The Most Well-Received "Refined Term" of the Year Is "Non-Face-to-Face Service"

Many Respond That "New Standard," "New Normal," "Long Video," and "Long Format" Are Also Appropriate

On the morning of the 22nd, attendees and online participants are conducting a non-face-to-face event at Ewha Womans University in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, during the "On Air International Conference and Job Fair." 2020.9.22.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of the Korean Language announced on the 23rd that among the "refined terms" created this year to replace foreign words, "bidaemyeon seobiseu" (non-face-to-face service) received the highest rating in a public acceptance survey. "Bidaemyeon seobiseu" is an easily understandable replacement for "untact service," which refers to various services provided without direct person-to-person contact. The term has come into widespread use as social distancing has become prevalent due to the spread of COVID-19.

This year, as part of the "Use of Easy Korean" initiative, the two organizations have announced new "refined terms" each week and conducted public acceptance surveys. Terms such as "bidaemyeon seobiseu" (non-face-to-face service), "sae gijun" and "sae ilsang" (new standard and new normal) as replacements for "new normal," and "gin yeongsang" and "gin hyeongsik" (long video and long format) as alternatives to "long form," received the highest approval rate (94.4%) among the 145 alternative terms evaluated.

The term that most respondents felt needed to be changed to a more understandable expression was "mega region" (76.7%). This refers to a connected area of cities with a population of over 10 million, sharing social infrastructure such as transportation and logistics, and having close economic and industrial ties. The two organizations refined this term to "chogeodae dosi yeongyeolgwon" (ultra-large city network).

The "refined terms" most frequently used by the media were, in order: "cheot hwakjinja" (first confirmed case) as a replacement for "index patient," "bijeopchok" (contactless) for "tagless," and "bidaemyeon seobiseu" (non-face-to-face service). An official stated, "Next year, we plan to expand the public acceptance survey to 1,000 participants to further broaden the scope of consensus."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.