Concept of Age

In the West unless you are a minor, not many people seem to question how old your friends are. Generally, you can be friends with anyone no matter how old they are whether they are 25 or 60. You may have different life experiences to eachother but you can learn from one another's experience as well. For example, a younger person may learn about life experiences by being friends with an older person whereas an older person may learn the youth culture of today from a younger person.

On the other hand in places such as Korea, you can only be friends with people the same age as you. In Korea, friends are addressed as Chingu. Most of you now may be thinking, I can be friends with people born in the same year as me but this is where it gets complicated. If you are born in either January or February as I am, you are lumped with everyone born the year before. (From March that is) What is the reason behind this you wonder? The Korean school system as the school year begins in March.

For example I'm born in February and have a friend born in November of the same year. Although we are born in the same year, we are not technically friends as she would be in a grade below me at school. Another example would be a K-pop group called Super Junior. (By the way, I'm not too familiar with their music) Two of the members Shingdong and Sungmin would be considered friends although Shindong was born in September 1985 and Sungmin was born in January 1986 whereas Sungmin and Eunhyuk would not be friends because Eunhyuk was born in April 1986.

Here is a photo of Super Junior:

(Courtesy of Glogster)

Some terms you might want to remember when addressing people in Korea that are not the same age as you:

Noona: Male addressing a female senior
Hyung: Male addressing a male senior
Unni: Female addressing a female senior
Oppa: Female addressing a male senior
Dongsaeng: Seniors addressing their juniors

In addition to having the same age friends rule in Korea, I was told in Japan this is also the case but this time, people who are born in March are also lumped into the same category as the year before. Their school year starts in April. However, I did not seem to experience this when I was hanging out with my Japanese friends so I am not too sure if they are more relaxed about this. Maybe someone can confirm this for me.

The friends aspect is not the only thing I find interesting about Korean age. It is also the fact that you are one years old when you are born and on Lunar New Year, you add another year. If you are born a few days before Lunar New Year, you are considered to be two years old on Lunar New Year despite the fact that in reality, you are only a few days old. Strange isn't it? I think other Asian countries do this as well if they follow the Lunar Calendar.

Hopefully, this explanation makes the concept of age in Korea easier to understand.

Until next time,

Laura xx