yo" in a sentence, making identification harder. You use formal language when you are speaking with strangers and individuals who are older than you. Informal language for friends. In a business meeting and setting as well, you will usually use formal language. In most families, you are allowed to use informal language. However in hardcore families, they usually use formal language to talk to their parents. When a girl speaker is talking to someone who is not related to her or is her brother/sister, she will use either "oppa" for older guy and "unni" for older girl. For a guy speaker, he will say "hyung" for older guy and "nuna" for older girl. For parents, everyone says "umma" for mother and "appa" for father. Using informal language is allowed when talking with friends. In Korean, a person would be considered older when that person is at least 1 year older. Men and women of the same age who are friends use informal language. Also when someone is of a higher social or economic status regardless of age, you will use formal language.
In Indian culture showing respect to people is considered to be very important. Thus, there are various ways of expressing respect. First, the suffix 'ji' is used when talking to elder people and strangers. It can be placed after a name, f.i. Gandhiji, or after saying 'yes' or 'no', f.ex. 'haji' or 'neiji'. A variation of 'ji' would be 'Babaji' for an older person. Second, nearly every elder person is called 'uncle' or 'aunty' even if they are not related to oneself. When talking to family showing respect by saying 'aunty Mary' or 'uncle Cyril' is common. If one is very keen to stick to this custome, a brother calls his elder brother even 'brother' meaning 'bhai' or 'bhaja' in Hindi or in 'irmao' in Konkani, the dialect my family speaks.
There is no real distinction between talking to someone formally or informally in Hebrew. Using the feminine plural pronouns in second of third person is considered more formal, while replacing them with the male pronouns is considered informal. Most verbs, pronouns, and nouns have a grammatical gender and even numbers take both a masculine and feminine form. While there may not be a set way of addressing older or younger adults, they can differ in pronunciation. There are also two forms of Hebrew based on accents and pronunciation of different letters. Sephardic Hebrew is used by speakers in the Mediterranean, and Ashkenasic Hebrew is spoken by those in Central Europe and Israel.
Yes there are significant differences in the language when you talking to family vs. strangers. You show more respect when talking to strangers. In some cases, there are two versions of a word, one formal and one informal. The one you choose to use is dependent on your relationship with who you are talking to. Older people are spoken to with more respect. For example, you add "ji" to the end of someone's name: Baba Ji, Aunty Ji. There are also differences when addressing men and women, mainly grammatical endings change depending on the gender of a person or an object. Also, if a woman is addressing her female friends she may be speaking differently than if she was talking to a group of men.
During my first lesson with my "sunsaengnim" or teacher Sun, I learned that there is usually both a formal and informal way to say anything in the Korean language. For example, the formal way to say "hello" in Korean is An nyong ha sae yo! One uses this formal version of hello when addressing someone older, someone is not a kid, or someone who one has just met. The "yo" at the end signifies when a phrase or expression is formal in Korean. Then the informal way to say hello is Anyoung! This is said in a happy time as one can also say anyoung to say goodbye in an informal way. Saying anyoung as a goodbye is done in a more mellow, smoother tone. One also tends to drag the "young" in anyoung when saying goodbye. I also learned about the terms: hyung, nuna, oppa, and unni. One says hyung when one is a guy addressing his older "brother." This can be an actual brother and also a friend who is a guy. Nuna is said when one is a guy addressing his older sister. Oppa is said when one is a girl addressing her older brother and unni is said when one is a girl addressing her older sister. These words are prevalent within everyday Korean dialogue as they are ways to address people that one is close with on a social level. Therefore one can see that they are major differences in how one addresses different age groups, sexes, and individuals in the Korean culture.
Since Swedes are in general pretty informal and because their society is very egalitarian, it is very rare that you would use formal Swedish phrases and terms. Sometimes I will look up a phrase and my language partner will tell me that the way I had found to express myself was overly formal and that, although people would understand me, they would probably think I was very strange or a stranger to the informal language structures. For instance, there are words for Sir and Madam (Herr and Dam) but Swedes hardly ever use them (except maybe to point to the bathrooms in a restaurant) and you are far more likely to call (even people who are your superiors) just by their first names. This semester I've been watching a lot of a Swedish tv show called Bron and the characters speak informally which has taught me some Swedish slang and informalities. For instance Swedes say that they are på snusen when they are drunk!
There are two different types of Hebrew: Sephardic and Ashkenasic. Sephardic is spoken by those who live in the Mediterranean and Ashkenasic is spoken by those who live in Europe. The main differences between the two is how each group pronounces accents and certain letters. Hebrew does not have formal or informal tenses, unlike other languages I have learned. When learning French, there were formal and informal tenses which sometimes confused me as to when to use each tense. In Hebrew, the feminine version of pronouns are used in second and third person when speaking formally. Because there really is no difference in how people speak to one another, this really shows how Israeli culture is different than our culture in America. It is interesting, however, that older and younger generations pronounce various letters or words differently. This is most likely because of differences in discipline and schooling while growing up. I find it to be extremely interesting that even in very formal settings, such as in business or in court, there is still no “formal” Hebrew spoken. This shows that the Israeli culture is much more casual and less focused on formality.
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