Last Updated on January 15, 2025 by Christine Kaaloa
The words cold and Korean are synonymous… it’s winter here and the buildings in Korea don’t have central heating. Instead, buildings get “selective heating” and only rooms with consistent occupancy get their heat turned on. Alternately, this means every hallway, restroom, lobby and staircase is almost a guaranteed icebox. It’s Korea’s effort to conserve energy and not “waste” electricity on things such as passing human bodies. For the new EFL teachers coming in– Westerners like myself, Europeans, Australians, South Africans, etc…– none of us know how to deal with the winter freeze in places we’re not normally accustomed to being cold… indoors, for instance.
Just so that the Korean freezing policy doesn’t feel unfair to foreigners and newcomers however, it may brave you to know that Koreans are not a polar bear race either. Perhaps, just their young fashionistas are the coping “die-hard”s to this system, with short skirts, heels and stockings. In my school, Anil Elementary in Daegu, the teachers and students wear thick jackets and coats to school and seldom take them off, even in the classroom or office (and this is provided the heat is on consistently to how it should be). In my classes today- nobody, including myself and co-teacher, took off their winter coats and parkas even though the classroom was being mildly heated. While Koreans don’t openly show it, they do enjoy being warm and buses and car windows will get severely fogged before someone cracks an opening to let the cold air in.
