Writing business emails is always more demanding than you think — even for Koreans.

Sometimes, receiving a Korean email is confusing for Koreans as well, as there are a lot of formal words they don’t use in everyday conversations. For example, do you get the difference between “금일” and “금요일”? Also, do you know what “사료되다” means?

There's another issue for foreigners who are trying to master the art of writing a Korean business email — getting your head around honorifics!

To spare you the agony and the time of confusion, here is a short and sweet guide and a glossary for you to check what words are there to smoothen your Korean email in a formal setting, if not excel it! 

1- Make sure the subject of your email is clear and directly states its purpose

Before anything, setting your email's title in a clear tone is a must! Generally, you should mark the name of your company in [brackets] and write the purpose of your email next.

For example, suppose you are contacting someone outside your company for a pending contract. In that case, it’s better to state your company name and the purpose of the message, like: “[YOUR COMPANY] Company contract processing.”

In Korean, it would be “[회사명] ____ 계약 체결 진행의 건.”

Then, what if you’re sending an email to someone in your company, but to a different team? In that case, you may list the name of your team or the division and between the brackets and then mention the details in the rest of the title.

👉[K-CAMPUS TEAM] Jandi Merch design details (ENG)

👉[K-CAMPUS팀] 잔디 판촉물(굿즈) 디자인 세부사항 전달의 건 (KOR)

The title for many business emails tends to have “~의 건” in the end, which is basically a formal way of saying “issue/subject concerning…”

2- The first sentence should be your introduction and the reason for your email

When you’re starting a sentence, you should state your name and position in your company to provide context for whom you’re reaching out to.

This is the fundamental and the most basic step to writing an opening statement of a business email, so do not hesitate to copy the sentence form below. 

👉안녕하세요 ____팀 담당자/매니저/(the person’s position)님, (YOUR TEAM)의 (YOUR NAME) 사원/매니저입니다.

💡Meaning "Hello, (the recipient's name and the position at work). This is (your name) from the (your team name) team." 

3- Be clear, get straight to the point, and keep the email simple

The worst case scenario would be writing an email that’s unnecessarily long and complicated — instead, keep the content simple and get straight to the point so the recipient can directly understand your request.

👉 다름이 아니라, 7월 30일에 예정된 계약 체결 건 관련하여 추가 보고드릴 사항이 있어 연락드렸습니다.

다름이 아니라 is a common expression used in business emails. It is a polite way of starting a sentence that states the reason for your email, usually used in situations where you first address an issue or a question, not in a response.

4- Utilize different tools to clarify your message

If your email inevitably includes long sentences and has a lot of points to involve, using different tools may help to clarify what’s important and where to pay attention to.