▲ A map of Hell-Joseon

Hell-Joseon is a new Korean word, which is a combination of the word ‘hell’ and the old name of Korea, ‘Joseon’. Hell-Joseon means that there is no hope in Korea anymore similar to hell.

Due to heavy competition between college students to find employment in a sluggish economy, the Korean youth voiced their despair on social networks. The word is also referred to times of unemployment, a biased economy, and the irrational routine life in Korea, with the term widely spreading via Facebook and Twitter.

Some journalists analyzed that the trend originated from people blaming someone else for their misfortunes. However, it is never deniable that this tendency is not related to society. People are often disappointed with the government, and fail to understand the current world, for example, in the case of the Sewol Ferry tragedy.

As time goes by, trending words such as “Hell-Joseon” will probably die down. Currently, the younger generation that considers Korea as hell desires to immigrate to another country.

People should realize that escaping from “Hell-Joseon” is not the key to their happiness. Pessimism will not change anything, and in fact, will merely promote the term “Hell-Joseon” to the following generation. What the younger generation needs is hope at the end of a very black tunnel.

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