React vs. Repond

There seems to be a lot of confusion about react vs. respond.

To react means to act in response to a stimulus or prompting, close to 반응하다 in Korean. A reaction has a more passive connotation than a response, because people often react to a situation quickly, without much thought. Take a look at the following example:

• An Egyptian billionaire with a penchant for risk is transforming a sleepy Swiss village into a ritzy resort that may one day rival Verbier. Sawiris, 53, made his fortune developing towns in the Middle East. Now he’s betting that a revived Andermatt will compete for skiers with more well-known resorts...Sawiris caught the attention of Zermatt Mayor Christoph Buergin when announcing the project.“I know Andermatt very well and hearing someone coming from Cairo saying he’ll build a resort here, my first reaction was that he must be stupid,” Buergin said in a July 20 telephone interview. “But now I think it’s a very good thing. This is a man with plans.” (Bloomberg, September 1, 2010)

To respond means to show a response to something, a close equivalent of 대응하다 in Korean. More often than not, a response is more calculated than a reaction, with a thorough understanding of the entire situation, rather than perceiving a specific stimulus within the situation. Take a look at the following example:

• A decade ago, Japan was a byword for failed economic policies: years after its real estate bubble burst, it was still suffering from chronic deflation and slow growth. Then America had its own bubble, bust and crisis...In the 1990s, Japan conducted a dress rehearsal for the crisis that struck much of the world in 2008. Runaway banks fueled a bubble in land prices; when the bubble burst, these banks were severely weakened, as were the balance sheets of everyone who had borrowed in the belief that land prices would stay high. The result was protracted economic weakness. And the policy response was too little, too late. The Bank of Japan cut interest rates and took other steps to pump up spending, but it was always behind the curve and persistent deflation took hold...Like their Japanese counterparts, American policy makers initially responded to a burst bubble and a financial crisis with half-measures. I’ve lamented that fact, but at this point it’s water under the bridge. The question is: What happens now? (New York Times, Op-Ed by Paul Krugman, September 9, 2010)

But sometimes to react and to respond are used almost interchangeably as in the following sentence.

• Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who was named President Obama's latest nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is already being scrutinized by Congressional Republicans, particularly on how she might react to administration policy decisions (Source: Time)

The word react here does not necessarily imply an immediate reaction without much thought. Kagan, then-Supreme Court nominee, would not have risked her career by reacting to policy decisions without carefully reviewing and analyzing them first.