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"Where is Wucheon City?"... What Has Happened Over the Past 5 Years?

Go Hui-gyeong

Published : Oct 9, 2026 11:24 AM

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Did you know that many students these days often fail to properly understand expressions like "uwon-si" (in case of rain) or "geumil" (today)?

In a survey conducted among elementary, middle, and high school teachers nationwide, 96.6% of respondents answered that students' literacy skills have declined over the past 5 years.

In actual classrooms, there were cases where students mistook "uwon-si," an expression used to denote when it rains, for the name of a city, or interpreted the phrase "to be carried out within geumil (today)" as taking place on Friday ("geum-yo-il").

There were also students who understood "chado," which asks whether one's physical condition has improved, as a road where cars drive, or misinterpreted "goso-gong-po-jeung" (acrophobia) to mean a fear of legal lawsuits ("goso").

At one middle school during an exam, several students did not know the meaning of "yoji," which means the core point of a text, prompting the school to broadcast the definition of the word across the entire school.

About 8 out of 10 teachers answered that they frequently experience difficulties during class because they have to explain the meanings of words.