“Now it’s literacy.”
The author of 'Humanities Class', which captivated 1 million readers,
Kim Jong-won's new power to lead the world

Everyone hopes that the life they are living now is the life they dream of.
Here's someone who encourages everyone to create that kind of life.
Author Kim Jong-won has been giving lectures on humanities for 20 years with the belief that “you have to learn to grow.”
In his new book, "Studying Literacy," he preaches how to change lives through the "power of language."

“No matter how hard you try, things don’t go as planned, so it’s hard.” This is something we’ve all said or heard at least once.
Author Kim Jong-won has met readers who have shared these concerns in hundreds of lectures.
Their worries were very different, but the ending was the same.
Even though he tried so hard, why is he still suffering?
He wanted to offer them a simple, yet clear solution.
So what I finally found was literacy.


"Literacy Studies" covers how to survive among misused language, how to understand the context of words you didn't know the intention of, how to read differently, and how to make literacy your competitive edge.
This book, which embodies the joy of discovery through reading and learning, is enhanced by the illustrations of Pierre Le-Tan, a master of literacy who expressed the message he wanted to convey to the world through pictures, adding to its collection value.


If you want to live a better life than you do now, you must go beyond simply learning from others and become a literate person who has more of their own knowledge, that is, who sees and thinks for themselves.
Then, I myself will become a complete, wonderful world, and I will be able to live without wavering even in a world full of uncertainty.

The depth of his literacy determines the scale of the world he dreams and envisions in the future.
Until now, the map of power was drawn by those with a lot of money or high status, but now wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of those with high literacy.
Do you want to be someone who only inspires others, or do you want to be an everyday innovator who notices the subtle changes happening around you and shares them with the world, inspiring others?
The world desperately wants the latter.
People who cannot think for themselves and who cannot delicately observe the subtle movements around them and express them in public language inevitably live with a constant sense of anxiety.
Because nothing works.
Eventually, they become people who are less and less able to control their emotions and are driven only by emotions rather than reason.
Look around you now.
The world is already changing like that.
I'm talking about a reality that has already arrived.
--- p.10, If one book could save our lives

To you who is worried that you are trying but not achieving anything, I want to ask you a question.
Are you someone who throws anywhere, or someone who throws wherever they want? You can't just throw wherever you want.
First, you need to build up the stamina to throw, find the target point to throw to, and practice the delicate technique to throw to that point one by one.
Literacy is ultimately determined by the level and direction of vision.
It is not about accumulating, but about excluding, and it is not about learning, but about discovering.
Opportunities exist everywhere when you look at them with a fresh perspective.
Landscape and knowledge are equally available to everyone, but it is up to each individual to take advantage of them, depending on their level of visual literacy.
--- p.33, Make the message into a picture

Knowing how to answer one question is like holding one of the greatest weapons you will ever have.
However, there are still many people who do not know what they know and what they do.
Whenever I write about what I practice in my daily life and share it with others, the words and phrases I hear most often are these.
"The author puts into practice what everyone knows but finds difficult to put into practice." Why? First, let me reveal the essence of the sentence.
“Not practicing is not knowing properly.” So knowing and not practicing cannot appear together in the same sentence.
Because those who know its value cannot help but practice it.
--- p.68, Why it's difficult for everyone to put into practice even if they know it

To convey only half of what you have due to a lack of language skills is to throw away half of the life you have painstakingly prepared.
Exaggerating one's abilities is dangerous, but conversely, those who fail to demonstrate their abilities make us feel sorry for them.
This happens a lot at work too.
"So what exactly are you trying to say?" "Is that the problem? The cause? The solution?" "How should we address this going forward?" "What's the bottom line? Can you summarize it in a nutshell?" Ultimately, regardless of industry, our job is to endlessly seek and provide answers to the four questions listed above.
Within the company, various meetings and presentations are held, and proposals and plans must be prepared accordingly.
Outside, you have to meet and communicate with customers.
(…) The reason why the shape becomes blurry and uneasy without being able to find the center of the work is because you cannot see ahead.
Anything you start after deciding on your own future will naturally bring you confidence.
Conversely, the reason we lose confidence in our lives is because we are barely surviving without even looking ahead to the future.
--- p.98, Why We Fight Language

It's not about winning, it's about helping.
Just as Yulgok always submitted a petition to the king containing information necessary for the people and the country, what we read should be able to teach us what to put into practice.
To do that, we need principles for why we observe and read.
Yulgok's fundamental reason was his desire to help.
That is also the reason why we were able to pursue policies for the country and its people.
If you read with the intention of helping, what you read will naturally lead you to put it into practice.
Yulgok's observational reading was different in depth and delicacy from that of others.
He said, “I came to know this” after observing and studying every word and every speck of dust that existed in the world he had created.
I didn't stop observing until I was no longer suspicious.
His ability to grasp the people's difficulties in detail was also due to his unique observational reading method.
A person who understands one thing well does not need to read much.

--- p.140, 'Intellectual Observation Reading' that Helps Even Geniuses Grow