[Sportschosun reporter Park Ara] Cho Soo-jin, a director of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, has publicly apologized after calling RESCENE member Woni's 'museobno' remark an 'Ilbe-style expression.'
On the 9th, Cho said on her personal account, "I think I lacked understanding of the language used by younger generations, where a lot is omitted in online conversations," and added, "I am worried that Woni, an artist from RESCENE, may have been hurt by my remarks, and I would like to offer my apology."
Earlier, on the 7th, Cho appeared on the YouTube channel 'Jang Yoon-sun's Reporting Convenience Store' and sparked controversy by saying about Woni's use of the expression 'museobno,' "I am from Gyeongsang Province too, so I thought it was indeed an Ilbe-style expression."
In response, Cho explained that her remarks at the time were not intended to criticize Woni personally. She said, "The point of my remarks was that the structural issue of younger people using the Ilbe-style 'no' ending should not be singled out as an individual's responsibility, and that it should not be politically exploited."
She added, "Not only on Ilbe but also across many online communities, the practice of attaching the '~no' ending in grammatically incorrect ways to insult and mock former President Roh has been left unchecked for more than 10 years," and said this was because it has now been absorbed into youth memes.
Cho also said she changed her view after hearing an explanation from Professor Kim Deok-ho of the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Kyungpook National University (KNU). She noted, "He said that omitting 'wae iri' in 'wae iri museobno' is not originally grammatically natural, but younger generations use it in an omitted form," and added, "I came to understand that this was a misunderstanding caused by differences in how dialect is used across generations."
Meanwhile, Woni recently became the center of controversy after using the expression 'museobno' in a YouTube video, with interpretations of the phrase diverging across some online communities.
tokkig@sportschosun.com
