Korean business terms and workplace abbreviations are the first language wall every foreign employee hits inside a Korean company. Lines like “I uploaded the report” (보고서 올렸습니다), “I am waiting on approval” (결재 기다리고 있어요), or “Please confirm” (컨펌 부탁드립니다) can derail an entire meeting if a single word slips past you. “How did you set the KPI?”, “Can you prepare the PT by tomorrow?”, “Please send it by EOD today” — this mix of abbreviations and English loanwords is essentially the default speech mode in Korean workplaces. This article walks through 30+ Korean business terms you will actually hear at the office, with definitions, context, and real conversational examples.

Term / Abbreviation	Original Form	Meaning / Usage
결재 (gyeoljae)	決裁	Official document approval by a superior
PT	Presentation	Presentation deck or the act of presenting
KPI	Key Performance Indicator	Performance measurement target
CS	Customer Service / Satisfaction	Customer support and satisfaction management
IR	Investor Relations	Investor-facing communications
컨콜 (con-call)	Conference Call	Multi-party voice or video meeting
EOD	End Of Day	Before the end of today’s business
어젠다 (agenda)	Agenda	Meeting topics and discussion items

Korean Business Terms: 결재 (Approval) vs. 승인 (Endorsement)

“결재” (gyeoljae) is one of the most frequent Korean business terms you will hear daily. It refers to the formal process of a superior reviewing and officially approving a document such as a report or expense request. Phrases like “I need to get the CEO’s approval” (사장님께 결재받아야 한다) or “Move forward once the manager signs off” (과장님 결재 떨어지면 진행하세요) are part of everyday vocabulary. In English, the closest word is “approval”, but the Sino-Korean word 결재 is so deeply rooted in Korean workplace culture that no substitute really takes its place.

While 결재 refers to a formal document-based approval process, 승인 (seungin) is a broader “this item has been endorsed”. A supervisor saying “Okay, you can go ahead with that” verbally is still 승인, but the act of stamping or digitally signing a document is 결재. In email, “Requesting your 결재” means “please officially authorize this proposal”. For more on Korean workplace relationships and titles, you may also want to read our Complete Guide to Making Korean Friends.

The approval chain varies by company but typically flows from the person in charge to the team leader, division head, and then executives. Companies running electronic approval systems such as SAP, Douzone, or Younglimwon often use the phrase “I submitted it for approval” (결재 상신했어요). For foreign employees, simply asking “Where is the approval right now?” is a fast way to track work progress and stay aligned with the team.

Reports and PT: Korean Business Terms for Documents and Presentations

A “보고서” (bogoseo) is a document used to report on a work situation or result. The format varies across companies, but the most common structure is an A4 page combining text, tables, and charts; for executive briefings, the same content is often delivered as a PPT deck. A typical Korean corporate report follows the order Summary – Background – Body – Conclusion – Next Actions.

“PT” is shorthand for Presentation. “Please prepare the PT materials by tomorrow morning” means “make the slide deck by tomorrow”, and when used as a verb in “Could you do a PT once?”, it means “actually stand up and present it”. Within a Korean office, PT almost always refers to a business presentation, so confusion with gym Personal Training is essentially zero.

Korean Company English Abbreviations: KPI, SNS, CS, IR, R&R

Korean workplaces freely adopt English abbreviations as everyday Korean business terms. KPI (Key Performance Indicator) refers to the metrics a company uses to measure whether goals are being hit. “Hitting this month’s KPI looks tough” means it will be hard to meet the performance target the company has set. KPIs are often tied to quarterly or annual performance reviews, so foreign employees should confirm their own KPIs during their first week on the job.

• KPI — Key Performance Indicator. Quarterly and annual evaluation criteria.
• SNS — Social Networking Service. Used as a synonym for social media in Korea.
• CS — Customer Service or Customer Satisfaction. Customer support and satisfaction management.
• IR — Investor Relations. Communications targeted at investors.
• R&R — Roles & Responsibilities. Division of duties and responsibilities.
• TF / TFT — Task Force (Team). A temporary team formed to solve a specific issue.
• OJT — On the Job Training. Hands-on training for new hires.

Another quirk of Korean company English abbreviations is that many of them are pronounced letter by letter in Korean style. CS is “ssi-eseu”, IR is “ai-al”, KPI is “ke-i-pi-ai”. It feels strange at first, but starting with the Korean business terms you hear most often, you will catch up to the daily flow within a month or two.

Scheduling Vocabulary: Schedule, Deadline, EOD, COB

Day-to-day work in Korea constantly brings up English-loaned scheduling terms like “schedule” (스케줄) and “deadline” (데드라인). Native Korean equivalents like 일정 and 마감 기한 exist, but the English versions feel more direct, so they dominate. “When is the deadline for Project A?” simply asks when Project A is due.

Phrases like “The deadline is tight” (마감이 촉박해요) and email favorites such as “Please send it by EOD today” are everyday scheduling shorthand. EOD (End Of Day) means by the end of today’s business hours, and COB (Close Of Business) is used almost interchangeably to mean the same thing. In companies with heavy global collaboration, you will often see annotations like “EOD KST” or “EOD ET” to make the time zone explicit.

Meeting Korean Business Terms: Meeting, Agenda, Con-call

“미팅” (meeting) is the most universal Korean word for a meeting, but in Korean companies it is also used for “a short get-together or a quick visit with an external partner”. “We have a meeting with Company A this afternoon” means there is an appointment to meet someone from Company A and talk things through.

“어젠다” (agenda) covers the topics or key discussion items for a meeting. “Let me share today’s agenda” announces in advance what will be covered. “컨콜” (con-call) refers to a meeting where multiple people connect simultaneously by phone or video. With video tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet now mainstream, words like “video meeting” or “Zoom meeting” often replace 컨콜 in modern Korean offices.

• 1 on 1 / 원온원 — One-on-one meeting with your manager.
• Kick-off (킥오프) — Project launch meeting.
• Weekly (위클리) — Recurring weekly meeting.
• Stand-up (스탠드업) — Short daily sync, especially in IT teams.
• Review meeting (리뷰 미팅) — Feedback session on deliverables.
• Workshop (워크숍) — Off-site or focused discussion / training session.

Finance and Accounting Terms: Invoice, Lease, COGS, Balance

Finance and accounting also import many English expressions directly into Korean business terms. “인보이스” (invoice) is the document used to bill for goods or services, “리스” (lease) is a long-term rental contract for equipment or vehicles, and “밸런스” (balance) refers to a remaining amount or balanced state.

For cost accounting, English abbreviations like “COGS” (Cost Of Goods Sold) are often used as-is. Internal terminology varies by company, so it pays to ask the finance team early on, “What does this term mean here?”, and start building a personal glossary. If you also want to understand how taxes work for foreign workers, see our Complete Guide to Korean Income Tax for Foreign Residents.

Real Story: A Mishap Caused by Korean Business Terms

D, a Chinese employee at a Korean conglomerate, kept getting confused whenever the word “PM” came up. Sometimes it meant “Project Manager”, and other times it referred to “8 PM” as a time of day. When his team leader said, “We have a PM meeting today”, D assumed it was about time and showed up expecting a scheduling discussion — only to find a meeting with the project manager.

This story is a perfect example of how ambiguous Korean business terms can be — the same abbreviation can mean entirely different things depending on context. After the incident, D started keeping a list of the terms that had tripped him up and made it a habit to ask, “Which ‘PM’ do you mean here?”, whenever something felt unclear. Even within a single company, the meaning of an abbreviation can differ by department, so having access to an internal wiki or glossary makes a real difference.

Situational Comparison of Korean Business Terms

Situation	Common phrase	What it really means
Morning kickoff	“Let’s start by sorting today’s agenda” (오늘 어젠다부터 정리하고 시작하시죠)	Share the items the team will cover today
Requesting approval	“Please approve (결재) by EOD”	Sign off on the document before end of business today
Scheduling a meeting	“Can you do tomorrow’s weekly con-call?”	Check availability for the recurring weekly video meeting
Clarifying R&R	“R&R on this part is unclear”	Roles and responsibilities are not clearly assigned
External proposal	“Please confirm the PT deck”	Final review and sign-off on the presentation
Finance settlement	“Please issue this month’s invoice”	Send the billing document to the client

Three Ways to Learn Korean Business Terms Faster

1. Build your own internal glossary — Every time you hear a new abbreviation, jot it down the same day. In a month, you will cover roughly 80% of your team’s core terminology.
2. Confirm ambiguous abbreviations on the spot — Quick checks like “Just to confirm, PM here means Project Manager, right?” are not rude. They actually signal that you take the task seriously and want to get it right.
3. Save useful email and messenger phrasings as templates — Korean offices reuse the same expressions repeatedly. Keep a text file of well-crafted sentences and you will sound natural much faster.

If you want more structured Korean learning resources, the National Institute of Korean Language publishes Korean study materials for foreigners, and HiKorea aggregates official guidance on work and life in Korea.

Mastering Korean Business Terms Changes Your Work Speed

In Korean workplaces, certain Korean business terms and abbreviations are used so naturally that they almost function as the company’s internal language. 보고서, 결재, PT, KPI, CS, IR, 미팅, 어젠다, 컨콜, EOD — every one of them sounds foreign on day one, but they become second nature with steady exposure. Start with the words you hear most often inside your own role, and within a month or two you will be tracking meeting flow without losing the thread.

What matters most is the willingness to ask whenever something is unclear and to make use of any internal glossary the company offers. Most Korean colleagues and managers actually welcome foreigners who actively try to learn workplace Korean. At some point, Korean business terms will feel so natural that you might catch yourself blurting out things like “Let me put it through approval” (결재 올릴게) with friends back home. If you are also preparing for a Korean language exam, the Complete Guide to Korean Language Test Strategy is a useful next read.

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