Learn Must-Know Words, Expressions, and Tips for Hiking in Korea (๋ฑ์ฐ)
From Seoul’s Bukhansan to Jeju’s Hallasan, hiking (๋ฑ์ฐ) is one of the most popular outdoor activities in South Korea. Whether youโre hiking solo or joining a group, mastering basic Korean hiking vocabulary will keep you safer and make the experience more rewarding.
๐๏ธ Must-Know Hiking Vocabulary in Korean
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ๋ฑ์ฐ | deung-san | Hiking |
| ์ฐ | san | Mountain |
| ๋ฑ์ฐ๋ก | deung-san-ro | Hiking trail |
| ์ ์ | jeong-sang | Summit / Peak |
| ๊ณ ๋ | go-do | Elevation |
| ์ฐ์ฅ | san-jang | Mountain shelter |
| ํด๊ฒ์ | hyu-gye-so | Rest area |
| ๋ฑ์ฐ๋ณต | deung-san-bok | Hiking clothes |
| ๋ฑ์ฐํ | deung-san-hwa | Hiking boots |
| ๋ฐฐ๋ญ | bae-nang | Backpack |
| ๋ฌผ๋ณ | mul-byeong | Water bottle |
| ๊ฐ์ | gan-sik | Snack |
| ์งํก์ด | ji-pang-i | Walking stick / Pole |
| ์ฒด๋ ฅ | che-ryeok | Stamina |
| ๊ทผ์กํต | geun-yuk-tong | Muscle pain |
| ๋ | ttam | Sweat |
| ํ์ | tal-su | Dehydration |
| ๊ธธ์ ์๋ค | gil-eul ilh-da | To get lost |
| ๊ตฌ์กฐ ์์ฒญ | gu-jo yo-cheong | Rescue request |
๐ถ Useful Hiking Verbs & Phrases in Korean
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ์ฐ์ ์ค๋ฅด๋ค | san-e o-reu-da | To climb a mountain |
| ํ์ฐํ๋ค | ha-san-ha-da | To descend |
| ์ฌ๋ค | swi-da | To rest |
| ๊ธธ์ ๋ฐ๋ผ๊ฐ๋ค | gil-eul tta-ra-ga-da | To follow the trail |
| ๊ฒฝ์น๋ฅผ ๊ฐ์ํ๋ค | gyeong-chi-reul gam-sang-ha-da | To enjoy the view |
| ๋์ด ๋๋ค | ttam-i na-da | To sweat |
| ์จ์ด ์ฐจ๋ค | sum-i cha-da | To be out of breath |
| ๊ธธ์ ์์ด๋ฒ๋ฆฌ๋ค | gil-eul ilh-eo-beo-ri-da | To lose the way |
| ๊ตฌ๊ธ์ฐจ๋ฅผ ๋ถ๋ฅด๋ค | gu-geup-cha-reul bu-reu-da | To call an ambulance |
| ์กฐ์ฌํ๋ค | jo-sim-ha-da | To be careful |
๐ฃ๏ธ Common Hiking Expressions in Korean
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ์ด ๊ธธ์ด ๋ง๋์? | i gil-i mat-na-yo? | Is this the right path? |
| ์ผ๋ง๋ ๋จ์์ด์? | eol-ma-na nam-ass-eo-yo? | How much further is it? |
| ์ฌ๊ธฐ์ ์ด๊น์? | yeo-gi-seo swil-kka-yo? | Should we rest here? |
| ๋ฌผ ์ข ๋ง์ ๋ ๋ผ์? | mul jom ma-syeo-do dwae-yo? | Can I drink some water? |
| ํ์ฅ์ค์ ์ด๋์ ์์ด์? | hwa-jang-sil-eun eo-di-e iss-eo-yo? | Where is the bathroom? |
| ๊ธธ์ ์์์ด์. | gil-eul ilh-eoss-eo-yo | I’m lost. |
| ๋ค๋ฆฌ๊ฐ ์ํ์. | da-ri-ga a-pa-yo | My legs hurt. |
| ์กฐ์ฌํด์ ๋ด๋ ค๊ฐ์ธ์. | jo-sim-hae-seo nae-ryeo-ga-se-yo | Be careful going down. |
๐ง Hiking in Korea โ Practical Tips & Cultural Notes
๐บ๏ธ Popular Korean Hiking Spots
- ๋ถํ์ฐ (Bukhansan) โ A favorite among Seoulites with scenic trails.
- ์ค์ ์ฐ (Seoraksan) โ Famous for autumn foliage.
- ํ๋ผ์ฐ (Hallasan) โ A dormant volcano and the tallest mountain in Korea.
๐ฑ Use Korean Hiking Apps
- Download โ๋ฑ์ฐ๋ก ์๋ดโ (trail guides) apps like Yamap, Kakao Map, or Tranggle for navigation.
- Look up ์ฐ์ ํ (hiking groups) to join locals on weekend hikes.
โ๏ธ Hiking Safety & Etiquette
- Start early to avoid hiking in the dark. Many parks close by 5โ6 PM.
- Stick to marked ๋ฑ์ฐ๋ก (trails) โ off-trail hiking is dangerous and discouraged.
- Always check the weather (๋ ์จ ํ์ธ) and carry ๋น์์ฝ (emergency medicine).
- Say โ์๋ ํ์ธ์โ (Hello) when passing fellow hikers โ itโs polite!
๐ Food & Rest Tips
- Pack ๊น๋ฐฅ (kimbap), ๊ณผ์ผ (fruit), and ๋ฌผ (water).
- Donโt forget ์ฐ๋ ๊ธฐ๋ดํฌ (trash bags) โ carry out everything you bring in.
- Many hikers enjoy ๋ง๊ฑธ๋ฆฌ (makgeolli) or ๋ผ๋ฉด (ramyeon) at the summit rest stops โ a unique Korean tradition!
๐ Bonus Vocabulary for Hiking Gear in Korean
| Korean | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ๊ณ ์ดํ ์ค ์ฌํท | go-eo-tek-seu jae-kit | Gore-Tex jacket |
| ์์ด์ | a-i-jen | Crampons |
| ํค๋๋ํด | he-deu-raen-teon | Headlamp |
| ๋ฌด๋ฆ ๋ณดํธ๋ | mu-reup bo-ho-dae | Knee brace |
| ์์ธ์ ์ฐจ๋จ์ | ja-oe-seon cha-dan-je | Sunscreen |
| ์์ ๋ฑ | son-jeon-deung | Flashlight |
| ์ง๋ | ji-do | Map |
| ๋์นจ๋ฐ | na-chim-ban | Compass |
๐จ Safety Tips for Hiking in Korea
- Always let someone know where you’re going and when youโll return.
- Call 119 for emergency rescue in mountains โ operators often have basic English support.
- In summer, start hikes early morning to avoid heatstroke.
- In winter, be extra cautious of ๋นํ๊ธธ (icy trails) and use crampons.
- Watch for ์ผ์๋๋ฌผ (wild animals) like wild boars in rural areas.
๐ฏ Vocabulary Quiz
- What does โ์ ์โ mean?
- Translate: โIโm lost.โ
- Whatโs the Korean word for โHiking trailโ?
๐ฌ Comment your answers or ask a friend to quiz you!
๐ Want to Learn More?
โ๏ธ Camping in Korean
โ๏ธ Amusement Park in Korean
โ๏ธ Museum in Korean
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