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Eunoia
Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Location: In a seedy karakoe bar by the banks of the mighty Bosphorus
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 Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:13 pm Post subject: More on A/C and the Korean love of heat and humidity |
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As a spin-off of the other thread, "Do You Have Air Con?", I ask: WHAT is the deal with Koreans and air-conditioning? (Little ranting coming up...)
* If the skies are overcast and grey, most bus drivers will turn off their A/C. Korean logic seems to dictate that, "If it's not sunny", it must not be hot." Sit back as sweat your arse off, as ajuma refuses to open the window for fear of messing up her latest perm. If you dare to open a window, you can be sure that the lady behind you will try to close it for you.
* If it's raining, most bus drivers and taxi drivers turn off the A/C. "If it's raining, we must not need the A/C," never mind the 2000% humidity. Then sit back and watch as the windows of the car instantly fog up the moment you step in, and watch the driver futilely wipe the window with a handkerchief (Omar Sharif, no doubt) instead of simply turrning on the defroster/defogger. Reach for the switch yourself and endanger your life, as Mr. Driver Man will pay more attention to your foolish actions, wrestling your hand away from the controls, than to the road.
* Have A/C in my classes, but as soon as I turn it on, the students start to complain, "It's too cold!" Dang, I've got the thing set at 26, 27 degrees, that's "cold"? If I set it just for "fan", the humidity in the room instantly skyrockets; when I ask the kids if about it, they say they're "comfortable". 
I've asked many Koreans about this (Why do Koreans love the heat and humidity so much?), only to get uncomprehending stares or vigorous denials. And who really NEEDS a humidifier in the winter? As soon as I hang wet laundry, I have to crack a window just to keep the humidity down!
Other countries in SE Asia I've visited really know how to use A/C - cranked on full, all the time. Walk into a corner store in Singapore and the sweat on your body instantly crystalizes, making you stop cold in pure, near-orgasmic shock - ahhhhhh!  Why have the Koreans not figured this out yet? |
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Trinny
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I am not sure. I am of the opinion that one should learn to live with heat and humidity in a hot and humid country. I am basically against using air conditioner, as it consumes a lot of eletricity and its motor generates tonnes of heat. |
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Seoultrader
Joined: 18 Jun 2003
Location: Ali's Insurgent Inn, Fallujah
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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Conversely, they're the biggest wussies when it comes to cold. Used to be one of the biggest issues with my  ex. For some reason I couldn't handle a 30C room temperature and she wasn't into my -3C-outside-but-window-wide-open sleeping style. |
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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Seoultrader wrote: |
| Conversely, they're the biggest wussies when it comes to cold. Used to be one of the biggest issues with my ex. For some reason I couldn't handle a 30C room temperature and she wasn't into my -3C-outside-but-window-wide-open sleeping style. |
Word.
I dunno, I really hate humidity, but I can adjust and deal with it. What I can't deal with is that I have pretty bad summer allergies, and, in my office, the teachers love to leave the windows open, refusing to use the A/C. |
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Trinny
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Seoultrader wrote: |
| -3C-outside-but-window-wide-open sleeping style. |
-3. Big deal!
She wouldn't survive, if she were in my neck of wood. |
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Eunoia
Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Location: In a seedy karakoe bar by the banks of the mighty Bosphorus
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Trinny wrote: |
| I am not sure. I am of the opinion that one should learn to live with heat and humidity in a hot and humid country... |
errr, yes, but what about those aforementioned hot and humid SE Asian countries in which the locals use A/C liberally?
I can adapt to the heat and humidity as long as I'm outdoors, but inside a building or a bus where the air is trapped and not circulating, it's much worse and A/C is a blessing, unfriendly for the environment though it may be - but what isn't? |
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Dan
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Sunny Glendale, CA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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i'm under the impression its part of a conservation effort.
Not entirely sure, but koreans are sticky about things like electricity, what you pour down the drain and using too much water.
but i could be wrong. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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| you're wrong about the water thing. THere was an article in the Korea Herald awhile ago about Korean's use of water. Its twice as much as some European countries use while it was a bit more than what the avg. american uses. The reason, according to the article, is tap water is so cheap here compared to the West and Japan. Perhaps if they were to increase the price a bit, people would conserve more. I personally would be all for an increase in price if it came with cleaner/safter tap water. |
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William Beckerson
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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Wont turn on the aircon for fear of power bills, but dont mind spending a few hundred thousand on soju and sam gyap sal...
And being from Canada, I laughed, mighty, deep, laughs at the previous winter and the local's fear of frostbite. |
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HardyandTiny
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:32 pm Post subject: Re: More on A/C and the Korean love of heat and humidity |
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| Eunoia wrote: |
| If the skies are overcast and grey, most bus drivers will turn off their A/C. Korean logic seems to dictate that, "If it's not sunny", it must not be hot." Sit back as sweat your arse off, as ajuma refuses to open the window for fear of messing up her latest perm. If you dare to open a window, you can be sure that the lady behind you will try to close it for you. |
Given the opportunity to change something they will, even if it makes no sense. "Push that button Mr Kim, no that one, okay push them all, oh, hey, that looks like a mountain, wait , push the red one, we're losing altitude, push all the buttons damn it!"
They can't control the a/c on the subway and there is no one to complain to, so they accept it as normal to scoot along at a mild 19C in the mid summer. You CAN't mess up those perms if you wanted to, they are Chief Jay Strongbow.
| Eunoia wrote: |
| * If it's raining, most bus drivers and taxi drivers turn off the A/C. "If it's raining, we must not need the A/C," never mind the 2000% humidity. Then sit back and watch as the windows of the car instantly fog up the moment you step in. |
Don't you know anything? If the windows are foggy and your passenger is female you can have sex with her. It's called "Foggy", "I foggied three today". If a man is strong they call him a "FogFiver".
| Eunoia wrote: |
| * Have A/C in my classes, but as soon as I turn it on, the students start to complain, "It's too cold!" Dang, I've got the thing set at 26, 27 degrees, that's "cold"? If I set it just for "fan", the humidity in the room instantly skyrockets; when I ask the kids if about it, they say they're "comfortable". |
[quote="Eunoia"]That's not surprising. In the autumn at the firsrt hint of cold you'll see infants wrapped in a three layer cocoon of wool smooshed up into a backpack. Three years of that and anything feels cold the rest of your life.
| Eunoia wrote: |
| I've asked many Koreans about this (Why do Koreans love the heat and humidity so much?), only to get uncomprehending stares or vigorous denials. And who really NEEDS a humidifier in the winter? As soon as I hang wet laundry, I have to crack a window just to keep the humidity down! |
You're becoming too involved. Just eat dinner, have sex, take a shower and get with the program. Asking Koreans "WHY"? Good Lord son! Don't you know! "That is Korea way! You never understand Korea way, Korea style, Korea anything, go home to your country stop complaining, make it bee-line, get out Korea, stop make wave, you never understand, Don't say me like that"...Uh Oh! Here comes the dish across the dining room, run for your life! She said "Don't say me like that!"
| Eunoia wrote: |
| Other countries in SE Asia I've visited really know how to use A/C - cranked on full, all the time. Walk into a corner store in Singapore and the sweat on your body instantly crystalizes, making you stop cold in pure, near-orgasmic shock - ahhhhhh! Why have the Koreans not figured this out yet? |
Those people in those other countires, they are not strong like Koreans. Koreans can take heat. All woman in Indo-china are prostitute, the men are small and they have no strength. What is wrong with you! |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| People definitely have a lower threshold for cold here. I notice in t.v. ads and from my students that people get a cold air "air-con headache" fairly easily, something I never have a problem with. |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Hey, I have often wondered about all this myself. There is know doubt that Koreans have a twisted love for heat and humidity, but after getting used to it and you will too, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal now. That said, I haven't forgotten something good, and if I am in controll of the air-con, I make use of it. |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| I've asked many Koreans about this (Why do Koreans love the heat and humidity so much?), only to get uncomprehending stares or vigorous denials. |
Most observations you make to Koreans about their idiosyncracies receive vigorous denials. These mean your observations are probably correct. They just have a duty to represent the party line. They don't believe what they're saying, and you don't either. These conversations are known as "adult class".
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Wont turn on the aircon for fear of power bills, but dont mind spending a few hundred thousand on soju and sam gyap sal... |
But they also don't mind dropping > 1,000,000 won for the best floor model air conditioner on the market for their living room - large enough to cool a stadium - and never turn it on.
I love my inlaws but it's bizarre behaviour.
I also disagree with the "get used to the heat" argument. In deep summer, at peak humidity, after a day or two I get weird red spots on my upper legs that look like pimples, but aren't. I never got them back home. My body physically rebels against Korea's summer climate. |
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HardyandTiny
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| you're wrong about the water thing. THere was an article in the Korea Herald awhile ago about Korean's use of water. Its twice as much as some European countries use while it was a bit more than what the avg. american uses. The reason, according to the article, is tap water is so cheap here compared to the West and Japan. Perhaps if they were to increase the price a bit, people would conserve more. I personally would be all for an increase in price if it came with cleaner/safter tap water. |
Yeah, an increase would probably work. It's not only water that is cheaper, all the utilities seem cheaper, well, to me. Gas, electricity, even building maintenance and cable TV and the fancy water thingy that "what's her name" installed. A five gallon jug of water costs me 3,500. I bang back about 6 a month, all of that water is only about 20 US a month..absolutely amazing! It won't go on like this much longer.
I'm just a spoiled, wasteful American, enjoying the final days of the splurge.
Seems Canada has been on to this for awhile.
The first time this type of issue struck home was when I travelled to Nova Scotia in 1993. I couldn't believe the cost of a pack of butts and a case of brew. I think it was 7 dollars Canadian for a pack of cigarettes and I am not sure about the brew, but it was enough to make me slow down, and believe the sin tax method works.
We should grateful that we actually have the extra money to buy any of these things. Back in the early 80's an Irish woman told me no one was smoking in Ireland, not becuase they were concerned about their health but simply because they just didn't have the cash at ANY price to buy a cigarette. |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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In deep summer, at peak humidity, after a day or two I get weird red spots on my upper legs that look like pimples, but aren't. I never got them back home. My body physically rebels against Korea's summer climate.
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Whew! I'm glad I'm not the only person "breaking out" almost 20 years after being a teenager. I never got those things before either. |
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