Korean School Vocabulary: Word Lists by Topic

Korean School Vocabulary at a Glance

This section teaches the words of two daily worlds: student life and working life. It is a part of Korean Vocabulary and it holds three lists. School covers school words in general, School Subjects names the lessons, and Office and Business covers the workplace. Each of them has deeper pages for narrower topics. The lists hold nouns, short expressions and loanwords. Verbs and adjectives are not in these lists, because they change shape when you conjugate them, so they live in the verbs section.

The word 학교 is a good place to start, because it shows how the lists are built. It is made of 학 (study) and 교 (school), and the same two parts return in 학생 (student), 대학교 (university) and 교실 (classroom). The single-word entry for school in Korean explains 학교 on its own.

Which List Should You Open First?

Open the list that matches your goal. If you are a student or a parent, start with School. If you are preparing for an exam, add School Subjects. If you are about to work in Korea, start with Office and Business and then the ranks list. The lists follow a rough order of difficulty: School and School Subjects are A1, Office and Business is A2, and the deeper pages on ranks, email, interviews and meetings are B1.

• For student life. School, then School Subjects, then the classroom and stationery pages.
• For exams and the TOPIK. School Subjects, then the exams and grades page. The TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) overlaps with this section in its exam and study vocabulary, and you can read about it in the TOPIK exam guide. For current dates and rules, use the official site, topik.go.kr.
• For working in Korea. Office and Business, then Korean Company Ranks and Job Titles, then email and meetings.
• For finding a job. Korean Job Interview Vocabulary, then the email list for the application.

If you are not sure, start with School. Its words are the most common and the easiest, and many of them, such as 시험 (exam) and 선배 (senior), come back later in the workplace.

School Life

School is the first list and the widest. It holds 50 words in five groups: school levels and years, places and classroom items, people, the school day, and exams, vacations and events. It starts with the path from 유치원 (kindergarten) to 대학교 (university), and with 학년 (school year) and 학기 (semester). The Korean school year usually begins in the spring, in March, and is split into two semesters, although each school sets its own dates.

Four deeper pages sit under School:

• Korean Classroom Vocabulary: 40 words at A1 for the board, desks, textbooks and lesson words.
• Korean Stationery Vocabulary: 30 words at A1 for pens, notebooks, scissors and art supplies.
• Korean Exams and Grades Vocabulary: 35 words at A2 for midterms, finals, scores and the college entrance exam.
• Korean University Majors Vocabulary: 40 words at A2 for majors, degrees, campus life and study abroad.

What Is in the School Subjects List?

School Subjects names the lessons and the fields of study. It has 30 words in five groups: core subjects such as 국어 (Korean as a school subject), 영어 (English), 수학 (mathematics), 과학 (science), 사회 (social studies) and 역사 (history), then the sciences, the languages and humanities, the arts and practical subjects, and the words that describe subjects. A useful pattern comes with it: put the subject before 시간 (time) to name a class, so 수학 시간 is math class. One trap is worth knowing early. 국어 is Korean as Korean students study it, and 한국어 is the name used for Korean as a foreign language.

Office and Business

Office and Business is the workplace list. It has 50 words in five groups: the workplace, meetings, email and documents, pay and benefits, and business trips and events. It starts from 회사 (company), 사무실 (office) and 동료 (colleague) and moves to 월급 (monthly salary), 출근 (going to work) and 출장 (business trip). It also explains the Sino-Korean sounds that make workplace words tense, such as 출장 [출짱]. Most of the words are formal nouns that you read on documents and screens more than you hear in casual speech.

What Is in the Company Ranks List?

Korean Company Ranks and Job Titles is the deeper page for titles. It has 30 words at B1, from 사원 (staff member) and 대리 (assistant manager) up to 사장 (president) and 회장 (chairman), then the respectful 님 forms and the titles of teachers, professors and doctors. In Korean companies people are addressed by rank plus 님, as in 김 과장님, so the list is useful before you write a single email. The page also separates a rank (직급) from a position (직책) such as team leader.

The other pages in the office section are Korean Email and Letters Vocabulary (30 words, B1) for writing to colleagues and clients, and Korean Meetings Vocabulary (30 words, B1) for agendas, presentations, decisions and deadlines.

Job Hunting

Korean Job Interview Vocabulary covers the words you need to get a job: 이력서 (resume), 자기소개서 (self-introduction letter), 지원서 (application form), the stages of the interview, and the results and offers. It has 35 words at B1, and it is the page to study after the ranks and email lists. The application documents are the best place to start, because they are the first written step.

What Do All the Lists Have in Common?

All the lists in this section share one format, so you always know what to expect. For each word you get:

• Hangul. The Korean spelling, the form to learn.
• Revised Romanization. The official Latin spelling that South Korea adopted on 7 July 2000, as a learning aid. It does not show every sound change.
• Audio. A pronunciation clip, generated by text-to-speech and checked by a Korean teacher before publication.
• English meaning. The closest English word, with a short note on use.
• An example sentence. A short polite sentence, so the word is learned in use.

Here are two examples of the sentences, one from each world:

A second feature is shared too: most of these words are Sino-Korean, built from short parts that you can reuse. The part 학 (study) gives 학교, 학생, 학원 (private academy), 학기 and 학년. The part 장 (head) gives 교장 (school principal), 과장 (section chief), 부장 (department head) and 사장 (company president), so the same short part links the school and the workplace. Learning the parts lets you guess a new word before you look it up. The pattern is useful but not perfect, so treat it as a guide and not as a rule.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, open the deck for the list you are studying on the vocabulary flashcard decks page and run it in recognition mode. Second, switch to listening mode and play the clip before you flip each card. Third, take the five-question quiz below. Your progress stays in your browser.

Consult the vocabulary worksheets page for available printable sheets. Meanwhile, write the name of one school subject and one workplace title that you want to learn, and say each aloud.

Where to Go Next

After this page, open School if you are starting with school life, or Office and Business if you are starting with work. Related sections are Places and Travel for the places you go to every day, and Hobbies and Leisure for what you do after school and work. To go back up a level, return to Korean Vocabulary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which List in Korean School Vocabulary Should I Start With?

Start with School. It holds 50 words at A1, in five groups, and its words come back in every other list. Add School Subjects next if you are studying for exams, or Office and Business if you are preparing to work in Korea.

How Are the Lists in Korean School Vocabulary Organised?

By topic, in three main lists: School, School Subjects, and Office and Business. Each has deeper pages for narrower topics: classroom, stationery, exams and university under School, and company ranks, email, job interviews and meetings under Office and Business. Every list has five parts for each word: Hangul, Revised Romanization, audio, an English meaning and an example sentence.

Do These Lists Include Verbs and Adjectives?

No. The lists hold nouns, short expressions and loanwords. Verbs such as 가다 (to go) and 일하다 (to work) change shape when conjugated, so they are taught in the verbs section. Each list still shows verbs in its example sentences, such as 학교에 가요 (I go to school).

Where Can I Find Flashcards and Worksheets for These Topics?

Open the vocabulary flashcard decks page for the decks, which have a recognition mode and a listening mode. Consult the vocabulary worksheets page for available printable sheets.

What Level Is Each List?

School and School Subjects are A1, and Office and Business is A2. Among the deeper pages, classroom and stationery are A1, exams and grades and university are A2, and company ranks, email, job interviews and meetings are B1. These are editorial estimates, not official levels, and they do not match a TOPIK level exactly.

Is the Romanization on This Page Official?

It follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, which South Korea adopted on 7 July 2000 and whose rules the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) publishes. It is a learning aid and does not mark every sound change, so rely on the Hangul and the audio.