Honorifics and register in a formal complaint call
You are listening to a recorded phone call for a practice listening task. A university student calls a department office to complain that a scholarship payment has not arrived. The clerk answers using the polite formal register (합니다체), but the student slips into 반말 (plain informal) twice when frustrated, then immediately switches back to formal speech. The clerk does not comment on the switch. Later the clerk says "제가 확인해 드릴게요" and then adds "아마 다음 주에 들어올 거예요." The recording is played twice only, and the exam question asks you to identify the student's attitude and the source of tension in the exchange.
1. Explain why the student's register switching is significant, and what it reveals about the relationship and emotional state. Support your answer with the specific expressions used.
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The clerk consistently uses 합니다체, signalling an institutional, hierarchical distance. The student begins in the same formal register, showing awareness of the setting. The two slips into 반말 under frustration are the key evidence: register downgrade here is not intimacy but a loss of control and a momentary assertion of entitlement or anger toward a service provider. The immediate switch back shows the student is aware the 반말 was inappropriate and is repairing the face-threat.
So the tension is between the student's emotional pressure (unpaid scholarship, financial worry) and the institutional norm requiring deference. The student's attitude is anxious and mildly aggrieved but ultimately compliant with the power structure. A strong answer names both the register forms and the repair, not just 'the student was angry.'
2. Analyse the clerk's final two utterances ('제가 확인해 드릴게요' then '아마 다음 주에 들어올 거예요'). What does the shift in certainty and in the use of hedging suggest?
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The first utterance uses the humble auxiliary 드릴게요, committing the speaker to action and lowering the speaker's status - a clear service-oriented promise. The second utterance uses 아마 ('probably') plus 거예요, a softened speculative ending. Together they move from a firm commitment to a hedged prediction.
The hedging is doing face-work: the clerk avoids guaranteeing an outcome they cannot control, while still offering reassurance. For a listening question about attitude, this signals the clerk is cooperative but constrained by the system - polite, non-committal, and managing the caller's expectations. A weaker answer would simply say 'the clerk is polite'; the stronger answer identifies the certainty drop and its function.