THE CONCEPT OF “PROCRASTINATION” WITHIN THE LINGUISTIC WORLDVIEW OF REPUBLIC OF KOREA’S ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

The presented article carries out a comprehensive analysis of the "procrastination" concept within the linguistic worldview of Republic of Korea’s adolescents. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the complex conditions of the modern world require high self-organization, mobility, and internal motivation from young people. At the same time, disorganization, delayed life syndrome, and procrastination are increasingly observed during adolescence. Procrastination is considered not as ordinary laziness, which consists in an unwillingness to act, nor as relaxation that helps to restore energy resources. Instead, it is a complex psychological phenomenon and a habit of postponing important tasks, focusing on less urgent and more pleasant matters despite potential negative consequences. In the context of the Republic of Korea’s highly competitive educational environment, adolescents constantly face stress and overload, which complicates their ability to focus on tasks and triggers putting them off until later. The research focuses on the linguocultural features of the verbalization of this phenomenon, revealing how the Korean language reflects theories of self-regulation, avoidance, and motivation. According to the avoidance theory, procrastination arises as a way to avoid negative emotions (fear of failure, boredom, anxiety) associated with performing difficult tasks. The article explores the lexical units Republic of Korea’s adolescents use to designate the five main types of procrastinators: perfectionists, postponers, disorganized individuals, easily distracted people, and the unmotivated. The results of the linguistic data analysis show that in the short term, adolescent vocabulary reflects relief from avoiding unpleasant emotions. However, in the long term, the semantics of statements shift toward describing the accumulation of problems, inhibition of personal development, stress, and even symptoms of depression. It has been established that Republic of Korea’s adolescents often use specific slang to describe feelings of futility of effort, decreased self-esteem, and exam anxiety. The work is of a theoretical and applied nature and opens new perspectives for the psycholinguistic study of personal development problems in a cross-cultural aspect.