Translating Gyoyang Beyond Semantic Entropy in Korean Higher Education

Gyoyang, a foundational ideal in Korean higher education, refers to comprehensive intellectual, ethical, social, interdisciplinary, and cultural development intended to cultivate well-rounded individuals. Although represented by a single term in Korean, Gyoyang corresponds roughly—and inadequately—to various English expressions, such as “General Education,” “Liberal Arts,” “Liberal Education,” and “Core Curriculum,” none of which fully captures its culturally embedded nuances. The proliferation of these translations might initially suggest a chaotic increase in semantic entropy—defined here, following Shannon (1948), as the progressive erosion of conceptual coherence when culturally rich terms cross linguistic boundaries. Paradoxically, however, Korean educators counteract this semantic disorder by strategically employing multiple translations, institutional narratives, explanatory glosses, and bilingual curricular frameworks. Acting as “cultural entropy managers,” they reinforce and clarify Gyoyang’s cultural coherence, strengthening its core identity for both domestic and international audiences. Through a mixed-methods analysis combining quantitative lexical distribution modeling (using a proposed cultural entropy formula) with qualitative analysis of institutional practices, pedagogical interventions, ethnographic interviews with international students at a Korean university, and positionality informed by teaching experience in Korean and American contexts, this study reveals how Korean universities mitigate semantic entropy to preserve and deepen Gyoyang’s cultural integrity. By rendering this analysis in English, the article aims to illuminate the intricate dynamics involved in conveying culturally embedded educational concepts across linguistic boundaries, especially within academic contexts where English operates as a secondary rather than primary medium.