I have a folder in my Notes app called “words English needs and doesn’t have.” Until this week, the top entry was nunchi (the Korean art of reading a room without anyone saying a word). Now I need to add five more, because a Korean phone company just published Korea’s word of the year for 2026 — well, five of them — and unlike Oxford’s pick, this one isn’t just a cute headline. Companies are already building ad campaigns around it.
Here’s the setup: every August since 2023, KT Corp — Korea’s second-largest mobile carrier — teams up with 100 hand-picked college marketing interns (a program called “Y Futurist”) and a youth-research think tank called the 20s Lab at Daehak Naeil to survey actual Korean Gen Zers and distill the year into five defining phrases. This year’s forum, the “2026 Y Trend Conference,” happened on August 20 at KT’s Gwanghwamun office in Seoul, and the Gen Z attendees themselves picked the words, not a panel of marketing execs.
Meet the 2026 Words
NetWHATking (네트왓킹) is a mashup of “network” and “what,” describing how Gen Z builds circles around shared interests and hobbies instead of school ties or formal networking events. If your version of professional networking is a Discord server for people who like the same indie game, congrats, you’re already doing it.
Scroll Pick (스크롤픽) is the impulse buy that happens mid-scroll, when an algorithm-recommended video turns into a checkout screen before you’ve even processed what you’re buying. Anyone who has bought something off TikTok Shop at 1 a.m. already knows this one intimately.
Balanceshim (밸런쉼, blending “balance” and shim, the Korean word for rest) is a self-care philosophy built around deliberately resting to reset your body and mind, instead of grinding through burnout. Basically Korea’s answer to the West’s “soft life” trend, except with an actual name attached to it.
Hyeonjae Jinhaengnyeok (현재진행력, roughly “present-progressive-ness”) describes openly documenting a goal while you’re still failing at it, not just posting the highlight reel once you’ve succeeded. And Try-ator (트라이에이터) is a new creator archetype: someone who uses AI tools to turn a raw idea into a finished creative output across formats, from a mood board to a full short film, without formal training in any of them.
Why a Phone Company Cares About Slang
This isn’t KT’s first year doing this, and the past picks weren’t just cute headlines — they turned into actual product decisions. Last year’s list included Deutpoldeu (듣폴트, a blend of “listen” and “default,” describing the shift to auto-playing algorithmic content as a default habit rather than an active choice), and KT built its iPhone 17 marketing strategy directly around that insight. Another past keyword, “N Nolleo” (playing in as many different ways as possible), shaped sports-ticketing promotions and YouTube ad campaigns. In other words, a telecom giant is outsourcing its trend forecasting straight to the demographic instead of guessing, and then spending real marketing budget on the results months later.
How This Compares to Oxford’s Word of the Year
Oxford picks one word, after the fact, based on usage-frequency data crunched by lexicographers (2023’s winner was “rizz,” 2024’s was “brain rot”). It’s descriptive: language nerds looking backward and going “huh, interesting.” Korea’s version flips that entirely. It’s five words, chosen mid-year by the actual demographic through surveys and focus groups, run by a corporation specifically so it can act on the findings before the year ends. Oxford’s word tells you what already happened. KT’s five words are basically a strategy memo Gen Z handed to corporate Korea in real time.
None of this needs a passport to be useful to you. If you’re the type who watches Korean trends land on Western TikTok a year or two later — the skincare routines, the “get ready with me” formats, the dalgona coffee phase we all had — this list is basically an early preview. My money’s on Balanceshim and Try-ator crossing over first, since both map cleanly onto conversations American Gen Z is already having, just without a tidy name yet. I’m updating my Notes app folder as we speak.
