[Korean Culture & Language] Left on Read or Left Unread


Hello, this is Uptempo!

Since practically everyone owns a smartphone nowadays and checks them frequently, it might look impolite to not respond to someone’s message(s) within a particular timeframe. 

There has always been disagreements over whether it feels worse to have one’s messages on read or unread. 

‘읽씹’ is an abbreviation for ‘읽고 씹다’
‘읽다’ means ‘to read’.
‘씹다’ originally means ‘to chew,’ but the word is often used to mean ‘to ignore’
So, 읽씹 means ‘to read and ignore’

‘안읽씹’ is an abbreviation for ‘안읽고 씹다’.
Since ‘안’ means ‘not,’ it means to ‘not read and ignore’

There are a ton of YouTube videos debating which is worse: ‘읽씹(Left on read)’ or ‘안읽씹(Left unread)’ is worse.

출처 : YouTube

The first video above reads: ‘카톡 읽씹 vs 안읽씹 하나를 당해야 된다면?ㅋㅋㅋ’. It is translated to ‘Which one would you choose – either to be ignored after the person has read your message(s) (left on read) vs. getting ignored while the person leaves your message(s) unread (Left unread)?’

Some people feel more offended when they get ‘읽씹,’ because it appears that the person had time to check their messages but no time to respond to them. Others claim that 안읽씹 is worse because it could mean that the other person didn’t even bother to open their message(s) at all. 

Which one would you feel worse – being left on read or left unread?


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