COMPARE
Role is known
A department uses 팀장 for team leader, and everyone adds 님 when addressing the role holder.
팀장님 is a well-supported choice.Both the role and the local convention are known.
STEP 1
Environment
Where do you know them from?
SCHOOL & WORKPLACE GUIDE
Organizational role can matter more than age.
Start with the role. In a company, school, university, club, or professional group, a recognized position can carry more useful social information than chronological age. A younger manager is still your manager, and an older junior can still be junior in the group.
Local convention matters. Some organizations prefer role titles, some use names with 님 or 씨, and some school communities rely on 선배/후배 relationships. The Finder treats the group's established pattern as evidence instead of assuming one nationwide formula.
When the signals conflict, do not force a title. If you do not know the person's role or the group's convention, listen to how others address them or ask politely. Starting respectfully is safer than guessing familiarity from age alone.
KOREAN WORKPLACE & SCHOOL TITLES
Role, seniority, and local convention work together.
A Korean title is often organizational, not just personal. Team lead, manager, teacher, professor, senior, and other roles can shape how someone is addressed more strongly than relative age. The same person may therefore be addressed differently inside and outside the organization.
Follow the convention you can actually observe. When a workplace or school consistently uses role titles, name + nim, name + ssi, or senior/junior terms, that local pattern is useful evidence. If the pattern is unclear, the finder favors a cautious starting point.
ORGANIZATIONAL TITLES
Use this finder when the relationship exists inside a school or workplace.
The Title Finder starts from organizational information: role, seniority, the group’s naming pattern, and the setting. It is different from the -ssi / -nim Finder, which starts with the narrower choice of a name suffix versus a title. If you know that someone is a professor, teacher, team leader, or manager, this tool helps prioritize that role.
COMPARE
Role is unclear
You meet an employee from another company and do not know their position.
Use a polite greeting, their introduced form, or ask how to address them.Guessing 부장님 or another senior title can assign a rank the person does not hold.
REAL DIALOGUE
Request to a team leader
The title identifies the workplace role; the sentence also uses polite and honorific language.
팀장님, 잠시 괜찮으세요?Timjangnim, jamsi gwaenchanh-euseyo?
Team lead, do you have a moment?
COMMON MISTAKES
- Choosing a title from the person’s age or appearance.
- Assuming every company uses the same rank system or the same way of addressing titles.
- Continuing to use an old title after a person or organization has adopted a different convention.
USE WITH CARE
Korean organizations vary widely, and some prefer English names, name + 님, role + 님, or title-free communication. A clearly stated local policy is stronger evidence than a generalized etiquette rule.
DEEPER GUIDES