"It’s Not Just You Who Cringes at 'Here Is the Coffee You Ordered'... 93% of the Public Agree"

MCST and NIKL Survey on Public Perceptions of Official Language
93% of the Public Say "Object Honorifics Must Be Corrected"
90% Also Point Out Spelling Errors with "doe/dwae"
Growing Calls to Eliminate Hate Expressions Such as "mamchung"

'Object honorifics', commonly heard in everyday life, were identified as the most grating incorrect language habit by the public. Getty Images

"Here is the coffee you ordered," "That product is out of stock, sir/ma'am." So-called "object honorifics," commonly heard in everyday life, were identified as the most grating incorrect language habit by the public.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of Korean Language announced on the 12th the results of a "Public Language Improvement Survey" conducted from January 24 to 30 on 3,000 men and women aged 14 to 79 nationwide.

In this survey, thirty frequently cited cases of misuse appearing in broadcasting, the media, and social networking services (SNS) were selected, and public awareness of them was examined. The most urgent issue identified for improvement was "excessive honorific expressions for objects" (93.3%), which inappropriately elevate inanimate things. Grammatically, the honorific pre-final ending "-si-" is an element that shows respect to the subject, and therefore cannot be used for objects. Nevertheless, it is often misused in service industries under the misguided intention of showing respect to customers.

There was also a series of criticisms about the destruction of basic spelling rules. A total of 90.2% of respondents said that confusion in writing "doe/dwae" needs to be corrected, such as incorrectly writing "an dwae" instead of "an doe." Hate expressions such as the suffix "-chung," which compares a particular group to insects (87.1%), and phrases like "suffering from a disability," which liken disability to an illness (78.7%), also ranked high on the list of expressions to be eliminated.

In addition, many respondents stressed the need to correct habitual grammatical errors such as "yeomduhae duda" (74.8%) and "aramatjuda" (71.2%).

Based on these results, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of Korean Language plan to launch a large-scale language and culture improvement campaign, including the "Easy Korean Challenge" featuring prominent cultural and artistic figures.