아싸! 나이가 25살 이는데…나의 동생이 됐어! 하하하… 그래서 형이나 선배 불해! 그녕 농담이야!

난 26살 이서 설는 내 누나 이예요

Finally I know a Korean man who is younger than me! All of my male co-workers are older than me, even though they have the same amount of work experience after college. I think that’s because of Army service. Most Korean men do that during college, so that delays their graduation for a couple years…. and of course, they count their age as being one or two years greater than it *really* is.

Alas, I can’t really be on the same level because of it. When one of the new teachers came, and introduced himself to the faculty the VERY first thing discussed was his age…and how he was born the same year as a 5th grade teacher. The very next topic was what month each was born in!

Age is important!

What a confusion i have now!
I only knew about adding 1 year to your real age, because in korea newborns are 1 year old.

But didn’t know of adding 2 years!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t understand this part. And is only some people that have to add 2 years??? or everybody if there is a calendar change?
If is only for some people, that’s not fair! LOL

Could someone explain more about when adding 2 years…

I have a friend in Korea who was born a year before me and he has mentioned to me me that if we were in Korea it would be hard for us to be friends because of our age difference.

Is a 1 year difference really that big of a deal in friendships after high school and college?

One Korean guy at my uni embarassed himself a little at the beginning of every class. He had a habit of calling everyone older than him 姐姐 or 哥哥 (”older sister” or “older brother”). We told him that it just made us uncomfortable!

Another funny thing about age: the other day I asked my girlfriend the names of the girls in her class. I didn’t know any of them. Aika gave an embarassed smile and said “I don’t know either. I just call them all 언니/older sister”.

I can attest that when a large group of Koreans meet each other for the first time (like at the beginning of a semester) they all ask each other their birthdates, so they can work out who is older sister, who is younger sister etc.

I think that the confusion with how old you are is because the Korean/Chinese/Japanese method of saying how many 살/岁／歳 old you are doesn’t exactly translate to how many years old you are. When you ask a Korean/Chinese/Japanese how old he/she is they will reply with how many different years he/she has been around for.

So when a 韩／中／日 person says that he/she is “2″, you should probably take that to mean “I have been alive during two different calendar years” and not “I have been alive for two birthdays”.

오스틴,

나이가 25살 이는데…
–> 나이가 25살이니까

그래서 형이나 선배 불해!
–> 형이나 선배라고 불러!

그녕 –> 그냥

26살 이서
–> 26살이니까

설는 내 누나 이예요
–> 설은 내 누나에요.

Jacqueline,
한국 나이가
–> 한국 나이를

:D

My birthday is on the 29 Dec, so I turned 2 years old when I was alive for 4 days!!!

I’m 25 in 한국나이. I don’t like this adding 2 yrs. thing .
현우, we have the same birthday!
I was surprised to learn Keith was so young.

I’m not so young am i Oh well

and that means you’re the same age as I am Keith what are we? tong ap?

Seoulsista, your birthday is approaching too! haha. 미리(in advance) 생일 축하해요.

James! 생일이 저랑 똑같아요! 하하. In Korea, since everybody ages at the same time, I always feel like(and I am in fact) the youngest among all the people who have the same (Korean) age as me.

I’m still amazed at how stringent the age divisions in Korean society can be. Is a one-year difference really that much? What happens if you move cities, losing immediate touch with your school alumni association? It must be hard to make friends in your new city if you can only associate with people exactly in your year.

I guess being a foreigner here comes with certain advantages!

This has cleared a bit more of what I was hoping for, but I’m still confused.

So when you’re born, you’re already a year old. then you add another year because why? my birthday isn’t december 31st or anything, but I’m confused. Why would you add another year after january passes? does everyone do that when the year passes? wouldn’t that make everyone 2 years older? why is is that the people before jan. 1 add two? can someone please clarify?

[…] Korean Age […]

Roxanne.. you’re right. You only start with 1, and from then on you only add a year at New Years. Otherwise, people would be TWICE as old as they really were! ^^

In western age, we start with 0 and add 1 at the actual birthday. In Korean age, you start with 1 and add a year at New Years

oh ok..i get it..thank you for explaining!..so do koreans still celebrate their real birthdays?..

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Rae… your age depends on the year you were born. Simply take the current year, and count the difference between the year you were born. And then all you have to do is +1. There’s your Korean age!

ex:

If I was born in 1970. Now it’s 2008. That would be 38 years old. +1 = 39 (in Korean age of course!).

I agree Alex… I’m not so good with names all the time. And simply just having to call someone noona of hyung is great! Problem is when someone is the same age or younger than you!

Haha

카밀라, same here. The Korean system is good at times because you don’t need to know someone’s birthday to know how old they are But I like to say I’m 27 than to say I’m 29 because then I’d be 30 next year

@ouija

Right now, you’re 15!

But in about 14 days you’ll be 16!

wow. what was.. really surprising, i think.
imagine, in almost two weeks, i would be 16, when my real age is 14!

but, is it really a part of their law, or just pure tradition?
why do they agree to that age system?…

anyway, thank you 선현우 and 오민 for that information.

just the same, have a happy christmas everyone!

haha. thanks again for the information!
now i am learning the cultures of different countries!

can you tell me other cultures of the other countries, if you know some?
i’ll appreciate it more if it is about the japanese.
because i am a japanese addict.

by the way, can anyone teach me to spek in different asian languages?
thank you in advance!

once again, thanks austin!

-ouija.

wow. thanks for the link!
i’m so sorry i didn’t reply quickly, because i had a vacation.

have a prosperous new year to all!

I still don’t get it ! If I’m born in 10 -03- 1992, how old I am ?

thank you for the answer. so I’m 18 , yeeeeeeeey , i grown up )

@Haruhi21.. I know it gets complicated!

Can you tell us what part of it you are confused about?

OK…

2 years are added if:
-it is past January 1, AND
-you haven’t had your western calendar birthday yet.

Another way to think about it:

To find your age you can subtract your birth year from the current year -
for me (2009 - 1982) = 27 (this is only true if I’ve had my birthday though. Otherwise, this number is the western age I’ll become this year)

But, I have indeed already had my birthday, (February) so I am 27 here, but I’ll add one year to get my Korean age (28). Then in January, my Korean age will click over, (29) - but I’m still 27 in western age until February.

The formula for finding your Korean age (which will always work) is:

current year - birth year + 1

Does that help?

@Elena

You got it!

hye..i really interested in learning about all this korean thingy..but the fact is my knowledge about korean is zero.
could you guys please tell me how did you guys learn to type in korean languange and stuff about korea?? please!!really glad is there’s someone to help me..