The Korean culture wave has swept through the editorial offices of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which has added more than 20 new words of Korean origin to its latest edition.

The new words include hallyu, the Korean original for the wave of pop culture that has made BTS one of the world’s most popular bands and Squid Game the Netflix sensation of 2021. The dictionary defines it as the increase in international interest in South Korea and its popular culture, esp. as represented by the global success of South Korean music, film, television, fashion, and food.

But as the dictionary’s new additions make clear, there is much more to Korean cuisine than its spicy staple kimchi, which appeared in the OED as long ago as 1976. New food-related entries include bulgogi, thin slices of beef or pork, and chimaek, Korean-style fried chicken and beer.

Traditional culture is represented by hanbok, formal costumes worn by both men and women, and Hangul, the Korean alphabet (字母表) created by King Sejong in 1443.

Aegyo, a certain kind of cuteness or charm considered characteristically Korean, and similar to the Japanese word kawaii, has been included as both a noun and adjective. There is room, too, for mukbang, or livestreams of people eating extraordinary amounts of food while talking to the online audience.

The inclusion of “skinship” is more surprising. Commonly used in South Korea, where it is translated as seukinsip, and in Japan (sukinshippu), it captures the emotional bond that comes from close physical contact between a parent and child, lovers and friends, the dictionary said.

“The adoption and development of these Korean words in English demonstrate how lexical (词汇的) innovation is no longer restricted to the traditional centres of English in the United Kingdom and the United States,” the OED said.“They show how Asians in different parts of the continent invent and exchange words within their own local contexts, then introduce these words to the rest of the English-speaking world, thus allowing the Korean wave to continue to ripple on the sea of English words.”

Language gives us the power to describe countless actions, properties and relations that compose our experiences, real or imagined. As for how languages were created, scientists found iconicity might play a key role.

People can’t bridge language gap and understand each other without iconicity. When playing a game of charades (猜字谜) , we act out our meaning, using our hands and bodies to describe the sizes and shapes of objects. The key to this process of forming new symbols is the use of iconicity. Not limited to gesturing, iconicity appears in our visual communication too. Traffic signs, food packaging, maps. . . wherever there are people communicating, you will find iconicity.

According to our research, iconicity might also exist in our voices. We organized a contest in which we invited contestants to record a set of sounds to express different meanings. The winner of the contest was determined by how well listeners could guess the intended meanings of the sounds based on a set of written options. Critically, the sounds that contestants submitted couldn’t include actual words or onomatopoeias (拟声词) .

Listeners were remarkably good at interpreting the meanings of the sounds. Yet, all of the contestants and listeners were speakers of English. Thus, it was possible that listeners’ success relied on some cultural knowledge that they shared with the speakers. Did the listeners also understand the speakers from completely different cultural backgrounds?

Later, an Internet survey translated into 25 different languages was carried out. Participants listened to each sound from the English speakers and guessed the meaning by choosing from six written words. Guessing accuracy for the different groups ranged from 74 percent for English speakers to 34 percent for Portuguese speakers. It is far from perfect, but well above the chance rate of eight percent expected by us.

Taken together, these studies show that our capacity for iconic communication has played a critical role. Without this special talent, language would likely never have gotten off the ground.

For you who dream of studying abroad, you' re probably thinking it'll be an easy transition. From my personal experience, I can tell you that it is much fun, but certainly not easy. 【小题1】 Here are some of them that you need to overcome for your further study.

You may feel like an outsider. Regardless of what country you' re going to, you may find yourself wondering why everyone's laughing when you don't realize someone has told a joke. 【小题2】 Actually everyone I've ever met while studying abroad has been very friendly. Though I may never become truly "one of them", finally this problem becomes smaller and smaller.

You have to overcome the language barrier. Even if you're studying in a country where you speak the same language, there're still strong local accents and slang phrases (俚语) to clear. 【小题3】 However, the language barrier problem also goes away pretty quickly.

【小题4】 When something seems to go against you in a foreign country, you can really feel on your own. Your family and friends will be hundreds or even thousands of miles away. This challenge is likely to be felt most especially true in the first few months. But then, you'll make new friends and after a year or so, everything will be OK!

There' re cultural misunderstandings for you to deal with. As a foreigner, you don't know the local culture. 【小题5】 Don't worry; you can avoid cultural misunderstandings by observing what others do and how they do it. If there's any doubt, just ask! You'll find most people are happy to talk about their customs.