You need to email someone at a Korean company and you've hit the wall everyone hits: what do you actually call them? Their card says 부장 or 과장, and "Mr. Kim" is not going to work.
This is not a guide to the whole hierarchy. It answers one question at a time: how do you say this specific title in Korean, and how do you address the person holding it. Ordered by what people actually ask.
The full rank order, bottom to top, is in the reference table further down.
How do you say "boss" in Korean?
The word for boss is 상사 (sangsa). But here is the part that trips everyone up: you never call your boss 상사님.
상사 is a word you use about someone, not to them. To their face you use their job title:
- Talking about your boss: 제 상사가... ("my boss...")
- Talking to your boss: 부장님, 과장님 — whatever their actual title is
If you genuinely don't know their title, use 선생님 (seonsaengnim). It literally means "teacher" but works as a neutral, respectful form of address for anyone.
The broader word for "someone above you" is 윗사람 (witsaram), which is also descriptive only — never used as address.
How do you say "manager" in Korean?
There isn't one word, because "manager" maps onto three different Korean ranks depending on the company.
| English on the card | Korean | Romanized | Actually means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant Manager | 대리 | dae-ri | Experienced staff, no direct reports |
| Manager | 과장 | gwa-jang | First real management rank, small team |
| Senior Manager / Deputy GM | 차장 | cha-jang | Above 과장, below 부장 |
| General Manager | 부장 | bu-jang | Runs a whole department |
If the English business card says only "Manager," read the job description. In a Korean company that title covers both 과장 (leads a team) and 대리 (does not).
Address any of them as title + 님: 과장님, 차장님, 부장님.
What does "gwajangnim" (과장님) mean?
과장님 = 과장 (manager) + 님 (honorific suffix). It means roughly "Manager Kim," said respectfully.
과장 sits above 대리 and below 차장. Typically six to ten years of experience, leading a small team. On an English card it is usually written Manager.
The 님 is not optional in a workplace. 과장 on its own, without 님, sounds curt to the point of rudeness when you are speaking to the person.
What does "bujangnim" (부장님) mean?
부장님 = 부장 (general manager / department head) + 님.
부장 is the highest rank a regular employee reaches. Above it you cross into 임원 (executive) territory, where the contract type, pay structure, and tenure all change. A 부장 runs an entire department and usually has ten-plus years in.
You will hear 부장님 more than almost any other title in a Korean office.
How do you say "director" in Korean?
"Director" is ambiguous in English, so it splits into several Korean ranks:
| English | Korean | Romanized | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Director | 이사 | i-sa | First executive rank |
| Executive Director | 상무 | sang-mu | Above 이사 |
| Senior Executive Director | 전무 | jeon-mu | Above 상무 |
| Outside Director | 사외이사 | sa-oe-i-sa | Independent board member |
All of these are 임원 — executives, not staff. The jump from 부장 to 이사 is a genuine threshold, not just another step.
Note 사외이사: same word 이사 inside it, completely different role. That one is an outside board member, not an employee.
How do you say "CEO" and "president" in Korean?
- 대표 / 대표이사 (daepyo / daepyo-isa) — the legal representative of the company. Closest to CEO or Representative Director. Has the legal authority to sign on behalf of the company. A company can have several 공동대표 (co-representatives).
- 사장 (sa-jang) — president, the top operating officer of one company.
- 부사장 (bu-sa-jang) — vice president.
- 회장 (hoe-jang) — chairman, the top of an entire group.
In conglomerates like Samsung or Hyundai, the 회장 sits over the whole group and each subsidiary has its own 사장. So 회장 outranks 사장.
One thing that confuses learners: in everyday Korean, 사장님 is also what you call a shop owner, a restaurant proprietor, or a taxi driver. In that context it means something closer to "boss" or "sir," not a corporate rank.
How do you say "sir" in Korean?
There is no direct equivalent, and this is worth understanding rather than memorizing.
English "sir" is a generic respectful address for a man. Korean does not do generic — it addresses people by their role.
| Situation | Use | Not |
|---|---|---|
| Someone whose title you know | 부장님, 과장님 | 선생님 |
| Someone whose title you don't know | 선생님 | 씨 |
| A shop owner, driver, proprietor | 사장님 | 선생님 |
| A customer | 고객님 | 손님 (informal) |
선생님 (seonsaengnim) is the closest thing to a universal polite address. It is never wrong.
What you must not do is attach 씨 (ssi) to someone senior. 씨 goes after a given name for peers and juniors (민수 씨). Using it upward — 부장씨 — reads as openly disrespectful.
What does "-nim" (님) actually do?
님 is an honorific suffix. Attach it to a title and you have a respectful form of address. That is the entire rule.
- 과장 → 과장님
- 팀장 → 팀장님
- 선생 → 선생님
- 고객 → 고객님
Three things people get wrong:
- Keep 님 when the person is not in the room. "부장님이 말씀하셨어요" — you do not drop it behind their back the way English drops "Mr."
- Keep 님 in email. 김부장님께 is the standard opening.
- Do not drop 님 when speaking to outsiders about your own boss. English and Japanese business etiquette humble your own side to a customer. Korean does not — internal seniority wins, and 님 stays.
That third point catches people with Japanese business experience almost every time, because the rule is exactly inverted.
What do K-pop idols call their manager?
This one gets searched a lot, so it is worth answering precisely.
Idols call their manager 매니저님 (maenijeo-nim) — the English loanword 매니저 plus 님. Not 부장님 or any corporate rank, because an entertainment agency's road manager is not a corporate manager.
Within a group, members use the same seniority words as any Korean workplace: an idol who debuted earlier is a 선배 (sunbae) to one who debuted later, regardless of age. That is why you hear idols refer to other artists as 선배님 in interviews.
Staff and older members may be addressed as 오빠 / 언니 / 형 / 누나 in casual settings, but those are relational terms tied to the speaker's gender, not job titles.
What are 선배 and 후배?
- 선배 (sunbae) — someone who joined before you
- 후배 (hubae) — someone who joined after you
Seniority here is measured by when you joined, not by age and not by rank. A 26-year-old with four years at the company is 선배 to a 40-year-old who started last month.
A 선배 informally mentors you, warns you before you make a mistake, and explains the rules nobody writes down. In return you show deference and take their advice seriously.
This runs in parallel to the official hierarchy. Your 선배 can hold a lower job title than you do.
What about titles that don't exist in Western companies?
Korean IT companies increasingly use a separate three-tier track instead of the traditional ranks:
| Korean | Romanized | Rough equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| 사원 | sa-won | Staff |
| 선임 | seon-im | Senior / Associate |
| 책임 | chaek-im | Lead / Manager |
| 수석 | su-seok | Principal / Director |
Naver, Kakao, and parts of Samsung Electronics use 선임 / 책임 / 수석. Address is the same: 책임님, 수석님.
There is also 직급 vs 직책 — rank versus role. One person can be 부장 by rank and 팀장 (team leader) by role. When both apply, address them by the role: 팀장님.
Full reference table
The third column is what you actually say out loud — the title plus 님. That
is the form you will hear in an office and the form people search for, so it is
worth learning alongside the plain title.
| Korean | Romanized | Spoken (with 님) | English | Executive? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 사원 | sa-won | (name + 씨/님, not 사원님) | Staff | — |
| 주임 | ju-im | juimnim | Senior Staff | — |
| 대리 | dae-ri | daerinim | Assistant Manager | — |
| 과장 | gwa-jang | gwajangnim | Manager | — |
| 차장 | cha-jang | chajangnim | Deputy General Manager | — |
| 부장 | bu-jang | bujangnim | General Manager | — |
| 이사 | i-sa | isanim | Director | Yes |
| 상무 | sang-mu | sangmunim | Executive Director | Yes |
| 전무 | jeon-mu | jeonmunim | Senior Executive Director | Yes |
| 부사장 | bu-sa-jang | busajangnim | Vice President | Yes |
| 사장 | sa-jang | sajangnim | President | Yes |
| 회장 | hoe-jang | hoejangnim | Chairman | Yes |
| 대표 | dae-pyo | daepyonim | Representative / CEO | Yes |
| 팀장 | tim-jang | timjangnim | Team Leader (role) | — |
| 실장 | sil-jang | siljangnim | Head of Office (role) | — |
| 원장 | won-jang | wonjangnim | Director of a clinic/institute | — |
| 반장 | ban-jang | banjangnim | Shift / crew leader | — |
사원 is the one exception. You do not say 사원님. Junior staff are addressed
by name — 민수 씨 or 민수님 — which is why you will never hear it even though it
sits at the bottom of the ladder.
Two counterintuitive facts worth memorizing: 차장 outranks 과장, and 대리 is not a manager despite the English word "Assistant Manager" on the card.
Why you will see the same word spelled three ways
Romanization is not standardized in everyday use, so the same title reaches you
in several spellings. They are all the same word.
| Title | Spellings you will encounter |
|---|---|
| 부장님 | bujangnim · bujang nim · bu jang nim · pujangnim |
| 사장님 | sajangnim · sajang nim · sa jang nim |
| 회장님 | hoejangnim · hwejangnim · hwe jang nim |
| 과장님 | gwajangnim · gwajang nim · kwajangnim |
| 팀장님 | timjangnim · teamjangnim · team jang nim |
Two patterns explain most of the variation. Korean ㅂ sits between English b
and p, so 부장 shows up as both bujang and pujang. And ㅗ+ㅣ (회) is
written hoe under the official system but hwe by how it sounds, which is
why 회장님 appears both ways.
Spacing varies too — bujangnim, bujang nim, and bu jang nim are one
word said one way. If you are searching for a title and finding nothing, try it
closed up and spaced out.
How to read job titles in a posting
When you look at a Korean job listing, the title tells you the level directly.
| Posting says | Real level | Typical experience |
|---|---|---|
| 사원 / Staff | Entry to three years | 0-3 yrs |
| 대리 / Assistant Manager | Experienced, non-managerial | 3-6 yrs |
| 과장 / Manager | Leads a small team | 6-10 yrs |
| 부장 / General Manager | Runs a department | 10+ yrs |
If a listing gives only the English title, read the responsibilities. "Manager" covers both 과장 and 대리 depending on the company.
HangulJobs currently lists 1,621 open Korean-speaking roles from 1,126 companies, and 1,062 of them require advanced Korean. Counts are measured when this article is updated and move daily. At that level, getting an address wrong is not read as a small etiquette slip — it reads as unfamiliarity with how Korean workplaces run.
FAQ
What if I use the wrong title by mistake?
Apologize briefly and correct yourself. Korean colleagues who work in international settings understand that foreigners are learning. The correction matters more than the mistake.
Can I just use English titles in an English-language email?
Inside a Korean company, no. Even in English email, Korean staff typically write "Bujang-nim" or "Mr. Kim, Bujang." Using bare "Kim" reads as too familiar.
Do I need to speak Korean to use these?
No. Titles are self-contained vocabulary. Saying 부장님 correctly signals respect even if the rest of the conversation is in English.
My company is a startup and pretty casual. Do these still apply?
Korean startups often drop formal titles, and some use English names instead. But the sense of seniority persists underneath. Start formal, then match what you observe.
Is it 님 or 씨 for a colleague at my level?
Full name + 씨 (김지연 씨) is standard for peers. 님 after a full name is also used and is slightly more formal. Never 씨 upward.
What to do next
- Browse Korean-speaking jobs worldwide — 1,621 open now
- If your Korean is intermediate, see jobs requiring intermediate Korean
- For workplace culture beyond titles, see the sunbae/hubae system
- Working with a Korean manager: how to handle conflicts
Job counts are as of this article's last update and change daily.
Wondering which Korean visa applies to you? E-7 needs employer sponsorship, E-9 runs through EPS only, and H-1 excludes language teaching. The full breakdown is in Korea work visa: E-7, E-9, D-10, H-1.
**Nunchi is not a cultural curiosity — it is a workplace judgement with career consequences. See nunchi.
Looking for freelance Korean work? Only six of 1,758 open roles are posted as freelance — the market runs through agencies and referrals. What does have volume, and how to get in: freelance Korean speaker jobs.
