Govt Plan to Use Term Homeless Draws Fire
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The government's move to make the English word "homeless" official instead of the Korean "nosukja," meaning rough sleepers, is drawing strong protest from Korean language scholars.
The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs submitted a social welfare revision bill on Aug. 21 in which it suggested the word "homeless" be used as a legal term. If passed in the National Assembly, the term would officially replace the word nosukja in public departments, official documents and even textbooks.
The ministry said nosukja underscores the negative aspects of those living on the streets without proper lodging.
"The term is often associated with hobos or tramps. Some groups of social workers agreed that 'homeless' could soften people's attitude toward them," a ministry official said.
The scholars refuted that "homeless" is a mere adjective denoting status without a home. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word indicates having no place to live.
"If you put a person who simply does not have a home and a person sleeping on the streets at the same level, that could be a real problem," a spokesman for Urimal, a scholastic group promoting Hangeul, said.
"Nosukja simply means a person sleeping on the street, too. Legalizing a term is an extremely important thing and the government seems to have been not prudent enough."
Yonhap News reported that the experts are planning a campaign against the legalization.
Koo Whan-hoi, who worked for the launch of the Big Issue magazine for homeless people, said more people in the Western world are using the term "rough sleepers" to distinguish people who are homeless from those who sleep on the street.
"If you want to make a legal term, you'd be better off using 'rough sleeper' or at least 'homeless people.' Would an ordinary Korean person understand it? I don't think so," he said. "The better way is to call them nosukja but treat them with respect, without prejudice. The government should campaign for that."