Hate speech seeps into Korean classrooms

Funeral wreaths are placed outside Paichai High School in Seoul's Gangdong District, Wednesday. Members of the school's baseball team came under fire after chanting "Let's go to Starbucks" and "Tank Day" during a game against Gwangju Jeil High School at Mokdong Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Monday. The slogans were widely interpreted as mocking the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising, recalling a controversy in which Starbucks Korea promoted a tumbler discount event on the anniversary of the uprising using the phrase "Tank Day." Yonhap

“Gravity.”

When a science teacher at a high school in Gyeonggi Province was beginning to explain the concept, a few students giggled.

Only after class ended did the teacher discover why.

In some far-right online communities, the Korean word for gravity, "jungryeok," has been appropriated as coded slang mocking the 2009 death of liberal former President Roh Moo-hyun, who died as a result of a fall from a cliff. The expression has since spread beyond those communities, with some students using it without understanding where it came from.

“How can you teach physics without saying ‘gravity?’” asked another teacher at the school, surnamed Lee, who recalled the story shared by their coworker.

“About 10 years ago, I rarely came across hate expressions I didn’t recognize. Now, new ones appear all the time and even teachers struggle to keep up.”

Teachers say such incidents are becoming increasingly common in classrooms.

A recent incident at a high school baseball game highlights how severe the situation has become. Members of the Paichai High School baseball team used chants evoking Starbucks Korea's controversial "Tank Day" promotion, widely interpreted as mocking the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising, during their match against a school from Gwangju.

Teachers said this was not an isolated incident, and that it demonstrates that language once confined to extremist online communities has made its way into classrooms.

“I sometimes hear classmates using those expressions,” said Choi Yoon-woo, a first-year middle school student in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

“It’s not very frequent, but it does happen. Some students even say ‘Ilbe’ without really knowing what the community is.”

Ilbe, short for "Ilgan Best Storage," is a controversial online forum long associated with far-right political views, misogynistic content and derogatory posts, targeting everyone from women with short hair to former presidents and the victims of state violence in the Gwangju Uprising.

Educators say slang originating from the site has gradually spread through social media, online gaming platforms and short-form videos consumed by teenagers.

A survey by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), conducted from December 2025 to January this year, suggests such language has spread beyond far-right online communities and into classrooms.

Among the 177 elementary, middle and high school teachers surveyed, 89.8 percent said far-right hate speech in classrooms was a serious problem, while 80.2 percent said they had often or very often witnessed students using such expressions.

The most commonly used expressions cited were derogatory remarks targeting current or former presidents, at 50.4 percent; anti-China or political hate speech at 37.9 percent; gendered hate speech at 20 percent; political or historical distortions at 15 percent; hate speech targeting minorities at 12 percent; and regional slurs at 3.6 percent. Multiple answers were allowed for this question.

The findings echo a 2025 report by the nonprofit organization Diversity Korea, in which 68 percent of 200 teachers said they encountered hate speech among students more often than they had five or six years earlier.

Lee said many students appear to imitate what they see online rather than intentionally embracing extremist ideology.

“Today’s students are extremely sensitive to trends,” Lee said.

“Many repeat these expressions because they’re circulating online, not because they fully understand their historical or political meaning.”

She said the atmosphere in schools has also changed.

“A decade ago, classmates would often tell each other not to use offensive language. That kind of self-correction has largely disappeared,” she said. “Hate speech has blended into everyday slang, making it much harder to recognize and address.”

The KTU survey also found that 54.8 percent of teachers said they always or often intervened when students used hate speech, yet 75.2 percent said responding to such incidents was difficult.

Teachers cited the lack of practical disciplinary options, uncertainty over how to respond and concerns about complaints from parents.

Kim Hee-jung, spokesperson for the KTU, said schools cannot tackle the issue alone.

“Students are exposed to these expressions long before they enter the classroom,” Kim said. “Teachers need institutional support and room to discuss why such language is harmful, rather than simply telling students not to use it.”

Lee said changing students’ behavior will take more than punishment.

“Simply telling students something is morally wrong isn’t enough,” she said. “They need to understand that using hate-filled language doesn’t make them smarter or funnier — it only hurts others and ultimately does nothing for their future.”