Showing respect and politeness towards another person is an important aspect of Korean language and culture. Korean interpreters use the appropriate level of honorifics (suffixes or words used to express respect/politeness) to address someone. So when an English speaker says thank you to “Bob,” in Korean, it becomes thank you to “Mr. plus Bob’s last name,” or “Bob plus an honorific” when the last name is unknown.

 Technically, Korean does not have third-person pronouns. There are words in Korean for “he, she, it, they” due to influence from English, but they sound pretty awkward. Korean interpreters substitute English third-person pronouns with the actual name of the person or object or “that person” or “that object.”