The Words We Learn from the Weather — Small Signs of a Changing World

🍉🍉🍉
These days, I sometimes feel like
we are learning a new language…
not from books,
but from the weather.

And it reminds me of a small memory from my childhood.
When I was in elementary school,
I once wrote a letter to soldiers.
In that letter, I wrote,
“Thank you for protecting our country
in this heat that feels like steaming bread.”
People laughed at me—
saying it sounded strange.
찌는듯한 더위에. 대신
빵을 찌는듯한 더위라고. 덧붙였던거지.
Maybe I must have been hungry.

At the time,
I laughed with them and forgot about it.
But now…
when I think about it again,
it doesn’t feel so funny.

Because these days,
the heat really does feel overwhelming.
Maybe even back then,
summers were already that hot.
We just didn’t think about it so seriously.

But now, things feel different.
We use new words
to describe what we are going through.

For example, “Mang-cas,”망한바캉스
a ruined vacation caused by extreme weather.
Or “chameleon climate,”
when the weather changes suddenly and unpredictably.
And we don’t just talk about the weather anymore—
we talk about how it makes us feel.

Words like eco-anxiety
or climate depression
describe a quiet but constant worry.

There’s also solastalgia,
the feeling of missing a place
even while you are still living in it because it has changed.

At the same time,
people are trying to be more aware of their choices.
Some feel flygskam,플라익스캠
a sense of guilt about flying—
because airplanes produce a large amount of carbon emissions,
and people begin to question whether convenience is worth the cost.

And we also hear about greenwashing,
when companies claim to be environmentally friendly,
but in reality,
their actions don’t match their words.

So maybe these words
are not just new vocabulary.
They are small signs
that our world is changing—
and that what once felt distant
is now something we truly live through.