How to Call Staff at Korean Restaurants: Sajangnim, Imo, Jeogiyo — What to Say and When

There is one tiny moment in a Korean restaurant that trips up almost every visitor. You need more water. You know exactly what you want. But you have no idea what to call the person who can bring it.

Your Korean textbook taught you “yeogiyo.” That K-drama you binged used “imo.” The Korean guy at the next table just shouted “sajangnim!” — and someone came right over. All three are correct, but they belong in different contexts. This guide draws on the National Institute of Korean Language’s large-scale survey and a 2023 sociolinguistics paper to map out exactly which call-out is safe where.

Why Doesn’t Korean Have an Obvious Word for This?

The short version: Korean simply lacks a neutral, all-purpose word for calling a stranger. English has excuse me. Japanese has sumimasen. Korean never settled on a single equivalent, so the gap was filled by kinship terms — imo (aunt), samchon (uncle), eonni (older sister), eomeoni (mother). You address someone you have never met as if they were family, and the distance shrinks.

The catch is that this forces you to guess the other person’s age and gender. Get either one wrong, and it immediately becomes rude. Over the last two decades, Koreans have been steadily moving away from kinship terms toward “jeogiyo” and “yeogiyo” — words that assume nothing at all.

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So What's the Safest Thing to Say?

One word: “jeogiyo.” In the national survey, the most-used expression for calling a stranger was “jeogiyo” (저기요), at 62.5%. Its strength is that it encodes zero information. It does not guess whether the person is male or female, twenty or sixty, the owner or a part-timer. There is nothing to get wrong.

Source: National Institute of Korean Language, Language Usage Survey on Social Communication (4,000 respondents, 17 provinces, ages 10–60). Multiple responses allowed.

”Yeogiyo” vs. “Jeogiyo” — What’s the Difference?

Direction. “Jeogiyo” (저기요) points toward the other person to get their attention. “Yeogiyo” (여기요) points toward your own spot, signaling “over here, please.” Shim Ju-hee’s 2023 study (Discourse and Cognition, Vol. 30, No. 1) shows that this distinction splits neatly along generational lines.

📊 How Two Terms Split by Generation — Shim Ju-hee (2023), Discourse and Cognition, Vol. 30, No. 1

	Jeogiyo (저기요)	Yeogiyo (여기요)
Points toward	The other person	The speaker (your own seat)
Main age group	Under 20s	40s and above
Gender tendency	Younger speakers overall	Women from their 30s; men jump in from their 50s
Nuance	Formal, maintains polite distance	Friendly, sometimes carries a note of customer demand
Traveler recommendation	◎ Default choice	○ Fine to use, but context-dependent

A fascinating detail from the study’s interviews: people who choose “yeogiyo” often do so strategically, not out of rudeness. In a formal restaurant where a specific server is assigned to your table, you do not need to single anyone out — you just need to signal your location, so “yeogiyo” is efficient. Respondents also reported reaching for “yeogiyo” when their food was taking too long, as a way to assert their position as a paying customer.

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How Safe Is Each Call-Out, Really?

Below is every term you might hear or consider using, ranked by safety for a foreign visitor. Stick to the green-tier options and you will have a smooth experience anywhere in Seoul.

🚦 Restaurant Call-Out Safety Rankings — Traveler's Guide

Call-Out	Safety	Meaning / Nuance	Where It Works	Watch Out
Jeogiyo (저기요)	🟢 Best	Excuse me	Any restaurant, café, or bar	None. When in doubt, this one
Sajangnim (사장님)	🟢 High	Literally “boss,” functions as a universal honorific	Neighborhood spots, old-school eateries, market stalls, independent cafés	Sounds odd in big chain restaurants or hotels
Yeogiyo (여기요)	🟡 Moderate	”Over here, please”	Works everywhere	Favored by older speakers; can sound slightly dated to young staff
Seonsaengnim (선생님)	🟡 Moderate	Respectful neutral address — akin to “sir/ma’am”	Hospitals, government offices, formal settings	Overly formal for a casual restaurant
Imo (이모)	🟠 Caution	Mother’s sister — “auntie”	Gukbap shops, home-style diners, pojangmacha — and only as a regular	Rude to young staff. Travelers: just skip this one
Eonni / Oppa (언니 / 오빠)	🟠 Caution	Older sister / older brother	Among peers, familiar drinking spots	Misjudge the age and it flips to rude instantly
Samchon / Sajangnim Adeunim (삼촌 / 사장님 아드님)	🟠 Caution	Male kinship terms	Pojangmacha, market stalls	Same risks as “imo”
Ajumma / Ajeossi (아줌마 / 아저씨)	🔴 Avoid	Middle-aged woman / man	—	#1 most disliked in the national survey
Agassi / Chonggak (아가씨 / 총각)	🔴 Avoid	Young woman / young man	—	Points out both gender and age simultaneously
”Is anyone even here?” (여기 사람 없어요?)	🔴 Avoid	”Is there nobody here?”	—	Sounds like a complaint, not a request

Which Terms Actually Offend People?

The more a term guesses about the person, the more offense it causes. The National Institute of Korean Language asked public-facing service workers how they felt about different forms of address from customers. Here are the results.

😐 Service and Retail Workers Who Said a Given Term Was "Unpleasant" — National Institute of Korean Language

How Customers Call Them	Found It Unpleasant
Ajeossi / Ajumma (ajumeoni)	46.6%
Agassi / Chonggak	35.4%
Yeogiyo / Jeogiyo	33.9% (lowest)

The gender gap is stark. Among men, 37.8% said they disliked being called “ajeossi.” Among women, that number shot up to 58.4%. Etymologically, “ajumma” and “agassi” were not originally demeaning terms — “agassi” traces back to agissi, an honorific for a noble family’s daughter — but through repeated usage in contexts that diminish women, they have hardened into slights, according to the Institute’s analysis.

The same survey proposed an alternative: job-based terms that reveal neither gender nor age. For restaurants, the Institute suggested “sajangnim” or “jongeobwonnim” (staff member); for approaching a stranger with a question, “seonsaengnim.” Of these, only “sajangnim” actually took hold. That is why, in today’s Korean dining culture, “sajangnim” functions not as a factual statement about who owns the place but simply as a gesture of respect.

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Exactly What to Say, Situation by Situation

Memorizing one call-out is helpful; memorizing a handful of full sentences is even better. Every phrase below uses polite form and works in any restaurant.

🗣️ Ready-to-Use Phrases by Dining Moment — Just Read Them Aloud

Situation	Korean	Pronunciation	Meaning
Getting attention	저기요	cho-gi-yo	Excuse me
Ready to order	주문할게요	ju-mun-hal-ge-yo	I’d like to order
Pointing to a menu item	이거 주세요	i-geo ju-se-yo	This one, please
More water	물 좀 더 주세요	mul jom deo ju-se-yo	More water, please
More side dishes	반찬 좀 더 주세요	ban-chan jom deo ju-se-yo	More side dishes, please
Less spicy	덜 맵게 해 주세요	deol maep-ge hae ju-se-yo	Less spicy, please
To-go	포장해 주세요	po-jang-hae ju-se-yo	To go, please
Ready to pay	계산할게요	gye-san-hal-ge-yo	I’ll pay now
Paying by card	카드로 할게요	ka-deu-ro hal-ge-yo	By card
Leaving the table	잘 먹었습니다	jal meo-geot-seum-ni-da	That was a wonderful meal

Do You Even Need to Call Staff in Seoul Anymore?

Half true. Many mid-size and larger restaurants and franchise chains in Seoul now have a call bell at every table. If you see one, press it — it is the right answer. No need to raise your voice or pick the right word. Check the tabletop, the wall beside you, or the underside of the table edge.

The ordering process itself is changing fast. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Food Service Business Survey, self-order kiosk adoption climbed from 0.9% in 2018 → 4.5% in 2021 → 13.0% in 2025. The first leap came during COVID-19; the second followed rising labor costs.

🍽️ What the Ordering Setup Tells You

What You See	What You Do	Need to Call Anyone?
Table call bell (red button)	Press it once	No
Tablet on the table	Order directly on screen; language toggle often available	No
Entrance kiosk	Order and pay first, then find your seat	No
QR code	Scan with your phone → order via web page	No
Serving robot	When it stops, take your plates and tap the confirmation button on its screen	No
Nothing at all (old-school diner, market stall, home-style joint)	“Jeogiyo” + raise hand	Yes

Here is the paradox: the places where you most need a call-out are often the places most worth visiting. The market gukbap stall, the alleyway home-style diner, the 40-year-old institution — none of them have kiosks or call bells. In those spots, a single well-placed “jeogiyo” does all the work.

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The Three Mistakes Foreign Visitors Make Most Often

1. Calling someone “imo” because you heard it in a K-drama. Imo is the result of a relationship, not the opening line. It is what a regular says after visiting the same place many times and becoming a familiar face. A first-time customer using it sounds like they are pulling rank by age. The younger the staff member, the worse it lands.

2. Dropping the politeness ending “-yo.” “Jeogi” vs. “jeogiyo.” “Juseyo” vs. “jwo.” One syllable apart in grammar, worlds apart in tone. Even if your Korean is minimal, as long as the -yo is there, the politeness comes through.

3. Calling out loudly multiple times. Once is enough in a Korean restaurant. If you made eye contact and nobody came, they are almost certainly not ignoring you — they are working through a queue of tasks. Wait about thirty seconds and try once more.