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By Lee Hyo-jin
Korea boasts a literacy rate of 98 percent, meaning that almost everyone aged 15 and above can read and write, however, an increasing number of people seem to be having difficulties using certain literacy skills in their daily lives.
In one example, a Seoul-based cafe selling webtoon-related merchandise uploaded an announcement on its Twitter account, Aug. 20, to apologize for technical glitches in its registration system during an autograph session with a webtoon artist.
"Registration is now closed. We once again deliver our deep and profound apologies for the inconveniences caused in the process," the tweet read in Korean.
The administrator used the word "shim shim," which means "deep and profound," a homonym of the word that also means "to be bored" in Korean.
Some Twitter users who apparently misunderstood the meaning of the phrase as indicating being bored strongly criticized the cafe for its "insincere" apology. Their comments read: "Shim shim apologies? I'm not bored at all," "This announcement has made me angrier. Why did they have to use that word?" and "They should have picked someone more sensible to write the apology."
These tweets then led to debates among internet users, with some accusing the people due to their lack of vocabulary knowledge.
In 2020, when the government designated Aug. 17 as a temporary holiday following Liberation Day, which falls on Aug. 15, news outlets reported that the nation would enjoy a holiday for "Sa-heul" which means "three days." Some people, who mistook Sa-heul to mean four days, because "sa" means "four" in Korean, accused the news outlets of "inaccurate reporting."
Some critics viewed that these incidents show that people, especially the younger generations, may be lacking in their literacy level or vocabulary skills due to the increasing use of digital devices and viewing of video content.
According to the National Institute for Lifelong Education's 2017 survey, 9.6 million adults, accounting for 22 percent of the adult population, had difficulties using reading and writing skills in everyday life.
The gradual decline in people's reading abilities is also appearing among children.
According to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), released by the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) in December 2021, Korean students' average scores in reading, math and science fell compared to 2009, with the largest gap found in reading ability.
The researchers found that students experienced difficulties in locating specific information in long sentences and short paragraphs.
Meanwhile, Shin Ji-young, a professor of Korean language and literature at Korea University, commented that these debates online show a generational language gap, in which the older generation often blames young people for their insufficient vocabulary.
"Just because the person doesn't know certain words, it doesn't mean that he or she lacks vocabulary skills or a certain literacy level. Rather, we should look deeper into why young people don't know the words, especially the lesser-spoken ones originating from Chinese characters," she told The Korea Times.
According to Shin, it could be a natural phenomenon that words like "shim shim" (deep and profound) are not well-known among young people who are now more familiar with words derived from English.
The linguistics expert said that instead of engaging in "fruitless debates" over who knows more vocabulary or blaming one another for lacking vocabulary, the nation should develop ways to measure practically a person's vocabulary knowledge depending on their educational level.
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