Translating Addresses from an English Business Card into Korean

Business cards often list the company name twice; once in the logo and once in the address. 

On an English card, the second time above the address generally shows the way it should appear on the outside of an envelope for mailing. But Korean business cards don’t show an exact mailing address when the address is written in Korean this way. Even though the company name on a Korean address should appear after the mailing address, Korean business cards always show the company name before the address and set it apart from the address through some kind of formatting technique, such as a larger or bolded font or extra vertical space.

For example, my company name is included in my logo on my business card. If I want to also include it with the Korean address on an English business card, I’ll write it this way:

Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc.

#614, 6F Dongseo Core Bldg. 541-1

Gojan-Dong, Danweon-Gu, Ansan-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 425-713

In this case, it is OK to apply a distinct formatting to the company name or just leave it with the same typeface as the address.

However, on a Korean business card, if I want to write the company name along with the address, I should still list it above the address, but I need to emphasize it somehow, such as like this:

Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc.

425-713 경기도 안산시 단원구 고잔동 541-1 

동서코아 6층 614호

To confuse things a bit more, keep in mind that Korean addresses written in English (mostly) follow the international standard for addresses, which is to start with a street number/name and then follow with neighborhood/neighborhood code (if applicable), city, province and postal code. But written in Korean, addresses begin with province and follow with city, neighborhood, street, and then finally postal code.

But how would we turn this address around for mailing when using a Korean address to send to a company name and/or person written in English? I went to the post office to clarify this issue and was told that, in this case, we should follow the Korean address form. Thus, to address a letter to me (even without changing my name or my company name to Korean script), it should be written as follows:

경기도 안산시 단원구 고잔동 541-1

동서코아 6층 614호 

Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc.

Steven S. Bammel

                                   425-713

Note that the postal code goes on a line by itself indented at the end, and apparently the standard form does not involve writing (우) next to it, though this convention is commonly followed in Korea and it is fine to add it.

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