Today we have another lesson of Korean, this time with another word that is hard to memorise for me, but could be very useful, and can be used daily as it defines a kind of workers that you will interact with every day, or maybe could work as that if you are a student in South Korea.
종업원 What does it mean?
Today’s word is 종업원 which in English means Employee or Service Worker (like a waiter, sales clerk and so on). It is the kind of staff that you interact with if you go to a Restaurant, cafe or who attend you in a convenience store.
Which are the components of 종업원?
Today’s word is composed of 3 morphemes that come from Chinese. Let’s take a look at that.
- 종 Literally means to follow or obey. Conveys the idea of “carrying out” or “being at the service of something”
- 업 This means work, occupation or business. Indicates an activity or profession.
- 원 Finally we have this morpheme that means to be a person or member. This marks a person who belongs to a group or performs a role.
How we put this all together?
If we take all morphemes together, we can build the meaning of the word as a person (원) who works or has an occupation (업) following orders or obeying (종). If we take this definition literally, it could mean almost any job, but they mean someone who follows the orders of their customers. If you read it that way, it makes more sense and gets closer to the dictionary’s definition.
Simple usage example
저는 이 레스토랑에서 종업원으로 일하고 있어요.
I work as an employee at this restaurant.
고객이 불만을 제기하면 종업원은 즉시 사과하고 문제를 해결해야 합니다.
When a customer raises a complaint, the service worker must promptly apologize and resolve the issue.
새로운 종업원을 교육할 때는 메뉴와 주문 시스템을 먼저 알려 주세요.
When training a new employee, first teach them the menu and the ordering system.
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