Re: Tonal Languages taken to extremes

From: "Yoon Ha Lee"

> annyeong (I hope no one's offended by the informal mode)
> hasta luego
> sayonara
For me, "sayonara" is really a "good-BYE". You say this to neighbors if
you're moving out of a neighborhood, to classmates when you change schools,
to anyone if you're going overseas for a while, etc.

In the sense of  "hasta luego", I'd opt for "jya ne" or "mata ne".

PS  I'm not offended by the informal approach of the Korean, though it did
seem a couple syllables short of what I'm accustomed to hearing (I speak no
Korean, but isn't there a "-seyo" somewhere in the polite form?). Does
Korean make the same kind of distinction as the Japanese?

Kou

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