"Until recently, the cost of weddings, education and apartments came from years of careful savings by parents or grandparents. Research by Dr Jongsung Kim at the Korea Economic Institute found that household savings had declined from 20% in the mid-1990s, to around 3% now. * * * Kim Dae-soon and his wife end their wedding ceremony with a traditional bow to their parents. In return, they receive pocket money to spend on their honeymoon. Until now, young people have relied on their parents and grandparents to start them off in life. But with savings shrinking, and credit spiralling, the question is: who will pay the bill when it is their children's turn?
"And household debt as a whole rose to 164% of disposable income at the end of last year - more than in the US
"The irony is the government actually wants people to spend more. The country's economic model, based on big manufacturing companies, is showing signs of slowing and South Korea needs to boost domestic spending as a way to balance it.
Note:
(a) "Park Jong-hyun has put on a jacket for his visit to Korea's National Happiness Fund. The thin, shiny material catches the strip lights as he and his wife wait their turn at the counter."
(i) BBC translates it into: "要去见'国民幸福基金'的经理，朴钟铉（Park Jong-hyun，音译）特意穿上一件西装。西装面料很薄，在日光灯的照射下闪闪发亮。朴钟铉和妻子坐下来，耐心地等着。"
(ii) jacket has many meanings. See jacket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacket
(The word jacket comes from the French word jaquette and it is derived from the name Jacques[, French variant of] James; section 2 List of jackets: "blazer" and "suit jacket" among others)
(iii) Jacques http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques
(James is derived from Iacomus, a variant of Iacobus[, the latter two being Late Latin])
(iv) strip (n; probably alteration of stripe):
"1: a long, narrow piece of something
2: a long, narrow piece of land
3: a road that has a lot of shops, restaurants, etc, along it" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strip
(v) strip (n):
"a long, narrow piece of cloth, paper, plastic, or some other material:
* * *
• [one example being:] chiefly North American a main road in or leading out of a town, lined with shops, restaurants, and other facilities."
Oxford dictionaries, undated http://oxforddictionaries.com/us ... an_english/strip--2
Becasue the BBC reporter may probably British, I hope to find out if the "strip" in "strip light" is British English also. It is not.
(b) "The debt managers agree to write off 50% of Mr Park's debt: he leaves a happy man. * * * The National Happiness Fund was a key campaign pledge of the current South Korean president, Park Geun-hye"
KBS stands for Korean Broadcasting System (Launch date: 1927 (radio), 1961 (TV); Headquarters Seoul; Owner: government of South Korea)
(ii) 'Happiness Fund' to Make Debut Friday. Korea Times, Mar 25, 2013 http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2013/08/488_132717.html
("household debt reached 959 trillion won 圓 ($861.67 billion) as of the end of last year, nearly 80 percent of the nation’s GDP in 2011")
(iii) Compare
Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, August 2013. http://www.newyorkfed.org/resear ... ctReport_Q22013.pdf
* View the first several graphics only.
* "HE Revolving" stabnds for "home equity revolving account" (page 28)
* The Report does not mention household debt as percentage of GDP, which can be found in a blog based on this Report:
Nei Irwin, Five Facts About Household Debt in the United States. Washington Post, Aug 15, 2013 http://www.washingtonpost.com/bl ... -the-united-states/
("household debt totaled 85 percent of GDP in the third quarter of 2008, and is down to 67 percent in the second quarter of 2013")
(c) "Korean weddings are ringed with traditional customs, many of which have acquired a new, modern price-tag."
(i) ring (vt): "to place or form a ring around : ENCIRCLE <police ringed the building>" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ring
(ii) Oxford dictionaries defines it similarly: "surround (someone or something), especially for protection or containment"
(iii) The use of "ring" in the quotation is unusual. My guess is it is a word play on the wedding band/ring.
(d) "Traditional marriage is about the concept of 'hyo', or respect, and deference to one's parents"
hyo (효): "filial piety" (hanja: 孝)
(e) "His wedding and modest rental apartment cost $300,000 - mostly because Korea's unique system of rental deposits means that anyone trying to set up home faces a steep investment."
(i) key money http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_money
(section 2.2 Korea)
The term and concenpt are unknown in US.
(ii) jeonse 傳貰 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeonse
("At the end of the contract, usually two or three years, the landlord returns the amount in its entirety to the renter")
"[I]n its entirety." My guess is a lessee pays through the interest of his/her deposit, in lieu of monthly rent.