🇰🇷 Lesson 24: Work & Education

"What do you do?" and "Where did you study?" are among the first questions people ask when they meet you in Korea. The good news is that you already have almost all the grammar you need to answer them. This lesson gives you the words for jobs, offices and schools, and then uses them to practise the grammar from Lessons 5–23: particles, the past and future, honorifics, "must", and connecting clauses. Think of it as bringing your toolkit to work.

💼 Job Titles

To say your own job, use the sentence frame from Lesson 5: 저는 회사원이에요. (after a consonant) or 저는 의사예요. (after a vowel). To ask someone else politely, the standard question is 무슨 일 하세요? — literally "What work do you do?" with the honorific -(으)세요 from Lesson 13.

🏢 Workplace Hierarchy

Korean companies have clear ranks, and people are usually addressed by their title rather than their name. Here is a typical ladder (exact titles vary by company, and many firms have flattened them in recent years):

🗣️ Work-Related Phrases

Notice the two ways to say where you work. 일하다 is an action, so the place takes 에서 (Lesson 9): 은행에서 일해요. 다니다 means "to go regularly / attend", so it takes 에, like any destination: 회사에 다녀요, 대학교에 다녀요. Koreans use 다니다 constantly for both jobs and schools.

💡 Culture Note — 수고하셨습니다 and leaving the office: 수고하셨습니다 ("you worked hard") is said to colleagues when a job or the day is finished — a warm way to thank people for their effort. The person who leaves first usually says 먼저 가 보겠습니다. Be careful with the present-tense version 수고하세요 ("keep up the hard work"): many Koreans feel it sounds like an instruction, so it is best not said to a superior.

💡 Culture Note — 회식 (Hoesik): After-work team dinners (회식) are a big part of Korean work culture. They typically involve food and drinks (소주!) and are seen as important for team bonding. Declining too often used to be frowned upon, though this culture is changing fast — younger workers and many companies now favour shorter dinners, lunches, or no alcohol at all.

🎓 Education Vocabulary

🧩 Grammar in Action

Everything below uses grammar you have already learned — only the vocabulary is new. Read each sentence aloud and see if you can name the pattern before you look at the last column.

💬 Dialogue — Meeting at a Networking Event

Leaving the office

Notice Tom switches to 합니다-style (썼습니다) with his boss, while the boss answers in 해요-style — exactly the asymmetry you met in Lesson 13.

Job and school sentences can get long — if one comes out wrong, that is simply feedback telling you which piece to adjust. Fix the particle, try again, and it will be yours.

✍️ Practice

🧠 Check Your Understanding

❓ Common Questions

🔮 Looking Ahead

So far you can say "I work at a company" — but not "the company where I work" or "a busier job". Lesson 25 teaches noun modifiers (-(으)ㄴ/-는/-(으)ㄹ) and comparisons with 보다 and 제일, so you'll be able to say 제가 일하는 회사 and much more.