TTNkorea How Old Are You? I mean, in K-Age. :: 테마여행신문 TTN Theme Travel News Korea

TTNkorea How Old Are You? I mean, in K-Age.: 2014.01.18 23:31 입력

How Old
Are You? I mean, in K-Age.<o:p></o:p>

무진장 헷갈리는 한국 나이! 나는 도대체 몇 살인 걸까?<o:p></o:p>

What is the first question people ask each other on their first
meeting? Saved from the champion only by “What is your name”, there is “How old
are you” in Korea.

Sometimes we even ask age before name. It may be regarded as a personal
question or even a rude one in Western culture, but between Koreans, you should
know their age not to be rude. Age matters in
Korea. Koreans respect elder people and take care of younger people. In Korean
language, there are two ways of speaking. One is polite way(존댓말), another is casual way(반말). Younger person
is supposed to speak in polite way to the elder counterpart. That is why
Koreans try to figure out which one is older in personal relationship. (Age
also differentiates the titles we use to call each other such as ‘Oppa(older male)’
or ‘Dongsaeng(younger person)’. Let me cover this on the next column.)

Understanding Korean Age System<o:p></o:p>

But you know
what? You may not be the same age you were in your home country, when you come
to Korea. It is unexpectedly complicated to decide how old you are in Korea. We
have unique age-calculating system which is not even shared with nearby Asian
countries like China or Japan. Let me explain how to calculate Korean age. It
might sound absurd at first but actually quite legitimate and not that
difficult.

1.    
Your age +1 : After Birthday

When a baby is
born in Korea, he/she is already one year old, instead of one day old. Because
babies stay almost a year in womb, we give them some credit. You should add one
year to your original age, when you are in Korea.

2.    
Your age +2: Before Birthday

However, if you
did not celebrate your birthday yet, you should plus two years to your original
age. This is about WHEN you get older. In Western culture, you get older on
your birthday. But in Korea, you get older on the New Year’s Day!

All Koreans
equally get older on January 1st. It does not matter when your
birthday is. Every Korean born in the same year shares the same age for the
whole year. We say that we become older by having a bowl of Ddeokguk, traditional soup made with
rice cake. There is a typical childhood episode about Ddeokguk that kids finish several bowls of Ddeokguk with the hope to be an adult quickly. (I did that too!)

There is another
issue about different calendar system. Although we celebrate Lunar New Year’s Day
as a major national holiday, Solar New Year’s Day makes us older. But still,
some families consider they grow older on Lunar New Year’s Day. They even
celebrate their birthdays according to lunar calendar. My parents still do,
while my brother and I celebrate solar birthdays.

So… How old am I?
I was born in 1990 and already celebrated birthday in 2014. I am 24 internationally
and 25 in Korean way. (I can even be 26 because of the ‘Early Enrollment’
system for the kids born in January or February. This is the tricky part that
makes Korean age 100 times complicated. I will explain this in the next column.)

Don’t worry; to a
math-sucker-like-me’s relief, Koreans officially use international-standard age
which is called ‘man(만)’ age, meaning ‘full’ age. So
you can keep your original age in Korea!

In the next
column, I will cover the titles differ according to age and the tricky Early
Enrollment System.