Questions About the Meaning of "Passed" Surge Online
Literacy Concerns Grow as Students Struggle With Basic Vocabulary
"I heard Lee Jae-myung's arrest motion was passed. What does 'passed' mean? Please explain it in simple terms."
This was a question posted on Naver KnowledgeiN on September 22. After the National Assembly passed the arrest motion for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, on September 21, similar questions about the meanings of 'passed,' 'rejected,' and 'meaning of passed and rejected' appeared online.
As of September 26, it is still easy to find similar types of questions and search results on domestic portal sites. On another portal, Daum, related search terms such as 'meaning of passed,' 'meaning of rejected,' and 'meaning of passed and rejected' appeared in the 'related searches' section below articles about Lee Jae-myung.
Recently, as posts asking about the meanings of words like 'geumil' (today), 'saheul' (three days), 'simsimhan sagwa' (sincere apology), and 'muryohada' (boring) have been appearing online, the phenomenon of 'declining literacy' has been discussed, and now 'passed' is experiencing a similar trend.
Previously, in May, when Buddha's Birthday was designated as a substitute holiday, creating a three-day break, there was another controversy online regarding the word 'saheul' (three days), sparking another debate about literacy.
'Saheul' means the third day, but the controversy arose because some people misunderstood it as 'four days.' The pure Korean word for the fourth day is 'naheul.'
Literacy issues have also become a topic of debate in schools. The number of students who think 'geumil' (today) means Friday, or who interpret 'gojisik' (rigid) as 'high knowledge,' is increasing.
According to the '2021 National Academic Achievement Assessment Results and Response Strategy' announced by the Ministry of Education in June last year, Korean language scores among Korean students have declined noticeably over the past three years.
Each year, the Ministry of Education samples about 3% of all 9th and 11th graders nationwide to assess their academic achievement in Korean, English, and mathematics. Over the past three years, the proportion of 11th graders with average or above-average proficiency in Korean dropped from 77.5% in 2019 to 69.8% in 2020, and then to 64.3% in 2021, showing a clear downward trend.
A similar result was found in an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report. According to this report, the rate at which Korean students could distinguish between facts and opinions in digital information in 2021 was 25.6%, significantly lower than the OECD member average of 47.4%. In the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reading section, Korean students ranked fifth among 37 OECD member countries in average score, but their actual ability to comprehend sentences and assess the reliability of information was lacking.
In a May 2021 survey conducted by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations of 1,152 elementary, middle, and high school teachers nationwide, the main reasons cited for low literacy were 'familiarity with video media such as YouTube (73%)' and 'neglecting reading (54.3%)'.
In fact, many argue that the decline in literacy is largely due to frequent exposure to digital devices and video media, such as smartphones and YouTube, from early childhood. As people become accustomed to short videos and messages, it becomes more difficult to read long texts. Some also point out that the recurring controversy over 'difficult Korean' in the national college entrance exam in recent years is not unrelated to the decline in literacy among teenagers.
Some also argue that the COVID-19 pandemic, which lasted for more than three years, had an impact on this trend. As remote classes increased, literacy decline became more pronounced among groups with less interaction with their parents.
Declining literacy is not just a problem in Korea. Last month, as young students in Sweden returned to school for the new semester, teachers began to focus more on printed books, quiet reading time, and practicing handwriting, rather than teaching skills like using tablet PCs, online searches, and keyboards.
This was a measure taken in response to declining literacy. Although Swedish students' literacy is still higher than the European average, statistics from the International Literacy Education Research Institute, based on fourth-grade students, indicate that Swedish children's reading ability declined significantly between 2016 and 2021.
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