I like the guy (이수열, Lee Su-yeol) in the video below. His books on the Korean language are interesting. He was an elementary, middle school, and high school teacher for 47 years, but now he is 92 years old and spends much of his time correcting the Korean grammar and language usage mistakes of Korean reporters and government officials.
Every morning he goes to the newsstand, buys newspapers, and reads through them, correcting the mistakes he finds. He then mails his corrections to the reporters at the newspapers, who return letters of appreciation. In other words, he is still a teacher, but now he is teaching Korean reporters how to use the Korean language correctly.
I remember one of the things he pointed out in one of his books was how silly the words 온탕 (溫湯) and 냉탕 (冷湯) are. If you go to a Korean bathhouse, you will usually find a pool of hot water (온탕) and a pool of cold water (냉탕), which Koreans bathe in for supposedly health reasons. However, the word 탕 (湯) means "boiling" or "boiling water," so 온탕 literally means "hot boiling water" (Duh!), and 냉탕 literally means "cold boiling water." So, 목욕탕, the Korean word for a public bathhouse, literally means "hot-water bath." 목욕 means "bath," and 탕 means "hot water."
Instead of 온탕 and 냉탕, Mr. Lee suggests the phrases "따뜻한 물" (hot water) and "찬 물" (cold water), respectively.
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