a new year
it's the start of the korean school year. all of the kids starting a new school started today. that is, kids going to kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school, and university for the first time, went today. as well, i have new classes. i now teach six-year olds (korean age, which means they are anywhere between 4 and 5) who have been learning english at this school for a year now. as you can imagine, my students are really, really small. they're cute, too. i'm hoping it'll be a fun time.
If you don't know anything about the so-called "Korean age," I'll explain as best I know.
For the nine months that you are in the womb, you are given credit the equivalent of one year. Thus, when you are born, you are one, Korean age.
At one hundred days of life, there is a big party.
When the new year comes along (either the solar or lunar, not sure which; it may depend on which birthday you celebrate), one year is added to your Korean age. On your birthday, one more year is not added. Thus, if you were born on December 31, 2003, then on January 1, 2004, one day later, you are two years old, Korean age.
Any Korean quoting you their Korean age will be giving you a number one or two years greater than their non-Korean age, or international age as we sometimes call it.
An easy way to remember: your Korean age is always at least one year more than your actual age. If you have not had your birthday yet in the current calendar year, your Korean age will be two years more than your actual age.
Some things I find strange: despite the norm of utilising the Korean age, when you have a birthday cake, the number of candles is one less than your Korean age, that is, it's the same as your actual age. The reason for this, or so I'm told, is that on a birthday cake, the number of candles corresponds ordinal number of the birthday you are celebrating, i.e. when you turn seven, you get six candles, because it's your sixth birthday. Since calculating Korean age is at best confusing, people tend to just quote the year they were born. Others can then compare your year of birth to theirs.
I am continually confused as to my age. I am 28. In Korean age, I'm 29. All last year, I quoted my Korean age, 28. So when I actually turned 28, I forgot to change my Korean age to 29 because I was so used to saying 28. Between January 1, 2004 and February 2, 2004, I was 27 international age and 29 Korean age. After my birthday, I didn't change my Korean age, buy my international age increased to 28. Confusing? I thought so. Now I usually just tell them I was born in '76.
Comments
According to your writing Korean age looks so confusing. But to me it is much simpler than international one^^
Posted by: Chris 유진 | March 24, 2004 1:19 AM