Introduce yourself in Korean: 자기소개

How To Introduce Your Name in Korean

Now that you know how to say “Hello” properly, maybe you want to start some more proper conversation and get to know who you’re talking to, you’ll also have to introduce yourself at some point. Let’s just start with your name!

There are multiple way to introduce your name in Korean, here is the most basic one :

안녕하세요? 제 이름은 조셉이에요
Hello, my name is Joseph (조셉 in Hangul)
안녕하세요? 제 이름은 알렉스예요
Hello, my name is Alex (알렉스)

This sentence is what many books or websites will teach you. It literally means “My name is”, if we break it down it looks like: 제(my) 이름(name)은 조셉(Joseph) 이에요(is). This will totally be an appropriate form if you introduce yourself in a formal setting.

However, you can sound a bit more natural by simple saying :

저는 조셉이에요
I am Joseph
저는 알렉스예요
I am Alex

Just like in english, you never actually say “Hello. My name is…” when you introduce yourself to other people, but you go for a more natural approach by saying simply “Hello, I’m …”

We can also explain what 저는 stands for, 저 itself is “I” to which you add 는 particle. We will go more in depth with how subject is designated in Korean because there are multiple ways. For now get yourself familiar with 는 and 은.

Again same subtlety applies, you have 는 if the word before finishes by a vowel and 은 if it is by a consonant. The only thing you have to know for now is that this particle is usually described as the “topic marker”.

While it's not always necessary, here's another way to introduce your name. This one is significantly more polite than the earlier ones.

저는 조셉이라고 합니다
I am Joseph
저는 알렉스라고 합니다
I am Alex

Here we are just starting to explore Korean grammar. As you progress in your learning, you'll discover that Korean grammar mainly consists in manipulating various particles and attaching them as prefixes or suffixes to different words.

I come from...

A question that can be asked by your conversation partner is:

어디에서 왔어요?

Which means “Where do you come from?”. Now let’s answer:

저는 프랑스에서 왔어요
I come from France (프랑스)
저는 폴란드에서 왔어요
I come from Poland (폴란드)

You can also answer with :

저는 프랑스 사람이에요
I am French
저는 폴란드 사람이에요
I am Polish

사람 in Korean means “person”. Therefore these sentences literal translations are “I am a … person”.

Here we compiled a few additional country names for you:

미국
United States
중국
China
일본
Japan
독일
Germany
영국
United Kingdom
프랑스
France
이탈리아
Italy
인도
India
브라질
Brazil
캐나다
Canada
러시아
Russia
호주
Australia
스페인
Spain
멕시코
Mexico
인도네시아
Indonesia
네덜란드
Netherlands
사우디아라비아
Saudi Arabia
스위스
Switzerland
터키
Turkey
스웨덴
Sweden
벨기에
Belgium
아르헨티나
Argentina
노르웨이
Norway
남아프리카
South Africa

( We are sorry if your country isn’t on the list 🥲 hopefully you will find the correct spelling for it )

It’s still good to know how South Korea itself (the country you’re interested in) is called so here it is: 대한민국, its official name. In short, it’s also often called 한국.

Job / Occupation

Final point for this lesson, let’s talk about what you do in life!

If you get this question:

직업이 뭐예요?
What is your occupation?

You will answer with:

학생이에요
I am a student (학생)

Here 저는 is emitted because, as Korea is a context-based language, at some point in the conversation the topic is already determined and doesn’t have to be repeated.

It can be counter-intuitive if you’re coming here from English or a latin language but in most case you don’t need to say “I” or “you” pronouns.

You can also answer with one of the following :