"10,000 Steps a Day under Scorching Sun"... A Brutal Summer

[Anchor]

Even when the midday heat pours down like rain, there are workers who must visit homes one by one for those waiting for them. These are "visiting workers," such as private tutors and home appliance inspectors.

Reporter Dong Eunyeong followed the daily lives of these people navigating through the intense heat wave.

[Reporter]

Jeong Nan-suk, a private tutor with 30 years of experience, steps out onto the heated streets carrying a tutoring bag in one hand and a parasol in the other.

Jeong's daily routine begins around 1 p.m., when the sunlight is at its strongest during the day.

Because she is in charge of residential areas where parking is difficult in alleys, she mostly travels on foot.

[Jeong Nan-suk / Private Tutor: Last week was so intensely hot that sweat just poured down. It was hard to even walk.]

With it being the summer vacation period, classes are frequently canceled at the last minute. When that happens, the place Jeong heads to is a neighborhood 24-hour laundromat.

This is because rest areas are far away, and community centers make her feel conscious of the elderly people there.

[Jeong Nan-suk / Private Tutor: It's too far to walk to a rest area, and rest areas are not available everywhere.]

She has to walk more than 10,000 steps a day, and this summer has been even more brutal.

[Jeong Nan-suk / Private Tutor: I suffer from severe dizziness due to the heat. Lately, because it's hot, I keep craving cold things. So these days, a lot of teachers are getting enteritis and struggling terribly.]

Home appliance inspectors mostly travel by car because of various equipment, but they have to walk to places where parking is unavailable, and visiting homes in the sweltering weather poses many difficulties.

[Lee Myeong-suk / Home Appliance Inspector: There are many people who don't even turn on their electric fans. It's really hard. I'm sweating so much right now. My face has turned all red.]

They cannot even drink cold water freely.

[Lee Myeong-suk / Home Appliance Inspector: It's awkward to ask to use the restroom at a customer's house, so I end up refraining from drinking water as much as possible.]

When she gets back into her car parked under the blazing sun after finishing a visit, she feels suffocated.

[Lee Myeong-suk / Home Appliance Inspector: It's so exhausting. It's like a steam room. I wonder what the temperature is in here right now.]

Even though the heat wave this summer is said to have passed its peak, workers who roam the alleys to reach consumers are still fighting the heat.

(Photo, Video by: Kim Nam-sung, Lee Sang-hak | Video Editing by: Park Na-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.