EBS Middle School Premium Teacher Kim Se-eun participates in the project!
“If you understand the concepts, your grades, college entrance exam scores, and essay scores will change!”
Grade 1, determined by Korean language proficiency
Why? Because all tests are conducted in Korean!

Korean is the foundational subject for all learning.
Even when learning social studies, science, math, and art subjects, it is difficult to properly understand the content and keep up with the progress if Korean language skills are not supported.
And that's not all? Korean language proficiency directly impacts not only your ability to solve various exam questions, but also your ability to prepare essays and write personal statements.
This is because long conditional statements in math problems, explanatory texts in scientific experiment reports, and analytical writing in social studies are all ultimately based on the ability to read and understand Korean.


Especially in the Korean language section, there are voices from the field that say that many people choose the wrong answer due to a lack of understanding of the concepts in the question rather than the work itself.
The same goes for other subjects.
Computational ability and the ability to solve mathematical problems are separate things.
Even if you are usually good at mental calculation, there are many cases where you cannot solve math problems.
For mathematical reasoning problems, understanding the problem and figuring out how to solve it is much more important than calculating it.

《101 Korean Language Concepts》 started from this very problem awareness.
The authors selected 101 key concepts that appear repeatedly in the curriculum, the college entrance exam, and mock exams, and explained them so that students could understand and internalize them on their own.
Rather than simply listing definitions of concepts, it vividly portrays unfamiliar concepts by presenting a variety of short stories, everyday examples, and classic and modern literary works.

The four of us, working together in the same faculty office, were discussing our concerns about class and came to a common desire: "Can't we convey literary concepts in a more vivid and approachable way?"
This desire, starting from the confusion and curiosity students experience when encountering literary concepts, led to the resolution to write a concept book that would go beyond simple definitions and explanations to achieve "understanding."
Some concepts are vague even when explained, and some concepts only seem unfamiliar in the context of a problem.
This book is for those moments.
I wanted to share the experience of concepts that I didn't understand becoming a little more familiar and words that were unfamiliar becoming my own words.
We've selected key concepts that frequently appear in the Korean language section of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and essential concepts emphasized in school classes, and put them into short stories and specific examples.
Rather than just listing rigid definitions, I wanted to create a flow that would help people understand and use the words.
--- From the opening text

conflict.
It's a word we use a lot in our daily lives, isn't it? When you think of "conflict," words like "quarrel," "fight," and "argument" might come to mind.
The word ‘conflict’ is a combination of the word for kudzu ‘gal’ (葛) and the word for wisteria ‘deung’ (藤).
It refers to a situation where things or circumstances are complicated and tangled like tangled kudzu and wisteria branches, and cannot be reconciled.
We experience countless conflicts in our daily lives.
You may have trouble deciding on a career path because what you are good at and what you want to do are different, or you may argue with a friend because of differences in perspectives on how to approach something.
Sometimes we experience suffering when we are forced to do things that go against our values ​​and beliefs because of the organization.
The fact that worries, quarrels, and suffering arise like this means that our daily lives are a series of conflicts.
And in the process of resolving conflict, we sometimes experience a sense of accomplishment, and sometimes frustration.
In literary works, conflict acts as the driving force that drives the story.
A monotonous, list-like story without conflict has a hard time capturing the reader's interest or creating tension.
Think of the most entertaining drama or movie you've seen recently.
There is always conflict in dramas and movies.
The film "The First Slam Dunk" depicts Song Tae-seop, who was trapped in the past due to his brother's death, overcoming his inner pain and wounds and growing up.
How about the movie Concrete Utopia?
--- From the text "002 Conflict: The driving force that drives the story"

Confucian scholars of the Joseon Dynasty considered abandoning worldly desires and living a pure life in nature to end one's life as the best life.
So many noblemen wrote about their hopes for a clean and poor life in nature, or expressed their pride in already living that way in their literature.
Let's look at the poem above. The house he built after saving for ten years is only a three-room thatched hut. He doesn't keep it all for himself, giving one room to the moon and another to the wind. Since there's no room left in the river or the mountains, he says he'll live in a house surrounded by houses.
Rather than feeling ashamed of his poor home, he expressed his pride in how wonderful it was to live in harmony with nature.
Living a life of abandoning greed in nature was considered the best by the nobles of the time, so he is proud of himself for realizing the dream of many people.
--- From the text "007 Space: A Vessel Containing Meaning"

After the test, I had a short conversation with a student during break time.
When asked if it was okay, the student gave an unexpected answer.
He said that thanks to the fever reducer, his body started to feel better from the middle of the first period and he was able to finish the problems, and that he was glad that he was able to take the CSAT in a separate testing room.
And then he expressed his gratitude.
He could have been upset, wondering why he had to be sick on such an important day, why he had to be in such a difficult situation, but the student was accepting the situation positively.
Let's first think about the fortunate parts and the things we are grateful for.
I was a student who looked at a glass half full of water and thought, “There’s half water left,” rather than saying, “There’s only half water left.”
The word 'positive' means 'to view a fact or idea favorably or to acknowledge it as correct', and is a word related to the perspective on a thing or object, and further, to our attitude towards life.
Although it was objectively a bad situation to have to take the exam in a separate testing room on the day of the CSAT due to COVID-19 symptoms, the student was fortunate to be able to take the exam safely and accepted the situation positively.
In literature, too, the perspective from which a character views a specific object or subject, or the attitude the character exhibits in a situation or environment, can become a point of interpretation for the work.
Let's take a look at the works and choices actually presented in the 2023 school year.
--- From the text "012 Positive: An attitude of seeking and seeing what is right, good, and desirable"


“Everyone over forty is responsible for their own face.”
These are the words of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.
Why did Lincoln say this? Immediately after being elected president, Lincoln gathered his advisors at the White House to form his cabinet.
One of them recommended a man with a good background and good skills, but Lincoln declined because he did not like his appearance.
Lincoln was told by his recommender that he should not be troubled by his innate talents.
He said as follows:
(omitted) .
In this way, the description of a character's appearance in a work can indirectly convey more information about the character.
Question 32 of the 2025 College Scholastic Ability Test related to the above work
Option 1: '① Describe the subject's appearance using a Daegu expression to reveal the subject's situation' is an appropriate explanation, right?
--- From the text "058 Appearance: Information can also be obtained through outward appearance"

The word '조응' is a combination of '조照', meaning to shine, and '응', meaning to respond.
It is a type of expression that means 'the front and back of two or more objects or words and writings correspond to each other'.
(Omitted) The above work is one that effectively expresses the theme through harmony.
The time of the 'abundant year' originating from the first number is subdivided into 'Sin-O-Seok', the time of 'dawn-noon-evening' from the 6th to the 8th numbers.
Each number presents the daily life of a farmer, going out early in the morning to work in the fields, eating lunch, and returning home after work as the sun sets.
In this way, the way nature and humans coexist in time within the work reveals that the daily life of the farm follows the natural laws of the flow and cycle of time.
Among classical poems, there are many that express poetic situations or the speaker's emotions through harmony with nature, so be sure to remember them!
--- From the text "078 Correspondence: The front and back of things, words, and writing correspond to each other"

Our five senses help us recall past experiences and remember specific moments more vividly.
I think the best of these is smell.
Even now, when I pass by on the street and smell the perfume my first love used to wear, I get lost in vague memories.
In fact, according to research from Rockefeller University, the sensory ratios we remember in the short term are 1% touch, 2% hearing, 5% sight, 15% taste, and 35% smell.
In addition, academic circles have published research results showing that '75% of all emotions generated daily are caused by smell.'
If you think about it, there are quite a few memories where the emotions you feel when going to a certain place or meeting someone are determined by scent.

--- From the text "099 Olfactory: A scent that reminds you of the moment"