What is a ka-ul namja, Autumn Man?

As September began, one of my single adult male students told me that he had become a ka-ul namja – an autumn man.

가을 남자

An autumn man? 

What did this mean? That he was outdoorsy? After all, autumn is the time for getting out and about to enjoy the cool weather after the summer. Was he into camping and hiking and stuff?

I began to imagine the autumn man to be the hardy type – able to start fires by rubbing two sticks together and catching snakes for dinner and drinking his own urine to survive.

But no, that’s not what an autumn man is at all.

An autumn man is a melancholy man.

And if he’s single he may feel even more lonely in autumn. And so when the leaves start falling from the trees, the single autumn man starts looking for love.

I’ve only ever thought of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) being an issue during winter –   I remember the dull, white, winter skies growing up in Britain. And it’s dark by 4pm which doesn’t help matters.

Then according to T.S. Eliot, it’s spring that’s the problem. April is the cruelest month because you should feel better in spring when the weather warms up and the flowers appear. But it’s depressing for those whose spirits are not lifted when spring comes.

But in Korea, apparently statistics have shown that men feel the blues more in autumn and women feel down in spring! The dwindling sunlight of autumn brings on a depression in men whilst the warm sunlight in the spring brings women down.

Well that’s the theory, anyway. Hence the image of the lonely man putting on his Burberry coat and strolling around alone under the falling leaves.

Here’s a music video and song Autumn Guy by Jung In. She laments how every autumn her boyfriend suddenly gets the blues. Here are the lyrics in English.

WHAT IS A ‘BURBERRY MAN’?

The ideal autumn man will be wearing a trench coat. But the trench coat does have some unfortunate connotations, doesn’t it? And there’s an interesting Korean expression borrowed from English that uses this.

‘Burberry Man’

Although Burberry (바바리 pronounced ba-ba-ri) is a brand name, it’s used as the generic term for trench coats in Korean. So a ‘babari coat‘ is any kind of trench coat.

And a ‘burberry man’ (ba-ba-ri-men) is a FLASHER!

(I’m not suggesting that an autumn man is a flasher. An autumn man and a ‘burberry man’ are NOT THE SAME. I’m just pointing out the vocabulary!)

And anyway, when I was flashed at as a teenager, the flasher was not wearing any sort of trench coat, never mind a Burberry trench coat!

LONELY T-SHIRTS

I did a Naver search for autumn man and the results came up with some autumn fashion to express the autumn man’s mood. I’m not sure if wearing this top would have the desired effect of attracting the ladies..