Formality Slip in a Parent-Teacher Email
A Year 12 student must write an email in Korean to a teacher, 선생님, requesting an extension on an assignment. The student drafts: "선생님, 저 숙제 못 해요. 다음 주까지 해도 돼요? 시간이 없어서요. 죄송해요." The teacher's reply notes only: "내용은 알겠습니다. 다시 써 보세요." The student is confused because the meaning is clear. The task requires rewriting the email so that the request, the reason, and the apology are each expressed at an appropriate level of politeness for a student writing to a teacher, while keeping the message short.
1. Identify the specific problems with the draft, focusing on speech level and how the request and reason are framed.
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The draft is understandable but uses a speech level and framing unsuitable for a student addressing a teacher.
1. Speech level is too casual throughout. "못 해요," "해도 돼요?," "없어서요," and "죄송해요" are all 해요체. 해요체 is polite but is the everyday register used with acquaintances, older friends, or colleagues of similar status. A student writing to a teacher should use 합니다체/하십시오체 for statements and formal requests (e.g., 못 했습니다, 해 주실 수 있을까요, 죄송합니다).
2. The request is framed as permission-seeking, too bluntly. "해도 돼요?" literally asks "is it okay if I do it?" - it presumes the student decides and the teacher merely approves. A request for an extension should be framed as asking the teacher to grant something: 부탁드립니다 / 해 주실 수 있는지 여쭙고 싶습니다.
3. The reason is stated as a bare fact with a defensive tone. "시간이 없어서요" offers no detail and sounds like an excuse dropped in passing. A teacher expects a brief, concrete reason (e.g., other assessments overlapping) delivered in formal style.
4. The apology is under-specified. "죄송해요" is casual and does not acknowledge the inconvenience to the teacher. Formal acknowledgment (폐를 끼쳐 죄송합니다) fits better.
5. Missing elements of a formal email: a greeting, the student's name and class, and a closing.
2. Produce a rewritten email of roughly four to six sentences and explain, sentence by sentence, which choices raise the register.
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Model rewrite:
안녕하십니까, 선생님. 3반 김민수입니다. 다름이 아니라 다음 주까지로 예정된 과제 제출 기한을 조금 연장해 주실 수 있는지 여쭙고 싶습니다. 이번 주에 다른 과목 평가가 겹쳐 준비 시간이 부족했습니다. 갑자기 부탁드리게 되어 정말 죄송합니다. 가능하시다면 금요일까지 제출하도록 하겠습니다. 바쁘신 중에 읽어 주셔서 감사합니다.
Sentence-by-sentence justification:
- 안녕하십니까, 선생님. 3반 김민수입니다. - 안녕하십니까 is the formal greeting; identifying class and name is standard in Korean formal correspondence and signals who is writing.
- 다름이 아니라 … 여쭙고 싶습니다. - 다름이 아니라 is a conventional opener that softens the transition to a request. 여쭙다 is the humble verb for asking a superior, and -고 싶습니다 keeps it formal. The request itself is 연장해 주실 수 있는지 ("whether you could extend"), which asks the teacher to grant, not to permit.
- 이번 주에 다른 과목 평가가 겹쳐 준비 시간이 부족했습니다. - a concrete reason in 합니다체 past tense. Stating it as a completed fact (부족했습니다) is more appropriate than the vague 시간이 없어서요.
- 갑자기 부탁드리게 되어 정말 죄송합니다. - 부탁드리다 is the humble form of 부탁하다; the apology names the inconvenience (갑자기) rather than being generic.
- 가능하시다면 금요일까지 제출하도록 하겠습니다. - offers a concrete commitment, showing the request is not open-ended.
- 바쁘신 중에 읽어 주셔서 감사합니다. - a formal closing thank-you suited to a teacher's time.