헬조선 (heljoseon)

What it means

1. 1.

   South Korea seen as a place of hopeless competition: brutal work culture, unaffordable housing, exams that decide a life at eighteen. Bitter rather than playful.

   Peaked in the mid-2010s and is now used more retrospectively, but everyone under fifty recognises it instantly.

Literally: Hell Joseon.

Examples with translations

• 이래서 헬조선이라는 말이 나오는 거야.

  This is exactly why people call this place hell.

• 헬조선 탈출이 꿈이었어.

  Getting out of the country was the dream.

Where it comes from

English 'hell' plus 조선, the dynasty that ruled Korea until 1910 — the joke being that a rigid, hereditary society never actually ended. Coined online around 2015 and picked up immediately by the national press.

First attested: around 2015

Other forms

Romanised as:

heljoseon