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Why Koreans ask what year you were born

bryanhogan.com

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Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#111

Post by voidUpdate »

bryanhogan wrote: post #38
ang_cire wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing because of "neo" being rude

This reminds me, it's actually very interesting how English movies get translated into Korean and vice versa, since the nuances mentioned in the article are hard to translate / convey in the other language.

People always tell me that watching English dubbed anime isn't good because it loses the nuance of the Japanese language, in similar ways, though I don't speak/read Japanese so I'm either going to be listening to it in English or reading the subs in English. I know I'm going to be losing subtle nuance either way but I've never been good at learning languages

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#112

Post by setopt »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #62
setopt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I prefer to round 29 years 6 months up to «I’m now 30 years old». As you would expect to happen if you run round(29.5). For some reason, most cultures settled on either floor(age) or ceil(age).

Which cultures settled on ceil(age)?

As the sibling comment mentioned, I was thinking of East Asian countries.

There's another difference in that age++ there happens on Chinese New Year and not your own birthday, but that's an orthogonal point to the rounding, I think.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#113

Post by k07b470n »

valenterry wrote: post #102
nosebear wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's technically incorrect, but it's used for emphasis and hence politeness, and that's probably where your feeling comes from. That's wrong, it's not technically incorrect . In fact before 2006 the only correct way to address someone personally in written form was to capitalize the Du / Sie / Ihr. Since then you are allowed to write it either way. I still use the capitalized form because I'm old and that's what I l…

Fair enough. > Since then you are allowed to write it either way Okay, my interpretation is that it doesn't really make sense within the language rules, so they changed it but allowed to use the old style to make the transition easier. ;-) > I still use the capitalized form because I'm old and that's what I learned back in school. Impossible to keep up with all the Rechtschreibreformen anyways.

Thank you and nosebear for the clarification! Now I understand better why some of my colleagues (like my boss, older) use "Du" and some don't. I'll stick to not using it, there are enough grammatic pitfalls elsewhere in the German language (not that French is any easier for foreigners, I'm sure).

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#114

Post by Leftium »

Koreans have some "hacks" to get around this (age-based) social hierarchy:

1. Some workplaces use English names (and even English language) so co-workers can speak/refer to each other without using the social hierarchy constructs built into the Korean language.

2. Social (partnered) dance clubs go by nicknames for the same reason. Even though I dance with them on a regular basis, I don't know most of my dance friends' real names. I'm not aware of any other country where dancers do this.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#115

Post by bmicraft »

lukan wrote: post #88
miki123211 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be a lot more reasonable back in the day. When the world didn't change as quickly, or didn't change at all, the elders truly knew everything the young ones knew, and so much more. They had truly seen everything and had plenty of experience with the problems young people were struggling with. This very much isn't the case any more. I'm in my twenties (technically part of gen Z), but I already feel like I do…

Oh, I am also not asking my grandparents for concrete life or technical advice. I am just talking about respect of their age, what they experienced and lived through.

I really don't get why just the concept of deserving respect for having lived longer - why does that make you more deserving of respect, irrespective of how you lived?

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#116

Post by bambax »

anal_reactor wrote: post #86
sfifs wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I find addressing people by surname uniquely stupid. Like are you calling the person or the historical clan? It perhaps made sense for medieval lords to address their underlings as if they were interchangeable, in our modern context that has largely done away with royalty, using surnames makes no sense. It becomes even more interesting when traditionally cultures (like mine) don't use surnames, but modern IT sys…

The fact that different cultures evolved such systems independently proves that the general idea does make sense. Case in point: you go to an American company, the CEO says "call me simply John, feel free to chat up whenever you feel like it, we're all family here" and then you go talk to him about sex life problems of your marriage and he just stares at you awkwardly. Having explicit layers of social "closeness" mak…

Interesting choice of username, given this comment ;-)

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#117

Post by 4gotunameagain »

skyscraperman wrote: post #110
4gotunameagain wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical cultural superiority bias. Every way has its pros and cons. Having an age related hierarchy might have benefits like societal coherence or stability. I am not a proponent of it, I just acknowledge my inability to fully grasp the impact and ramifications as to label one as superior and the other as "perverted".

[flagged]

I will point you again to the usage of the word "perverted", which you missed twice.

Additionally the bias I pointed out is highly relevant to the discussion and therefore my argument is not an ad hominem. I can wait for you to calm down if you'd like, so your next reply is less emotionally charged. (that one was.)

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#118

Post by chromehearts »

bambax wrote: post #6

> The younger person also addresses the older person, usually with a title or another word that fits their relationship, but not their name. Only the older person addresses the younger one with their name. (There can be more nuance.) I love this. I'm an old French guy and still can't quite accept when srangers in an email (or a machine, a system, a web form) adress me using my first name. Being "on a first name basis…

Very interesting! I work for (probably) the most well known German company. Here, it's always advised to use the first name & the 2nd person singular pronoun ("du"; you) instead of the more formal third person plural pronoun ("Sie"; you)

Company standards differ and every time you meet someone new, say in a Teams-Meeting, the older person generally offers you to use "Du". You may or may not accept it

It's basically "respecting your elders"

While I (21 years of age) talk with my boss on this personal level, I can't get myself to address other older (higher ranked) employees by their first name. Saying Mr. or Mrs. is kinda required for me as the person I am, because I always try to respect them. (This doesn't apply to some other older (higher ranked) employees, those with which I don't have much to work with. While I do respect them, it's not the same type of respect I have for them)

This may sound very confusing and it even is for me, as I am not German and merely adapt to what is the cultural standard here.

My culture we address everyone by their first name. The only thing we must absolutely add are the social prefixes for older folks (typically above a 5 year range? depends on some factors.) I could never address, mention or talk about uncle / aunt XYZ as just XYZ. It's very crucial to always add that, especially for people you know. If you don't know them, just say the preferred prefix as well, it shows a basic level of respect We don't really use our surnames - it's more to identify, who exactly we are talking about. For example, when talking about "Michael", but the involved in the conversation don't know who we're talking about we usually just say "from the house of surname" (house of is the literal translation)

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#119

Post by Leftium »

It can also be considered rude to use the more formal style of speech when the social hierarchy dictates the informal style should be used.

The book Using Korean[1] gives a detailed explanation of how formal speech indicates social distance more than simple politeness:

> [존댓말] indicates a psychological distance between the speaker and the hearer... a couple in a romantic relationship who normally use an intimate casual style with each other will suddenly switch to a formal style after they fight, to demonstrate the distance they feel from each other.

From a related discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/Korean/comments/vcusut/comment/icj2...

[1]: https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=2ggVsnUCbiAC&lpg=PA17&pg...

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#120

Post by lukan »

bmicraft wrote: post #115
lukan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I am also not asking my grandparents for concrete life or technical advice. I am just talking about respect of their age, what they experienced and lived through.

I really don't get why just the concept of deserving respect for having lived longer - why does that make you more deserving of respect, irrespective of how you lived?

Just the fact that they lived so much longer. And are usually more wise in life experience.

That doesn't mean I tolerate old farts shouting at my children for being young. Or excuse shitty behavior in general.

But the default for me is paying respect for the elders. Offering them my seat in the train if there is no other, etc.

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