Who this decision is for
- A software company whose Korean docs, website and app all call the same feature by different names.
- A marketing operations manager coordinating an agency, freelancers and in-house staff who all write Korean.
- A brand team launching a product line with dozens of technical or ingredient terms that need consistent Korean wording.
- A localization lead who wants to reduce review cycles caused by repeated arguments over word choice.
The decision to make
The decision is how much structure to invest in before writing at scale. A glossary is a controlled list of terms with approved Korean equivalents, notes on use and forbidden alternatives. A style guide covers everything else: spelling of foreign words in Hangul, spacing conventions, number and date presentation, punctuation and capitalization of Latin terms. Together they replace repeated debate with a lookup.
Trade-offs concern size and ownership. A huge glossary nobody maintains is worse than a compact one that is current. Start with high-frequency and high-risk terms, meaning names visible to customers and those with legal or safety weight. Decide who approves new entries, how writers request them and where the file lives. Involve Korean reviewers early because term choices reflect how customers actually speak, not just dictionary equivalents.
Options compared
| Option | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet glossary | You have few writers and need a quick, transparent list of approved terms and notes. | It gets outdated silently and offers no search or check inside writing tools. |
| Glossary plus short style guide | Several writers work in parallel and need rules for spelling, spacing and foreign-word rendering as well as terms. | A guide written once and never revised loses authority; assign an owner and review cadence. |
| Term base in a translation tool | Volume is high and your vendors use tools that can flag glossary violations automatically. | Setup and licensing add cost, and the underlying term decisions still need native human judgment. |
Risks to manage
- Multiple names for one thing. Customers meet different Korean names for the same feature and lose confidence. Freeze the approved term early and correct legacy pages.
- Dictionary-only choices. A correct dictionary word may not be what Korean users actually say. Check terms against how customers and competitors speak before approving.
- Stale glossary. Products change and the list falls behind. Assign an owner, set a review rhythm and add terms as part of every release.
- Unresolved disputes. Reviewers argue without a decision rule. Nominate a final approver and record the reason next to each contested term.
Evidence to gather first
- A list of product, feature, service and program names in English, with definitions or screenshots so the meaning can be pinned down.
- Existing Korean materials showing terms already in use, including distributor decks, old translations and support articles.
- Competitor and category Korean vocabulary showing how customers talk about similar features.
- A list of terms with legal, safety or claim sensitivity that need extra approval before use.
Recommended process
- Term harvest. SWIN extracts recurring terms from your English and existing Korean materials, ranking them by visibility and risk.
- Native term research. Korean specialists test candidate translations against customer and competitor usage and propose one preferred and any forbidden alternatives.
- Style rules. We document conventions for foreign-word spelling, spacing, numbers, punctuation and how Latin terms appear inside Korean sentences.
- Approval round. Your stakeholders review terms through plain-English notes, and contested items are resolved and recorded with reasons.
- Rollout and ownership. The glossary is shared with all writers, an owner is named, and a simple update process is agreed for new terms.
What SWIN can deliver
- A Korean glossary of approved terms with usage notes and forbidden alternatives.
- A concise Korean style guide covering spelling, spacing, numbers, punctuation and Latin-letter terms.
- A list of contested terms with the decision and rationale recorded.
- Instructions for writers and vendors on requesting, approving and updating terms.
- A cleanup list of existing Korean pages that use outdated or inconsistent terms.