Korea calls them 'MZ.' Young people are having none of it

진행자: 최정윤, Tannith Kriel

기사 요약: 이젠 일상 용어가 돼 버린 "MZ." 하지만 정작 MZ사람들은 공감을 못하는 용어라는데...이 용어, 어디서 온거고 왜 쓰는건가요?

[1] The Pew Research Center defines Millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z as those born after 1997. But curiously in Korea, these two age groups are commonly lumped together under the term "MZ" -- an unusually broad grouping spanning from teenagers to adults in their early 40s.

curiously: 별나게, 특이하게

lump together: 합치다

[2] The term has exploded across news headlines, policy proposals, marketing campaigns and social media in recent years. It's not just a handy catch-all for everything supposedly wrong about young people, but also a go-to label for marketers and influencers who slap "MZ" onto every seemingly fashionable trend and lifestyle phenomenon.

explode: 폭발하다. 폭발적으로 퍼지다

handy: 유용한, 편리한 / 손재주가 있는

catch-all: 두루뭉술한 표현

go-to: 제일 많이 ~하는 / 믿을 만한

slap onto: 철썩 붙이다

[3] Either way, it has created confusion for those swept up in the mix, particularly among actual Gen Z folks who see no connection between their reality and what the term seems to suggest. "It's just a buzzword that doesn't reflect our reality at all," says Chloe Lee, a 23-year-old college student. "I feel like it's mostly older people using this term when they want to complain about young people in general."

be swept up in: ~에 휩싸이다

buzzword: 유행어

[4] The prevalence of this catch-all term reveals more about those who use it than those it purports to describe, experts say. "It's essentially a meaningless concept with no academic merit," Shin Jin-wook, sociology professor at Chung-Ang University, told The Korea Herald via email. "If anything, the term's very vagueness makes it a perfect material for political and commercial exploitation."

prevalence: 널리퍼짐

purport: (사실이 아닐 수도 있는 것을) 주장하다, 칭하다

기사 원문: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10385093