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South Korean family planning

Vocabulary

the backlog of paperwork building up

the large and increasing amount of office documents (letters, reports etc) that you should have dealt with before but which you still need to deal with

birth rates

the number of babies born in a particular place during a certain period

boosting

increasing

staring into the abyss

looking to a future situation which will be difficult

rapidly ageing society

when the population of a country is getting older with not enough younger people to take their place

falling levels of manpower

when there are not enough young and fit people to do all the jobs needed to maintain the country's economy

spiralling

steadily increasing

spearheading that drive

taking charge of the plan

fostering love amongst its bureaucrats

encouraging office workers to start having relationships with each other

burdensome

difficult and requiring a lot of responsibility, time and money