[Photo Credit: Chosunilbo, 조선일보, 朝鮮日報]
The day temperature in Seoul on 1 November has been hovering around 10 deg C. As reported, wind was blowing and it felt like winter is coming soon. Children don't seem to mind the coldness. Wearing thick clothing, they were seen having their excursion in the Seoul Grand Park.
Cold weather is good because there is no mosquito and I can "hibernate".
During elementary level I used to think that there are only two adjectives to describe weather. 덥다 (hot) and 춥다 (cold). When I reached intermediate level, I was introduced to a range of adjectives for weather, all the way from above 30 deg C to below -20 deg C.
Above 30 deg C - 매우 덥다 / 무덥다 (무더위)
20 to 30 deg C - 덥다 (더위)
10 to 20 deg C - 따뜻하다
0 to 10 deg C - 시원하다
-10 to 0 deg C - 쌀쌀하다
-20 to -10 deg C - 춥다 (추위)
Below -20 deg C - 매우 춥다 (강추위)
In intermediate level, I was also required to differentiate between the adjectives used to describe weather and those that are used to describe food and beverage. For example, I cannot use 뜨겁다 to describe hot weather neither can I use 덥다 to describe a bowl of hot soup. Fortunately, 따뜻하다 and 시원하다 can be used to describe both weather and food and beverage. That has helped me save some memory power. Furthermore, I was made aware that 시원하다 does not only mean cool, it can also mean refreshing. What this means is that while the food may seem hot, a person can still shout out "시원해요" ("damn shiok" in Singlish) after eating it. What he means is that the food gives him a refreshing sensation and not that the food is cool.
Hot - 뜨겁다
Warm - 따뜻하다
Lukewarm - 미지근하다
Cool - 시원하다
Cold - 차다 / 차갑다
Since the temperature is about 10 deg C in Seoul now, the weather can be described as 시원하다. However, I am quite sure there is no such thing as a refreshing weather. 시원하다, in this case, can only mean cool weather.
wow... 춥다 is only for -10 to -20?? to me, 0-10 is already 춥다. i didn't realise that koreans had so many 'gauges' of temperature. although it means tt there's more to learn, it really shows the difference in temperature. unlike english, where hot is hot & cold is cold.
ReplyDeleteHi Equinox. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI bumped across your blog few months ago, which inspired me to work harder in my Korean study :)
I guessed it's you when you talked about the story of "bal" and "pal" yesterday as i read in your blog before.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and learning experience.
Oh and about Korean expressions about weather, i remember once 선생님 was trying very hard to explain to us the state of the sky after rain when the clouds are clearing. She told us there are many more "variety' of expressions.
Thank you anonymous. *^^*
ReplyDeleteYes, there are more expressions to describe weather. What I wrote in this post are just only those related to temperature.