[Reporter’s Notebook] Expressing "Sincere Concern" Over Declining Reading Comprehension

[Asia Economy Byungseon Gong] "I offer my sincere apologies." This sentence, posted by a webtoon artist in August regarding a fan signing event, sparked a significant reaction. Netizens criticized the phrase, asking, "Is this situation boring to you?" The misunderstanding arose because they were unfamiliar with the meaning of "simsimhada," which in this context means "deeply and earnestly from the heart." Some netizens even questioned why such difficult words were being used intentionally, prompting many people to stifle their laughter.

This lack of reading comprehension, which has become a target of ridicule, actually conceals a much bigger problem: social conflict. When people cannot accurately interpret information, they read it according to their own perspectives. Confirmation bias and fake news are issues that have long plagued Korean society. People with poor reading comprehension fail to grasp context and are swept along by information in a literal sense.

In reality, people interpret texts according to their political inclinations. During the reporting process, a woman in her 60s read a question about "the difficult economic situation in Somalia" as being about "the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's response to inflation." The reason was simple: she disliked President Yoon and read the text through that lens. This is not just her problem. The opposing side is also not free from the fake news controversy. Far-right YouTubers, for example, ignore context and combine sensational words to create fake news, which then attracts a flood of supporters.

Photo by Byungseon Gong

While reading comprehension is declining and conflicts are intensifying, Korean society has, at some point, begun to neglect language education. The current administration is focusing more on fostering the semiconductor industry, which is seen as a way to make immediate profits, rather than on reading and literacy. The program "One Book per Semester" was removed from the curriculum but reinstated after backlash from parents, which is not unrelated to this issue. Although concerns about reading comprehension have been consistently raised, the reality is that the time dedicated to language education is not increasing, but rather decreasing.

If this trend continues, it is clear that social conflicts stemming from low reading comprehension will only worsen. "Sincere apology" is not something to be mocked and laughed off. Now is the time to seek solutions to improve reading comprehension. The longer we delay, the harder it will be to resolve the problem. Observing the current situation, which can be described as a "reading comprehension hell," I express my deepest concern.