"Let's Change 'Snacking' to 'Simple Meal'... National Institute of the Korean Language Unveils Refined Foreign Terms"

10 Foreign Words Refined into Easy-to-Understand Korean Expressions

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of the Korean Language announced on December 2 that they have refined 10 difficult foreign words into easy-to-understand Korean expressions, such as replacing the unfamiliar term "snacking" with "simple meal."

The candidate Korean expressions were prepared by the "New Words Group," which included members from the media, academia, and youth (university students). Based on the results of a public acceptance survey conducted with 3,000 people aged 15 and older nationwide, the final review was conducted last month by the Korean Language Deliberation Council's Language Refinement Subcommittee.

In this survey, the foreign words most frequently selected as needing to be replaced with Korean were "snacking" (76.0%) and "chasm" (75.5%). The term "snacking," which refers to a simple meal, was refined to "simple meal," while "chasm," which describes a temporary drop in demand between the early market and the mainstream market, was changed to "temporary demand stagnation." The term "core muscles," referring to muscles that support the body's center, was changed to "central muscles," and "cadence," meaning the number of times the feet touch the ground in one minute, was simplified to "step count."

Other terms that have seen increasing usage in daily life were also refined for easier understanding: "book talk" became "book meeting," "green remodeling" was changed to "eco-friendly renovation," and "medical test" was refined to "comprehensive physical examination."

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