what’s age got to do with it?

When I was home, naturally I was drilled for tidbits and stories about Korean life. One thing that really baffled people was the difference between Korean age and International age. If a Korean person tells you their age you usually have to subtract one or two years from what they say to get their International age.

In brief, Koreans consider a newborn a year old because of the time spent in the womb. Also, everyone’s age changes at the lunar new year, so in January everybody’s age goes up one year. A baby could be born December 31 and be considered 2 years old the next day. Think of it like this – the January after a child is born is the second calendar year that he/she has been alive, so he/she is considered two years old. This could mean that they’re only 3 days old but that’s just how it’s done.

but I don’t wanna be 4 yet!

This is common in China and other East Asian countries. Now, as crazy foreign as this seems to me, I am going to assume that there is some kind of ancient wisdom and reasoning behind it because Koreans take their age very seriously.

Seriously, the first thing that most Koreans will ask you after your name is your age. Depending on who’s asking I will either give my International age (24) or my Korean age (26). For dating purposes, I will tell a guy that I’m whatever age is closest to his without being older than him (if he’s 25, I’m 24 but if he’s 28, I’m 26). Koreans don’t usually date too far outside their age bracket (maybe a one year leeway). For that matter, Koreans don’t usually make friends outside their age bracket.

A Korean friend once told me that you can only call someone your ‘chingu’ (friend) if they are the same age as you. If you are a year younger than someone, you have to call them by the correct term. If you are a girl talking to an older guy, you call him ‘oppa’ and talking to an older girl you call her ‘oni’. If you are a guy talking to an older guy you call him ‘hyong’ and talking to an older girl you call her ‘nuna’. These terms actually mean big brother and sister, which can be confusing but that’s for another blog.

Calling a guy ‘oppa’ is supposed to be really cute… sometimes :P!

Someone’s age also depends on how you conjugate your verbs when you’re speaking to them, but we won’t get into that either. This is why it’s so important to know people’s ages right away.

The bottom line is that age is a huge factor in Korean culture and although it’s very different from the Canadian attitude, there is so much more respect towards elders (even if they’re only a few years older) than there is back home.

after all…. age is just a number, right?