What does 'Stream 4IR' mean? Serious abuse of foreign languages in public institutions

[Anchor]

Looking around us, there are situations where foreign languages are used excessively even when they are not necessary, leading to misunderstandings about their meanings.

This is particularly problematic in public institutions where simple Korean should be used, as they are excessively using foreign languages.

Reporter Ha Cho-hee has the story.

[Report]

This is a press release from a local government in Gangwon Province.

It explains that they have signed a memorandum of understanding for the 'Global Cooperation-Based Stream 4IR Cluster Development Project'.

Citizens are left with perplexed expressions at the combination of unfamiliar foreign words that are nearly impossible to understand.

[Kim Dong-hyun/Wonju, Gangwon-do: "I don't know what 4IR is. It feels like I'm stuck. Since I don't know what it means in the first place, I obviously can't understand why it was used."]

"Global" can be translated as '세계적', "Stream 4IR" refers to '4차 산업혁명', and "Cluster" can be used as '협력 단지'.

This content can easily be expressed in Korean.

Other public institutions are facing similar issues.

The 'Wellness Tourism Festa' hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization.

Although there are clear Korean words like '건강관리' or '축제', foreign languages were used.

Even on government websites, foreign words that do not need to be used are being abused everywhere.

The Framework Act on Korean Language stipulates that public institutions must write official documents in terms and sentences that are easy for the general public to understand.

However, this is not being well observed in practice.

[Choi Hong-yeol/Professor of Korean Language and Literature at Gangwon University: "If the public language expression in official documents is difficult, there are citizens who cannot easily understand the related content and systems, which can lead to social and economic losses..."]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to evaluate the use of the Korean language in press release documents from the central and local governments and make the results public early next year.

This is KBS News, Ha Cho-hee.